Order Up: Darbster

Courtesy of DarbsterEven better than the real thing: Vegan Buffalo wings from Darbster.This week in Dish, we look at Darbster, a vegan restaurant located on the banks of the West Palm Beach Canal. Owners Allan Gould and Ellen Quinlan redesigned the old dive-bar spot at 8020 S. Dixie Highway and...

By John Linn

September 14, 2010

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This week in Dish, we look at Darbster, a vegan restaurant located on the banks of the West Palm Beach Canal. Owners Allan Gould and Ellen Quinlan redesigned the old dive-bar spot at 8020 S. Dixie Highway and turned it into a lush, tropical outdoor restaurant with a wide deck overlooking the landscaped bank. It's the perfect backdrop for Darbster's blend of vegan dishes and raw foods, healthful entrées, surprisingly realistic faux meat dishes, and homey comfort food. Nothing's more expensive than $15, and the beer and wine list is creative and plentiful too. Here's an excerpt from our review:

Like the chicken wings, most of the mock meat and dairy dishes at

Darbster are based off products that Quinlan, a lifelong vegetarian,

and Gould, a vegan since 2004, have experimented with at home. What

that translates to is Daiya, a vegan "cheese" made from tapioca,

which, stuffed into a creamy quesadilla ($7) or a side of macaroni and

cheese ($4), melts almost as convincingly as the real thing. Then, of

course, there's the Gardein, which composes most of the fake meat

items Darbster makes, including "steak" sliders, "chicken" kebabs, and

"beef" burritos. A mixture of soy, wheat, and grain proteins,

Gardein's bouncy texture and mimicked musculature is so realistic that

national restaurant chains like Chipotle and Yard House have taken to

serving it on their menus. One bite of a trio of chicken kebabs ($8)

fashioned with the stuff and I can see why: The fleshy, sesame-studded

hunks are char-grilled with onions, peppers, and pineapple. They make

the dry veggie burgers of my past look like Soylent Green.

Check out the full review on Darbster, online now.

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