100 Favorite Dishes, No. 84: The Vegan Chicken-Fried Steak at V-Eats

Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2017 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. In October, when we wrote about the opening of V-Eats Modern Vegan, the vegan restaurant in Trinity Groves,...

By Beth Rankin

May 26, 2017

The vegan chicken-fried steak at V-Eats in Trinity Groves. Beth Rankin

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Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2017 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year.

In October, when we wrote about the opening of V-Eats Modern Vegan, the vegan restaurant in Trinity Groves, one menu item seemed to strike a chord with Texas diners: the vegan "brisket" tacos, which became such an internet talking point that even news outlets across the pond wrote about it.

Clearly, V-Eats has a lot of fun with its vegan takes on Texas meat-filled classics. One of our favorite dishes won't exactly fool a carnivore, but it's still a fun eat: its take on chicken-fried steak ($15).

The "meat" at the core of the dish is made with breadfruit, a dense, nutrient-rich tropical fruit. It doesn't have the give of a cut of meat – it's quite starchy – but as a meat substitute, it sure beats tofu. The tortilla breading was perfectly crunchy, the mushroom gravy still indulgent despite its lack of meat juices. The chicken-fried steak comes on a bed of perfectly roasted vegetables, and the mac and cheese served on the side ups the comfort factor.

To be clear, nothing in this dish – neither the chicken-fried steak nor the gravy or mac and cheese – will fool you into thinking it's the same as its meatless counterpart, but that's OK. Sometimes, it's fun to eat outside our comfort zone, and if you can eat healthier in the process, well, that's all right by us.

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Beth Rankin is an Ohio native and Cicerone-certified beer server who specializes in social media, food and drink, travel and news reporting. Her belief system revolves around the significance of Topo Chico, the refusal to eat crawfish out of season and the importance of local and regional foodways.

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