When the word ‘vegan’ comes up, people may picture mostly salads and other food that resemble ‘rabbit feed’. That is exactly what I thought too, until I met my best friend, staff writer Erica Lizarrago.
Lizarrago has been vegan for two years now and she introduced me to a whole new world of vegan food and how diverse this diet can be.
That is what led me to explore more vegan foods and restaurants, which brought me to Happy Hooligans.
This is definitely a hidden gem in San Jose. Tucked into a small shopping center in South San Jose, this place can be easily missed.
I walked into the colorful restaurant and was greeted by friendly waitresses eager to seat me.
Lizarrago and I ordered the buffalo cauliflower bites to start, which was made with a buffalo dressing and house made vegan ranch.
Aside from the crunch of the battered cauliflower, the bites were almost parallel in taste to buffalo chicken bites.
The zesty buffalo dressing made dipping it in the ranch that much more tasty and the whole appetizer was
gluten-free.
It was served with celery just like an average buffalo wing plate, but instead I got to indulge in a plate of
veggies without realizing I was eating veggies.
For my main plate, I ordered the Red Rooster burger which was a vegan beef patty topped with house white cheese sauce, candied jalapeños, green onions, fried onion rings and Sriracha mayo on a sesame bun.
This hamburger definitely made the list of my top favorite burgers next to the Habit’s teriyaki burger and In-N-Out’s animal style burger, and it wasn’t even a real beef patty.
Upon first bite, the crunch of the candied jalapeños blended perfectly with the white cheese sauce and created a fiery, but honey-sweet flavor I haven’t gotten anywhere else. The patty was juicy and mimicked a grilled patty, grill marks and all.
The menu is 100% vegan, and the cheese sauce in my burger contained no dairy ingredients.
Delicious and dairy-free? Sign me up.
Other dishes on the menu include chicken and waffles with vegan fried chicken, burritos and tacos with jackfruit carnitas and a popular pick, vegan shredded barbeque chicken plate.
All of the plates cost around $12-14.
Their menu also offers a fun drink menu with selections such as thai iced tea, jasmine milk tea and lavender lemon soda, which I suggest ordering because it is such a refreshing and fragrant drink that alone made me want to come back.
For those of you who are weary about vegan food, this is the place to get rid of your predispositions about it. Vegan food is simply substituting meat and dairy with close ingredients, all the while promoting a plant-based diet.
While I am not vegan, I do limit my intake of meat and I highly suggest checking out this joint if you’re willing to give up meat for a meal.
