It’s time to talk about my all time favorite “fake meat” meal: chicken and waffles.
Specifically (of course) vegan chicken and waffles.
When I first learned about chicken and waffles (the “real” kind), I wasn’t really impressed. I’m not a huge fan of fried chicken itself, so I didn’t understand why it needed to be combined with waffles. Nonetheless, I would eat it once in a while if friends wanted to go to a Southern/Comfort food spot, but I would order it more for the waffles and not so much for the chicken, since I have a sweet tooth and love just about any type of breakfast food.
But once somebody helped me realize that the maple syrup served with this dish was intended not just for the waffles, but also for the chicken, I was blown away. Finally, I realized why the fried chicken was part of this picture–to help the waffle soak up all that maple syrup! The mixture of the sweet maple syrup with the savory fried chicken was all I needed to be convinced that I loved chicken and waffles.
So when I became pescatarian, then vegetarian, then vegan, I knew that I was willingly giving up a lot of food, including chicken and waffles.
Until I discovered vegan chicken and waffles.
I have to thank the Wynn’s Terrace Pointe Cafe for this, since I first discovered vegan chicken and waffles there.
That discovery led me to wonder: where else can I find vegan chicken and waffles in Las Vegas?
I’ve been able to locate 3 total places in Las Vegas serving this delicious dish for vegans, and I’ve tried each one of them.
Here’s how they rank on my list, from least to most favorite.
No.3: Good Morning Kitchen & Cocktail Bar
Good Morning Kitchen & Cocktail Bar offers vegan chicken and waffles that includes a “vanilla waffle, Crispy vegan fried chicken, [and] bourbon maple syrup”.
The best part of this dish is their waffle. It honestly has the best flavor out of all the other vegan chicken and waffles mentioned here, since it has a strong, sweet vanilla taste. It’s what you would expect a standard waffle to taste like.
However, it is the vegan chicken itself that makes me put Good Morning’s vegan chicken and waffles third on my list. The vegan fried chicken tastes good, but it’s just a little too oily and greasy for my preference.
Good Morning uses a fairly thin batter for their vegan chicken to give it more of a light, thin crust. But that crust seems to retain a bunch of oil that makes you feel the grease squeezing out with every bite.
No.2: Terrace Pointe Cafe
Terrace Pointe Cafe is part of the collection of restaurants at the Wynn offering vegan options on their menu, including vegan chicken and waffles.
The “Maple hot chicken and waffles” on their menu is described as including “sweet and spicy chicken, pepper jack waffle, [and] citrus butter”. They don’t explicitly list the vegan option of this (only saying that a vegan option is available), but the vegan option comes with a green onion waffle as opposed to a pepper jack waffle, and of course vegan chicken and vegan butter.
Yes, instead of a sweet waffle, Terrace Pointe Cafe goes for more of a savory waffle. I know green onion in a waffle sounds weird, but it is not strange at all. The onion is lightly sprinkled into the waffle batter, so you can just barely taste it. But when you do, it comes off as more of a savory delicious surprise than something that doesn’t belong.
The vegan fried chicken itself I have to give a solid thumbs up to. They use some type of cornflakey type of batter that gives the chicken a proper fried *crunch* when you bite in to it and that makes you feel like you are eating a solid piece of fried chicken. They also season the batter with spices that give the vegan fried chicken a good flavor, and the chicken piece itself (which is made using Gardein chicken) is also sizeably thick and juicy.
Where the “hot maple” comes from is in the maple syrup that they serve with this dish, which is both hot in temperature and in spice-level. I’m personally not a fan of spicy things though, so I always ask for their regular maple syrup.
Overall, Terrace Pointe Cafe‘s vegan fried chicken and waffles is both delicious and unique (with their green onion waffle), but it isn’t creative nor delicious enough to beat my number 1 pick.
No.1: The Modern Vegan
You just can’t go wrong at The Modern Vegan. This is a rare full vegan restaurant offering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert menu items all day, everyday, and in humongous, outrageously massive portions.
Their vegan chicken and waffles is described as “Two waffles, one breaded and deep-fried chick’n cutlet, two strips of bacon, mashed potatoes, asparagus, butter and maple syrup.”
Yes. You read that right: bacon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.
You think you are ordering just vegan chicken and waffles, but no, The Modern Vegan is convinced that you need more than that.
But let’s focus on what we are really here for, and that’s the vegan chicken and waffle itself.
First off, the waffles (remember there are two of them) are massive. They are served as whole, uncut circular piece of waffles that cover the entire plate.
And not only are these waffles huge in diameter, they are also huge on the inside as well, because these things are dense. These aren’t your typical light and fluffy waffles; no, these waffles are basically two thick pieces of bread. A whole lot of batter goes in to making these waffles and you can feel the weight of them with every lift of the fork and bite that you take.
With that said, these waffles aren’t for everybody, since they are not super sweet (like Good Morning’s waffle) and also not very light. But being somebody who loves bread, I absolutely appreciate every ounce of batter in these thick-ass waffles and I “Mmmm” at every bite of them.
The fried chicken is the star of the show though.
The Modern Vegan‘s. fried chicken is the biggest and the crunchiest vegan fried chicken of all the vegan fried chickens here. This vegan fried chicken has an extra-thick crust (much thicker than Terrace Pointe Cafe’s cornflake crust) that makes this chicken super crunchy and, somehow, without an overly greasy texture (unlike Good Morning’s vegan fried chicken). The chicken itself is thick and huge, meaning there is a whole lot of chicken to enjoy with the equally massive waffle, and the overall flavor is just perfect.
Pair all of this with their vegan bacon, mashed potatoes and asparagus (all of which are delicious by themselves), and you’ve got a huge meal with a mixture of flavors to keep your palate begging for more.
So for the monstrous bread-life waffle, the over-the-top crunch factor of their vegan fried chicken, and the creativity of the bacon, mashed potato, and asparagus as “garnishes”, I’ve got to give The Modern Vegan my Number 1 pick for the best vegan fried chicken in Las Vegas.
The takeaway
I never thought I would be able to eat chicken and waffles again after going vegan, much less expect any restaurant to serve vegan chicken and waffles on their menu.
But lo and behold–I have found not one, not two, but three restaurants in Las Vegas that offer this dish in vegan form, and each with their own style and flavors.
I know I am being biased when I say that Las Vegas is the best place to eat in the world, since this is the place I call home. But as somebody who follows a vegan diet, I just can’t deny that Las Vegas is truly a food haven for vegans who want to enjoy the culinary experiences that come with dining out at a restaurant. There is just no place that is more accommodating to the vegan diet and that offers more variety for vegans (like three different types of vegan chicken and waffles) than the restaurants here in Las Vegas.
Try these places out yourself and let me know how you rank these vegan chicken and waffles in the comments section below.
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