Roughage

 
Roughage
126 Sherbrook St
204-779-8344
info@roughageeatery.ca
roughageeatery.ca

 

January, 2022
 
Sherbrook Street between Wolseley and Broadway has been blossoming for a while with some of the city’s best and most unique foods.  Places like Boon Burger, Charisma of India, Bistro Dansk have given this strip a solid reputation for restaurant-going foodies.  Sadly, Boon Burger is no longer with us but I am very happy to see Roughage come to fill the huge vegan void left by Boon.
 
Formerly a sushi restaurant (with iterations before that), Roughage sits in an old heritage house on the west side of Sherbrook.  The interior retains all the charm of this yesteryear place.  The expectation coming into an old house with lots of wood and framing is a musty, grandma’s house smell.  As soon as you enter the door, the aroma that greets you is nothing like I expect—instead, it wonderfully wafts of delicious food.  I cannot decipher what any of it singles out to be, but it's a melange of fabulous aromas.

 
Exuberantly, one of the servers approaches me right away and shows me to a cosy table by the staircase.  I’m not sure what’s upstairs—more dining space I hope, since there’s only room to seat about 10 in total in this dining room. There are only a few of us in here but the two super-friendly servers buzz about to ensure we have everything we need.

 
The menu offers a wide range of local craft beers, as well as select wines and some other speciality non-alcohol beverages.  Their coffee comes with a wonderful bouquet from across the room.  The rich and powerful taste doesn’t disappoint as it guarantees to wake the most fatigued of people.

The spinach salad comes with super-fresh greens, sweet nubs of peppers and lightly toasted nuts.  The slivers of red onions provide an edge to accompany the simple but delicious vinaigrette dressing.  Cranberries add a touch of tartness that cut through the richness of the dressing beautifully.

The Crunchy Tortilla Wrap comes with wonderful flavour, headlined by the deep and delicious refried beans.  It's not authentic to what I tried in my numerous visits to Mexico but in its own way, I would say it's just as good, if not better than what I had far to the south.  The shreds of lettuce give excellent texture and the cashew sour cream adds depth and richness.  The accompanying salsa tastes like it was made from fresh tomatoes from my garden.  It pairs wonderfully with the wrap but I'd be very happy to eat it straight (and eat lots of it!).  

Roughage's menu changes all the time, depending on what ingredients are available and what they feel like making.  Yes, there are staples that appear frequently but just in case it's not there when you go, don't have your heart set on one particular dish.

Just as random, they offer dishes from the fridge that you can take home to reheat.  The Hungry Vegans TV Dinner - Haam & Scalloped Potatoes comes with three slices of haam, generous services of sides and loads of potatoes.  Without the reference, I would have guessed the haam to be their rendition of bologna, complete with an edge of spiciness.  The flavour is spot on to what I expect from bologna but the texture gives it away that it's not quite meat.  The jalapeno salsa tastes delicious and I love spreading it all over the haam.  It has a very spicy edge, for those of you who cannot handle heat well.  

Both the green beans and the carrots come cooked perfectly, al dente and crispy to the bite.  You definitely taste the maple in the carrots, oozing with sweet succulence.  Slices of almonds add texture to the beans (although they really don't need it, having a lovely crunch on their own).  I would recommend snipping the ends off the beans because those little ends get quite pokey in the mouth.  Otherwise, this flavourful side is a complete joy to eat.

The potatoes are the gems of this dish.  While everything else tastes wonderful, this scalloped potato is world-class.  I love the inclusion of the skins to give texture, complexity and nutrition to the starch.  The cashew cream absolutely blows the roof off with flavour.  In a blind tasting, I would never have guessed there's no heavy or whipping cream in this concoction, tasting so rich and full with taste and umami.  

The Hungry Vegan TV Breakfast--Chef's Cafe Breakfast comes with what you expect out of a typical North American breakfast:  bacun, sosage, scrambled egggs, and hash browns; this meal also comes with baked beans and orange wedges for dessert.  You get massive amounts of potatoes, nicely roasted and flavoured with a seasoned-salt sort of highlighting.  The beans have a maple edge to them, otherwise tasting like what you expect out of baked beans.  The sosage slices come heavily herbed, giving them huge flavour and taste.  You won't mistake them for meat sausage, but they taste excellent in their own right.  The bacun comes quite close to what you expect from meat bacon--salty, rich and hale.  The egggs!  I can't say enough about these delicious egggs!  I would never have believed that they didn't come from chickens.  The have the same consistency, perfectly done to be a tad running and soft as velvet.  The tomato slices help cut through the weight of the breakfast nicely.  Traditionally, the Chinese eat a slice of orange as dessert, cleansing the palette, with the acidity helping in digestion.  That's a great way to round out this hearty breakfast.

All take-home items come with detailed reheating instructions so there's no doubt that you can enjoy it as it was meant to be served fresh out of the kitchen.

On any given day, there might be some sweet goodies to eat in or take home.  The Chocolate Chip cookies are huge, wonderfully soft and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  Today had the bonus of Cupcakes to go.  

These Oreo cupcakes don't really takes like Oreo cookies that much to me, which is okay, because they still taste delicious.  I get a hint of the Oreo flavour but primarily, it tastes like a regular, chocolate-based muffin.  The bottom isn't very sweet, but moist and soft.  The icing balances the bottom nicely as the sweetness lies on top.

As a Pit Master and a Grill Master, most of my peers and colleagues are giant meat-heads and the concept of veganism turns them nasty.  Vegan/Vegetarian prejudice by meat-heads is one of the strongest types of hate in our society today (mainly because it's still tolerated, unlike most other forms of hate).  Those people will never have read this far into my review; in fact, they would have made a disgusted face before evening opening this page.

Too bad for them--their shortsightedness will never allow them to know what they're missing.  This is a whole world of deliciousness that they will never experience.  My Vegan friends do not need me to tell them to go to Roughage; they already know how good the food is.  I hope this article targets the people with only a bit of veggie-phobia, and the people with false pretences that vegan cannot be good.  Give it a try--you won't be disappointed.  I love meat, but Roughage has shown me that you do not need meat to make great food.  Coupled with super-friendly staff, a great atmosphere and unmatched energy, this is an exciting place to be.  I'll be dining here a lot.

This is an unbiased, free public service that I am happy to provide.  If you enjoy these reviews, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads.  This is the only compensation I receive. 

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Ray Yuen, Pit Master / Grill Master
Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge – Badge #97736
Certified Steak Cook-off Association Judge – Badge #7788
Canadian Barbecue Society Member