Budha Burgers - a yummy vegan restaurant

Hi folks,

Yesterday I had a festive lunch with my beautiful daughter Donna at Budha Burgers. It's a vegan bar. We were celebrating me shedding 30Kgs in less than 3 months... They make the best burger in town made of beans, they also make lots of tofu products, quinoa, and of course shakes & smoothies.

And Donna? my daughter? Well you surely know Donna by now, she's the one who lost her phone from my other blog.... She's a 20 year old charming girl, and she's vegetarian and she really wants to go all vegan.

So here you can see us smiling to the camera.

According to my nutritarian vegan diet the salad is the main dish. So they have this bar with ~20 types of vegetables and you build your own salad. I took the big plate. It's too small for my standards!!! Now regarding the vegetables - There was an avocado, carrots, hummus, lettuce, chickpeas, tomatoes, and more. Well these are not exactly what I call Greens - right? Cause if they sell the real green - Spinach, Chard, Kale, etc then no body is going to buy. They are a business and after many years in the business they know how big should be the plate and what do salad eaters want to eat. They are not catering for the extreme vegans - nutritarians who need and crave real green. Normally I don't just eat Avocado, and I try to limit the amount of hummus I consume and I eat less starches and that means I don't eat carrots every day. But since I was in a festive mood and I was hungry then I ate that, and it was yummy. 

There were ~6 types of very yummy sauces to choose from. I eat nut based sauces at home. I asked!! - they don't sell it. Well again - I can understand them. It's expensive. These people are making a living selling vegan food and they can't afford expensive nuts & seeds. Still I would prefer that they tell me - you want the ceasers sauce? ok that's additional 4 Shekels. And that's fine with me. 

When I say that these people are making a living I mean that I am sure that Arie, the owner, didn't open this in order to make tons of money, he is pursuing a goal in his life. Money & health is second in his priorities. His first priority is to save the poor animals. It's not about the money.

My daughter asked him about this '269' all over the place. He explained that this is the number that was branded on a calf living in Israel that was going to be slaughtered. People feel pity for small cute animals like their cat, their parrot or their dog but they forget about big animals like cows who are being murdered for food. It's easy for people to forget. I think the brain cannot process and comprehend numbers. We just don't get it when we are told that 6,000,000 Jews were murdered in the holocaust and we don't understand it when they tell us that 150,000,000,000 animals are murdered every year because people want to eat them (look at this amazing counter), but I was crying buckets when I was following the extinction of the Weiss family in the movie holocaust. Same goes here for this one poor anonymous calf. So I encourage you to take a look at their web site: http://269life.com. btw, 2/Oct is the world farm animal day - a year ago they branded 269 on their skin in Rabin Square.

Now back to our lunch. As a nutritarian I top my salad with up to 1 cup of cooked beans. So instead I ordered their famous Budha Burger which I hope is made of beans. I usually don't eat bread but since I was in a festive mood - I ate the burger buns too :)

And I drank green a green smoothie, which were in my opinion very tasty but not as dense as the ones I prepare at home. Again - it's all about the money. They are catering for young vegetarians living nearby in rented apartments, with shaved heads and one day beards - they can't afford to pay too much. It's not for well heeled customers like myself.

My daughter ordered a puree and she was of course disappointed but then she ate her salad and mine and enjoyed it immensely and also enjoyed the seitan burger (was it? Donna?)

I was eating at Budha Burgers for years, since they were a small place in Dizingof street. The owner, Arie, is a very good looking vegan. After a long break when I saw him yesterday - wow - he still hasn't lost his hair, still good looking, few more character lines, healthy, still crazy after all these years.

We surely be back!!

Meanwhile you can check up my other restaurants reviews,

Aviel.