Chipotle Again?

Vanessa and I have been going through a repeat performance lately revolving around where to dine out.  Now it's hard because we have been trying to save money and have not wanted to spend a lot of dough at restaurants but we do love restaurants and since going vegan it has become harder and harder to find good places to go.  So we usually end up at Chipotle.  The vegetarian burrito bowl with all the goodies (no cheese or sour cream of course) is by far the easiest and tastiest vegetarian option so of course we end up there constantly. 

With corn salsa and guacamole - yum!

However, we also have a daily debate about trying to go somewhere else so last night we went to Smashburger.  Of course being brand new vegans we had a very limited selection but since we go through the consistent debate of "chipotle again?!?"  and Smashburger is literally right next door to Chipotle in our neighborhood.  So we tried it...



...and were disappointed.  The only thing we could really have were "Spicy Black-Bean Burgers," which I have made homemade plenty of times and have been enjoying thoroughly.  We faced a barrage of questions relating to our desire to leave off the pepper jack.  The cashier responded with:  "you don't want cheese on any of your burgers?!?"  As if we had ordered 20 instead of 2.  But I have been getting used to the quizzical looks of people who don't understand my new found rejection of dairy, but what I can't get used to yet is how some restaurants just don't care about this customer segment.  The product which I tried to enjoy was here:

The burger patty was dry and not flavorful...there was a very petite dollop of guacamole and some vegetables that looked sad indeed.  In addition the smash fries were very oily and not good.  Vanessa didn't even finish hers and I had a stomach ache afterwards. 

A couple days later I made this masterpiece veggie burger at home and enjoyed it thoroughly:

So to recap I would not recommend Smashburger for you Vegans out there, and for the time being whenever we want to go out it will be a resounding...Chipotle again!