{"id":14307,"date":"2019-10-15T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=14307"},"modified":"2019-10-07T15:55:37","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T19:55:37","slug":"plaza-azteca-vegan-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2019\/10\/15\/plaza-azteca-vegan-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaza Azteca\u00ae Vegan Options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaza Azteca<\/em>\nis a chain of family owned and operated Mexican restaurants located (at the\ntime of this writing) in seven East Coast states: Virginia (23), Pennsylvania\n(9), North Carolina (3), Connecticut (2), Massachusetts (1), Maryland (1), and\nNew Jersey (1). Their first restaurant opened in Virginia Beach, VA in the\n1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VRG received an email from a\nreader who dined recently at the Midlothian, VA Plaza Azteca<\/em>. He wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c…I wanted to share\nthat the rice used by this chain is cooked in either chicken broth or with a\nchicken broth bouillon. I spoke with a manager at the Plaza Azteca<\/em> in\nMidlothian, Virginia to verify. She brought out the cooks and we asked how the\nrice was prepared. The biggest concern is that their menu had a \u2018Vegetarian\u2019\nsection and all \u2018vegetarian\u2019 dishes are served with a side of rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would also like to add\nthat I initially asked my waiter if the rice was vegetarian, he said yes, I\nspecifically asked if it was cooked in stock and his hesitation in answering\nmade me question his knowledge.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VRG wanted to determine if the rice at Plaza Azteca <\/em>is prepared with animal broth so we first sent an email through their website contact form,
and then called the Midlothian, VA restaurant. First we learned from employees that there isn’t a corporate office that handles inquiries such as ours. The menu should be the same in all restaurants but may vary.

When we asked specifically about the rice, we learned that \u201cwhite rice\u201d offered with the vegan menu option is not<\/strong> made with animal stock. It’s \u201cjust water, garlic and salt.\u201d

\u201cRice\u201d on the menu is not<\/strong> vegetarian. It’s \u201cyellow in color due to spices and is prepared in chicken stock.\u201d

We called Plaza Azteca<\/em> a second time to learn more about its \u201cvegan burrito bowl\u201d listed on its online menu. In September 2019 we were informed that the online menu is not<\/em> current. Now they offer a vegan bowl and a vegan burrito called Burrito Vegano<\/em>. The vegan bowl consists of soy meat, rice, black beans, guacamole, corn, onions, poblano peppers, mushrooms, vegan cheese, and pico de gallo sauce. The vegan burrito has the same components of the vegan bowl placed inside of a wheat tortilla. The \u201csoy meat\u201d is a \u201cplant-based protein.\u201dThe \u201cvegan cheese\u201d is \u201ctofu.\u201d The white rice, black beans, guacamole, corn, onions, mushrooms, poblano peppers, and pico de gallo sauce are vegan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VRG asked if there\nare any animal flavors, fats or stock in any vegan bowl or burrito component.\nWe were informed that there were not<\/strong>. They replied to our question about\nkitchen protocols that the soy meat \u201cis grilled on a clean surface away from\nmeat products.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another conversation, they read off the labels of the soy meat, soy cheese, and tortilla. The soy meat is PlantFare\u00ae<\/sup><\/strong> brand. The soy cheese is West Soy\u00ae<\/sup><\/strong> brand. They called the cheese \u201ctofu\u201d on several occasions during our call. Both appear to be all-plant soy products from what we gathered from reading off the labels while we spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We asked specifically if\nthe wheat tortilla contained L-cysteine or egg or dairy products. They read the\nlabel while we were on the phone, spelling out the names and concluded\nL-cysteine, dairy (whey or casein) or egg ingredients were not<\/strong> present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manager also\nconfirmed that the soy meat and vegetables are grilled separated in vegetable\noil away from all meat products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we asked if gelatin\nwas in the guacamole, the reply was that they make their own and do not<\/strong>\nadd gelatin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They use the menu put\nout by the Plaza Azteca <\/em>corporate office. All restaurant locations\nshould offer the same menu but call before visiting to avoid surprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we asked if guests\ncould substitute a meat product with the soy meat in other menu dishes, we were\ntold that it could be done, but advised that patrons should make the request\nupon ordering. Their rep also pointed out that vegan diners should request the\nwhite rice in these menu substitutions since the yellow rice is prepared with\nchicken broth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VRG readers should check with the manager at any Plaza Azteca<\/em> restaurant if in doubt about any menu options or ingredients. Here is the website list of locations: https:\/\/www.plazaazteca.com\/locations-hours<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of this posting, our\nwebsite, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not\nintended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained\nfrom a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient\ninformation from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a\nstatement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be\nmade. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for\nyou. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For information about other restaurant chains, see https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/fastfoodinfo.php<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For information about vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the USA and Canada, see https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/restaurant\/index.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS Plaza Azteca is a chain of family owned and operated Mexican restaurants located (at the time of this writing) in seven East Coast states: Virginia (23), Pennsylvania (9), North Carolina (3), Connecticut (2), Massachusetts (1), Maryland (1), and New Jersey (1). Their first restaurant opened in Virginia Beach, VA in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14309,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14307\/revisions\/14309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}