ROAD TRIP: Waiting for Vegan Food in Chandler, AZ

Thank you all for reading about my vegan adventures on my road trip to Oklahoma City.  Today’s post is the last post of this journey.  For our last meal, my mom and I stopped at 24 Carrots.  This all vegetarian cafe is located outside Phoenix in Chandler.  Not being from Arizona, I had no idea how out of the way this place was.  When we finally got there, we were greeted with a nice, fresh atmosphere.  We had about two people in front of us ordering, but it went quickly.  24 Carrots has a lot of juices and smoothies with a large selection of vegetarian food options (most can be made vegan).  Their brunch menu looked amazing and (luckily) they serve it all day.

However, this is where the post gets bad.  I mentioned before that two customers were in front of us at the ordering counter (not bad) and there were only a handful of other customers already there.  One wouldn’t think it would take long to get our food (especially at a place where you have to order at the counter).  It took 50 minutes to get our food!  They said it was because we ordered brunch and they have one grill, so when someone orders a lunch menu item, they have to clean the grill before working on a brunch menu item.  This is bullshit for two reasons.  First, if this is the protocol for brunch menu items, then they should just stop serving it at a certain time – eliminate the waiting time so they can clean their grill!  Second, EVERYONE was waiting for their food.  One person just told them to cancel her food order, because her friends had already gotten theirs and left and now she had to leave.  Plus, those 2 people that ordered before us only got their lunch menu order about 5 minutes before us.  Really?  I don’t think we would have driven completely out of the way to come here had we known we were going to have to wait that long.

Anyway, when we did get our food, we first tried the Arizona Bowl ($10.95): apple soyrizo hash, spinach, garden tofu scramble, cheese, avocado, jalapeno cilantro pesto, and aioli.  My mom loves soyrizo, so we decided to try this.  Sadly, there wasn’t much soyrizo in this – just tiny bits.  In fact, most of this dish was potatoes (something not even listed in the menu description).  It had an ok flavor, but I wouldn’t order this again.

24 Carrots Arizona Bowl

Arizona Bowl

They managed to redeem themselves a bit with the Fried Egg Sandwich ($11.95): fried “egg,” house bacon, cheese, tomato, house ketchup, garlic aioli, seasonal fruit.  This sandwich was very tasty, although a bit expensive when you look at what you are getting.  Would I wait 50 minutes for this?  No.  If I lived in the area and called my order in ahead of time, I would definitely get this again, though.

24 Carrots Fried Egg Sandwich

Fried Egg Sandwich

And last, we got the Carrot Cake Pancakes ($7.95), which I don’t see on their online menu anymore.  Maybe they are trying to change the quickness of their brunch items?  Or maybe people didn’t like them, because we thought they were a disappointment.  They tasted more like a cinnamon pancake –  we didn’t really taste any carrot.

24 Carrots Carrot Cake Pancakes

Carrot Cake Pancakes

If you have loads of time to kill and are in the Chandler area, check them out.  I wouldn’t say their food is terrible, but they definitely need to get their act together (they’ve been open for 4 years?!).

24 Carrots
6140 W Chandler Blvd Ste 2
Chandler, AZ – 85226
(480) 753-4411 <—- (use this to call in your order!!)

Sunday – Tuesday – 8am to 2pm
Wednesday – Saturday – 8am to 8pm

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WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED SO CAL PROGRAM. (thanks again for reading!)

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