VeganBurg Now Open, Mostly Pleasing Vegans in the Haight

San Francisco recently welcomed the first U.S. location of the popular Singaporean chain VeganBurg, which opened in the Haight over the weekend. The restaurant is 100 percent plant-based, and promotes sustainability in all their messaging, which includes their somewhat inscrutable slogan "Once bitten, twice wise!" It’s already causing quite a furor among the city’s vegan set; read on to see what people are saying.

The Burgers

The mustang burger, seaweed fries and steamed broccoli. Photo: Michelle Cehn

At opening, the menu includes two flavors of burgers, the mustang relish (soy patty, mustard, gherkin pickles, red onion) and smoky BBQ (mushroom patty, barbecue sauce, lettuce, onions, tomato, picles), plus seaweed fries (French fries topped sprinkled with dried seaweed) and steamed broccoli sides. Vegan chef Jesse Miner is "excited to report" on Twitter that the burger is "delicious." Good Day Sacramento correspondent Roqui Theus enthusiastically agreed, saying on-air that the mustang (which was her first vegan burger experience) tasted "like a normal burger. Even better than a normal burger." Most Yelpers are on the delicious page, too — in fact, out of 10 reviews so far, only three are under four stars, and the complaints are all price-related, which leads us to...

The Price

Two receipts, with similar totals, show how add-ons, sides and drinks quickly ramp the price up, with one coming to $21.66 with just one burger, side and drink, and the other $23.27 with two burgers and a drink. Photos: Chad J./Yelp | 0 0./Yelp

Simply put, you’re going to pay just as much for a burger here as you would for a meaty version. "I just spent $17 on a burger with a side of broccoli, and um... WTF??" one Yelper wrote. To be fair, the person added avocado and vegan bacon to the burger, but it’s still not cheap. Another reviewer expressed equal outrage at the sticker shock.

The Decor

You can spot the astroturf seating. Photo: VeganBurg

As Eater reported last January, the restaurant now occupies the former All You Knead space, which has undergone quite the transformation. According to one Yelper, it's unrecognizable as the former bakery, writing, "You wouldn't recognize it. It looks kind of like a hipster lounge built by cows: all recycled wood and astroturf."