Ice Haus in Murray, Utah. German Dive Bar with an all Vegan Menu and Happy Cow Review.
I love Saturdays, especially in the summer time. Saturdays oftentimes means running a volleyball tournament for Wasatch Beach Volleyball, either for the adults program or for the Junior's Program. Watching our amazing athletes play always motivates me to want to play too!
After our most recent AVP Next Sports Mall Classic, Mike and I were famished. We are always looking to try new things so I decided to use this new app I downloaded Happy Cow. The Happy Cow app is a free app that allows you to search for vegetarian or vegan restaurants and stores.
The app took a little tinkering around to figure out at first. I finally figured out how to set the app to search for restaurants with vegan options, rather than just 100% vegan restaurants. Don't get me wrong, I love 100% vegan restaurants. But most of these plant based restaurants are located in Salt Lake City, which can be a bit of a drive for me at times.
To set the app to vegan options, you go to "settings". There you can filter by type and turn the vegan to "yes", vegetarian to "no", veg-options to "yes" and stores & more to "no". When I did this after the tournament at the Sports Mall in Murray, I was surprised to find a place called the Ice Haus show up.
But, enough about the app. Back to Ice Haus. Having taken a little German in high school, it didn't take me long to figure out that Ice Haus was a German pub. When we first walked in, we were expecting to find a hole in the wall bar. We were pleasantly surprised to find a clean and well-kept neighborhood bar. It was very welcoming. There is a small outdoor eating area as well. We had been in the 100 degree heat all day and couldn't wait to get out of the heat, so we decided to dine inside. The indoor seating wasn't very intimate as there were no booths and all of the bar height tables were pretty close to one another. But the bar was immaculate and the service quick and friendly.
What was really shocking was that this bar that has an entire separate vegan menu! Don't get me wrong, this is vegan junk food we're talking about. But I was impressed! Most restaurants with vegan options can "veganize" a menu item by omitting a cheese item or an egg item. Ice Haus' vegan menu comes packed with vegan burger patties, vegan "chik'n strips" and even vegan German corn dogs, items that aren't interchangeable in an omnivore menu. It was pretty exciting!
We decided to ask the waitress what she recommended. She wasn't vegan herself and hadn't tried any of the vegan items. She did say that even non-vegans order the Chik-n Strips in the appetizer section and all of the wraps were popular, along with the Kase Burger and the Kein Fleisch Burger. We decided to go with the Chik-n Strips, the der Kommissar Wrap with sweet potato tots and the Kase Burger with the Beast Patty with Cajun fries.
Ice Haus certainly did not disappoint! The Chik-n Strips were so incredibly crispy and came out drenched in a spicy buffalo sauce. It was definitely spicy! We had to dip it quite often into the vegan ranch sauce to cool our palates. The ranch sauce seemed like it was mayo/oil based and the Chik-n Strips were deep fried so this is not considered plant based by any means. I'm not too familiar with vital wheat gluten yet but the Chik-n didn't have the texture of tofu, so I'm not exactly sure what they were made out of. In the end, this dish was fried to a lovely texture and had an amazing buffalo flavor and great ranch condiment. This dish is a definite winner!
We ordered der Kommissar Wrap because of my love of mustard. The wrap was HUGE. Came out piping out! There was a good amount of vegan cheese melted on the inside. The sweet potato tots were also hot, greasy and tasted of cinnamon. Delicious! I finished my half and Mike had to wrap his to go. Not sure what the condiment was served on the side in the ramekin but it tasted like pure butter. Yech.
What was really surprising was the Kase Burger with the Beast Burger patty. It was definitely a store bought patty. Never had a beyond meat burger before but I'm pretty sure that's what it was. It tasted exactly like a burger, minus the texture. It was beautifully smokey and the condiments were perfection. Not being a fan of fake meat, I would only order this one on occasion. But, if you're in transition or in the mood for something naughty, get this burger! The Cajun fries were just ok. Completely over seasoned and too cruncy for my taste, they paled in comparison to the sweet potato tots.
We ended up packing up half of our meal to go. The meal was incredibly tasty but INCREDIBLY heavy. Everything was either deep fried or had a ton of oil in it. My tummy was mad at me for several hours after this. But it was satisfying know that Utah had some great vegan options, including this unassuming little German bar in Murray. Thanks again Utah and thank you Ice Haus.
After our most recent AVP Next Sports Mall Classic, Mike and I were famished. We are always looking to try new things so I decided to use this new app I downloaded Happy Cow. The Happy Cow app is a free app that allows you to search for vegetarian or vegan restaurants and stores.
The app took a little tinkering around to figure out at first. I finally figured out how to set the app to search for restaurants with vegan options, rather than just 100% vegan restaurants. Don't get me wrong, I love 100% vegan restaurants. But most of these plant based restaurants are located in Salt Lake City, which can be a bit of a drive for me at times.
To set the app to vegan options, you go to "settings". There you can filter by type and turn the vegan to "yes", vegetarian to "no", veg-options to "yes" and stores & more to "no". When I did this after the tournament at the Sports Mall in Murray, I was surprised to find a place called the Ice Haus show up.
The app gives you a 5 star rating system of what other users thought of the restaurant. It also has a $ rating system, ranging from $ to $$$, as to how what price point the menu items are. The snapshot of the restaurant will give you tips on how to order vegan items, if there are any. It will also give you some popular menu items to order. I currently have the free version. In order to search by keyword, access all user reviews and save trips to use for offline, it's just $3.99 to purchase the full version of the app.
But, enough about the app. Back to Ice Haus. Having taken a little German in high school, it didn't take me long to figure out that Ice Haus was a German pub. When we first walked in, we were expecting to find a hole in the wall bar. We were pleasantly surprised to find a clean and well-kept neighborhood bar. It was very welcoming. There is a small outdoor eating area as well. We had been in the 100 degree heat all day and couldn't wait to get out of the heat, so we decided to dine inside. The indoor seating wasn't very intimate as there were no booths and all of the bar height tables were pretty close to one another. But the bar was immaculate and the service quick and friendly.
What was really shocking was that this bar that has an entire separate vegan menu! Don't get me wrong, this is vegan junk food we're talking about. But I was impressed! Most restaurants with vegan options can "veganize" a menu item by omitting a cheese item or an egg item. Ice Haus' vegan menu comes packed with vegan burger patties, vegan "chik'n strips" and even vegan German corn dogs, items that aren't interchangeable in an omnivore menu. It was pretty exciting!
We decided to ask the waitress what she recommended. She wasn't vegan herself and hadn't tried any of the vegan items. She did say that even non-vegans order the Chik-n Strips in the appetizer section and all of the wraps were popular, along with the Kase Burger and the Kein Fleisch Burger. We decided to go with the Chik-n Strips, the der Kommissar Wrap with sweet potato tots and the Kase Burger with the Beast Patty with Cajun fries.
Ice Haus certainly did not disappoint! The Chik-n Strips were so incredibly crispy and came out drenched in a spicy buffalo sauce. It was definitely spicy! We had to dip it quite often into the vegan ranch sauce to cool our palates. The ranch sauce seemed like it was mayo/oil based and the Chik-n Strips were deep fried so this is not considered plant based by any means. I'm not too familiar with vital wheat gluten yet but the Chik-n didn't have the texture of tofu, so I'm not exactly sure what they were made out of. In the end, this dish was fried to a lovely texture and had an amazing buffalo flavor and great ranch condiment. This dish is a definite winner!
We ordered der Kommissar Wrap because of my love of mustard. The wrap was HUGE. Came out piping out! There was a good amount of vegan cheese melted on the inside. The sweet potato tots were also hot, greasy and tasted of cinnamon. Delicious! I finished my half and Mike had to wrap his to go. Not sure what the condiment was served on the side in the ramekin but it tasted like pure butter. Yech.
What was really surprising was the Kase Burger with the Beast Burger patty. It was definitely a store bought patty. Never had a beyond meat burger before but I'm pretty sure that's what it was. It tasted exactly like a burger, minus the texture. It was beautifully smokey and the condiments were perfection. Not being a fan of fake meat, I would only order this one on occasion. But, if you're in transition or in the mood for something naughty, get this burger! The Cajun fries were just ok. Completely over seasoned and too cruncy for my taste, they paled in comparison to the sweet potato tots.
We ended up packing up half of our meal to go. The meal was incredibly tasty but INCREDIBLY heavy. Everything was either deep fried or had a ton of oil in it. My tummy was mad at me for several hours after this. But it was satisfying know that Utah had some great vegan options, including this unassuming little German bar in Murray. Thanks again Utah and thank you Ice Haus.
What was your opinion of Ice Haus? Where is your favorite vegan eatery? Let us know!
Peace, love and abundance!
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