Situated down the street from Faneuil Hall is Boston’s only location for the iconic, music-themed restaurant chain the Hard Rock Cafe. The location’s 16,000 square feet of space boasts a 514-seat restaurant, a stage for concerts and an array of memorabilia that adorns the walls, such as a guitar from Pete Townshend and a costume worn by Madonna.
The menu consists of typical American food such as burgers, steaks and sandwiches. However, for a vegetarian, a menu like this can be challenging if you do not just want to settle for a salad. Beginning Oct. 3 through Nov. 13, in celebration of Vegetarian Awareness Month, the Hard Rock Cafe has released a strictly vegetarian menu.
“The demand for vegetarian dining options has grown as guests look for more variety, so we’ve developed a new, meatless menu that goes beyond the typical,” said Alex Merchan, senior director of global marketing and sales for Hard Rock International.
The new menu includes seven new cocktails, two of which are vegetable-juice based. The other five come in collectable mason jars and are retailed at $16.99. The flavors include “Blackberry Peach Bramble,” a blend of real blackberries, gin and lemonade and “Mango Tequila Sunrise,” a combination of tequila, orange juice and mango puree.
The collectible mason jar adds to the retailed theme of Hard Rock Cafe — they want diners to go home with a souvenir. Upon entering the restaurant, guests are welcomed into an expansive gift shop that includes gifts both unique to Boston and some that could become rare collectables.
“On some Sundays, we hold pin conventions,” said Michelle Murphy, sales and marketing manager of Hard Rock International. “Some guy recently sold a Hard Rock pin from the 1970s for over $6,000.”
Focused back on the food, the menu comes with two appetizer choices, two unique salad options and two different vegetarian entrees.
The appetizers include cauliflower “wings,” or chunks of cauliflower that have been breaded, fried and covered in buffalo sauce. Diners can also choose a barbecue option.
The wings do have similarities to the traditional chicken variety, most notably the coating, but once past the breaded exterior, it is hard to ignore the fact that what’s inside is nothing but large bites of plain cauliflower.
Shining opposite of the wings is the ratatouille flatbread, a crispy flatbread that comes based with garlic oil and topped with grilled vegetables such as onion and squash, Romano and mozzarella cheese and a drizzle of garlic aioli.
Boston Food Journal founder and blogger Brittany DiCapua said she thought that this was a hit.
“The garlic aioli definitely adds good flavor,” DiCapua said.
Out of the two salads offered, “Pico de Gallo Quinoa Arugula Salad” and a “Fennel, Beet and Orange Salad,” the arugala salad came out as a winner as it offered more substance and flavor. The fennel and beet salad is good if the diner prefers beets and orange, but for most, the large chunks of beets were overwhelming.
The two entree selections included a grilled ratatouille wrap and a cauliflower burger. The burger is heavy, with a dense patty of cauliflower, garlic, egg, goat cheese and breadcrumbs. Similar to the wings, the outside of the patty was delicious and crisp, while the inside was dense, under-seasoned and plain cauliflower. The toppings for the burger made up for the bun, as it came with grilled zucchini, squash, arugula, tomato and garlic aioli. Served with fries, it is bound to fill the hungriest diner.
The grilled ratatouille wrap was underwhelming, as the oil in the wrap made the vegetables (grilled eggplant, squash and zucchini) soggy, which also dampened the wrap itself. It came with a Sriracha mayonnaise dipping sauce that was full of flavor and a good addition to the entree.
Overall, the vegetarian menu is full of great, meat-free options. The winners out of the six were the ratatouille flatbread and the “Pico de Gallo Quinoa” salad.
