But first, lifestyle content creator, Cindy Mesa promises you don't have to be vegan to
enjoy her Mexican streetstyle pick.
She says this flavorful taqueria creatively takes on nostalgic Mexican classics and their
savory flavors could easily fool almost any carnivore's taste buds.
Located in the heart of Wynwood, it's called Charly's Vegan Tacos.
[Nerio] My name is Nerio Amaya, I'm the chef and general manager of Charly's Vegan Tacos.
Charly's started this concept of creating a completely vegan menu while keeping Mexican
food as authentic as possible.
But this right here is the first ever expansion to the United States.
The whole entire point of this is to conserve all the magic that we created in Mexico and
bringing it to the United States audience.
This restaurant creates Mexican food to it's true form.
And that's due to Charly's influence from everything.
The best part about it is the fact that it's all vegan.
It's plantbased so it comes from the earth.
It's as unique as it can be when it comes to Mexican food.
A standout item, something that people love and just seeing eyes pop up every single time
they come out of the kitchen, is our Nachos Machos.
It's a literal mountain of nachos pretty much of all our cheese replacements, all our sauces.
Very heavy set of our carne asada, which is made out of seitan.
Everything inside of the restaurant is unique in it's own way just due to the fact that
even the tiles on the floor that we're sitting over, are imported from Mexico.
We have a little piece of the country within the restaurant.
So, we get to share in that culture while sharing in the art and expressing ourselves
through that, just along side everybody else out here in the art district.
Charly's just really breathes off of himself.
The restaurant lives off of his authenticity and his energy that we are able to put in
here.
It's funny you know, people hear vegan and people hear tacos, but usually the two never
really come together.
They don't.
And I actually think that people hear vegan and they just, they're completely turned off
immediately.
[Michelle] Right, unless they're vegan.
Unless they're vegan, of course.
It is just this bright, very fresh atmosphere.
The air feels fresh.
I know that's weird to say but it really does.
It's so colorful.
They have alebrijes on the wall.
So, it's a very sort of, not just the Mexican street fare, but Mexican culture all over
the walls.
[Michelle] All over, right.
[Cindy] On the tables you have a little bit of Dia de los Muertos, that kind of thing.
So it is a very bright and colorful place to be.
Very friendly, the staff is always very welcoming.
So, we actually started with the elote.
[Michelle] Elote's corn on the cob.
[Cindy] It is.
[Michelle] And what was it topped with?
[Cindy] And it was actually topped with a peanut sort of dust.
[Nathaniel] Peanut soil.
Peanut soil, thank you.
Peanut soil.
[Michelle] Peanut soil, so you had it too?
[Nathaniel] Yeah, I remember the menu and I read that and I was like, "What's peanut
soil?"
So, I immediately thought about dirt.
But I was like you know what, let me not be ignorant.
It looks like dirt, that's the thing.
[Michelle] Well, that's the thing.
[Cindy] It's supposed to look like I guess cheese, or the
[Nathaniel] Like the queso fresco,
Yeah, sure.
Like the queso.
Sometimes you can use Parmesan but they use queso.
I loved it, it was amazing.
It changed my palate.
So, tell me what you started with.
I went with a friend of mine and we had the testones, which were excellent, fried
[Michelle] How are they done?
In like a tortilla shape, a larger shape, and it had Korean slaw and beans.
It was really good.
It had a marriage of all different types of flavors and it was really, really good.
And textures, sounds like.
And textures, yeah.
And you had something called, what is it?
Pintu asado, something?
It's a plantain and it had a garlic soy dressing on the top of it with pepitas on top of it.
[Michelle] Yum.
[Edmund] Seeds, it was very good.
And I was also very surprised.
Going there, I didn't know what to expect.
And it was excellent.
Very cheery, colorful.
[Michelle] A lot of attention to detail.
[Cindy] A lot, a lot.
[Michelle] So what else did you have?
[Cindy] So, I had the Charly's signature vegan tacos, which is the chorizo, and the carne
asada.
[Michelle] Chorizo and carne asada.
Yes, so chorizo and carne asada .
So, what do they use instead of the carne?
[Cindy] They use satai?
Satay, yeah.
Satay, okay.
Then they also use soy for the chorizo.
So sort of like, almost like a tofutype thing.
Then of course, all the spices, all the pickled jalapenos.
Each taco tastes different.
[Michelle] And do they make their tortillas?
[Cindy] They make their tortillas.
You all had tacos.
Oh yeah.
[Michelle] You all had taco trio, right?
I had the one at the bottom where you pretty much pick your own taco.
[Cindy] Choose your own.
So I picked three different ones from each menu.
Portabello mushroom smoked taco.
And then I had the carne asada taco.
And then I also had the prasada.
It tasted really good.
That was the first time.
And then the second time I went there I had two of the same things.
Oh, you went back?
Oh, definitely.
Yay.
In a short time.
That's great.
That's awesome, wow.
Within the short time I feel like I had to go back because a lot of my friends are converting
from a pescetarian lifestyle to full out vegan.
So, I just wanted to introduce them.
So, I took a friend out there.
So how were the prices on the tacos?
'Cause that stuff is expensive.
All those things put together, it costs a lot of money.
As a chef, I can tell you that.
Being that all of the ingredients seemed to be fresh, like, you know, 16 bucks for three
tacos is not bad, honestly.
It's not bad at all.
It's a good deal.
I was expecting it to be a lot more.
Even with the dessert, with the appetizers, I thought it was a pretty fair price.
What did you all have for dessert?
Tiramisu.
It was phenomenal.
The way that it looks, it looks like a regular tiramisu.
It doesn't look like something that's replacing cream.
It was so good.
It was sweet, not too sweet, it had moisture.
It was perfect.
I felt the same way about the cheesecake because I'm a huge fan of cheesecake.
I get it on my birthday every year.
That's what I go to.
I got the strawberry sour sap infused cheesecake.
And that just made my taste buds just go crazy.
So you had a margarita for dessert.
[Nathaniel] Really good.
Awesome.
It was a vegan margarita.
It was made out of blue agave wine.
It was a little lighter but it was really good.
It was very refreshing and had it with the salt on the rim.
So, it was good, it was very good.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Well Cindy, Charly's Vegan Tacos was your pick.
Sum it up for me, please.
Okay so, Charly's Vegan Tacos is, whether you are a vegan or nonvegan, it is a place
to go because it is full of flavor, it will completely blow your mind away, and you will
look at food differently when you leave.
Nathaniel?
I would say that it's a very bright and vibrant feel and when you eat it you'll be initially
confused, but you'll be happy with the flavor that you chose because it tastes just like
the same, it tastes like meat.
So, why not try it and after you eat it, you can just enjoy the beautiful artwork on 2nd
Street.
Edmund?
Fun, fresh, colorful, homemade, really, really surprising.
Was delicious and I would definitely go back.
Well you can go vegan for a meal at Charly's Vegan Tacos, located at 172 North West 24th
Street, in Wynwood.
Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Sunday.
Reservations are accepted for larger parties, and the average price for dinner without drinks
is about $25.