Unusual name… unusually delicious food! Bang Up to the Elephant is so close to my office, I don’t know how I didn’t find out about it sooner, but now that I have I’m excited to share it because it is such a fun space!
Bang Up is in the heart of the Cap Hill neighborhood, and it is incredibly pretty and hip. They serve Carribean “beach-shack food”, most of which is crazy spicy.
Beautiful right!? Well so is the food!
Their menu clearly shows which dishes are/can be vegan or vegetarian, so they make it easy to eat there. Here are the dishes I’ve tried so far- and there are many more too!
Edamame & Shishito with grilled red onion, jerk seasoning, and lime juice… the seasoning was really hot! We couldn’t eat more than one or two in a row without a little sweat on our brows – but I will fully admit to being a baby when it comes to heat.
We also shared the Hot & Sweet Tamarind Seitan Wingers, served with celery, trini-pepper sauce, and garlic sauce. Again, very hot, but also a ton of flavor. I stuck mostly with the garlic sauce as it was cooler.
The chunks of seitan were really big (bigger than actual wings), and the seitan itself was the perfect texture- very chewy and toothsome.
I also tried the Scratch-Seitan Cubano on grilled white bread with braised mojo jackfruit, garlic “seit-ham”, mustard and pickles. LOVED IT!
All sandwiches come with a huge side of plantain chips and smoked carrot-coconut dip too. I recently fell (back) in love with plantains while in Central America so I was extra happy to have them again. And the carrot-coconut dip is amazing- smoky and sweet!
On one of my visits I was with my little brother and it was his birthday so they brought us a baked treat- it was chocolate and coconut and it’s not on the menu so I’m not entirely sure what it was, but she said it was vegan.
On another visit, I opted to try one of their breakfast options, the Doubles Plate with frybread with curried chana, trini-pepper sauce and tamarind sauce, cilantro, and sweet plantains:
What a tasty combination of spicy and sweet! I especially appreciated those big sweet chunks o’ plantain.
On my most recent visit I went with a cup of Sweet Corn soup with roast tomato and salsa verde. It was sweet, but not overly so. Very flavorful. This picture is terrible but the soup was so thick and comforting!
I also had the Happy Monkey, a kale salad with fried sweet plantains, pickled onions, jicama, fresnos, and hot pepper vinaigrette. You see, I wanted to sample some of their “bunny food” (what the salad section of their menu is called) so I could report back. It was good! Definitely a good way to taste their flavor with a little less of the fried foods… although yes, the plantains were fried. Oh well!
They also have a full bar (pictured waaaay above) and plenty of meat options on the menu, so this is definitely a spot where everyone in your party will be happy. Check them out!
Want more Denver-area restaurant reviews? Check out my Mile High Vegan Eats page!
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