Daniel B.
Yelp
As I ate my Slutty Vegan burgers and chicken sandwich, I kept thinking in my head how do they make plant-based, vegan beef, bacon, chicken, and cheese taste so "authentic" and good? If someone had purchased Slutty Vegan's burgers for me and didn't tell me they were vegan, I'm not sure I'd have been able to tell the difference. However, I probably *would* have been able to tell with the chicken sandwich because of the "chicken's" texture. It was noticeably different from standard chicken sandwich filet meat, with a more uniform, spongy consistency. That said, I still thought Slutty Vegan's chicken sandwich was satisfying and I'd order it again.
Slutty Vegan started out as a food truck in August 2018. The business specializes in vegan fast food. More specifically, they specialize in fast-food-style vegan burgers and sandwiches.
They opened their first brick-and-mortar location (this location) on Ralph David Abernathy Blvd in the Westview neighborhood of southwest Atlanta in January 2019. Since then, they've opened two additional metro Atlanta locations in Jonesboro (July 2020), south of the city, and on Edgewood Ave in Old Fourth Ward (October 2020). At the time of writing this review, a fourth Atlanta-area location is on the way.
Slutty Vegan is popular. Long lines for the food truck and outside the restaurants are a common sight. For this original location on Ralph David Abernathy, the inside of the restaurant is very small so most customers have to wait outside. This helps make the line out the door appear long.
When I posted pictures of my Slutty Vegan meal on social media, multiple people asked me how long my wait was. When I arrived around 6:10pm on a Wednesday, after it had just stopped raining, there were only two people in front of me (and one of them had already placed his order and was just picking up). I think I got lucky.
The restaurant doesn't have dedicated parking, but street parking around the restaurant is free. This is a tiny place with no indoor nor outdoor seating. It's takeout-only, which was fortuitous when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. There's one way in and one way out. They had both doors propped open during my visit to maximize ventilation. If you didn't wear a mask, you couldn't enter. They sprayed hand sanitizer into every customer's hands upon entry. One register, one pickup counter.
Slutty Vegan's menu offerings can change daily so be sure to check their Instagram feed for the current day's menus: https://www.instagram.com/sluttyveganatl/.
When I visited, there were six burgers priced at $13-15 each. I noticed the online menu, which showed their full lineup (11 burgers, sandwiches, and a plant-based bratwurst), had slightly more expensive prices for some items. For example, in person, both the Sloppy Toppy and Fussy Hussy were $13 each, but the online menu showed them at $15 each.
Here's what I got:
* One Night Stand ($15) - plant-based patty loaded with vegan bacon, vegan cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and Slutty Vegan's Slut Sauce on a vegan Hawaiian bun
* Super Slut ($15) - plant-based patty loaded with guacamole, jalapeños, vegan cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and Slutty Vegan's Slut Sauce on a vegan Hawaiian bun
* Chik'N Head ($15) - plant-based chicken tossed in buffalo sauce topped with pickles, vegan ranch and coleslaw on a vegan Hawaiian bun
* Skinny Dippers ($6) - NOLA-style fried pickles with blackberry mayo sauce
* Slutty Fries (one cup of fries was included with each burger) - French fries with signature Slut Dust
First, they forgot my blackberry mayo sauce that was supposed to come with the Skinny Dippers. That was disappointing. I was looking forward to trying it.
In general, the food was yummy. The burgers and chicken sandwich tasted just like regular fast food; the beef more so than the chicken. While the vegan bacon in the One Night Stand didn't have the same crispy texture as real bacon, it definitely had that familiar smoky flavor and then some. I was surprised. As is typical with fast food chains, the burgers/sandwich didn't look as good in real life as they did online, but that was OK because they tasted satisfying. The Skinny Dippers were among the best fried pickles I've had, though salty like the rest.
The restaurant has a fun atmosphere. When I was there, the friendly cashier Julianne B announced each customer and where they were from over the loudspeaker. The music was turned up like In Da Club. Inside, there's only enough room to stand in line. There's an open kitchen so you can watch the staff prepare burgers while you wait.
I placed my order at 6:15pm and was in my car and driving off by 6:27pm, so the turnaround time was reasonable. Along with the orders of the people physically in front of me, the kitchen was working on online orders as well.
TL;DR - I think Slutty Vegan is worth it if you've never tried it before. It's unique and tasty. For me, I'd never had vegan fast food like this before until now.