We finally had the occasion to visit the Rough & Tumble Pub a few days ago. This pub has been on our list for awhile now as they are dedicated to all things "women's sports". We visited on a Sunday night so there wasn't much of a crowd to speak of but I can imagine how hopping the place gets when amped up with crowds cheering on their favorite sports teams such as the WNBA Storm, the NWSL Seattle Reign, and others.
I wouldn't call this pub vegan friendly by any stretch but they do have a few vegan options, which is always greatly appreciated. Their menu is a bit .. chaotic, in my opinion. What do I mean by "chaotic", good question .. I'll provide some examples:
- They have a few different menus, depending on time of day (Brunch, Happy Hour, Dinner, etc). This is in no way unusual for a restaurant and it's easy enough to read when on a computer but if you're trying to scroll through those menus on your smart phone .. you might be left with vertigo (yes, I'm being dramatic for effect, but still ... )
- at least one item (the Spiced Edamame) is marked with a "v" but .. what does "v" mean? Vegan? Vegetarian? I couldn't find any type of "key" on their menu unless I overlooked something (always possible).
- I'm not gluten free at all but in tiny letters at the bottom of their menu it says "items marked gf may have shared traced of gluten from a shared fryer, we are happy to sub fully gf/celiac safe tortilla chips on any item". I feel like if something is marked "gf" on the menu, a customer should feel confident that it's 100% gf and not have to guess .. especially when it comes to health concerns. If not, it should be made more clear than simply providing very tiny, hard to read text at the bottom of the menu. In all fairness, on a lot of the specific items, they do call this out but it just seems weird to label something gf that isn't 100% gf.
- "Baller basket of fries or tots" - these aren't labelled as "v" at all, seems inconsistent to the labelling of the spiced edamame.
- Jackie's Baked Buffalo Dip - creamy jackfruit, charred scallions, "mozzarella", Frank's r+t tortilla chips (vegan)". The "r+t" = "rough and tumble", call me dense but it took me a bit to figure that out lol. So, is this vegan? Does putting "mozzarella" in quotes automatically mean it's vegan or is the implication accidental? If it's vegan cheese, why not just say that? lol. I looked at their brunch menu and noticed some of their "scramble" options specifically list "vegan mozzarella cheese" as an option, so that told me they definitely stock vegan cheese. When I asked the server, she did confirm the "mozzarella" listed in this dish was indeed vegan. I didn't think to ask about the "creamy jackfruit" though so now I'm hoping that was vegan as well as that was an item we ordered and ... it was really good!
- they have a Pork Belly or Tofu Sliders option on Hawaiian bread. We were thinking that maybe tofu sliders would be vegan. I asked about the Hawaiian bread, which they confirmed wasn't vegan. In all fairness to them, this item isn't listed as vegan but ... it's an item that would very likely draw interest to a vegan, so why not provide a vegan version of the same. They did check on availability of an alternative vegan bread, but were out of baguettes (which was vegan). So, if you go there another time and order this, if they have baguettes available at that time maybe this would be accidentally vegan.
- going back to the Brunch section, when looking at the scrambles, and then say "or mixed greens (gf/vegan)". For many of the scrambles listed, practically none of the ingredients are vegan (although again, they do have vegan scramble options) but for a scramble that wouldn't remotely be vegan, why specify that the mixed greens in the scramble are vegan, like .. would that ever be a question if greens are vegan?
So, I'm not trying to nitpick or be difficult but I think these are strong inconsistences that could easily be ironed out. I totally understand that given the pub being a sports bar, vegan clientele are probably but the tiniest fraction of their patrons. It felt like they definitely put thought into trying to be inclusive while at the same time, it seems scattered and confusing and could keep some vegans from coming back or visiting at all. The servers were helpful and very attentive to our needs but were also definitely not familiar with our vegan questions. That's not a problem as they took every stride to find out the needed information and ensure we had a good meal. I mention this only because I feel like if they tighten up a few loose ends, this pub could really hold great appeal for vegan clientele.
The food was really enjoyable. The Baked Buffalo dip was great, we couldn't get enough :). The Banh Mi was good and I LOVE that they have vegan mayo win-win-win all the way around! I felt the sandwich was pretty basic, it lacked a certain zest or bite until the last few bites at the end where the read more