On our most recent trip to Ocean City, Austin and I decided to check out 2 new-to-us places with vegan options that we found on the Happy Cow app (which I love and is a must have if you’re vegan). If you’re interested in what some of my all-time favorite restaurants in OCMD are I talked a bit about those in my last post.
The first place we checked out on a date night is called Thai O-Cha on Coastal Highway off of 138th Street. I wouldn’t call it a hole in the wall but it’s very low-key and unassuming. Thai O-Cha, I believe, is the only strictly Thai restaurant in all of Ocean City. I always feel like when a restaurant specializes in just one cuisine, the food is just better, especially with Thai food specifically.
Something special about Thai O-Cha is that they have an entirely separate vegan menu, so you don’t have to browse the standard menu wondering if there’s a non-vegan ingredient hidden in a dish. I love love love when restaurants to this!
Austin ordered the Thai fried rice and I had the Panang curry. You are asked to choose your spice level. He went with mild and I chose Thai hot. Both of the dishes were delicious. I will say if you are a spice fiend, you probably won’t be satisfied with the heat levels because I didn’t find the “Thai hot” to be very hot at all. That being said I did have a dish with coconut milk in it so it’s likely that could have masked some of the heat.
Overall, we were really happy with our meal here. The service was good, the food come out fast, the prices are great, and most importantly, the food was amazing. We will definitely be returning to Thai O-Cha.
The next place we checked out was Shotti’s Point on Coastal Highway at 36th Street in the same building as the K-Coast Surf Shop. The parking lot is really small so be prepared to drive around the bayside for a spot if it’s full. The restaurant, on the other hand, is deceivingly large. I had no idea and we’ve been to the K-Coast a million times. There’s indoor seating and outdoor seating which is actually on the water. We chose to sit outdoors with his mom and grandma because it was a gorgeous evening.
Austin ordered a Beyond Burger with standard fixings and I ordered a pizza with cauliflower crust, vegan cheese, olives, spicy peppers, and onion. Austin enjoyed his burger but didn’t enjoy the $6 upcharge for switching to a Beyond Burger. I’ve never seen the Beyond or Impossible upcharged that much so it was a bit weird. I really enjoyed my pizza. It was by no means the best pizza I’ve ever had but for there being no other vegan pizza options in town, it was certainly good enough to eat again if I had a pizza craving.
I also had a spicy margarita, which was very good. The issue I had with my drink and with all of the drinks in general is that the condensation dripped through the table onto our legs the whole evening. The tables are that weaved metal style of outdoor table so all of the drink condensation fell through the holes all night. This might not be an issue for most people, but I wasn’t wild about it. The other issue that arose, luckily not for us but at another table, was a random seagull attacking the table to steal fries. Honestly, this is just something that can happen eating outside on the coast so there isn’t much that can be done about that.
Austin’s mom got a burger and his grandma got the spaghetti with meatballs. They were both happy with their meals. I can’t speak to the taste at all but the spaghetti and meatballs were presented very beautifully.
Overall, we would probably come back here if we were eating out with friends/family that aren’t vegan, but I don’t know if we would come back exclusively for the vegan food. Realistically, since we stay in a condo with a fully equipped kitchen, it would make more sense for us to buy a pizza or Beyond burger at the grocery store and make it ourself in the exact way we like. If you are in a hotel or motel, its definitely a good option.
We are scheduled to head back down to OCMD again in August so I’d love to use that time to check out a couple more new-to-us places that I can share with y’all.
