These Are the Top 100 Vegan Restaurants in America, According to Yelp
By Marnie Shure,
5 days ago
From taquerias to diners to Italian joints, these vegan restaurants cover every category.
According to a 2023 Gallup poll , about 4% of Americans identify as vegetarian, while 1% identify as vegan — and while that figure might seem small, it amounts to millions of diners looking for flavorful, satisfying food. Yet many restaurants still struggle to cater to those who abstain from eating animal products; it takes special consideration for a chef to get creative with plant-based ingredients. To celebrate that creativity, Yelp has just released its list of the 100 best vegan restaurants in the U.S., and it covers just about every category of cuisine for hungry vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike.
So, what makes a great vegan restaurant?
“A vegan restaurant shines when vegans and non-vegans alike enthusiastically enjoy its menu offerings,” Tara Lewis, Yelp’s vice president of consumer expansion and trend expert, told Food & Wine. “The beauty of vegan dining lies in its ability to explore unique flavors and reinvent traditional dishes, all while using fresh, plant-based ingredients.”
Beyond that, a good vegan restaurant should demonstrate that there’s virtually no category of cuisine, not even a deli or a barbecue joint, that can’t be prepared sans animal products. Indeed, it should make diners feel that, far from any sort of compromise, they’re being presented with something exciting.
How Yelp chose the best vegan restaurants in every state
To create its list of the best vegan restaurants (the second such list it has produced since 2022), Yelp factored in both business ratings and review volume — that is, the total number of reviews plus the proportion of five-star reviews each restaurant has received from Yelp users. It also filtered out restaurants with more than five locations, so as to focus instead on independent businesses rather than large chains or franchises.
The release of this list is timed to coincide with World Vegan Day on November 1, which was established in 1994 to kick off World Vegan Month and commemorate the founding of the term “veganism” in 1944. Yelp notes that out of the 100 restaurants on the list, 34 of them are women-owned, “making it the most common business attribute” among them.
The best vegan restaurants in America
Looking over Yelp’s list of the top 100 vegan restaurants nationwide, it’s clear that any restaurant that can make this cuisine taste rich and “indulgent” will win the day. At two of the three top spots, Lil Vegerie in Los Angeles and Urban Fresh in Tucson, cashew cheese is put to liberal use, while the number-two spot, The Mediterranean Chickpea in South Tampa, serves up an abundance of dips, pies, and sizeable falafel.
Interestingly, many vegan restaurants are clever subversions of typically meatier fare, like a plant-based deli ( NoButcher in Las Vegas, Orchard Grocer in New York). But others simply excel at a cuisine that happens to be largely vegan all on its own; Mediterranean food, for example, has historically featured plenty of meatless dishes that lean on the inclusion of olive oil to bring the flavor and fat. The Mediterranean Chickpea takes full advantage of that fact, as does Baltimore’s Koshary Corner .
There really is no limit to what a great vegan restaurant can add to the menu.
But if there’s one state absolutely crushing it in the vegan cuisine scene, it’s Hawaii, which takes a whopping nine spots on the top 100 list. The options across that state range from AA Roots ’ acai bowls to Thuong An Lac ’s Vietnamese fare to Blondie’s Vegan Proteins + Cafe ’s barbecue chicken, and the praise from Yelp users includes testimonials like, “I would have never guessed this was vegan!”
1. lil’ Vegerie, Redondo Beach, California 2. The Mediterranean Chickpea, Tampa, Florida 3. Urban Fresh, Tucson, Arizona 4. Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, Culver City, California 5. BOOMCHIA, Montclair, New Jersey 6. The Rabbit Hole, Pompano Beach, Florida 7. Vegan Stops, Garden Grove, California 8. Pure Soul, Durham, North Carolina 9. Kelley Farm Kitchen, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia 10. Tarantino’s Vegan, Las Vegas, Nevada 11. Ras Plant Based, Brooklyn, New York 12. Pure Kitchen Organic Vegan, Tampa, Florida 13. Thanh Tinh Chay, San Diego, California 14. The Uprooted Kitchen, Gilbert, Arizona 15. Miss Rachel’s Pantry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 16. NoButcher, Las Vegas, Nevada 17. Earth Aloha Eats, Kihei, Hawaii 18. Urban Vegan, Newark, New Jersey 19. Francis Burger Joint, Minneapolis, Minnesota 20. Thuong An Lac, Honolulu, Hawaii 21. VEGZ, Washington, District of Columbia 22. BeeWali’s Vegan AF, Los Angeles, California 23. Florish, Tampa Bay, Florida 24. Healthy Harvest Urban Farms, Rock Island, Illinois 25. Tane Vegan Izakaya, Honolulu, Hawaii 26. The Tin Thistle, North Bend, Oregon 27. Sweet Rose Cafe, Fall River, Massachusetts 28. veggie bowl , Oregon City, Oregon 29. Organically Twisted, Naples, Florida 30. Sanctuary Bistro, Charlotte, North Carolina 31. Vegelicious, Nashville, Tennessee 32. Mission Burger, Austin, Texas 33. UNiQ Burger, Scottsdale, Arizona 34. Sweet Soulfood, New Orleans, Louisiana 35. Chef Tanya’s Kitchen, Palm Springs, California 36. Dina’s Vegan Deli & Desserts, Riviera Beach, Florida 37. House of Mexica, Reno, Nevada 38. Veg & Go Plant-Based Fast Food, Riverside, California 39. Vegan Shop, Hilo, Hawaii 40. Buds, Salt Lake City, Utah 41. WongWayVeg, Denver, Colorado 42. Chilango PDX, Portland, Oregon 43. Belmont Vegetarian, Worcester, Massachusetts 44. Brekkie Bowls, Wailea, Hawaii 45. Variable Cafe, Los Angeles, California 46. Vegan & Juice, Miami, Florida 47. Root, Newport, Rhode Island 48. Sun Belly Cafe, Greenville, South Carolina 49. Botanical Fare, Charlottesville, Virginia 50. Garden Grill, Las Vegas, Nevada 51. Hijo de su Madre, Los Angeles, California 52. Koshary Corner, Baltimore, Maryland 53. Desert Roots Kitchen, Tempe, Arizona 54. Blondie’s Vegan Cafe Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 55. ChagaRoot, Las Vegas, Nevada 56. Dirty Lettuce, Portland, Oregon 57. Toasty, Bend, Oregon 58. Tamam, New York, New York 59. Hash Vegan Eatery, San Antonio, Texas 60. Secret Pizza Society, Portland, Oregon 61. Rawk Star Cafe, Oldsmar, Florida 62. Belenty’s Love, Fort Worth, Texas 63. Freshroll, Mashpee, Massachusetts 64. The Ginger Mule, Houston, Texas 65. Orchard Grocer, New York, New York 66. Vegos, Albuquerque, New Mexico 67. Sundrip, Chicago, Illinois 68. Norma’s Plant Based Cuisine, Altamonte Springs, Florida 69. Bombay Food Junkies, Saint Louis, Missouri 70. Loving Heart, Chicago, Illinois 71. All Chay, Salt Lake City, Utah 72. Daikon Vegan Sushi, Las Vegas, Nevada 73. Hungry Vegan, Savannah, Georgia 74. Bayside Cafe, Everett, Washington 75. Vegan Vibrationz, Plano, Texas 76. Shayna B’s By The Sea, Westbrook, Connecticut 77. Bistro Vonish, Austin, Texas 78. Tacotarian, Las Vegas, Nevada 79. Can’t Believe It’s Vegan, Westerville, Ohio 80. Honest Pastures, Virginia Beach, Virginia 81. The Cosmic Kitchen, Haleiwa, Hawaii 82. Energize, Brighton, Massachusetts 83. Nissi VegMex Vegan Mexican Cuisine, Austin, Texas 84. Spring Cafe, New York, New York 85. Moku Roots, Kula, Hawaii 86. Cashew, Chattanooga, Tennessee 87. CLTRE. vgn jnt, Virginia Beach, Virginia 88. Down 2 Earth Plant-Based Cuisine, Las Vegas, Nevada 89. Planted PDX, Portland, Oregon 90. Cafe Red, Seattle, Washington 91. Green Love Kitchen, Lithonia, Georgia 92. VeGreen Vegetarian Fusion Restaurant, Duluth, Georgia 93. Recipe Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas 94. Aa Roots Maui, Lahaina, Hawaii 95. Reverie Cafe + Bar, Minneapolis, Minnesota 96. Plant, Asheville, North Carolina 97. Manna Kitchen, Lisle, Illinois 98. Total Vegan Indian Restaurant, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 99. La Semilla, Atlanta, Georgia 100. Wildflower Vegan Café, Millville, New Jersey
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