by If you’re looking for the best food vegan Vancouver has to offer, this is your complete guide! We got our best friend — who is a Vancouver local and vegan foodie — to eat her way around the city and share the results. So, if you’re hungry in Vancouver, get ready for a vegan feast.
This is a guest post by Kris Rothstein, a vegan food fanatic who travels the world sampling the best plant-based eats from all over.
After three decades as a vegetarian and then a vegan in Vancouver, I have scoured this fair city for the very best plant-based dishes in town. There are better cities in the world for eating vegan (hello Portland, hey LA) but I can honestly say there has never been a better time to eat vegan food in Vancouver!
Whether you’re looking for vegan restaurants, vegan pizza, vegan ice cream and donuts, or even vegan groceries, there are tons of options — but there is also a wide rage in quality.
The tips in this post will help you avoid the duds and steer towards maximum vegan deliciousness in Vancouver!
So read on to discover the…
Best Vancouver Vegan Eats & Treats
Want More Vegan Treats?
If you’re heading to Vancouver, check out our vegan travel guide, plus our favourite things to do in Vancouver, and our Vancouver craft beer crawl guide.
Vancouver’s Top 3 Vegan Meals
Meet on Main
All-vegan comfort food in 3 locations
This vegan comfort food spot, with truly decadent and delicious burgers, fries, bowls and more, now has three locations, including the one a block from my house. (Location for the win!)
Meet on Main makes the best fries in town and the burgers are thick and savoury, topped with treats like mac and cheese, double bacon and cheese, or super hot buffalo sauce and cool ranch.
I love the Butter Chikkin and also trying their weekly specials (ramen! tempeh ribs and mash!). You might have a tough time choosing from the extensive menu, but you will be satiated no matter what you order. It’s almost always packed, but getting a table usually doesn’t take long.
Don’t miss: Any of the burgers and fries. (Jane’s note: Also, the cashew gravy is the best!)
The Acorn
Vegetarian dining with plenty of vegan options
Photo by The Acorn.
Special occasion? Appreciate aesthetics and inventive flavour pairing?
Then The Acorn is the spot for you. It’s a little pricier than a casual cafe, but for the most part you still get a hefty portion of beautiful but unpretentious food. 100% vegetarian and most dishes can be made vegan.
Don’t miss: The Kale Caesar salad with tempeh croutons — it’s the best I’ve ever eaten.
Virtuous Pie
Vegan pizza with amazing toppings
This stylish spot stacks up against the best vegan pizzas in the world.
Almost everything at Virtuous Pie is house-made, from the perfect crusts, to red and white sauces, truffle almond ricotta, cashew mozzarella and Italian sausage. Each personal-size pizza is a satisfying meal while also being light and healthy.
Don’t miss: The Stranger Wings pizza — buffalo cauliflower and blue cheese drizzle! A little spicy and a lot tasty.
Best Vegan Breakfast and Brunch in Vancouver
Bandidas Tacqueria
Vegetarian Mexican cafe with vegan options for everything
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2AHx2AB-GN/I love me some vegan Mexican food!
Bandidas Tacqueria is one of the tastiest restaurants in town and the tacos and burritos are great. But, some of the most exciting options are only available at brunch. A downright huge brunch menu is served from 9am–3pm, with three items (including a breakfast burrito) that are available all day.
Bandidas is vegetarian, with vegan options for everything.
My fave: The Breakfast, which comes with butternut squash and tofu scramble, pinto beans, roasted yam and potato hash and to-die-for cornbread.
Po Kong & Sun Bo Kong
Vegetarian Chinese restaurants offering vegan dim sum
Vegan dim sum! Both Po Kong and Sun Bo Kong are decadent, delicious and super cheap.
These two vegetarian Chinese restaurants are directly across the street from each other and are equally tasty, so you might just have to flip a coin when deciding where to eat. You’ll get a small slip of paper with the dim sum menu printed on it and you check off the items that take your fancy. Best with a few friends to try more dishes. Go nuts!
My faves: At Po Kong eat the Barbecue Bun, Donut Canneloni and Deep-fried Sesame Ball. At Sun Bo Kong eat the Steamed Rice Flour Roll with Pea Tips, Steamed BBQ Bun and Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls.
Chickpea
Vegan Middle Eastern fusion cafe
Breakfast is served all day, every day! What a coup.
Chickpea is an all-vegan Middle Eastern-influenced restaurant which serves a dizzying array of pita sandwiches, salads and fantastic hummus and falafel.
But it is also a top breakfast pick. A hearty tofu scramble comes with toast, salad, fries and the option for add-ons like carrot lox, bacon or sausage. If you’re a fan of benedicts, try Chickpea’s version served on a latke — a crispy fried potato and zucchini fritter.
My fave: Malawach — a puff pastry stuffed with hummus, sausage, yam and more.
Vancouver Vegan Ice Cream
Virtuous Pie
Vegan ice cream flights!
Photo by Virtuous Pie.
Yes, Virtuous Pie makes ice cream as well as pizza! Two passions collide in this flawless restaurant.
All house-made, a daily rotation of flavours like coffee and donut, salted caramel pretzel, and hazelnut latte are available in pints and scoops. Go at happy hour for a cheap ice cream flight of three scoops.
My fave: Anything with cookie dough.
The Juice Truck
Quick and healthy vegan eatery
Photo by The Juice Truck.
This empire of juice shops also sells healthy bowls and other vegan snacks.
In the summer, The Juice Truck makes a delicious vegan soft serve ice cream. The flavour rotates and if it’s peanut butter, then I have to make a trip! So far only available at Yaletown and Main Street locations.
My fave: Peanut butter soft serve
Say Hello Sweets
Vegan dessert truck
A local biz with adorable packaging and an adorable truck.
Say Hello Sweets has vegan ice cream offerings made from coconut milk, home-made cashew milk, organic agave nectar and other natural ingredients. Get it in a cute box or get a whole (or half!) ice cream sandwich.
Their truck can often be found at food festivals and farmers markets but you can also order online or from many shops around town.
My fave: Toasted marshmallow ice cream sandwich
Jane’s picks of even more Vancouver vegan ice cream
If you’re not satisfied after you’ve tried Kris’s three favourites above, you can also try the vegan options at Earnest Ice Cream or stop into Buckets for the creamiest vegan ice cream ever courtesy of their crazy liquid nitrogen process. They also do milkshakes!
Best Vegan Donuts in Vancouver
Cartems Donuts
Omnivore donut shop with plenty of vegan options
Photo via Cartems.
While this is not a vegan bakery, they make some of the best vegan donuts in town. You’ll have more vegan options if you order ahead, but there are always a few available in Cartems three locations.
They have both cake and raised donuts, with vegan and gluten-friendly versions. Plus, they use ethically sourced local ingredients whenever possible. Hooray for that!
My fave: Smoked Maple Walnut
Dipped Doughnut Co
All-vegan donut pop-up
The good news? Dipped Doughnut Co offers the widest range of vegan donuts in town, mostly traditional yeast-risen and deep-fried.
However, you’ve got to put a little effort into tracking them down since they don’t have their own shop yet. They pop up around town, are stocked in around a dozen restaurants and shops (including Virtuous Pie!) and you can always order online ahead of time. Worth it!
My fave: Cinnamon Cookie and Mud Pie
Insider Vegan Food Tips for Vancouver
If you have access to a kitchen while in Vancouver, these places will make your home-cooked meals a million times better.
PlantBase
Vancouver-made vegan meats
David Isbister is the wizard behind PlantBase. He conjures up tasty vegan meats including burgers, sausages, deli slices of succulent ham, and pepperoni.
The pepperoni, my personal pick, will take any sandwich or pizza to the next level. I also recommend his ridiculously gooey cinnamon buns, cashew parmesan and tofu butter chicken. Follow PlantBase on Instagram to find which markets they will be selling at, and for their weekly pop up schedule.
The Soap Dispensary and Kitchen Staples
Zero waste groceries and cosmetics
I love this zero waste shop that carries a huge range of vegan foods, from whole foods like nuts and grains to specialty prepared vegan food like locally-made sauerkraut, pesto, cashew dips and tempeh (made by Tempea).
The Soap Dispensary also sells Say Hello ice cream sandwiches, PlantBase meats, Black Sheep vegan cheeses and a lot more. You can easily stock up your kitchen or build a perfect vegan picnic here.
Vegan Supply
Full range of groceries for hungry vegans
The name says it all. This vegan grocery store opened in 2015 to supply hungry vegans with a full range of cheeses, meats, and milks, and plenty of vegan desserts like chocolates, cookies and marshmallows. Vegan Supply offers lots of packaged goods and big fridges full of items from far and wide as well as those made just down the road.
About the Author
When she is at home in Vancouver, BC, Kris Rothstein can be found cycling, hiking and snowshoeing over the local terrain. She volunteers at an urban farm to get her hands on the very freshest produce and is obsessed with summer fruit! When she’s on the road she can be found traversing the green Welsh hillsides, making traditional English cider and eating tasty sandwiches all the way up and down the west coast of North America.
We hope you’ll find this vegan Vancouver guide useful on your trip to Vancouver! Where are you planning on eating? What are your favourite vegan eats in Vancouver? If you discover something tasty or want to share your faves, email us!
♥ Happy transformational travels, Jane & Stephen
We’re not going to lie, it takes a LOT of work to create travel guides like this. But it’s easy to help us out! If you book or buy something using one of our personal links in this post, we’ll earn a small fee at no extra cost to you. Of course, we would never recommend anything we didn’t 100% believe in! Huge thanks in advance! –S&J
