Vegan Eats in NYC

New York City is filled with yummy vegan options, wether you make your way around Manhattan or Brooklyn, you won’t be disappointed. This trip was my boyfriend’s first trip fully vegan, so we went all out! I had some of the best food I’ve ever ate this trip! Three things you should check out before planning your plant based trip to NYC: Vegan Travel Eats instagram account or blog, @veganeatsnyc on instagram, and download the Happy Cow app, which can show you vegan, vegetarian, or vegan options near you. There is also a quick guide list at the bottom of this post for popular locations. Here’s what we ate on our three day trip:

(p.s. Sorry for the lack in drool worthy pictures! My phone broke on our second to last day and deleted all the pictures I had taken during the trip so all I had were any pictures my boyfriend took)

Day 1:

Starbucks-

There was a starbs right outside our hotel so we grabbed some for breakfast before walking around Rockefeller a bit later. I had a plain bagel with almond butter, and a hot green tea. My boyfriend had a caramel latte with soy milk, ask for no whip and no caramel drizzle on top.

by Chloe (all vegan)-

I love the Chef Chloe restaurants! If you don’t know who she is, she was the first vegan chef to win Cupcake wars, and she forgot to tell the producers she was vegan so basically she had to wing it in the kitchen. Her chain of restaurants can be found in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Providence, Miami and London. This one we went to was in Rockefeller Center, and has a super cute atmosphere! There is also a Sweets by Chloe near SoHo in Nolita. I had the pesto meatball sub and the mac and cheese, and my dad and boyfriend both had the classic burger. Both of mine were amazing, and are what I have every time I find a by Chloe near me. The burger was okay, my dad liked it and my boyfriend said it was fine. Keep in mind this is supposed to be a delicious, healthy vegan fast food option, not a gourmet restaurant, so not everything will be absolutely amazing! I have also had the pesto pasta and Oat smoothie a couple trips ago, but I would definitely suggest the mac and cheese over the pesto pasta. The mac and cheese is one of the best, if not the number one, vegan macs I have ever had.

TAO–

TAO has two locations in New York, one uptown and one downtown. For the most part the menus are the same, but the vegan options differ a bit. At the uptown location, you can get the bamboo steamed vegetable dumplings with crunchy cucumber, edamame, Buddha’s harmonized vegetable feast with udon noodles, Pad Thai noodles, jasmine white rice, and vegetable fried rice, with sorbet for desert. They can also make a vegetable sushi roll with whatever vegetables they have at that time, even though it is not listed on the menu. Last trip, we went to the downtown location, where I was told the vegetable tempura was vegan, as well as a broccoli dish and a sweet and sour cauliflower dish. The vegetable dim sum also differs a bit at both locations, one was a mostly green vegetables filled and one had a mostly cabbage and mushroom filled dumplings, although both were delicious! This trip, we had the vegetable dim sum (cabbage and mushroom version), cucumber and asparagus sushi roll, jasmine rice, and Buddha’s feast which were all amazing! If you dine here, make sure to mention to your server that you are vegan, since it appears that they change their recipes sometimes, and also because they may be able to make you a delicious dish off menu! If nothing else, go just to see the atmosphere, because both turn into cool nightclubs after 11!

Room Service-

We stayed at a W hotel, and when we called for room service we were told the penne pasta with marinara (ask for no cheese) and shrimp fried rice (ask for no shrimp and no egg) were both vegan, along with a selection of sorbets (yuzu, orange, pineapple). We had all three, which were all delicious!

Day 2:

P.S. Kitchen (all vegan)-

We came here for their Sunday brunch, which we had to make reservations for and was a bit pricey but overall one of the best breakfasts I have ever had, vegan or not. The restaurant is very cute and within walking distance of Time Square, and it has an awesome ethos. The whole restaurant is vegan and almost everything is made in house, they only hire people living in low income areas, and all profits of the restaurant go to charity. They have an amazing menu selection, with some awesome “vegan” dishes along with vegan takes on classics that even your non-vegan friends will love. At the table next to us, there was a woman (vegan) with her 3 friends (not vegans) who kept talking about how amazing the food was, and how they thought the burgers tasted real, so win for us vegans! We had the strawberry french toast, biscuits and gravy, caesar salad with grilled chicken, french fries, jasmine tea with agave, and hot coffee with soy milk. All of this was SO good, the caesar salad was probably the best caesar I’ve ever had, and so was the french toast. The biscuits and gravy were delicious, but the gravy is mushroom based so keep that in mind if you are someone who usually likes a classic sausage gravy. The grilled chicken on the salad was very good and they make it there, it was perfectly crispy on the outside, and not too dry or too squishy on the inside, we just asked for a little extra caesar dressing to dip it in. I really can’t stress how good the French Toast was, really.

Beyond Sushi (all vegan)-

Honestly, I never liked sushi before going vegan. I would just get edamame and rice if I went with friends because the fishy taste was too much for me. I really loved this sushi place because #1- it was all vegan, and #2- it wasn’t trying to be fishy. All the rolls, dumplings, small plates, and bowls were veggie based, but oh so delicious! There are quite a few locations in New York, and we went to the one within walking distance of time square, although I was temped to go a second time while we were in SoHo. We had the badge dumplings, the green machine roll, and the sweet tree roll. The badge dumplings were good, but I would probably try something else instead next time. Both rolls were the BEST. The green machine was black rice, cucumber, asparagus, topped with charred edamame and with a side of sweet, creamy pesto sauce. The sweet tree roll was black rice, avocado, sweet potato, topped with sprouts and with a side of cayenne sauce, which wasn’t very spicy and reminded me of the spicy sushi mayo. Pretty much since we ate here I have been craving it so bad, every time I think about it my mouth starts watering. If you are near one of their locations I definitely recommend, plus they deliver!

Room service–

Again, we had the same dishes after running around time square for a bit later on.

Day 3:

Starbucks–

We had the same quick meals as day one.

Dean and Delucca–

This is a cute specialty market with a few locations. We went to the one in SoHo, and didn’t see a lot of vegan options besides produce, snacks, kombucha and a cucumber sushi roll. We only really went to look, but I ended up grabbing a pretty big container of fresh olives for only $3 to snack on.

Dr. Smood–

Dr. Smood locations can be found all over, they are a healthy quick service cafe, and the one we went to was in SoHo. The menu is mostly vegetarian, with a few fish or chicken dishes, and a ton of vegan options. We had a ginger tea, soup of the day which was wild rice and mushroom, and the vegan sandwich. We weren’t super excited about any of this, but it got us through shopping around for a few hours. The soup was good, but it needed a lot of salt. It was very thick, but surprisingly didn’t taste like mushrooms. The sandwich wasn’t very good, I probably wouldn’t get it again but I appreciated that there was a sandwich called “vegan” at the top of the menu. Bonus points: all the single use plastic there biodegrades in 6 months, even though we brought our ToGo Ware, I loved the sustainability initiative.

Confectionery! (all vegan)-

This is a cute all vegan chocolate shop/bakery, a little bit of a walk away from the shopping area of SoHo. I have been following their drool worthy instagram for quite some time so I was really excited to be able to check them out this trip. I got a 6 piece box of macarons with a hot chocolate, chocolate mint, peanut butter churro, maple pecan, cinnamon apple, and chai. I also got a 6 piece chocolates with rosemary chocolate caramel, croissant chocolate caramel, maple white chocolate bon bon, strawberry balsamic chocolate caramel, hibiscus white chocolate, and tahini melt. They also have cookies and many other chocolate items like barks or snack mixes. So far everything I have tried has been amazing, and taste like the real deal. They have very unique flavors, even things like crunchy corn chocolate bark or chipotle onion chocolate bon bon. You can even order chocolates shipped to you off their website! Also a plus, if you walk a little ways down the block you will find a super cute cat rescue called Ollie’s Place where we stayed for about an hour just playing with all the cats.

Champ’s Diner (all vegan)-

Yes, we DID take the subway all the way to Brooklyn just for this restaurant. We finished up shopping way earlier than we thought we would, so instead of walking to Plant Food + Wine like we planned (which looked amazing but pricey), we decided to go to Champ’s diner, which did not disappoint! They are conveniently located right off the 1st street exit on the L train, and have an amazing all vegan menu that serves junk food from breakfast all day, burgers, tatertachos to shakes. We had the tatertotchos, birthday cake pancakes, hash browns, breakfast burrito, and buffalo chik’n sandwich. Everything was delicious, and came out really fast. As you can tell, our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs and we didn’t finish it all, but we took it to go to eat late at night instead of our usual room service order. The tatchos were amazing, and really filling. The breakfast burrito was really good and had a nice spice and texture, as did the chik’n sandwich. The pancake was one of the best I’ve ever had, with sprinkles and dandies marshmallows inside the pancake as well as topping it. AND you can get a single pancake as a side with any meal.

Plan ahead quick guide:

Rockefeller-

by Chloe*

Time Square-

Beyond Sushi*

P.S. Kitchen*

Blossom Du Jour

Cinnamon Snail

SoHo-

Sweets by Chloe*

Beyond Sushi*

Ramen Hood

Orchard Grocer

Urban Vegan Kitchen

Plant Food + Wine

Confectionery!*

Superiority Burger

Dr. Smood*

Brooklyn-

Screamer’s Pizzeria

Modern Love Brooklyn

Champ’s Diner*

Chickpea and Olive

Smorgasburg (weekend market)