Next Level Burger
This is a small chain found across the West Coast (mostly in Oregon and Washington, though, there's only 1 in California), and in Brooklyn, that is pretty much a McDonalds for vegans. They've got burgers, fries, and milkshakes (try the PB cup one, it's amazing). I just wish I lived near one...
Cornbread Cafe
This joint is not a chain - it's only in Eugene, Oregon - but it's more than worth a stop if you're driving up the West Coast! It serves Southern comfort food (in Oregon? Who knew?) like mashed potatoes and gravy, and cornbread (naturally). Also, they've got a signature sandwich, titled "The Eugenewich."
DJ's Vinyl Vegan
This is a food truck up in Astoria (also Oregon). It makes this list mostly because they have AMAZING "Phish and Chips" with tartar sauce.
Ethos
This is a great restaurant in Orlando (finally, we're out of the West Coast!) that serves personal ice cream sundaes - and that's just one of the many, many items on their menu! If you're hitting up Orlando, see my suggestions of how to spend your time there.
***UPDATE: Since creating this list, I've taken a big trip around the country and can now include several more places not on the West Coast. Here they are.***
The Chicago Diner
So glorious... Chicago might be a big city, but it's probably not where the average vegan would expect to find the best food. Nevertheless, here it is. My family of five ate well and shared a few enormous, magnificent milkshakes for under $100 (not counting the tip, though, because we had to tip well for food that good). For those of you who aren't longtime vegans, who think this is a bit of a steep price, know that all vegan places cost a lot and often charge more than this for food that isn't nearly as good. If you're there, I'd recommend the seitan steak - it's really good and a huge portion size.
Fare Well
My strongest memory of our time in D.C. is that it was over 100 degrees and horridly humid. The time we spent outside walking between museums made me wonder if anyone would be able to carry me if I collapsed right there in the street, and my mom and brothers ended up really sick from the heat. However, this restaurant was so good that we ate there twice and ordered the same thing both times. The "breakfast special" was a great deal and also happened to taste awesome: tofu scramble, sausage, and pancakes. We cut up the sausage and mixed it in with the tofu, and upon tasting it we knew we'd never look at the world the same way again.
Veggie Galaxy
This little gem in Cambridge made me want to go to Harvard or MIT. Okay, not really, but I liked Harvard anyway and this clinched it. I had the stuffed French toast (which was great), but I wanted to come back and sample the whole menu. They were out of fried mozzarella sticks when we went, but the fried mac and cheese balls (I think that's what they were) we got as a replacement were so, so good. And the little clipping on the wall when you walk in that shows it was referenced in an X-Men comic had my not-so-dormant inner geek jumping for joy.
Honorable Mentions:
There's a nice food truck with decent vegan sausage up in Eugene (although for the life of me I can't remember its name), and there are some nice places in SoCal like Veggie Grill. And while I couldn't give this a full position on the list because it's mostly NOT vegan, The American Dream in Huntington Beach has THE best Impossible Burger around. It's expensive (somewhere in the ballpark of $16 per burger, if I remember correctly), but so good and so worth it as a rare treat. Also, when traveling and desperate for real food beyond the French fries you keep grabbing ever so often, few things beat a bowl piled with veggies and guac at the nearest Mexican restaurant. Just check for lard, won't you?
This is a small chain found across the West Coast (mostly in Oregon and Washington, though, there's only 1 in California), and in Brooklyn, that is pretty much a McDonalds for vegans. They've got burgers, fries, and milkshakes (try the PB cup one, it's amazing). I just wish I lived near one...
Cornbread Cafe
This joint is not a chain - it's only in Eugene, Oregon - but it's more than worth a stop if you're driving up the West Coast! It serves Southern comfort food (in Oregon? Who knew?) like mashed potatoes and gravy, and cornbread (naturally). Also, they've got a signature sandwich, titled "The Eugenewich."
DJ's Vinyl Vegan
This is a food truck up in Astoria (also Oregon). It makes this list mostly because they have AMAZING "Phish and Chips" with tartar sauce.
Ethos
This is a great restaurant in Orlando (finally, we're out of the West Coast!) that serves personal ice cream sundaes - and that's just one of the many, many items on their menu! If you're hitting up Orlando, see my suggestions of how to spend your time there.
***UPDATE: Since creating this list, I've taken a big trip around the country and can now include several more places not on the West Coast. Here they are.***
The Chicago Diner
So glorious... Chicago might be a big city, but it's probably not where the average vegan would expect to find the best food. Nevertheless, here it is. My family of five ate well and shared a few enormous, magnificent milkshakes for under $100 (not counting the tip, though, because we had to tip well for food that good). For those of you who aren't longtime vegans, who think this is a bit of a steep price, know that all vegan places cost a lot and often charge more than this for food that isn't nearly as good. If you're there, I'd recommend the seitan steak - it's really good and a huge portion size.
Fare Well
My strongest memory of our time in D.C. is that it was over 100 degrees and horridly humid. The time we spent outside walking between museums made me wonder if anyone would be able to carry me if I collapsed right there in the street, and my mom and brothers ended up really sick from the heat. However, this restaurant was so good that we ate there twice and ordered the same thing both times. The "breakfast special" was a great deal and also happened to taste awesome: tofu scramble, sausage, and pancakes. We cut up the sausage and mixed it in with the tofu, and upon tasting it we knew we'd never look at the world the same way again.
Veggie Galaxy
This little gem in Cambridge made me want to go to Harvard or MIT. Okay, not really, but I liked Harvard anyway and this clinched it. I had the stuffed French toast (which was great), but I wanted to come back and sample the whole menu. They were out of fried mozzarella sticks when we went, but the fried mac and cheese balls (I think that's what they were) we got as a replacement were so, so good. And the little clipping on the wall when you walk in that shows it was referenced in an X-Men comic had my not-so-dormant inner geek jumping for joy.
Honorable Mentions:
There's a nice food truck with decent vegan sausage up in Eugene (although for the life of me I can't remember its name), and there are some nice places in SoCal like Veggie Grill. And while I couldn't give this a full position on the list because it's mostly NOT vegan, The American Dream in Huntington Beach has THE best Impossible Burger around. It's expensive (somewhere in the ballpark of $16 per burger, if I remember correctly), but so good and so worth it as a rare treat. Also, when traveling and desperate for real food beyond the French fries you keep grabbing ever so often, few things beat a bowl piled with veggies and guac at the nearest Mexican restaurant. Just check for lard, won't you?
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