The Best Places To Eat Vegan Food In Philly
Even though everyone knows us as a meat and cheese city, Philly is full of fantastic vegan food, too. So whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, or just need a break from meat consumption after a nostalgic conversation about the Wing Bowl, try these 17 spots for plant-based pizza, perfect lentil soup on a cold day, or big deal birthdays.
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This Center City pizza place can be your go-to for lunch, gameday, or when you want a plant-based slice that doesn’t taste like cardboard covered in sauce. The parlor is all about nostalgia—you can play Nintendo games on a tube TV and buy vinyl records—and you can get the New York-style or doughy square pizzas topped with vegan parmesan, Italian “pepperoni”, and crispy caramelized onions.
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Tattooed Mom is a classic dive bar, so it may be the last place you'd think to find several solid vegan options. But that's what their menu is all about. You can expect lots of sandwiches, like vegan Nashville hot "chicken", sriracha “chicken” wraps, and even a vegan cheesesteak. It’s the kind of place you’ll only find on South Street–there's a sticker- and marker-covered bumper car in the entrance—and one that’ll impress your friends just for knowing it exists.
You could leave Amy’s Pastelillos in Fishtown with several things stuffed in their paper containers for under $15. The doughy pouches here are five bucks, and they have a soy chorizo and potato plus yuca and grandules vegan options. But it’s their Vegano Bowl, with sweet plantains, fluffy white rice, avocado, pickled onions, and tender red beans and pumpkins, that’s so good any that you would happily eat it daily. Plus, they give you such big portions that you’ll basically be paying $15 for a savory, sweet, and filling bowl that you’ll get two meals out of.
This casual Northern Liberties vegan restaurant makes seasonal American food that's exciting for people who eat meat regularly and people who don't. Think sweet corn gnocchi, a really good faux caesar, and maitake mushrooms with heirloom polenta. There's a BYOB policy and an orange-lit, plant-filled room that's sexy in a greenhouse sort of way. Bring a bottle and someone you want to make out with. Well, maybe save the making out until after you've departed from your banquette.
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Salam Cafe
Germantown has exactly one Ethiopian restaurant. But it's the only spot you need in the area when it comes to melty cabbage, lentils, and gomen wot. All of the sides are vegan and gluten free, and so are a few of the entrees. Every time we're here, we end up drinking a bucket of Salam Cafe's loose leaf tea and introducing ourselves to the table next to us. It's just that kind of friendly, relaxed place.
If you’ve lived in Philly for more than 10 minutes, you already know about Vedge. Every dish at this upscale Midtown Village highlights vegetables. It's a good choice for a fancy meal sans meat—not just because the historic Locust Street brownstone is classic, but because the food is thoughtful. Vedge's menu changes pretty often. Keep an eye out for the mushroom carpaccio, seared maitake mushroom, and wood-roasted carrot.
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Let's be clear: Dottie’s Donuts is not a shop that’s just good for vegan donuts. It’s a donut shop that makes great donuts. With locations in both West Philly and Center City, they sell everything from classic apple fritters to options like their glazed gingerbread that’s topped with a hunk of chocolate-apple spiced cake. Open until they sell out, try to make it there before noon if you want to get your hands on these consistently delicious and fresh doughy rings.
In the old days, the only food you could get while watching a movie was gummy bears, stale popcorn, and sad nachos. Lucky for us, Center City’s Monster Vegan came along. Inside, you’ll find a long bar and cushioned seating with great views of the horror flicks they show nightly. The entirely plant-based menu includes belly-filling options like spicy rigatoni bolognese, General Tso's soy-based wings with a syrupy citrusy glaze, and fluffy cinnamon apple french toast for brunch. Bring a group of friends for cocktails and focus on your truffle parmesan fries when the movie gets too scary.
In this town, we may think the end all, be all of ice cream creativity is rooted in twists, dips, or sprinkles (possibly jimmies, depending on where you’re from). But at Manayunk’s Crust Vegan Bakery, they have soft serve in flavors like Thai tea ice cream, and you can put it in coconut, dark chocolate, and French vanilla waffle cones. They also have ice cream sandwiches, and if you want to really get wild, you can still make it a twist or top it with rainbow sprinkles in the end.
Miss Rachel’s Pantry in South Philly is a small BYOB that serves a five-course, all-vegan, $220+ tasting menu for two. And since there’s only a handful of tables, you’ll feel like you’re having dinner at your friend’s house. The rotating menu includes things like cranberry-glazed seitan, butternut squash panzanella, rutabaga chowder, and cashew ravioli. Bring one of those bottles you’ve been saving for a special occasion and a date who isn’t obsessed with steak.
Walking through Reading Terminal Market involves a lot of zig-zagging, but that’s because it’s somewhere that tourists and locals alike come for a delicious meal–including a delicious plant-based spread from LUHV Vegan Deli. They have everything from breakfast sandwiches packed with smoky seitan, tofu egg puree, and melty american “cheese” to staples like reubens and corned beef that will make you wonder why everything isn’t made out of seitan. Plus, since it’s a deli, you can also order vegan cheese, meat, and “tuna” and “chicken” salads by the pound.
Unit Su Vege is a Chinese restaurant in Fairmount that serves exclusively vegetarian and vegan dishes. One of our favorites on their menu are the “shrimp” dumplings, which taste similar to imitation crab. The soft and chewy dumplings have a hint of crispness from the ginger and a nutty flavor from the bamboo shoots, and pretty much anything here works great when you're feeling lazy and want an excellent takeout meal.
Gab Bonghi
Bar Bombon, a vegan Puerto Rican place in Rittenhouse, is owned by the same people as HipCityVeg. But instead of being primarily a takeout spot, Bombon is where you want to go for a long lunch or an after-work Happy Hour (they have some of our favorite margaritas in town). Everything is solid, from the buffalo cauliflower tacos and sweet plantains to the Philly “steak” empanadas.
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Goldie is the fast-casual falafel shop from the people behind Zahav, and it’s a good go-to for an early weeknight dinner or quick lunch. All of the options on their short menu, which has falafel, fries, and spicy shawarma fries, are vegan. Everything’s great, but the best thing here is the falafel. It’s flavorful and crispy, and you can get it on a platter or in a sandwich with a few different sauces. If you’re still hungry when you’re finished, their tehina milkshakes are so good that you’ll wonder why they even make milk-based ones anymore.
Charlie Was A Sinner
You can bring your non-vegetarian friends to Midtown Village’s Charlie Was A Sinner and they probably won’t even notice that it’s an entirely vegan bar. On top of cocktails with ingredients like wheatgrass and dehydrated beet, they also have small plates like fried oyster mushroom calamari and a pan seared cauliflower pad thai. It’s small and dark inside, so use it for a first date with someone who really likes vegetables or post-work drinks and snacks with a coworker who’s tired of eating pizza for a week straight.
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Fishtown’s Float Dreamery doesn’t have a shop. You order the daily flavors from a small window, so it’s very much like waiting behind the curtain for The Wizard of Oz to grant you a wish (except instead of Auntie Em you get ice cream magic). You can get one scoop for $5, two for $9, and a perfect ice cream sandwich like tahini chip and vanilla for $6. If you’re dairy-free, it’s a slam dunk place to get flavors like mint birthday chip, lychee, ube, and mango. Just a tip—they make small batches and sell out quickly, so get there when they open at noon.
Nicole Guglielmo
In the past, the idea of a vegan soul food restaurant might’ve been as unthinkable as clear roads on I-95. But since Germantown’s The Nile Cafe opened and started serving stew fish made with wheat and soy proteins, it’s clear we’ve reached a new day. This spot is Philly’s oldest vegan restaurant and makes perfectly spiced vegan jerk chicken with a meaty texture dripping with a sweet and spicy sauce.
