Brian Nagele
The west coast is famous for its fertile soil and consequent natural bounty. Washington’s largest city, Seattle, is a prime example of the Pacific Northwest’s natural beauty. Seattle’s culinary scene takes full advantage of its fruitful geography.
A case in point is Pike Place Market, one of Seattle’s key tourist destinations, where you can find the freshest local produce, fish, artisanal cheeses, and meats.
As an alternative and unconventional city, Seattle also has a burgeoning vegan and vegetarian culinary scene.
Using the abundance of local produce and a diverse cultural bounty, Seattle’s vegan restaurants run the culinary gamut, offering plant-based takes on dishes from around the world.
Read on to explore my list of the best vegan restaurants in Seattle.
Pi Vegan Pizzeria
5301 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206-343-1415
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The self-proclaimed oldest vegan pizzeria in the US has garnered a wide following in Seattle.
Located in University District in a modest, modern space, Pi Vegan Pizzeria combines artistry and comfort food to produce the most delicious and decadent pizzas using artisan vegan cheeses and plant-based meats.
Meat and dairy eaters often choose Pi as their favorite pizzeria after tasting one of their over-the-top specialty pies that often combine various comfort foods in one. The pizza has a perfectly crispy and chewy thin crust.
You can get classics like Hawaiian or Margherita, but I recommend the Magic Mac Pizza with a white garlic sauce base topped with their famous house-made mac n cheese and plant-based Canadian bacon.
Wayward Vegan Cafe
801 NE 65th St Suite C, Seattle, WA 98115
Phone: 206-524-0204
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Wayward Vegan Café is a friendly neighborhood diner, serving heaping portions of vegan comfort meals and bottomless coffee in a homey and sunny space in Roosevelt a few blocks from Cowen Park.
A group of friends bought the restaurant to save it from closing after serving the neighborhood for 30 years.
Luckily, the new ownership has helped make Wayward Vegan Café even more popular, moving to a larger space in 2008 that’s always full of families and friends. You can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Wayward.
I loved their vegan take on the Monte Cristo called The Breakfast Club, featuring grilled ham, omelet rounds, vegan cheddar cheese, and tempeh bacon between two slices of French toast drizzled with maple.
Araya’s Place Vegan Thai
Multiple locations
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Named for the owners’ family matriarch, Araya’s Place Vegan Thai is a welcoming and beautifully designed Thai eatery with locations in University and Washington Park.
Araya’s Place serves authentic Thai cuisine using recipes and dishes that Araya herself made for nightly family dinners. Araya’s Place has been a friendly neighborhood favorite for 35 years.
The vast menu has a wide variety of classic Thai dishes, including noodles, fried rice, satays, curries, and hot pots.
I started with a tofu satay with peanut dipping sauce. If you’re a lover of spicy food, I recommend green curry with tofu, vegetables, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, and fresh basil.
Broadfork Cafe
Multiple locations
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With locations in Uptown and University District, Broadfork Café is a community-oriented, organic, and sustainable café.
The owner and chef expresses an intention to unite friends and families over food that’s sourced from local farms and purveyors committed to sustainability.
The cozy and airy space has a casual and laid-back vibe, serving vibrant globally and locally inspired dishes.
The colorful menu has a long list of artisanal coffee, kombucha, fresh-pressed juices, and smoothies. The food includes sandwiches, grain and harvest bowls, burritos, and salads.
I loved the grilled Kim-cheese sandwich using house-made kimchi, cashew cheesy sauce, and field roast Chao cheese on locally sourced sourdough bread.
Cafe Flora
2901 E Madison St, Seattle, WA 98112
Phone: 206-325-9100
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Voted Best Place to Eat in Seattle by USA Today, Café Flora is a fashionable vegetarian restaurant with colorful, urban meets vintage-chic décor in the Washington Park neighborhood.
Café Flora is a farm-to-table restaurant, sourcing all ingredients sustainably and locally to create highly inventive takes on international culinary traditions.
The presentation is as stylish as the atmosphere. Café Flora offers breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner with a full menu of craft cocktails.
I went for dinner and delighted in the Harvest Polenta, scallion polenta cakes topped with basil pesto, balsamic reduction, spaghetti squash, kale, hazelnuts, and king oyster mushrooms.
Cycle Dogs
5410 17th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
Phone: 206-372-8510
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Cycle Dogs is an all-vegan hot dog, burger, and fry restaurant that started as a street cart.
After graduating to a food truck for four successful years, owner Keaton opened a brick-and-mortar establishment inside an old vegan restaurant in Ballard.
Cycle Dogs offers hyper-realistic vegan takes on America’s favorite meaty comfort foods with half the carbon footprint.
You won’t find more inventive hot dogs anywhere. Each hot dog takes inspiration from a different culinary tradition, whether it be kimchi and avocado topped brat, or a brat topped with Mexican street corn.
I had to go for the Seattle Dog with cream cheese, grilled sweet onion, jalapenos, and kraut.
Kati Vegan Thai
1190 Thomas St, Seattle, WA 98109
Phone: 323-989-1968
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Located in South Lake Union overlooking Cascade Playground, Kati Vegan Thai is a trendy, yet traditional Thai restaurant.
The bright and airy space has industrial-chic décor with washed concrete floors, wooden walls, and gorgeous hanging light fixtures.
The food is an homage to the owner’s mother, whose incredible Thai meals inspired the menu. Kati Vegan Thai’s menu has traditional and Avant guard dishes presented as culinary works of art.
I started with the air-cured young jackfruit with a garlic marinade over coconut sticky rice for a novel dish.
I went for the most traditional Thai meal for the main dish, the Pad Thai, made entirely from scratch using the owner’s family recipe.
Plum Bistro
1429 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
Phone: 206-838-5333
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Plum Bistro is the pride and joy of Capitol Hill, owned and operated by famed Chef Makini Howell, whose incredible dishes have been featured in The New York Times and Zagat.
Chef Makini has been vegan her entire life, and she inspires vegans and meat-eaters alike to delight in a plant-based lifestyle through her immaculate dishes.
Plum Bistro offers lunch, brunch, and dinner with an upscale, multi-course menu along with a creative cocktail menu.
Chef Makini takes inspiration from global cuisines, offering everything from deep South favorites to African specialties.
My favorite dish was the Hello Springtime fettuccini with asparagus, sweet peas, cherry tomatoes, and garlic in a white wine caper sauce topped with soy ricotta and served with herb butter bread.
Amy’s Merkato Eritrean & Ethiopian Restaurant and Deli
5710 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118
Phone: 206-324-2527
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Named for the original owner, Amy’s Merkato Eritrean & Ethiopian Restaurant and Deli was passed on to an Eritrean and Ethiopian couple who expanded the modest Ethiopian restaurant into a deli and market.
Located in Seaward Park, Amy’s is a warm and welcoming place to enjoy family-style Ethiopian meals made with love and authenticity.
You can stop in and buy premade Ethiopian and Eritrean treats from the glass case, but the dine-in experience is a true lesson in Ethiopian culture.
Meals are served family-style with rich stews meant to be shared and sopped up with traditional injera bread.
I recommend getting the vegetarian combo to sample a variety of traditional dishes, from lentil wot to collard greens.
ChuMinh Tofu
1043 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206-723-6095
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Appropriately located in the International District, ChuMinh Tofu is a Pan Asian deli, buffet, and restaurant in a no-frills casual dining space.
They offer heaping portions of the most authentic comfort food dishes from every southeast Asian country for low prices.
Their all-you-can-eat buffet is unparalleled and full of plant-based, perfectly spiced stews, stir-fries, and noodles. With an a la carte menu so vast and impressive, ChuMinh Tofu is worth visiting over and over.
You could stop in one day for a massive banh mi sandwich, then come back the following day for a tapioca ball smoothie and a Vermicelli salad.
I’ve never tasted a more delicious Vegan BBQ pork banh mi sandwich in my life.
Frankie & Jo’s
Multiple locations
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Frankie & Jo’s is a hip plant-based ice cream shop with locations in Capitol Hill, Ballard, and University Village.
They are a B-Corp certified sustainable company, committed to sustainable sourcing and a low carbon footprint.
All ice cream flavors are oat-milk or coconut-milk-based, using whole ingredients like coconut sugar, dates, carob, and scratch-made cookies in each flavor.
Every month, Frankie & Jo’s offers three seasonal flavors in addition to their permanent menu. When I went, the seasonal flavors were mint chip, cookie milk, and rocky road.
I love their Chocolate Tahini Supercookie flavor, with a coconut-based chocolate ice cream loaded with chunks of house-made chocolate tahini cookies.
Georgetown Liquor Company
5501 Airport Way S Ste.B, Seattle, WA 98108
Phone: 206-402-5367
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Named for the historic neighborhood in which it’s located, Georgetown Liquor Company is a vegan bar and pub with an alternative punk-rock vibe and an all-inclusive philosophy.
Owned by Georgetown native Alan Threewit who took over the bar during the Pandemic, Georgetown Liquor Company remains a favorite local hangout spot for great drinks and scratch-made pub fare.
They make all their faux meats and cheeses in-house from scratch every day to create the best vegan version of burgers, deli sandwiches, nachos, salads, and more.
Of course, you must try one of their amazing cocktails. My personal favorite was the Cure, made with cucumber and mint-infused gin, muddle lemon, and prosecco.
Mighty-O Donuts
Multiple locations
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With locations in Ballard, Green Lake, Capitol Hill, Denny Triangle, and Downtown Seattle, Mighty-O Donuts is a dairy-free and organic donut shop dedicated to the Seattle organic scene and its alternative, artistic community.
Mighty-O’s started as a fresh donut stand in Seattle’s Fremont Sunday Market after its owners pooled their money to buy a donut machine in 2000.
Over 20 years and 30 employees later, Mighty-O Donuts is a beloved staple of the Seattle community. Their donut variations run the gamut from classics to creative specialties.
They have cake donuts and yeast-raised donuts like apple fritters or jam-filled donuts. My favorite is the Chocolate peanut butter cake donut, a chocolate donut with peanut butter glaze.
Next Level Burger Roosevelt
1026B NE 64th St, Seattle, WA 98115
Phone: 206-752-6200
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Owned and operated by married couple Matt and Cierra de Gruyter, Next Level Burger is America’s first completely plant-based burger stand, offering a variety of burgers, fries, and shakes in a bustling, modern, and family-friendly atmosphere.
Located in Roosevelt, Next Level is committed to sustainability, eco-friendly practices, and fair work wages.
All ingredients used at Next Level are non-GMO, organic, and sustainably sourced. I love their old-school crinkle-cut French fries and super thick and creamy milkshakes.
I had a peanut butter cup milkshake with a plant-based Buffalo Chicken Burger topped with coleslaw and pickles.
Oak
3019 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144
Phone: 206-535-7070
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Oak is a family-friendly, yet hip and modern bar and restaurant in Beacon Hill with both meat and vegan menus.
The interior is an edgy, modern take on an old-school pub with glossy vinyl bar stools and wood floors, bar counter, walls, and accents. They pride themselves on sourcing all ingredients from local farms and ranches.
Their craft cocktails are expertly curated by skilled mixologists, and the food is elevated pub fare that takes inspiration from bar cultures worldwide.
I loved their vegan vegetable pot pie with Italian roasted broccoli, mushrooms, potatoes, peas, and carrots.
