Spoiled for Options in Philly

In Philly, I'm rich in vegan food. The vegan scene here is so amazing and it's one of the reasons we moved here.  I am very lucky t...

In Philly, I'm rich in vegan food. The vegan scene here is so amazing and it's one of the reasons we moved here.  I am very lucky to live here and am taking advantage of all it has to offer.  I've reviewed mostly all of these places, but this is a good place to do a "greatest hits" or "best of" or whathaveyou. 
Let's begin with Vedge. I've reviewed this restaurant twice before, (here & here) and I definitely think it's the best restaurant in the country. A lot of people tend to agree with me. If you go, the food will speak for itself, but I encourage you just to go and enjoy food in a totally new and amazing way. It is a great fine dining restaurant, and though it has a good happy hour, it isn't in my budget to go more often than once a season when the menu changes. I'm looking forward to going again soon for the fall menu!


Since Philly is home to the Philly Cheesesteak, it's also got to be the home of the vegan cheesesteak. I'm not really a cheesesteak kind of person, but the best one I tried was at Blackbird Pizzeria. They make a few other great sandwiches and wraps which I kind of prefer (gasp), and they also have wings in a variety of flavors, fries, salads, and a large assortment of vegan pizzas, by the slice or whole. The place is all vegan, so there's no confusion over what's available to you.


Bar Bombón makes great Mexican food and is also entirely vegan, and owned by the same people who own Hip City Veg (another all-vegan restaurant in Philly). They used to have these great fish tacos, but last time I went, they had taken them off the menu and I'm still pretty pissed about it. They at least still have the buffalo cauliflower taco... But I mostly just want the fish taco. On Saturday the good chef works, but on the off-hours or weekdays, someone else who isn't as good is making the food and it was kind of disappointing. Make a reservation and go Saturday night and you'll be set.


Two blocks away is Green Eggs Cafe, which isn't all vegan but they do have quite a few vegan options. They make a hell of a breakfast burrito, so they definitely get cred in my book, and as I've said before, a restaurant is only as good as it's breakfast burrito... Pretty quality option and you get a burrito bigger than your head.


Philly Style Bagels fills the bagel void in my heart. These bagels are boiled in beer (!) and they have vegan cream cheese, and last I was in, they had cashew and almond butter too, not to mention almond milk for coffee. Amazing spot.


The Tasty down in East Passyunk is decent diner-fare. Nothing, of course, can rival my beloved Champs. But The Tasty is a quieter, seat-yourself, counter service sort of place, and it's much newer than Champs, and I'm sure it's only going to get better. The people who work there are incredibly friendly, and the coffee is served in assorted mugs. I love assorted mugs. I don't know why, it's just the most fun when there are a bunch of different weird mugs instead of just a plain white mug. It's just a thing I have.


It's true that the best vegan doughnuts are in NYC, but it's also true that there's an all-vegan donut shop in the city I live in now, called Dotties Donuts and that's pretty cool. I liked their bear claws the best.


Spuntino's in Northern Liberties is just a couple blocks away from my place, and they have a great marinara pie. It's only $11, it's got cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil and it's cooked right in front of you (if you sit at the bar) and it's amazing. No "add $3 for basil", no 2 hour wait, it's BYOB, and it's every bit as good as Roberta's. Philly has so much vegan pizza, you guys...


Another great thing about my neighborhood is all the great coffee shops. I have so many gems in walking distance, so I'm super spoiled now. They all have soy or almond milk and good coffee and usually are playing good tunes.


I've raved about Front St Cafe before and I'll do it again. I'm big into their $2 Tuesday menu, and have been going every Tuesday for many weeks. There's a full bar with great beer, there's tacos, and yeah, you had me at beer and tacos.


Speaking of tacos... Barcade has amazing seitan tacos and beer for very cheap, but I've blogged about that more than three times by now...


When nothing else will do, Bareburger will be there with it's amazing quinoa burger (among three or four other vegan burgers on the menu) and vegan cheese and a proper amount of guacamole. It is the veggie burger of my dreams.


I've been to V Street more than any other restaurant in Philly, hands down. I can't stop coming back, not that they've ever given me a reason to stop, and every single thing I've tried has been other-worldly. We took the window seat last time so we finally got some good pics.


Alex usually gets a cocktail, and I usually get an Ice Coffee. We always get the biscuits and gravy. They are always amazing. So fluffly! Definitely the best biscuits and gravy I've ever tried.


I've officially tried everything on their Brunch menu, making it official when I got the "Doubles", a chana stew with extremely puffy and delicious Bara bread. It's deep fried bread. It's yellow. Yellow is my favorite color, and deep fried bread is pretty much the best thing ever to happen to the Universe, so I was, like, really happy.



I just celebrated my birthday at Charlie Was A Sinner. I just posted a full review of the meal, spoiler alert, it was amazing. The highlight was the gnocchi. Runner up, the cocktails.


The Pop Shop is only 15 minutes away from my place now, that's about an hour shorter a distance than when I actually lived in NJ. They make an extremely dope tofu scramble, and have delicious crispy hashbrowns. It's a great go-to diner spot. They have a few vegan things on the menu, not a million, but hey if you've only got one vegan option, and it's really good, I'll be back. Simple as that.


 I hope you've enjoyed my little "Best of Philly Vegan" post! I hope you think Philly is as great as I do, and would love you to come visit!

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7 comments

  1. You are so lucky there are so many vegan places around you! All the food look fantastic (that burger is also the burger o my dreams!) and the marinara pie definitely sounds like something i could try making at home *v*

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    1. I'm pretty lucky! Maybe there is a Bareburger nearby where you live? I've seen them in a few different cities! A pizza is only as good as it's sauce, so if you got good sauce, you got a good pizza. The cheese is not even the good part!

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  2. Awesome post! I love Blackbird Pizzeria, and I really want to get to The Tasty someday! :)

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  3. I'm tempted to buy a plane ticket just to get that burger! That is indeed the right amount of guac. It looks like Philly is the place to be vegan!

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  4. Whoo! Shout out to NJ! We have a few good places. lol. The Pop Shop also has a great tofu buffalo wing sandwich, and you can make some sweet vegan milkshakes. The only thing that sucks about the place is that a lot of my friend joke it is a great form of birth control since it is almost ALWAYS full of screaming children.

    I have not been to nearly as many places as you have but I think my favs are V Street and Charlie Was a Sinner (I love cocktails ^__~) Though if you ever get a chance you should check out Animo (a burrito place on market) that has lots of vegan options, and I hear good things about Tattooed Mom's.

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