Vegan Food Guide to San Francisco
San Francisco is certainly a breathtaking city to behold, with its ocean views, colourful architecture and crazily steep hills. It's also got some delicious vegan food - from entirely plant-based cafes and restaurants, to eateries that have plenty of vegan and vegetarian options.
I was recently in San Francisco for a couple of days, so I got to try out a few of these places. Here are some of my favourites..
(Seriously though.. how do SF residents survive those super steep hills?!)
Vegan Eats in San Francisco..
Gracias Madre
Grilled corn with vegan aioli + crushed pepitas at Gracias Madre in San Francisco
Head to Gracias Madre for authentic, delicious and soul-warming Mexican food.
This place was absolutely buzzing with people when I visited (and apparently that's pretty standard there), with a queue stretching all the way to the door. The menu is entirely plant-based, with dishes loaded with hearty beans, nut-based cheeses, veggies and a whole lot of flavour.
Gracias Madre's menu is seasonal, and is determined by what is currently available at their own organic farm in Pleasants Valley, California. Oh, and they've got latin-inspired cocktails too..
Enchiladas Verdes at Gracias Madre vegan restaurant in the San Francisco Mission District.
Tortillas filled with potato, zucchini and peas topped with tomatillo salsa, nut-based crema and avocado. Served with sautéed greens and beans.
Nourish Cafe
The food at Nourish Cafe is so fun and interesting, and the staff were really lovely when I visited too. I liked the place so much that I ended up visiting twice!
Everything is plant-based - using organic, whole foods ingredients. The menu features salads/veggie bowls, sandwiches and wraps, a daily soup, smoothies and other fun drinks like the blue matcha latte I tried (shown above).
They also have a pretty epic selection of both sweet and savoury vegan toasts. There are 10 different types to choose from (and I basically wanted to try all of them), but happily they offer a sampler which allows you to choose 4 mini versions.
I got a selection with carrot lox & almond cream cheese / hummus, tomato & basil / housemade vegan chocolate hazelnut spread / almond ricotta with raspberry jam & toasted coconut. SO GOOD.
Seed + Salt
Seed + Salt is in the Marina District, so it's a great place to head to before or after walking the Golden Gate Bridge. Chestnut Street on which it's located is also a beautiful area in itself, and is worth wandering along.
Everything on the menu here is plant-based, gluten-free, organic, ethically & locally sourced, and is also free of refined sugar, trans fats and GMOs.
I tried their Chopped Cobb Salad, which had smoky eggplant 'bacon', chickpea frittata, avocado, tomatoes, spring peas, greens and a housemade ranch dressing.
Their beet, walnut, mushroom & lentil burger looked pretty incredible too, as did their toasts, smoothies and sweet treats (like the raw nutella brownies).
Vegan chocolate, walnut & banana bread from Seed + Salt, San Francisco.
Banana Ice Cream
Soft Serve at Loving Cup
OK, so this one's a bit of a novelty thing, since it's actually super easy to make your own healthy vegan banana ice cream. But, Loving Cup have a soft serve machine, so I couldn't resist trying it.
You pick the add ins you want (I went with almond butter + blueberries), then they blend it with frozen bananas and put it through a soft serve machine. So much fun!
(Note: Loving Cup is technically mainly a frozen yogurt place, so if you're wanting to avoid dairy, make sure you don't accidentally order this instead.)
Have you visited San Francisco? What are your favourite vegan and vegetarian friendly eateries there?