Founded by San Diego power couple Jessica and Davin Waite, The Plot offers dishes built on vegetables that still satisfy even the staunchest omnivore. The Oceanside restaurant recently welcomed new chef Ryan Orlando and added to a menu that features fantastic lion mane mushroom-based crab cakes and one of the best shepherd’s pies in San Diego.

There are some who say lumpias are life. Some of these people are vegan and they know to get their fix at Cultivated Greens. The team serves Filipino classics like tofu sisig and pancit and other San Diego favorites including a surf and turf burrito and mushroom birria tacos. There Windmill Food Hall location is currently closes but keep an eye on their social media for pop-up locations across the county.

San Diego’s native vegan brewers debuted their restaurant concept to Encinitas in 2018. While the events of 2020 pared down the menu, all the beer buddies remain. Keep it light with a pint of Fruitlands sour gose and Secret Society Fries — kennebec fries smothered in vegan cheese, thousand island, grilled onions and pickles — or go big with a Black House oatmeal coffee stout and a Double Deluxe burger layered with shallot jam and smoky seitan on a vegan buttered brioche bun.

Undeniably delicious loaded fries and stuffed sandwiches roll out of the kitchen inside of the Serpentine Cider tasting room. Operated by Rollin’ Roots, the popular vegan food truck that specializes in deep fried oyster mushroom “chicken” and pulled oat “beef”, this permanent location pairs the food with plenty of open air seating and good drinks to go around. 

Complex spices thread throughout each of Kanta Jina’s dishes at Sattvik Foods. Daily thalis hold seasonal curries like Corn Methi Malai (fenugreek and corn curry) and Achari Aloo Gobi (spiced cauliflower). The generous chaat menu (Indian street food and snacks) includes housemade samosas smothered in chutney and delicate shells of pani puri with herbaceous water, chickpeas, and potatoes.

While San Diego has experienced a boom in vegan sushi, The Yasai sits clearly on top. Enjoy simple dishes like house-cured tomato nigiri or go big with spicy “no-shrimp” stuffed sushi rolls finished with fermented eryngii mushroom and candied jalapeño. Owner Junya Watanabe made his name in San Diego on ramen and his fiery vegan versions here are not to be missed.

A Grantville strip mall holds a dining room alive with leafy plants and a calming water feature. The mostly Vietnamese menu at Purple Mint Bistro includes cubed “filet mignon” sizzling in a cast iron pan, the popular double delight crispy egg-less rolls wrapped in rice paper, and eggplant and tofu drenched in sweet and sour sauce.

Flanked by the bay and Pacific Ocean, Soulshine brings a fully vegan menu to the Mission Beach neighborhood. The kitchen focuses on breakfast and lunch with bites like the herb biscuit sandwich stuffed with vegan egg and eggplant bacon or the baby kale salad with strawberries and crumbled cheese.

A powerhouse for San Diego vegan dining, the food court in Grossmont Center sports four fully vegan stalls. Enjoy vegan adobada tacos from El Veganito with a fully loaded burger or wings from Veg’n Out. Or keep things fresh with coconut ceviche from Mariscos NoMar. Be sure to save room from dessert, like a guava cream cheese galette or double chocolate marble brownie from Split Bakehouse.

Siblings Napatr and Katiya follow their own muse. Grain’s menu fuses the complexity of Thai flavors with international favorites, resulting in dishes like the Drunken Angel, a swirl of spicy serrano and garlic sauced angel hair pasta with tofu and fresh peppercorn, popcorn cauliflower “chicken”, and salt and pepper king mushroom “calamari.”

When the daughter of Pimwara “Patty” Thongchua, owner The Thai Joint, went vegetarian she invited everyone to dine on their meat and fish sauce-free creations. Plumeria’s menu is filled with all the familiar Thai-American favorite, from pad thai to panang, veganized except for the occasional egg or dairy milk. The mock duck larb is a standout starter, with lime and soy sauce soaked seitan tossed with onions, chilies, cilantro, and a dusting of roasted rice powder.

A fast food industry disruptor, San Diego-based Plant Power Fast Food now boasts nine locations from San Diego to Sacramento with no hint of slowing down. Popular for the Big Zach (a vegan take on the Big Mac) the menu offers a gamut of burgers, from a classic topped with lettuce and tomato to the Rambler burger fat with onion rings and dripping with BBQ sauce. Other favorites include the strawberry shake, buffalo wings (with arguably the best vegan ranch in San Diego), and a croissant sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich.

One of the few vegan Thai restaurants to go beyond rice noodles and stir-fries, Veganic specializes in uncommon vegan dishes like Three Flavor Fish, seaweed wrapped soy cutlets drenched in a sweet and sour chili-tamarind sauce. That said, their coconut curries and mock duck pad see ew are some of the best in the city.

Food processors work triple time at Peace Pies in OB and Encinitas, whose kitchen committed to zero waste long before it became a buzzword. As San Diego’s premier raw food restaurant, chef and owner J.P. Alfred concocts classic dishes like avocado toast with truffle salt and unexpected treats like their raw sunflower seed crust pizza. 

Scratch-made sauces and seasonal vegetables fill the plates of chef Roy Elam’d at Donna Jean. Organic wheat or chickpea flour socca crusts carry crushed tomatoes and fermented Scratch House “cheese” on pizzas, the centerpiece of the menu. Classic dishes, like the smoky “mac and cheese” and a Caesar salad with sun gold tomatoes and the briny crisp of sea beans, are equally worthy of praise. 

One of San Diego’s oldest vegetarian restaurants went fully vegan during the winter of 2020. Centered in the heart of Balboa Park, One World Beat Cafe offers an array of vegetable-based soul food. Enjoy dishes like Jamaican Veggie Patties filled with spicy cabbage or jerk tofu or fill up with a plate of Louisiana Creole Gumbo with collard greens and salad.

While currently operating as takeout only, the East Village’s Spoiled Vegans Cafe keeps bellies full when the weekend comes. The breakfast cafe offers a wide selection of vegan egg sandwiches, from the simple “ham” and cheese to a chimichurri spinach with a sausage patty stuffed in a sourdough English muffin. But the iconic dish here is the Let Go Of My Diego, a vegan apple sage sausage battered and “waffled” on a stick with a maple-mustard dipping sauce.