Is your city veg friendly? Best Veg Cities? - Page 2

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by To-Fu

Seattle is amazing for vegans! In one block, there is a vegan grocery store, a vegan pizza place, and a vegan diner. I am generally overwhelmed by all the options.

A whole grocery store just for vegans??? That's awesome, I didn't know such a thing existed, I'm happy when the regular stores carry tofu & hummus!!

[MsVyky]

I am always awed by the selection of vegan and vegetarian fare in US grocery stores. Canada's selection SUCKS. We don't get Morningstar Farms. We don't get Quorn (Had this in Hawaii last year, omg to die for!).

We get Tofurky (which I love, and I'll never diss it) and Follow Your Heart (yuck)


I always want to ask my friends in the States to overnight me boxes of frozen foods, LOL.

[Sayward]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

A whole grocery store just for vegans??? That's awesome, I didn't know such a thing existed, I'm happy when the regular stores carry tofu & hummus!!

We have one in Portland too! (it's in the vegan mini-mall) You can also shop them online. =)

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by Sayward

We have one in Portland too! (it's in the vegan mini-mall) You can also shop them online. =)

They have SHEESE!!! Oh man I LOVE that stuff, I tried it at a veg festival once, too bad it's so expensive!

The whole idea of a vegan grocery store just blows my mind. I might have to take a trip just to see this.

[MsVyky]

Sheese is the only vegan cheese I've had that tastes good as is. Without cooking, etc.

Have you had Daiya yet? We got some and it blows every other vegan cheese out of the water! (Thanks for the mamas here on MDC pointing me in the direction of that!)

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by MsVyky

Sheese is the only vegan cheese I've had that tastes good as is. Without cooking, etc.

Have you had Daiya yet? We got some and it blows every other vegan cheese out of the water! (Thanks for the mamas here on MDC pointing me in the direction of that!)

I did try Daiya recently but I just wasn't impressed. It was good but to me not all that different than Follow Your Heart (I actually prefer FYH a bit). I am tempted to order the Sheese even though it's ridiculously priced!!

[GranolaMum]

I live in Brighton, England and it's very veg friendly here! Brighton has been named the veggie capital of England. We have several veggie restaurants. Almost every restaurant here will have at least one or more veggie options. And when you go to a dinner or work party, people don't look at you like you have two heads because you are veggie.

I love shopping here because the food in the grocery store is all labeled with a green V if it's suitable for vegetarians. Even cheese will have the V if it has no rennet in it. Wish they would follow suit in the US!

Where I'm from (Grand Rapids, Michigan), we had maybe one veggie restaurant in town. Every time I'm back, I have to special order most of my food so it doesn't have bacon, cheese, etc. I always call the Midwest meat and potatoes country.

[MsBirdie]

I have to say Phoenix is not bad. Several farmers markets, lots of sprouts, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and all grocery stores have a "healthy-organic-vegan" section of sorts. A good amount of Co Ops and CSA's that have several pick up locations. There are also a TON of restuarants, from big chains to indie ethnic type restuarants. Being the fifth largest city in the country gives you options, good and bad. You just need to know where to look. The population as a whole is also pretty accepting of a veg lifestyle.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I'm in Saint Paul/Minneapolis and it is pretty veg friendly here. There are plenty of restaurants with veg options, two Whole Foods, a few TJs, lots of coops, many CSA options, great farmers' markets.

I so want to visit the vegan mini-mall in OR!

[ceeveg]

I love reading all of the responses. We're trying to decide (within the next 3-4 years) between WA or OR, specifically the Seattle and Portland areas. We figure that will give us a good chance to search for jobs, sell our house here, etc..

[vegemamato]

We moved from Portland to Austin last year.. Portland was amazing with the veg resources, and Austin is pretty similar (minus the the cow-herding ranchers). Overall, I'm satisfied

[chanale]

San Diego is very vegetarian-friendly, but as far as vegan-friendly goes, not nearly so much as L.A. There are a number of vegetarian restaurants, mostly clustered in the hipper neighborhoods near downtown. My neighborhood is not vegan-friendly at all, but I'm pretty lucky to have vegan-friendly neighborhoods about a 25-minute drive away.

I get most of my food from People's, a wonderful vegetarian co-op with an upstairs deli/bakery that's organic and vegan. A block away is a vegan bakery that makes pizza and savory strudel along with the usual sweets.

I fly out to Colorado regularly (and I'm there right now). Vegan restaurant food is hard to come by outside Boulder, Denver, or Fort Collins. My boyfriend lives in a far northern suburb of Denver. The first thing I did was go to Vitamin Cottage a mile away. I was surprised how much organic, vegan groceries and natural health & beauty items were there (the produce section is 100% organic although tiny). I could get a whole week's worth of groceries there if I didn't need an unusual ingredient. The closest decent Whole Foods looks about a half-hour drive.

The only vegan-friendly restaurant within 15 miles we went to last night. It was a Tibetan-Nepalese-Indian restaurant that had a separate vegan menu. I had steamed dumplings with chutney.

So, not as good as San Diego, but not bad.

[mumkimum]

Hmm. . was thinking 'well, yes!' before reading the pp posts here. . now just an 'um. yeah, I guess' - it only resolves the fact that I'll really need to do some culinary traveling in my future.

I've been pretty impressed with Cleveland,OH area though. Quite a few places heavy on veg/vegan options, lots of veg-friendly ethnic places everywhere (great middleeastern places here and an all veg south indian restaurant). I do mourn the loss of soul vegetarian a few years ago - it was all vegan and made incredible food (and was right around the corner, basically). More than a few places you could get vegan pizza, dairy-free chocolates, plus Melt (grilled cheese restaurant) always has a vegetarian option for their special and does vegan cheese too.
We've got some really great local health food stores (the huge Mustard Seed, which does an awesome Sunday brunch), plus TJ's and WF. Close to Akron, with Vegiterranean (all vegan, really good too).

[clothdipemomof2boy]

I live in the Columbia missouri area. It is ok but that is all when it comes to veggie or vegan friendly. There is one restaurant that exclusively sells vegan food there are some restaurants that sell both but I still get eeeeked out by having my black bean burger made on the same grill as the hamburgers. I know I do ask them to clean the grill if they could but it still really bothers me. Anyway we have a clovers here which if you are not familiar is a health food store but again they sell both and our grocery stores sell both but as far as vegan and veggie friendly not really in my book but maybe i am just picky!!!!