Eating out doesn’t have to mean eating badly. I mapped out these vegan eateries to serve as a good starting point for those days when you want to enjoy a good meal out and still treat your body well. Some are more health-focused than others, but all of these exclusively plant-powered joints offer super healthy options.
Cruda Cafe | B
Feel Good Guru | C
Grasslands | D
Hibiscus | E
Live Food Bar | F | G
Loving Hut | H
Rawlicious | J | K
Smash Juice Bar | L
The Goods | M
The Vegan Duchess | N
Urban Herbivore | O | P | Q
Bolt Fresh Bar
This small, healthy take-out shop is located close to the Drake Hotel on Queen Street West near Beaconsfield. They offer a selection of juices, smoothies and daily soups as well as a variety of made to order salads and grain bowls like the Vitamin Sea Bowl which includes high protein millet, shredded carrots, avocado, seaweed salad, shaved red cabbage, sesame seed, kimchi and Creamy Lemon Tahini Dressing. Do yourself a favour and try a soup while you’re at it!
A – 1170 Queen St West, Toronto
Cruda Cafe
Located smack dab in the middle of St. Lawrence Market, Cruda is committed to serving locally grown, vegan, raw food that supports health and the environment. They do offer cooked soups in the cooler months and weekly tofu scrambles on Saturdays. Their entire menu is 100% gluten and sugar free. You can find tantalizing menu options like Quiche me Lorraine, which consists of a dehydrated onion crust filled with cashew cheese and sundried tomatoes. Yes please! The cafe also uses green packaging and offer incentives if you bring your own take-away containers.
B – 93 Front St East, Toronto (St. Lawrence Market)
Feel Good Guru
I’m constantly stopping into this Queen West gem for my good food fix. This take-away café is hyper-local and completely plant-powered. They have one of the best gluten-free/dairy-free sandwiches in the city (avocado and cashew cheese) and I can honestly say, the best avocado veggie maki rolls I’ve ever eaten. Because the food is so nutrient-dense you don’t need a ton to fill your belly.
C – 917 Queen St West, Toronto
Grasslands
And the man behind the Urban Herbivore Trifecta is also providing veggie options at his higher end full-service restaurant on Queen West called Grasslands (formerly Fressen). Owner Stephen Gardner believes healthy, whole foods should be available to everyone. Grasslands is a great spot for an intimate dinner on the town and offers exclusively vegan dishes that are just as innovative as any you would find at an omnivorous restaurant. The brunch menu is a little sinful (for those days you just wanna), but you will find lots of healthy delicious options for dinner like grilled fennel with shaved almonds in a lemon wine reduction or dijon mustard crusted tempeh! (A word to those avoiding gluten, make sure to stay away from the Seitan.)
D – 478 Queen St West, Toronto
Hibiscus
This family-run vegetarian café in Kensington Market offers a huge selection of sweet and savoury buckwheat crepes, hearty soups and made-to-order salads with a variety of 42 ingredients to choose from like: quinoa, sweet potato, kale, carrot, beet, kelp and okra. If you’re in the mood for a sweet treat, they’ve got dessert crepes like banana walnut or apple cinnamon to temp your taste buds. Everything on the menu is gluten-free.
E – 238 Augusta Ave, Toronto
Live Food Bar
You may have enjoyed Live Organic Raw products from your local health food shop and wondered if there was a restaurant that served these tasty and healthy morsels. Well, in fact, there is! There are two! One is situated at Dupont and Spadina (close to the Subway station) and the other Market-style café greets you when you enter Liberty Village from King Street West. I love this place. Not only do they have a delicious, plant-based, gluten free and sugar-free menu with all-stars like their killer Dill Tahini dressing, the Live Market also stocks handy kitchen items like the uber-popular veggie spiralizer!
F – 264 Dupont St, Toronto
G – 134 Atlantic Ave, Toronto
Loving Hut
This interesting little restaurant, located at Spadina and Richmond Street serves an eclectic mix of organic, vegan cuisine. You’ll find everything on their menu from eggplant with blackbean sauce to a tofu club sandwich and veggie shish-kabobs and veggie burgers that even carnivores love. All their menu items are also non-GMO, MSG free and nut free.
H – 140 Spadina Ave, Toronto
Porter House
It’s not every day you can go to a vegan pub! But, if you head to Dundas West (just East of Lisgar) you can stop into your friendly neighborhood Porter House! There are a lot of twists on pub-style comfort foods like curry fries and beer battered dumplings, but you know that’s not what I’m going to highlight here! Even if you’re friends are digging into a greasy dish, you can still stick to something healthier like the Spring Pea Salad with peas, cucumber, white beans, pickled beet, toasted almond, lemon and dill or the Quinoa Polenta with black kale, turnip, miso butter and hazelnut! The resto doesn’t do any “fake” meats and will make changes to reflect the seasons.
I – 1321 Dundas St West, Toronto
Rawlicious
With 10 locations across southern Ontario, including 2 in Toronto, Rawlicious wants you to feel good about what you eat. Literally. The restaurants are all raw, vegan and organic. You won’t find any meat, wheat, dairy or refined sugar, but you will find a whole lot of delicious bites like zucchini & kelp noodles, shredded romaine lettuce, carrots & bell peppers mixed in a tangy Thai sauce topped with green onions & crumbled cashews. You don’t need to be a raw vegan to love this kind of real, whole food.
J – 20 Cumberland St, Toronto
K – 2122 Bloor St West, Toronto
Smash Juice Bar
Located in the financial district at Toronto and Adelaide Streets, Smash Juice bars offers more than just cold-pressed juices. They offer a “360 approach to wellness for the mind and body”. With a chief nutritionist on staff and a range of liquid and solid nutrition, they also sell natural skin care products! Their small but highly nutritious raw, vegan and gluten/refined sugar free food menu will fill your belly and fuel your body. Dishes include their zucchini linguine with fresh herbed tomato sauce and Thai kelp noodles. Even their decadent desserts are good for you (in moderation)!
L – 36 Toronto St, Toronto
The Goods
Located in the heart of the Dundas West Strip, The Goods is a mostly raw; all vegan take-away shop featuring freshly made salads, soups, smoothies and fresh-pressed juices that will knock your socks off. Check out the video we shot together to learn how they make their famous Chuck Norris Salad!
M – 1255 Dundas St West, Toronto
The Vegan Dutchess
For uptown eaters, this vegan, organic, exclusively gluten-free and sugar-free take-out spot wants to ensure that eating out can still mean eating well. The raw café in the heart of the Yonge-Eglington village has a selection of healthy, plant-based menu items that will entice any pallet like: pizza, tacos, soups and superfood desserts. Their raw, soft-shelled taco includes walnut taco crumble, chunky guacamole, lettuce, southwest tomato and chia seed salsa and cashew cream. If you’ve never tried cashew cream, you’re gonna love it!
N – 2354 Yonge St, Toronto
Urban Herbivore
What started off as a fast-food, vegan comfort food café in Kensington Market has turned into a burgeoning vegan trifecta in Toronto. There’s even an Urban Herbivore holding it down in the ginormous Eaton Centre food court. Their whole-food philosophy includes making everything from scratch daily without preservatives, additives or ingredients you can’t pronounce. UH offers fresh soups, stews, made-to-order salad/grain bowls and sandwiches and strives to purchase local and organic ingredients when possible. Watch me back in the Kensington kitchen helping to make their knock out coconut curry here.
O – 967 College St, Toronto
P – 64 Oxford St, Toronto
Q – 220 Yonge St, Toronto (Eaton Centre)
