Best Vegan Restaurants in Santa Barbara Part 3 - Updated August 2019
These restaurants are for omnivores, but many offer vegan options on and off-menu.
You can learn how to order vegan at any restaurant here, but you’ve gotta be somewhat reasonable when you choose establishments to patronize. I mean, you’re not gonna walk into Lily’s Tacos and ask for a vegan Ojo taco.
Here are a few sure things, some of my favorite local vegan dishes, at restaurants that cater to all diets
AH Juice
Image credit: AH Juice
Known for their artisan juices, the cafe offers some vegan items, including a soup of the day (ask for the bread dry or with coconut oil). Their Peanut Butter Cup smoothie (no honey please!) is aces.
Arigato Sushi
Image credit: Arigato
Known for their sushi (and their long wait times for a table - no reservations!), Arigato makes it easy to keep vegan. Their Japanese eggplant, Soba salad, and a vegetable roll on the patio makes for a perfect date night.
The Black Sheep
They’ve always got a vegan entree on the menu, vegetables wrapped in pastry dough. Their olives, cauliflower, and snap pea side dishes make for a decent tapas dinner as well.
Brasil Arts Café
Image credit: Basil Arts Café
Brasil Arts Cafe has some vegan salads, but I go for the acai bowls. I like the Floripa bowl (no honey, please) or the Bahia smoothie if I’m in a hurry.
Corazon
Image credit: Corazon
You’re gonna wait in line. Just succumb to it. Get the cauliflower tacos, no crema, with extra tortillas and you can turn one taco into three! They’re basically baja-style vegan fish tacos. Perfection.
Flavor of India
Image credit: Flavor of India
Blessedly, they have a special vegan menu with many delicious offerings. We usually split a samosa and an order of their vegan delight combo.
Galanga Thai Restaurant
Image credit; Galanga
The Massaman curry with extra vegetables instead of protein, spicy eggplant, and garlic green beans make for perfect Thai comfort food. Ask for no oyster sauce, no fish sauce, “vegan please!”
The Lark
Image credit: The Lark
The Lark is jam-packed and crazy popular for good reason. I go for a cocktail and their popcorn (always vegan, but I always ask anyway just in case that’s the day the siren song of Parmagianno calls out to the kitchen) and an order of the Brussels sprouts (“No fish sauce, please”). There is always a vegan roasted veg dish on or off the menu, and their family-style servings make for easy sharing.
Loquita
Image credit: Loquita
Their vegan paella is season-specific, but always delicious. Don’t let them scrape it for you. It’s the best part! Like cracking the crust of a creme brûlée. Start with the pan con tomate and a P.X.O.F. makes for a nice treat out and about.
The Natural Café
Image credit: The Natural Café
The Natural Cafe (several locations around socal) always have a vegan soup with a hunk of bread for like $5 a bowl, which is a fantastic bargain. I take advantage of my inner When Harry Met Sally and order very specifically: I love their tostada salad (no sour cream, tahini dressing) and Buddha burrito (no cheese, no sour cream, no rice, extra veggies, ranchero sauce on the inside).
Saigon
Image credit: Saigon
Saigon offers a dedicated vegetarian menu, and I always get the V26 curried noodle vegetable soup, especially for friends who get hit with the flu.
Sama Sama
Sama Sama kindly offers a specialized vegan menu with several of their regular menu items sans animal products. We always get the gado gado (their version of a warm Indonesian salad that I basically lived off of when I was traveling through Bali in 2017) and Brussels sprouts (though The Lark’s are better, synastry, I take my sprouts very seriously). They also have a broccolini tofu dish that I sometimes get without the tofu (“extra vegetables please”).
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