Toronto is one of the most vegan-friendly places on the planet. You’ll find vegan meetups, the Toronto Vegetarian Association, a plethora of vegan bloggers, and the tastiest restaurants offering healthful vegetarian and vegan meals. This week happens to be Compassionate Week in Toronto where compassion is celebrated “through fabulous food, exceptional art, and informative workshops.” What a great thing and a great reason to feature Toronto in this month’s HappyCow City Spotlight!
We polled our readers on Facebook and Twitter to get the inside scoop on your favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurants across the city. The top choice was Fresh, but since we featured them in our Top 5 Places to Take New Vegetarians, we are giving you the other best of the best in Toronto.
Urban Herbivore
64 Oxford Street (at College, in Kensington Market)
Toronto Ontario M5T1P1
416-927-1231
Meghan on Twitter says the Sesame Tempeh is the best sandwich she’s ever had and supposedly they are known for their massive muffins, which is pictured above courtesy of Lisa of Vegan Culinary Crusade. The sister restaurant to Fressen, Urban Herbivore is a more casual dining spot with creative sandwiches and salads that you get to create yourself with various toppings. And you can order a juice or lemonade to wash it all down.
Greens Vegetarian
638 Dundas St W (at Bathurst St)
Toronto Ontario
416-603-3337
To get your Pan-Asian fix and fill your belly with a hearty inexpensive meal visit Greens. You’ll find many mock meat dishes, like sweet and sour “chicken”, but also traditional Asian foods like dumplings, Pad Thai, veggie fried rice, and noodle dishes from different Asian countries.
Live
264 Dupont Ave
Toronto Ontario M5R 1V7
416-515-2002
For a little bit of raw food love, visit Toronto’s premiere raw food restaurant Live. There are a few cooked options, but they are known for their creative, innovative raw dishes that everyone will love. The bright happy atmosphere along with the light food will leave you feeling refreshed and peppy.
478 Queen St W
Toronto Ontario M5A1T9
416-504-5127
For something on the fancier side, a must try in Toronto is Fressen. It has a tapas, small plate kind of menu for dinner and the brunch is reported to be delicious. The ambiance is nice and cozy making it the perfect date place, but the service can be slow. So don’t go if you are in a hurry and be sure to make a reservation.
Hot Beans
160 Baldwin St, Unit 1 (at Spadina Ave )
Toronto Ontario
647-352-7581
To get your heartier, junk food vegan fix visit the newest takeout place Hot Beans. It not only has a cute name, it has some of the tastiest tacos and burritos in town, all vegan style. The yuba tacos, featured above and on BlogTO, are a big hit. And they have donuts. Yes, vegan donuts. The use biodegradable packaging which is a big plus for a take-out restaurant, but I’m sure you could bring your own if you wanted!
So we ask you, where is your favorite place to dine in Toronto?
3 Comments
Chia (324 comments)
June 23, 2011 at 12:43 amOne of these days I will get myself out of my house and visit Toronto! Will be great to go during their annual Vegetarian Food Festival.
razhh (1 comments)
June 24, 2011 at 5:34 pmHow can someone writes a review of Vegan/Vegetarian places in Toronto without mentioning “King’s Café” on 192 Augusta Avenue (Kensington Market area)? It’s a great place with tasty Asian Chinese-Fusion dishes, for sure one of the best restaurants in town.
In most of the restaurants in town there is also nice selection for vegetarians (maybe beside the “American meat restaurants” and the “French restaurants”…). Of course the best vegetarian food is still in all the Asian / Middle-eastern restaurants. There is even an Ethiopian Vegan restaurant on 1263 Queen St. West.
Salim Patel (1 comments)
January 16, 2023 at 1:11 pmSome of the quick serve restaurants that I recommend are not listed here, but they are very vegan and vegetarian friendly. They are fairly healthy and easy on the wallet as well for the most part.
One is Freshii and the other is Burrito Boyz. Both have multiple locations around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and chances are there is one near you. Most of the items on their menu start with being vegetarian and you add a protein of you choice (Tofu at Freshii or TVP Ground, Sweet Potatoes or just beans at Burrito Boyz