• Advertise
  • Donate
  • Write
  • Intern
  • Events
  • About
  • Contact

The Austinot

Discover the Best Things to Do in Austin, Food & Drink deals and more!

  • Things To Do
    • Things To Do This Weekend
    • Kids Events in Austin this Weekend
  • Discoveries
    • Austinot Loves
    • Activities
    • Day Trips
    • Local Business
  • Food & Drink
    • Food
    • Drink
  • Entertainment
    • Events
    • Film
    • Music
    • Nightlife
    • Theatre
  • Culture
    • Arts
    • History
    • Museums
  • Et Cetera
    • Non-Profits
    • Podcast
    • Archives

14 Plant-Strong Restaurants in Austin That Never Sacrifice Taste

January 29, 2020 by Joleen Jernigan 3 Comments

Casa de Luz Macrobiotic Food Is Plant-strong
Casa de Luz makes macrobiotic food with love and it shows (Credit: Casa de Luz)

Plant-strong diets are on the rise as people add more nutrient-rich foods to their lifestyles and implement Meatless Mondays. Austin is a wonderful city for it, as we have so many tasty, plant-strong restaurants to choose from.

Thank you to High Note and Kerbey Lane Cafe for hosting me at no cost for the purposes of this article. All opinions are my own.

Follow the Rainbow

Honest Mary's bowl ingredients in Austin
Honest Mary’s bowls are full of good colors and flavors (Credit: Honest Mary’s)

For the purposes of this article, plant-strong means adding more plant-based food into your routine. “Eat your colors,” as the poster at one of my featured restaurants, The Soup Peddler, states. January is a perfect time to reset and add healthier options into the rotation. I’m personally shifting toward more meatless, nutrient-dense meals.

If you’re getting tired of your healthier routine, then these places are perfect to get you back into it. None of them are too “crunchy,” and all of them leave you feeling satisfied.

Trust me, these plant-strong restaurants go beyond the plain salads, soggy tofu, and raw veggies that defined vegetarian food a couple of decades ago.

Some of these Austin restaurants are full-on vegan or vegetarian, but others have options for your carnivore cravings, too. I mean, we’re not about to ask any Austinite to give up their brisket or tacos al pastor, for crying out loud. We know better!

Instead, think of this list as us wanting to give you more choices. It would be a cool challenge to have one meatless day a week or even one meatless meal a day. Balance is a good thing!

1/ High Note

High Note's vegetarian and vegan dishes in Austin are plant-strong
High Note’s vegetarian and vegan dishes are tasty and pretty (Credit: High Note)

High Note has been on my radar for a while, but I only recently tried it out. I absolutely love the vegan and vegetarian options, and there are several!

The dish I’ll be returning for soon is the vegan broccolini sandwich. This surprisingly flavorful dish is filling and so good. It has broccolini, cashew “cheese,” toasted cashews, and seasonal greens on delicious, locally-sourced sourdough bread (that can be switched for gluten-free bread).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joleen Jernigan (@jojoaustin) on Jan 13, 2020 at 11:02am PST

Popular plant-strong breakfast items are the superfoods oats and berries, and the edamole (avocado and edamame) toast that comes with an egg, but doesn’t have to. Lunch or dinner options include a falafel platter, veggie burger made with a falafel patty, and mozzarella melt.

This place is adorable and has a beautiful patio. Bonus points for a free parking lot! I have such a crush on High Note right now.

300 S. Lamar Blvd. – Website

2/ Bouldin Creek Cafe

Veggie Royale Veggie Burger at Bouldin Creek Cafe
My very first Veggie Royale

Bouldin Creek Cafe has long been the gold standard in Austin for vegetarian- and vegan-friendly food. I love the seasonal bowls with lots of veggies, and often enjoy the fancy rice and quinoa.

The sandwiches and salads are satisfying, too. I love the Good Livin’ salad with an added scoop of chickpea chik’n salad, paired with the scrumptious vegan blueberry cornbread on the side.

The Farmer’s Plate is also popular, with sweet potato and pecan tamales, avocado mash, and beans. My absolute favorite brunch dish is the zucchini migas with a spicy “fire puree,” made with either tofu scramble or eggs.

1900 S. 1st St. – Website

Keep reading: 13 Spots That Serve Fresh and Healthy Food in Austin

3/ Casa de Luz

Casa de Luz vegan meals and desserts
Casa de Luz vegan meals and desserts make me this happy (Credit: Casa de Luz)

Austin’s long-standing macrobiotic (vegan), nonprofit restaurant, Casa de Luz, serves full meals that have lots of flavor and colors. Diners pay one price for a meal that includes several offerings and a drink. Dessert is optional for an additional charge.

While the menu changes daily, you can expect your meal to include soup, salad, and an entree that almost always includes some type of healthy grain, a bean-type dish, and some colorful veggies.

Casa de Luz exemplifies the “food is medicine” philosophy. You enter the Casa de Luz property through a shaded path, passing rooms where community events and Buen Camino yoga and movement classes are held, walking past outdoor tables and a playground for children. Inside, the kitchen is visible, and the tables are community tables.

Casa de Luz Beautiful Outdoor Patio
Sit on the sun-dappled patio for maximum Zen (Credit: Casa de Luz)

Soup, salad, and drinks are self-serve, and the cooks themselves serve the entree plate to diners. You can even volunteer at Casa de Luz and earn a free meal. When you volunteer, you cook alongside the talented kitchen staff and learn how to prepare delicious, healthful food.

Everything is made fresh daily, and if the giant smiles on the staff members’ faces are any indication, then eating like this all the time must make you feel great! They even quickly and happily improvised a dish for me when the main dish was mushroom-based, because I don’t eat mushrooms.

1701 Toomey – Website

Keep reading: Top 10 Austin Restaurants When It MUST Be Gluten-free

4/ Forthright Cafe

Forthright Cafe vegetarian meals for plant-strong
Forthright Cafe has yummy vegetarian meals in a bright, airy space (Credit: Forthright)

After a terrible kitchen fire closed Forthright Cafe for several months, this reopened bright and airy spot is a nice choice for a weekday lunch or weekend brunch. The plant-strong restaurant is also open for dinner from Wednesday to Friday.

While not strictly vegetarian, Forthright always offers a good variety of loaded veggie bowls with ingredients like roasted sweet potatoes, chickpeas, fried Brussels sprouts, avocado, kale, and beets.

Forthright Plant-Strong Restaurants
Go support Forthright, reopened after a fire closed the restaurant for months (Credit: Forthright)

The avocado toast has made several foodie favorite lists in town, and there is a mushroom toast, too, along with anything-but-basic salads and a Beyond Burger veggie burger.

It’s always sad to see a local business go through something as devastating as a fire, so I’m thrilled to see Forthright reopened. This is a great time to support a local business!

35 Brazos St. – Website

5/ The Soup Peddler

Mulligatawny soup, grilled cheese sandwich, and juice at The Soup Peddler
Mulligatawny soup, grilled cheese sandwich, and juice: The Soup Peddler trifecta

Okay, I have been obsessed with The Soup Peddler for years. I go through phases of eating there several times a month. And at any given time, The Soup Peddler menu has a few vegan or vegetarian options.

One of my favorites is the green detox broth, made with blended kale, zucchini, broccoli, cilantro, parsley, onion, garlic, coconut oil, and lemon. Yum! Ask for bread or oyster crackers and you have a fabulous meal.

The Mulligatawny is another super legit and heartier soup, and you can almost always get the veggie chili. The tomato basil is ideal for grilled cheese dipping!

The Soup Peddler plant-strong packaged salads to-go
The Soup Peddler also carries a good selection of salads (Credit: Julia Keim)

Apart from soup, The Soup Peddler has several salad options and tasty grilled cheese sandos. It also offers wonderfully colorful, fresh smoothies and juices. Try a smoothie/juice special of the day for a discount. I’m partial to Moonage Mondays, when the Moonage Daydream with carrot, apple, lemon, turmeric, ginger, and cayenne is the special.

The Soup Peddler has expanded from a soup delivery-only business to a thriving bastion of good food and good health with six locations throughout Austin. The most recent location opened right downtown in the 2nd Street District on West 3rd Street.

Multiple locations – Website

Keep reading: 7 Amazing Soups to Enjoy in Austin

6/ Honest Mary’s

Honest Mary's plant-strong bowls
Honest Mary’s bowls look healthy, yummy, and filling (Credit: Honest Mary’s)

I haven’t personally tried Honest Mary’s yet, but my foodie friends I trust are all about this place! It’s the “fast-casual eatery” with fresh, healthy grain and veggie bowls that look divine. Honest Mary’s also has hormone- and antibiotic-free meat options you can add on.

I have my eye on the seasonal butternut spice bowl with Basmati rice, Ras El Hanout butternut squash, French green lentils, kale with lemon, crispy chickpeas, and green herb sauce. There are vegan, paleo, gluten-free, and dairy-free options for special dietary needs.

The original location is in the Arboretum, but this month a second location opened in Rosedale. It looks adorable and I hope to try it soon.

9828 Great Hills Trail #300 and 4800 Burnet Road C300 – Website

7/ JuiceLand

JuiceLand's Peachy Keen Juice in Austin Is Plant-Strong
JuiceLand’s Peachy Keen is one of about a hundred valid options at the popular juice joint

JuiceLand is another solid, plant-strong option that makes Austinites smile. The website says the business opened in 2011, though it seems like it’s always been part of the Austin scene. JuiceLand expanded quickly in Austin, as Austinites were clearly thirsty for it!

Austin has more than two dozen JuiceLand locations, growing into new markets in Dallas and Houston. No matter where you are, the cheerfully bright signs beckon you to this heavenly home of vegan goodness.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joleen Jernigan (@jojoaustin) on Jan 27, 2020 at 7:54pm PST

JuiceLand’s extensive juice, smoothie, lattes, tonic, and health shot menu is mind boggling. With so many choices, you’re sure to find one you love. However, did you know JuiceLand also has wonderful grab-and-go meals? It’s true!

For starters, you can make any smoothie a bowl! Sometimes you want to chew your food, you know? In addition, there are offerings such as vegan gyros, burritos, wraps, bowls, and salads.

Multiple locations – Website

Keep reading: How Austin’s Own JuiceLand Blends Freshness Every Day

Austin Food Bloggers Alliance City Guide 2020

8/ Counter Culture

Counter Culture Hatch Chile Burger Is Plant-strong
Counter Culture throws its Hatch hat into the ring with this delectable vegan burger (Credit: Counter Culture)

This groovy little house on the east side specializes in vegan comfort food. I’m happy to report the soy-free, gluten-free mac n’ cheeze with broccoli and cashew cheeze is as crave-worthy as you want it to be. I love it!

Counter Culture is a great place to take the kids, as the food is similar to what they might eat elsewhere. Try the grilled cheeze sandwich, pizza, a lentil loaf, southern-baked or jerk seitan, a tempeh reuben, jackfruit BBQ quesadillas (with cashew cheeze), or a cold cutz sub sandwich.

I appreciate that the Counter Culture menu tells you which dishes are soy-free and gluten-free, too. There is usually even a Hatch green chile menu in season, and I’m here for it!

And, oh my pretties, the desserts are worth a visit in their own right. Let’s talk donut holes, ice cream, cashew cheesecake, brownie bites, and more.

2337 E. Cesar Chavez St. – Website

9/ Revolution Vegan Kitchen

Plant-strong Revolution Vegan Kitchen in Austin
Revolution Vegan Kitchen makes creative, satisfying vegan food (Credit: @dollarsaenz)

This bustling vegan food truck in far south Austin’s Thicket food truck park knows what it’s doing when it comes to vegan comfort food. The burger specials with curly fries, Philly cheeze steak sandwiches, and jackfruit al pastor, barbacoa, or carnitas tacos have vegans from all over clamoring to eat here.

Start with the yummy notzarella sticks or mac n cheeze. Oh, and the burgers come with curly fries so you don’t leave feeling like you missed out.

7800 S. 1st St. – Facebook

Keep reading: The Thicket Is South Austin’s Most Underrated Food Truck Park

10/ Pho Thai Son

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nick Seidel (@nicktotheplus) on Oct 3, 2018 at 4:56pm PDT

Hallelujah, I found vegan pho! It’s chock-full of vegetables: baby bok choy, broccoli, carrots, straw mushrooms, snow peas, onions, and fried tofu in a vegan broth. I love the veggie dumplings, too, with lots of green veggies inside. Austin-based Pho Thai Son has three local locations and one in Kyle.

Many Asian restaurants have veggie options, but Pho Thai Son actually has a whole tab on its menu for veggie dishes. It doesn’t come across as an afterthought, but rather as a thoughtfully created menu with vegan and vegetarian choices every bit as special as their non-veg counterparts.

Multiple locations – Website

11/ Curcuma Kitchen

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Curcuma / Austin, TX (@curcumakitchen) on Jan 12, 2020 at 4:47am PST

Curcuma’s website summarizes nicely: “Eat Plants. Drink Gold. Feel Good.” As with Honest Mary’s, I have not yet tried Curcuma. However, my IG feed has been blowing up with vividly colored, beautifully assembled bowls of what looks like pure energy. I have to include Curcuma, as the reviews are so positive.

Plus, you’ll find all of the super trendy, vegan golden mylk drinks, matcha lattes, and other superfood drinks your hipster heart desires. More than simply trendy, though, this adorable food truck is a modern twist on ancient Ayurvedic practices in nutrition.

Curcuma’s tagline, “Food with Intention,” refers to the owners’ intentional choices in every aspect of the business. All of the menu items are vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free, and often locally-sourced. The kitchari bowls look so yummy, and the gluten-free avocado toast, cashew ricotta toast, and spirulina pesto toast look fantastic.

There are even elixirs like fire cider, “pickle my fancy kimchi gut shot,” and chlora vida with chlorophyll and organic coconut water. My inner hippie needs a trip to Curcuma soon. Peace, love, everyone!

2324 E. Cesar Chavez – Website

12/ Austin Tea Xchange Cafe

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Austin Tea Xchange Cafe (@austinteaxchangecafe) on Dec 11, 2019 at 4:37am PST

Austin Tea Xchange Cafe is another charming spot I’ve been eyeing longingly on Instagram, as it looks so cozy and charming. Out in the Hill Country Galleria, it’s a tea shop with healthy food options, many of them vegan- or vegetarian-friendly. The teas look delicious, too. I can’t wait to try it.

13011 Shops Parkway (Hill Country Galleria) – Website

13/ Kerbey Lane Cafe

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joleen Jernigan (@jojoaustin) on Jan 17, 2020 at 8:06pm PST

Is there anyone Kerbey Lane Cafe can’t feed? Not likely. This Austin stalwart has a few veggie options year-round, with seasonal options, too. Ask for the dedicated vegetarian menu to save time.

Kerbey Lane’s plant-strong dishes may not be as colorful as some of the others, but with so-Austin choices like local Credo cashew queso, a vegan BBQ sandwich with veggie chorizo, and veggie chili, I’m not hearing a lot of complaints.

Brussels Sprouts at Kerbey Lane Cafe
Kerbey Lane’s Brussels sprouts are a popular vegetarian dish (Credit: @dollarsaenz)

Besides, the famous pancakes are vegetarian, huzzah! My friend gave me a hot tip for a good, but not too angelic special order: fries, vegan queso, veggie chile, and then add steamed broccoli. It’s the good-bad meal I know I’m going to try next time I go. Polishing my halo ALL the time is exhausting, after all.

With eight Austin locations, Kerbey Lane is bound to be in your neighborhood. Eat like you did in college, only better. Fun fact: Kerbey Lane is High Note’s parent company!

Multiple locations – Website

14/ Rebel Cheese

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rebel Cheese: Vegan•Deli•Wine (@rebel.cheese) on Jan 2, 2020 at 1:09pm PST

Not only does Rebel Cheese have a massive selection of vegan cheese, but it also has an adorable cafe with mouth-watering sandwiches, cheese boards, breakfast, soup, and salads.

2200 Aldrich – Website

Eat Plant-strong

Another way to easily incorporate more plant-strong food into your diet is through these local meal delivery companies.

I suggest saving this article to remind yourself of the wide variety of plant-strong and straight up vegan restaurants we’re fortunate to have in Austin. That way you’ll always have it when you need it. Plus, I’m eager to hear your favorites!


@theAustinot wants to know:

What are your plant-strong Austin picks?

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Joleen Jernigan
Joleen Jernigan
Joleen Jernigan
Latest posts by Joleen Jernigan (see all)
  • Christmas Lights in Austin Area – Best Holiday Lights 2021 - November 29, 2021
  • How Austin Musicians Are Riding Out the Pandemic with Creativity - December 10, 2020
  • The Ultimate Guide to Texas Wines for the Holiday Season - November 22, 2020

Filed Under: Food, Food & Drink Tagged With: vegan, vegetarian

Best of The Austinot

We always have unique content on The Austinot and we love to give things away. You know, like concert tickets, gift cards, and other cool stuff. We only send out our “Best of the Austinot” newsletter twice a month. It’s where we give you a recap of our best articles and give stuff away. Interested? Subscribe to Best of The Austinot here!

Comments

  1. Meysara Kateeb says

    July 1, 2020 at 12:33 am

    How did this not include TacoDeli?

    Log in to Reply
    • Joleen says

      July 1, 2020 at 12:33 am

      It’s all subjective. These are the ones I love or want to try. I love all the other suggestions!

      Log in to Reply
    • Brittany Highland says

      July 1, 2020 at 12:33 am

      We definitely love Tacodeli and gave them some dedicated love a few months ago. 🙂 https://austinot.wpengine.com/tacodeli-austin

      Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Popular Right Now

4th of July Deals Austin

Best 4th of July 2025 Deals Austin: Dining, Retail & More

What's Open on 4th of July Austin

What’s Open on the 4th of July in Austin (2025)

Best Fun Events in Austin this Weekend of June 27, 2025

Best Fun Events in Austin this Weekend of June 27 Include Sazon Latin Food Festival, Art In ATX: Pride Market, and More!

Top Kids Events in Austin June 27-29, 2025

Top Kids Events in Austin June 27 – June 29 include Pride Picnic, Dinosaur Day, and More!

Best Events in Austin in July 2025

Celebrate Summer Right: Best July Events in Austin 2025

Recent Posts

  • Best 4th of July 2025 Deals Austin: Dining, Retail & More
  • What’s Open on the 4th of July in Austin (2025)
  • Best Fun Events in Austin this Weekend of June 27 Include Sazon Latin Food Festival, Art In ATX: Pride Market, and More!
  • Top Kids Events in Austin June 27 – June 29 include Pride Picnic, Dinosaur Day, and More!
  • Celebrate Summer Right: Best July Events in Austin 2025

Welcome to The Austinot

We are all about Austin: the vibe, the people and the uniqueness of the city. We love to explore. Get to know us! We’ll respond if you comment. Heck, we’ll probably invite you to come and hang out with us!

Follow along to help support and learn more about local businesses, artists, and events.

-The Austinot Team

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Log in