San Francisco is a city with a lot of vegan options — most restaurants have something or know how to accommodate a vegan. As a whole though, it’s hard to say that SF is quite as good as vegan utopias like New York City and Los Angeles. That’s not to say there aren’t some absolutely incredible vegan options in SF — there are, and they should be celebrated loud and proud. Here’s my fully biased guide to SF Vegan Eats.
How do I determine what does or does not make the list? I only have one metric — would I take a visiting friend here. The food on this list is the kind that will make you go “this is amazing” and not add “for vegan food” at the end.
Best All-Vegan Restaurants in San Francisco
Om Sabor
Address: 370 Grove St, San Francisco, CA 94102 (Located in Phonobar)
Pros: Great atmosphere (mixed with Phonobar), not too expensive, diverse menu, solid happy hour specials (5-7pm tu-th)
Cons: Only open for dinner, can get busy.
Shizen
Address: 370 14th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Pros: Best Vegan Sushi in San Francisco, almost everyone who goes here loves it. Very healthy, minimally processed food.
Cons: Expensive, Can be hard to reserve, 90 minute max-seating.
Golden Era Vegetarian
Address: 395 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
Pros: Great tasting authentic chinese food. Inexpensive
Cons: Location is right next to the Tenderloin, do not walk here from Union Square.
Notes & Honorable Mentions
Only 3 vegan restaurants make the cut in San Francisco. There were more (I miss you Open Table), and I fully believe that this list will continue to grow.
Places I haven’t tried yet: Enjoy Vegetarian, Nourish Cafe, Judahlicious.
Honorable Mentions
Rad Radish — Wildseed Burger and Spicy Sausage Pizza are both good, but not holy shit good. Still a nice spot to go to and bring friends.
MrCharlie’s — Vegan take on McDonalds. Burgers are enjoyable, the concept and owner are awesome.
Best Restaurants with Vegan Options in San Francisco
Souvla – Black Sheep Plant-Based Lamb Sandwich, No Cheese & Yogurt
Pros:
The vegan lamb sandwich at Souvla is actually purely delicious. Probably the take-out order I’ve placed the most since living in SF. Every person I’ve introduced it to has loved it. Despite having few other vegan options on the menu, their vegan lamb sandwich is a home-run-grand-slam. Just make sure to ask for no cheese and no yogurt. The only thing that would make this better is if they added some hummus or tahini to replace removing yogurt/cheese
Cons:
Bit pricy. Has to be made vegan.
Marufuku – Vegetable Ramen, No Egg
Address: 1581 Webster St #235, San Francisco, CA 94115
Pros:
Arguably the best vegan ramen I’ve had, ever. The miso broth is just incredible. The thin spinach noodles are chewy, and the veggies & tofu go well in the ramen. Pro Tip is to add chili oil — it takes this dish from great to amazing. This is how you do vegan ramen.
Cons:
Marufuku in Japantown gets busy. Very busy, especially during peak hours. You have to remove the egg (wish they would make it vegan first and egg-add optional).
Señor Sisig
Address: 990 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Señor Sisig is an amazing filipino spot located in the Mission District (they also have food trucks). Better yet, they have an entirely vegan menu that you can order from
Pros:
California Burrito is amazing. Sisig burrito is amazing. They have multiple vegan proteins to choose from. Vegan filipino food!
Cons:
Food truck doesn’t have the same menu as the main location and is sometimes lower quality.
Meet Nathan
Nathan loves to learn and share. A lifelong vegan, he spends his time working towards the goal of a cruelty-free world. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S in economics, and wants to inspire conscious consumption in the food industry.
You can find him obsessing over volleyball in San Francisco.
