9 Best Vegan Restaurants in Salt Lake City

Whether you are strictly vegan or not, there’s no denying that there are both environmental and health benefits to consuming plant-based food. Salt Lake City has jumped on this trend following suit of other cities (we see you, Seattle, Portland, Denver…) with new and innovative menus. Whether you’re looking for faux meat, vegetables in their purest form, or an irresistibly flaky vegan croissant, we’ve got you covered.

In this guide, we’re featuring restaurants that are either strictly vegan or predominantly plant-based and are serving delicious, Female Foodie-approved food. Without further ado, here is our guide to the best vegan restaurants in Salt Lake City.

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9. Mark of the Beastro

Located at 666 State Street, be prepared to hail seitan and get cozy among the black and red interior of one of the best vegan restaurants in Salt Lake City. They offer all day breakfast, sandwiches, and burgers, so this is the spot to hit when you want a classic diner taste. We love the Garlic Mushroom Burger. It comes with an extra soft and squishy bun and cheesy garlic sauce atop a meaty patty. Thin-cut golden fries are served alongside. Playful satanic vibes aside, you can’t help but feel comforted and cozy eating a meal here.

8. Yumz

Yumz offers the best vegan Mexican food in Salt Lake City. Birria is all the rage in the Mexican food scene lately, and the birria from Yumz is no exception. The tender, shredded jackfruit birria is encased in crispy tacos and served alongside a rich consomé, heavy with chili flavor. The side of Caribbean-style black beans are soupy and creamy, and the rice is soft and buttery. 

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7. Vertical Diner

What started as a food cart at the local farmers market decades ago eventually expanded to one of the best vegan restaurants in Salt Lake City. And you know a restaurant is good when it’s been around since the nineties! The menu is completely vegan and is about 30% organic. Get the crispy chicken fried steak which comes topped with a thick and creamy gravy. While the bacon is the least convincing thing on the menu, the smokey and mapley flavor make it worth ordering as a side.

6. All Chay

We have no complaints that many of Salt Lake City’s vegan restaurants specialize in classic American fare, but All Chay is special because it offers classic Vietnamese dishes with vegan flair. The banh mi comes with thin slabs of gingery tofu and delicately sliced apples, which offer tartness and sweetness to this savory sandwich. The noodle dishes are spot on, too. Try the Mongolian noodles, which come with rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, cucumber, mint, lettuce, and Mongolian chicken-less chicken. The chicken comes thinly sliced, with a meaty texture and a flavorful marinade. And don’t sleep on the egg rolls, which are served on the side. 

5. Old Cuss

What started out as a mobile coffee camper has evolved into the beautiful and light-filled Western-style cafe by the name of Old Cuss, offering some of the best vegan food in Salt Lake City. They specialize in coffee, vegan fare, and even have curated vintage clothing and other goods by local vendors for sale. We love their chewy ciabatta breakfast sandwiches, loaded with fresh, crunchy veggies. The BBQ jackfruit with the smoky, spicy breakfast burrito is also a top choice. However, the menu changes often, so you might as well become a regular to ensure you don’t miss out on any of their delicious offerings. 

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4. Buds

Bud’s is a classic sandwich shop with a walk-up window and outdoor seating, and offers some of the best vegan food in Salt Lake City. The sandwiches here are hearty and comforting, and full to the brim with faux meat and cheesy goodness. The cheesesteak is a classic, with peppered veggie steak, smoky cheese sauce, grilled onions, and bell peppers. If you want something that feels lighter, the pesto sub is another favorite. Packed with chunks of grilled veggie chicken, doused in a walnut basil pesto, and accompanied by spring greens, tomato, red onions, and balsamic vinaigrette, it’s the perfect spring and summer sandwich to take on the go to your favorite park. 

3. Rawtopia

Rawtopia offers some of the freshest, most vegetable-forward, and best vegan fare in Salt Lake City. Start with the baked stuffed mushrooms—baby bella mushrooms are loaded with Thai cashew cream, spinach, scallion, and almond/sunflower seed cheese, all served with a drizzle of blueberry vinaigrette dressing. Next, move on to the Egousi. Inspired by West African stew, the Egousi comes with unrefined cold-pressed palm oil, dark leafy greens, seeds, mushrooms, ginger, and West African spices. Black rice, plantains, and sweet basil salad are served on the side. This stew is hearty, warming, and comforting. If you need further convincing to try out one of the top vegan spots in Salt Lake City, Martha Stewart stopped by here for dinner on a recent trip!

2. Sweet Hazel and Co. Bakeshop and Bistro

Sweet Hazel is not only one of the best vegan spots in the SLC area, but it’s also our top recommendation for where to bring your non-vegan friends who are wary of vegan food. Sweet Hazel offers classic sandwiches and burgers that are convincing dupes of the real thing. Think BLTs, pastrami reubens, and ranch chicken sandwiches. Their garlic mushroom Swiss burger comes with a soft bun, umami garlic sauce, and meaty flavor. You also absolutely need to order a pile of crispy curly fries on the side. 

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1. Blatch’s Backyard BBQ

Blatch’s Backyard BBQ serves up the best vegan food in Salt Lake City. Not only does Christopher Blatchford shell out perfect vegan BBQ out of his adorable blue house on 4th Avenue and I Street every Friday, but each Wednesday he serves up something new, innovative, and tasty. He smokes everything in his backyard and sources his veggies and sides from his own garden. Here’s an example of a recent Wednesday special: a giant crispy, cornflake-crusted chickenless (seitan) cutlet topped with vegan bacon, garlic citrus slaw, dilly ranch, and vegan old bay buffalo sauce sandwiched between a chewy bun. The side of smoked poblano potato salad is the cherry on top. Blatchford pays attention to every detail and boy do those details shine through! Follow along on his Instagram to keep up on the Wednesday specials, as well as keep tabs on how to pick up.

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7. Monkeywrench

Located centrally on Gallivan Avenue, Monkeywrench offers vegan treats like s’mores hot chocolate, double chocolate brownies, and small-batch ice cream, making it the perfect place to grab dessert after visiting a restaurant downtown. You can’t go wrong with the ice cream, and you can even choose to make it into a sundae or a milkshake for an extra decadent experience. 

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6. Passion Flour

The founder of Passion Flour studied at the The French Pastry School in Chicago before returning home to Utah to open up a vegan cafe and pastry shop here. So you know this is gonna be good. The almond croissant is a big hit—delicate, flaky layers wrap around creamy almond paste. The fruit tart is also delicious: a crunchy shell with a layer of chocolate, cream, and fresh berries. 

5. Old Cuss

Old Cuss offers a rotating cast of soft, chewy, perfect cookies baked in-house. They’re all delicious, but the flavors rotate so if they have the classic salted dark chocolate chip or the chai spice snickerdoodle, you’re in luck! During the summer, they offer cobblers and crisps on the weekends. 

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4. City Cakes

City Cakes offers vegan baked goods like bagels, cinnamon rolls, brownies, and lemon bars. The peanut butter bar is the best of the best—a brownie crust piled high with creamy peanut butter and a glossy chocolate top. The moist and nutty carrot cake is also not to be missed.

3. Sweet Hazel and Co. Bakeshop and Bistro

Sweet Hazel offers an array of baked goods and candy bars, like peanut butter cups and copycat Snickers and Twix, which have a thick chocolate shell and a chewy crunch. They also have a whole display case of baked goods, like Funfetti Cake, Tiramisu, and cannolis. Go for whatever your heart desires—it’s not often you get such a spread of delicious vegan desserts!—but the Tiramisu is perfectly creamy and rich, and you can’t go wrong with one of the candy bars. 

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2. Rawtopia

End your meal at Rawtopia with a slice of decadently creamy cheesecake—one of the best vegan desserts in Salt Lake City. The coconut almond crust is topped with tart coconut-cashew cream, then drizzled with fresh berry sauce and dried berry puree. Opt to add a scoop of ice cream, or not. This dessert shines on its own.

1. Normal

Normal is our pick for the best vegan dessert in Salt Lake City. Utah is lucky to have Normal and the diversity of flavors they bring to Salt Lake City’s ice cream scene. The flavors rotate monthly, and they always have vegan offerings, like apricot or clementine sorbet. Take a recent vegan concoction for example: coconut cream soft serve dipped in a chocolate shell and sprinkled with crunchy honeycomb pieces. Are you drooling yet?