Vegan Restaurants in New Orleans

Vegan cuisine isn't what comes to mind when I think of New Orleans. From crawfish étouffée to shrimp creole, and jambalaya to po boys, New Orleans isn't the most vegan-friendly city I have been to. But even though Louisiana signature cuisine is pretty much off limits to vegans, vegan food can still be found here. Here are my top 5 vegan-friendly restaurants in New Orleans!

The Gumbo Shop - 630 St Peter St, New Orleans, LA 70116

  You cannot visit New Orleans without trying some gumbo and po boys, vegan or not! So the Gumbo Shop, located in the French Quarter, was a must as that was the only place I knew of that had either one. The gumbo soup was seasoned with creole spices and filled with red beans, rice, and okra while the po boy was white sandwich bread filled with grilled vegetables. Both were light yet satisfying, perfect for lunch. The vegan/vegetarian menu is separate from the regular menu so ask for it upon arriving.

Dat Dog - 601 Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA 70116

Dat Dog is another vegan-friendly restaurant perfect for lunch, with three vegan dogs on the menu. With Spicy Chipotle, Field Roast Italian, and Smoked Apple Sage veggie dogs, they give vegans interesting options rather than a plain flavored hot dog. For toppings there is a long list to choose from, making every dog unique to your taste. Out of the Field Roast Italian and the Smoked Apple Sage veggie dogs, the Apple Sage was my favorite, topping them both with ketchup, mustard, pickles and onions. The veggie dogs pair great with the seasoned fries too!

Mid City Pizza - 4400 Banks St, New Orleans, LA 70119

Mid City Pizza was one of my favorite restaurants to eat at while in New Orleans. In my opinion they not only have the best pizza in NOLA, but the best pizza I've ever had. I got the 18 inch build your own 5 topping pizza with daiya cheese, artichokes, green bell pepper, mushrooms, and black olives, and it was so big it took my boyfriend and I three meals to finish it all. We still had some the next day. Definitely worth $20.

Sukhothai - 2200 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70117

Another one of my favorite restaurants, not only in New Orleans but in the world, is Sukhothai. It's a good thing I don't live in New Orleans as I would go broke here. They have an extensive list of vegan options so if you love Asian food this is the place to go. My boyfriend and I ordered the fried eggplant, glass noodles, and pad thai. If we hadn't discovered this restaurant on our last day in New Orleans, I would have loved to have eaten here more so I could try every vegan thing on their menu. Loved their large portions also. One thing to keep in mind is that they close in the middle of the day then open back up later, so check the times before you go to make sure they aren't closed.

Seed - 1330 Prytania St, New Orleans, LA 70130

The last restaurant is Seed. This is the only 100% vegan restaurant I know of in New Orleans. It makes it nice for vegans to go to a restaurant and not having to worry about if we can eat it or not. Here I tried the chili cheese fries, eggplant pomodoro which is basically fried eggplant over spaghetti, zucchini salad, and beignets. Yes, beignets! The only place in NOLA with vegan beignets, and is actually how I found out about this restaurant. My favorites were the salad and the beignets, funny because I don't like salad, but I loved the flavor the filling inside the zucchini rolls gave.

That is it for my top 5 vegan restaurants in New Orleans. It took my boyfriend and I forever to find vegan options so I hope this list helps hungry vegans in NOLA. Definitely give these restaurants a try for delicious vegan food! Also make sure to check out my New Orleans video on YouTube!

OKLAHOMA CITY + VEGAN AT ON THE BORDER

Yesterday was day 3 of our journey across America. We left the hotel around 11pm and stopped by a Pilot gas station at almost 1am for midnight snacks and drinks. I got a Dragonfruit Oolong tea, which had caffeine, so I didn't end up falling asleep in the car until almost 4am. I woke up around 6am and saw that we were pulled over on the side of the road. At first I was frazzled, wondering why were we stopped, but then I looked ahead and saw Brianna outside taking pictures of a "Welcome to Texas" sign. I put my sandals on, got out, took pictures of the Texas sign and ran down the freeway to get a picture of the "You Are Now Leaving New Mexico" sign. We also watched the sun rise while we were parked, which was really beautiful as the sky illuminated a bright orange hue.

Around 7am we started to get hungry, but we saw no familiar restaurants to chose from. For most people, this would not have been a problem. It's always nice to try something new, right? Well, not always, especially when you're vegan. With no way to look up what they had on their menus, it would have taken up too much time to stop by each restaurant to ask if they had vegan options. So we decided to keep driving until we saw a restaurant we knew. Well, around 8am, 10am, and even 12pm, already out of Texas and well into Oklahoma by now, we still came across no familiar restaurants! Around 1pm we reached Oklahoma City, where there were plenty of hotels to rest at and various restaurants to chose from! It was such a relief!

In Oklahoma City, we stayed in a Days Inn on South Meridian Avenue, which had the most comfortable beds ever! We unloaded the car, got situated into our hotel, and was off to eat lunch! We were so excited to eat at a Chili's down the road, but on our way there, we saw an On the Border, a.k.a one of our most favorite restaurants ever! We hadn't been to an On the Border in about 8-10 years because the one closest to our home went out of business. So naturally, we changed our minds and decided to eat there instead. Kuyuki and I obviously hadn't been there since being vegan but were super excited when we saw they had a Grilled Portobello Mushroom Border Bowl! We both ordered that, without the cheese, plus we added some of the Tableside Guacamole we ordered as an appetizer to our bowls. It was so good we saved some to heat up later instead of eating it all at once. It gave us something to look forward to later in the day. Funny how food can do that. If you're not a vegan, you MUST get their Kahlua Ice Cream Pie. It is literally the best dessert I have ever had in my life! My mom and I talk about how good it is all the time. Even when I transitioned to a vegan lifestyle and told my parents I am going vegan, one of the first things my mother said was, "Now you can't have the Kahlua Ice Cream Pie at On the Border!" My mother and I are so obsessed with it that she asked if I would forget about my vegan diet for a few minutes so that way we can eat one together. Of course I said no, but oh how I wish it was a vegan dessert! After lunch, we went back to the hotel and rested up until it was time to hit the road again around 11pm.

At the moment, we are in Memphis, Tennessee at another Motel 6 waiting to get dinner and are debating whether or not to go to Graceland later...but more on what we did today in tomorrow's post!

GOODBYE ARIZONA, HELLO NEW MEXICO

Today's post might be a shorter one as I am half asleep at the moment. I am currently in Oklahoma City getting ready to leave this hotel and hit the road again to get to the next. I believe we only have twelve more hours to get to our destination in Maryville, Tennessee, so hopefully if we drive long enough, we will make it by tomorrow afternoon! 

Yesterday was such a long day that I didn't even have the will to stay awake to make a post about what we got up to that day, so that is what I want to talk a little bit about tonight. While my mother and sisters are awake all night during our drives, I am sleeping in the front seat. I woke up around 6am and noticed we were still in Arizona but was about to be reaching New Mexico. I have only been on two other road trips, but I find it so fascinating to drive through all the different states and get excited when we reach a new one. What I've noticed on all these road trips is that the further you get away from Southern California, the greener it gets and the more wildlife you see randomly on the road. 

Around 9am, our mother was tired, so we stopped at the Arizona Welcome Center. To pass the time, Brianna and I walked around and took pictures of landscapes and even took some shots in the streets (while no one was coming of course). People kept driving up to us asking what we were doing, so finally we came to the conclusion that people probably think we are weird and that we should go back to the car. Once we got on the freeway again, it only took a minute or two to reach New Mexico. 

We started getting hungry around 11am, but not enough for a full meal, so when we stopped at the gas station, we all picked out some snacks to eat in the car. I got a Chia Cherry Lime Naked Juice, as well as a Vanilla Almond and Chocolate Peanut Butter Clif Builder Bars. I don't usually get store-bought protein bars anymore because of all the added sugars and oils, but I had never even seen these Clif Builder flavors anywhere before so I thought I'd try them. I ate the Chocolate Peanut Butter one and it was really good. Can't wait to try the other one!

We found a Motel 6 to stay at in Albuqurque, New Mexico so we could rest up. Once we dropped our cat, snake, and belongings off in our room, we ate lunch across the street at Denny's. I ordered the Fit Fare Veggie Skillet which is always so delicious! I get it every time. It comes with potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and normally egg whites, but I of course asked for that to be taken off. Lunch was great and afterwards we headed back to the hotel to sleep. I stayed up though to type this post and watch YouTube videos. Enjoy these pictures from the day!