The Best Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants In Dallas

Drive by Cosmic Café and you’ll want to stop and see what it’s about. Decorated in bright colors with cosmic murals, Cosmic Café has been a staple of Dallas for 22 years, serving both vegetarian and vegan cuisine in a cool atmosphere. It has always focused on providing tasty vegetarian food, shying away from fads and trends for the most part. The menu is filled with tomato soup, hummus, enchiladas and pizza. Perhaps, the most interesting aspect of the Cosmic Café is the yoga and meditation classes it offers daily for a small optional donation of $5.

The thought of finding a panaderia, a Mexican bakery, offering vegetarian and vegan options is almost unheard of – but not in Dallas. El Palote Panaderia offers tacos, tamales and burritos filled with soy meats marinated in spicy Mexican flavors and paired with rice and refried beans. Its pastries are also vegan with such creativity seen in how it adds a chocolate cream cheese icing made of tofu to its cookies. The Arias family who runs the panaderia are all vegans after the father Aurelio, change to a vegan lifestyle to combat heart and cholesterol problems. Visitors here can be sure that most everything is made in-house, including the soy meat, as well as the egg and lard substitutes.

Meat-free eaters don’t have to sacrifice their love for Vietnamese food in Dallas because it’s home to D’Vegan, a vegetarian and vegan Vietnamese restaurant. Set in the Hong Kong Market (a Chinese and Vietnamese grocery store), D’Vegan offers all your favorites like pho, banh mi and spring rolls – without meat. The restaurant was opened by Don Duong and his family to cater to the Vietnamese Buddhist vegetarian community in Dallas, and today serves classic Vietnamese favorites with soy protein and vegetables, even offering pho to gluten-free folks with a zucchini pho option.

V Eats Modern Vegan is a vegan restaurant at Trinity Groves that specializes in tasty plant-based “meats.” Its chefs work to create the texture and taste of meat for its dishes, offering Dallasites and visitors a unique dining experience. The menu at V Eats is diverse, offering everything from Penne Arrabbiata to tacos, pizza, chicken fried steak, chili cheese dogs and brisket sandwiches that are meat-free.

Kalachandji’s is Dallas’ longest-serving vegetarian restaurant, boasting 35 years on the DFW scene. Its menu is mostly focused on Indian cuisine, with a strong commitment to using fresh ingredients and explicitly stating which items on its menu are gluten-free or contain dairy. Meals are served buffet-style for lunch and dinner and can change day-to-day, with updates available on its website. The restaurant is set in a lovely courtyard in the Hare Krishna temple of Dallas, the Radha Kalachandji Temple.