Post Punk Kitchen Forum

a vegan friend of mine is moving to san diego next month and as i going away present i was thinking of getting her a gift card to a nice restaurant there. can anyone recommend a really nice place?

San Diego isn't in the bay area, it is about 400-500 miles away. I don't know if there are any purely vegan restaurants and my searches haven't discovered any 'really nice' ones if you mean non-casual. I really like Sipz which is a casual, Asian mostly-vegan restaurant.

Spread is one of the nicer vegetarian restaurants.
http://www.spreadtherestaurant.com

Jyoti Bihanga isn't fancy, but it's a sit-down vegetarian restaurant.
http://jyotibihanga.com/

Local Habit is a trendy spot with vegan options.
http://www.mylocalhabit.com/

Another option is the OB People's Co-Op, which is a grocery and an all vegan cafe.
http://obpeoplesfood.coop/

There are no Madeleine Bistro all vegan fancypants type restaurants here, but vegan options are becoming more and more prevalent in mainstream restaurants.

Stephanie's Bakery is right around the corner from People's Co-Op, though it's only open on the weekends. Stephanie's and People's are the best vegan options I've found in SD, which is odd for such a big city. But they are two VERY GOOD options, so seek them out.

We have two Loving Hut's that are all vegan. Sipz is all vegan except for 1 dish I think. People's co-op deli is vegan. Neither Rancho's or Pokez are entirely vegan, but they have numerous great vegan options for Mexican food. Liticker's liquor store has a Mexican place inside with awesome food. My favorite item is the tofu, potato and mushroom burrito from Pokez, but Loving Hut and Sipz are great because of all the variety.

Ranchos is pretty great

I also like sipz, and theres 2 locations now

Stephanies is pretty great too

New spot called Casa de Luz (theres one in austin) just opened, though I have not been there

Local Habit is fun

have you been to Stephanie's recently? I went a few months ago and they barely had anything in their display case, just some sunken in cupcakes and no streudel! I asked about streudel and they sold me some soggy stuff that had been sitting in the refrigerator and wasn't very good. I didn't get pizza there this time, but Stephanie's seems to have gone WAY downhill lately. I miss the days of the bohemian streudel factory.

Veg n' Out used to be my favorite lunch spot.

I have heard such things lately. I think either Stephanie (or whomever owns the place) either makes her/his share of dough from catering and is annoyed by the storefront, or they just dont care. Either way is sad

Yeah that's totally how it seemed. Why keep up the store front?

maybe theyre stuck in a lease

its too bad because everything was so awesome the first time I went there..pizza, strudel, cakes

the last time I went there everything was sort of meh and their dumb hours put me off so I havent gone in over a year

I'll be in San Diego the first weekend in April, with the parents. It doesn't seem like there are that many vegan options for such a large city?

Thankfully, they're pretty open to vegetarian food, but we're visiting a family friend, so even some suggestions for non-vegan restaurants with a few good vegan options would be helpful.

there are tons of vegan options! search around for other threads. I think the reason no one really answered this is because there are already a bunch of threads. I'm at work now, so I don't have time to find the old threads, but if you can't find them let me know and i'll search.

When I go home I never have time to eat at all of the places I want to eat at.

Do you know what part of San Diego you're going to be visiting? We could try to find you some places close to there, so that it wouldn't be annoying for you and your parents.

My totally non-vegan stepfather liked Sipz and Ranchos (OB). My parents actually went back to both places without us.

My mom called me to tell me that she thought Ranchos in Hillcrest was ghetto. I haven't been though but she forgets sometimes where we both grew up.

creep, check out this thread. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=557

Our hotel is in the Gaslamp? Gaslight? District. I admit I didn't actually search, because I saw this thread on the first page.

Gaslamp. You're not too far from Pokez which is excellent. There are also several Indian restaurants nearby with vegan options.

yeah Pokez is right there, thats the best spot and the foods always good although you might have to deal with the moody servers (they work only for tips, semi questionable business model)...next door is Hodads, which is a burger joint that has a vegan burger...although they cook it on the same grill as the regular stuff if thats a deal breaker for ya

Theres a Tapas place w some Vegan options called La Gran Tapa
A Thai place called Mint

I'll warn you about any mexican spot, they sneak all sorts of BS into the food. Lard in the flour tortillas, lard in the beans, sour cream or mayo in the guacamole, chicken broth in the rice, cheese in the potato tacos. And in my experience when you ask about it theyll just lie to you.

If you have access to a cab or car right up the hill a few mins away is Evolution, Golden Dragon, Local Habit..all sorts of spots with a ton of options.

Have fun

There is a place near my parents that sells vegetarian burritos. The beans are actually ok but the rice they use has chicken broth. There are a lot of places like that.

If you are down with Ethiopian food then I highly recommend eating at Muzita! The menu isn't 100% vegan but all vegan options are clearly marked, the food is incredible, aaaand lately they have had a vegan chocolate cashew creme brule for dessert that is pretty out of control.
http://muzita.com/

Like others mentioned Sipz is always worth checking out and they have vegan sushi in the evenings.

Blind lady ale house is another favorite, they have an awesome craft beer selection and most of their pizzas can be made vegan, the vegan pesto with pickled red onions is super good.

creep, you should definitely go to pokez and order a burrito (with sauce!). or to evolution and eat lots and lots of burgers and chik'n tenders for me while I'm here : ( haha.
I like ranchos (tempeh or chorizo torta, agua fresca, totopos D:), too, but pokez and evolution are my fav.

Thanks! I'll keep all of those in mind.

Oops, so we're actually going the second week of April, not the first. We're staying at a hotel on 5th Ave. Pokez is like 4-5 blocks away, so it'll be nice having something close that I can run away to if no one wants to eat vegan food with me.

oh yeah, that's perfect! pokez is not necessarily the place you want to take your parents just because sometimes the service is AWFUL and I can forgive it because the food is so good and cheap, but your parents might be less forgiving if they aren't that excited about vegan food. There's meat there, too, but there are plenty of other places to go for good non vegan mexican food.

My mom told me it was going to be warm there, so I was all shopping for a swimsuit and shorts. I just looked at the weather. 50s and 60s? AW HELLZ NAW. That's long sleeve & jeans weather.