Post Punk Kitchen Forum

What are the best places to eat/drink in walking distance of Harvard? Restaurant, café, and bar suggestions are all welcome.

I've never been to Veggie Planet, but that's a vegetarian pizza place with a lot of vegan options.

JP Licks is an ice cream place with vegan options - they have hemp and soy varieties.

Clover Food Lab is a great stop for sandwiches. They're all vegetarian by default, and any can be made vegan. I recommend the chickpea fritter. (Their rosemary fries are pretty good, too.)

If you're feeling adventurous enough to hop on the T and take it one stop (or walk for a mile on a nice day), you'll find a few places in Central Square that have excellent options - Veggie Galaxy and Life Alive, for example.

There are actually lot of good places right in the square. In addition to Veggie Planet, 9 Tastes is a Thai restaurant with lots of options, and there are several Indian restaurants, as well as a Wagamama. The Border is also a good bet: cheap margaritas, and the veggie fajitas are especially yummy (and enormous).

Oh yeah, I forgot about Border Cafe! Just make sure you ask for no cheese and no sour cream on the side, AND no cheese on top of the black beans. It is pretty busy there, though, so be prepared for a wait if you're in a party of more than 2.

A million yeses for 9 Tastes. I used to order from them all of the time and they were great.

Also, Crema Cafe has some really good sandwiches that are vegan and it's right in the square. My favorite is the one with green apple, sweet potato, hummus, sprouts, avocado, and a shallot sauce on Iggy's bread. They also have a really good Thai peanut sandwich, ginger lemonade, sweet potato chips, coffee with soy milk, and sometimes they'll have vegan biscotti. If you plan on purchasing something smaller than $10, bring cash.

Chutney's is in the Garage (which is in the square) and has cheap, fast Indian food with some vegan options. It's really good, and they have 99 cent samosas.

Alternatively, like others have mentioned, there's Veggie Planet, Clover, Veggie Galaxy (central), Life Alive (central), the Middle East (central), Falafel Palace (central), and I think Clear Conscious Cafe (central) may have vegan options. If you want to go really cheap and fast, Au Bon Pain (right next to Harvard station) has good vegan soup and they have soy milk for coffee (go up to the food counter and ask for it). There's also BOLOCO which has kickass burritos of every kind and they carry tofu. And speaking of that, there's also a Chipotle in the square (as you get closer to the Charles River).

If you want to drink alcohol while eating, you can do it at Veggie Planet, Clover, Veggie Galaxy, Life Alive, and the Middle East (I believe). If you're looking for coffee there's Au Bon Pain, Crema Cafe, Peets, Simon's Cafe (Mass Ave, near Porter- they also have vegan muffins), and Starbucks.

What?? I know where the next meetup should be!

Last time I was at Veggie Planet their pizza oven had died, not sure if they got a new one yet. I like their pizza but it appears they've also switched to Daiya now which is a bummer- they used to be one of the last holdouts who had Teese.

They found a new pizza oven on the 25th but it won't arrive for a couple of weeks so still no pizza. They still serve other awesome vegan food, though, and if it's not already vegan, everything on the menu can be made vegan. I didn't know they switched to Daiya. I like Daiya but sometimes I need a break from it and I thought that Teese really worked for the kind of food that they made.

They're serving quite a few things in iggy's ciabatta while they wait for the new oven. We took takeout from there to Cambridge common for a picnic over the weekend. Maybe we can do that for our picnic meetup?

I'm not positive they've totally switched over but last time I went the waiter told me they were serving Daiya. Next time I'll ask if they still have Teese as well.

Wow. This is exciting! Thank you all for your advice and recommendations. I'm especially looking forward to JP Licks, 9 Tastes, Wagamama (!?! I didn't know there were any stateside!), and that green apple sweet potato concoction Mr. Shankly describes.

the cupcake place called Sweet had vegan cupcakes but only on mondays for some bizarre reason.
i cant tell you if they are any good since i went on the wrong day :-/

They're absolutely disgusting. Don't go there. I've never met a vegan who liked that cupcake. It's a plain, overpriced, boring, dry, tasteless, chocolate cupcake that tastes like they didn't put any sugar in it.

If you want cupcakes then I suggest the Kickass Cupcakes truck which is usually just outside of Harvard Yard (where Oxford and Kirkland st meet). They only have one but I've always liked their cupcakes. It's usually there until 2:30pm. Harvard has been doing a lot of construction lately so it might not be there, but if you're in that general area, you can give it a shot.

Cupcake truck!

What are the best cafés for working/writing?

Pamplona is my favorite. Crema is good, too, but it's harder to find a seat.

well now im glad i was there on the wrong day!!!

Yeah, Crema is usually packed but if you can find a seat, it's really nice.