Vegan in Toronto – 5 Recommendations

Toronto has a lot to offer – being a vegan in Toronto is easy! On my last visit I was there for a week of work and had the opportunity to eat at four great places. At work they provided me with a vegan plate for every lunch, different every day – the catering company is certainly worth looking into if you are catering in Toronto and looking for a vegan option.

Going to Toronto is always a bit of an adventure for this small town vegan! I usually stay in the heart of the city, my preference is to be able to walk from my hotel for meals after work.

This last trip I ventured out to three vegan friendly spots close to the hotel and one that required a taxi. I am really just skimming the surface of what it’s like to be a Vegan in Toronto. Next time I go there, I will scope out some more awesome vegan friendly restaurants.

Here is where I went this time….

Vegan in Toronto including:

• Fresh
• Grasslands
• The Hogtown Vegan
• Golden Thai
• Peter and Paul’s Catering

Fresh http://www.freshrestaurants.ca/

Fresh on Spadina is totally vegan and it’s packed for dinner. I guess the people of Toronto know a good thing when they see it!

I could go to Fresh every day, several times a day! The food was so delicious and the service was wonderful. I thought that I would try something a bit different than I usually make a home and asked the server what some of the favourites were.

For a starter, I decided on steamed greens that came with a delicious sauce – wonderful!

Next I ordered the squash tacos – salad style that also came with a super flavourful sauce. I think I ate every bite it was so good. Of course I wanted dessert and was just too full, so I gotta go back and try some other tasty vegan food.

Fresh has a cookbook that you can order on-line I am going to pre-order mine today! http://www.freshrestaurants.ca/cookbooks I know the recipes will be amazing and you never have enough great vegan cookbooks. So inspirational!

Thanks Fresh!

Grasslands http://www.grasslands.to/

This restaurant underwent some recent renovations, a name change and updated its menu, it is fantastic! I really enjoyed the décor and the booth was super comfy.

I met a friend who has a young child and she was going to be a bit late, so I decided to have a drink to start. I wanted something refreshing and chose the cucumber lemonade with fresh cucumber juice, lemon, simple syrup, mint and a salted rim – I asked them to hold the syrup and it was a great way to quench my thirst with the heat wave in the city.

When my friend arrived, we shared the artichoke humus to start and it was very tasty and a wonderful dish to share.

For dinner, Lindsay had the Chimichurri Tofu charbroiled sweet and spicy tofu cutlet, chili pepita and barbeque sauce. Needless to say a big dish and so good she took the leftovers home for later.

I had the Crusted Chicken (made with seitan). My entrée was served with maple scented yam mash, assorted seasonal vegetables, thyme roasted fingerling potatoes, and a mushroom red wine reduction. Beautiful….I did eat all of mine!

We browsed the dessert menu and really we were to full and satisfied. Next time Grasslands!

The Hogtown Vegan http://www.hogtownvegan.com/

Well I was curious that’s for sure. The first question I asked, was what is the background on the name? A little unusual for a vegan restaurant. Well it seems that is an old nickname for Toronto! There are a few hogtown establishments in Toronto…be sure you get the right one! They tag themselves as serving vegan comfort food. So true…mac and cheese, burgers, chilli cheese fries, pepper-steak and dumplings…just to name a few. All vegan, I promise!
I decided to try the southern combo….breaded, fried soy chicken strips, our creamy mac n’ “cheese” and sautéed garlic collard greens served with a side of house-made BBQ sauce. Very tasty food, a little on the heavy side for me….and if you like comfort food and big meals, this is the place for you! Definitely worth a visit, the service was awesome…the décor…well its called Hogtown! A little out of the way for the down-town crowd. Vegan in Toronto? Swing by and see what you think.

Golden Thai  http://www.goldenthai.ca

The Golden Thai as soon as you arrive you know you’ve made a great choice. We went to the restaurant around 5 and its already filling up quickly. A Toronto community favourite that has a history of great Thai food.

We started out with vegetable rolls with a lovely spicy chilli sauce. I choose my all time favourite Thai curry and my dinner companion, Margaret, my non vegan friend,  choose the chicken with Massaman Curry, peanut chicken curry with hints of cinnamon and cardamom. She said it was soooo delicious!

I asked the server to be sure that my order would be vegan and he assured me it would. I love that! Margaret, a non vegan was of course happy with her selection.

Peter and Pauls Catering http://bypeterandpauls.com/

This Hospitality and Entertaining Group supplied most of our lunches for the five days I was facilitating workshops in Toronto. It is nice to be able to get some vegan food with a little bit of flair and variety, especially when using the same caterers for five days. Thanks Peter and Paul!

I had a veggie tofu screwer, salads, grilled veggie sandwich, breakfast patties, fresh fruit, chocolate covered strawberries to name a few things. My biggest appreciation was the variety each and every day. All vegan! Wonderful. So if you are catering and need to supply some vegan options, give these guys a chance.