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Eating your veggies has never been easier
Plant eaters, rejoice: there are more vegetarian and vegan food options in Alberta than ever before. Whether you’re looking for a vegan-friendly restaurant for dinner or a local market to buy ingredients for a plant-based meal at home, veggie options are close by.
Planting the seeds
Veganism had a slow start in Alberta, but a few spots specialized in veggie-based food before it was mainstream. “Veganism has definitely increased significantly in Alberta,” says Rose Lee, host of YouTube cooking channel Cheap Lazy Vegan and co-owner of Calgary’s saVeg Cafe. “Veganism seemed almost non-existent a few years ago but recently, I've noticed a larger number of vegan establishments and vegan options. When I opened my café in 2018, we were one of the first fully vegan cafés in Calgary. Now, there are a few more full-service vegan/vegetarian restaurants and cafes and hopefully more to come."
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In Edmonton, Café Mosaics has been serving vegetarian and vegan dishes, like their renowned Huevos Rancheros and Tofu Scramble, since the mid-1990s. Padmanadi, which opened in 2002, is another of the city’s original veggie-only restaurants serving a blend of Indonesian, Chinese, Thai and Indian cuisine — their ginger “beef” (made from textured soy protein) has been a hit among both vegans and meat-eaters for years.
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In Calgary, The Coup is one of the city’s oldest vegetarian eateries, serving great veggie options, like their vegan benedict and tempeh shawarma, since 2004. Hearts Choices is another stalwart of Calgary’s vegan scene, serving mouth-watering vegan and vegetarian Thai food from their kiosk at the Calgary Farmers’ Market since 2011 and at their café market.
On the retail side, Amaranth Whole Foods Market has offered Calgarians a variety of vegetarian and vegan food options since the 1990s.
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Green and growing
The vegan food scene in Alberta really started to grow in the last few years, and demand grew for vegan ingredients at restaurants and grocery stores alike.
Long-time organic grocer Ron Horricks opened the first Blush Lane Organic Market in Calgary in 2008 and it has since expanded to another two locations in Calgary and one in Edmonton. Edmonton eco-retailer Earth’s General Store began selling food products, including lots of vegan options, in 2010. Richmond-based Orii Vegan Market is another recent addition to Edmonton.
Both Edmonton and Calgary also saw plant-based leaders emerge from the food truck scene in both cities.
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In 2015, The Buckingham switched to a full vegan menu — prepared by the team from Sailin’ On food truck — and proved to Edmonton diners that pub food could be both delicious and vegan at the same time. Those corn dogs are a dead ringer for the real thing.
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Similarly, Calgarians couldn’t get enough of Vegan Street’s tacos and burgers when their food truck started rolling around town in 2018, prompting them to open a brick-and-mortar location in 2020.
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There are now many options for both fully vegan and plant-based friendly options in both of Alberta’s major cities. In Edmonton, The Clever Rabbit’s homestyle vegan comfort food serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner, while The Moth Café rewards customers with its mouth-watering vegan and raw menu, brought to you by the same family behind Café Mosaics.
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Calgary’s first veggie restaurants are joined by Tamarin Vietnamese Grill and Noodle House, which also converted to fully vegan in 2015, WholeLifeGo’s delicious vegan takeaway options including sushi and sandwiches, SaVeg’s tasty bowls and hand-held options, and V Burger with their lip-smacking plant-based burgers that are as good as the real thing.
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The major cities even have vegan chains, including Copper Branch, the world’s largest plant-based chain.
Full flower
You can still find veggie options outside of the main cities, too. Nourish Bistro, sister restaurant to Calgary’s The Coup, is Banff’s dedicated vegetarian restaurant. In Jasper, you can find many great plant-based options at The Olive and The Raven.
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In Central Alberta, brothers Dany and Spon Sok run a pair of restaurants — Bamboo Hut in Sylvan Lake and Blue Dragon in Red Deer — with many vegetarian and vegan options. Dany’s wife and business partner, Sharon Diep, has been a vegan for more than 10 years and helped influence their menu to be more accessible for vegans.
“When I first became vegan, it required a lot of creative problem solving to find menu items that could be ‘accidentally vegan,’” Diep says. “Now we are seeing more people interested in eating vegan. Sharing food is why we’re here, regardless of what our personal diets or preferences may be, so that’s why we have various options and different ways to celebrate around the table.”
Elsewhere in the province, more and more restaurants are adding veggie-friendly options all the time. Enter your location on the Happy Cow site and you’ll find everything plant-based near you.