Vegan Options In Gainesville

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Contents 1 Disclaimer 2 Vegan 3 Vegetarian and Probably Vegan 4 Vegetarian and Questionably Vegan 5 Vegetarian and Not Vegan 6 Places to Check Out Still 7 Not in Gainesville But Damn Tasty and Vegan

Disclaimer

This is all based on my personal research. I scour the Internet for information. I call restaurants. I email corporate offices. I could get bad information, and you could end up eating some animal bits. As with everything else in life, this is best guess based on the information I've dug up.

Vegan

• Szechuan Palace. Buddha's delight is always an option. During the day there's a mixed steamed veggies option on the buffet that goes splendidly with steamed white rice.
• Five Star Pizza. Five Star will prepare a pizza without cheese upon request.
• Subway. Veggie sub on Italian bread. This information is from Subway's nutrition FAQs.
• Cracker Barrel. House salad with Italian dressing and no cheese or bacon.
• Boston Market. Tossed salad (no croutons), cranberry walnut relish, fruit salad, zuchini marinara, apple cobbler, cinnamon applesauce.
• Taco Bell. Bean burrito (without cheese), bean taco (made without cheese-specially prepared), seasoned rice, tortillas and tortilla chips (flour, wheat, and corn), Veggie Fajita Wrap without cheese, pinto beans, sauces (red, mild, hot, salsa, great, pico de gallo), tostada without cheese, Cinnamon twits, Border Ices.
• Chipotle Mexican Grill. Tortillas/wraps are vegan. Just stay away from meat and cheese, and you're golden. (Confirmed in email from Chipotle's corporate representatives on 2005-12-21.)
• Carrabba's Italian Grill. Tagliarini Picci Pacchiu, bread, bread dipping sauce, Italian salad.
• Moe's Southwest Grill. Tofu is a "meat" option, and all vegetables and tortillas are lard-free. Veggies are prepared on a separate grilling surface from the meat.
• Romano's Macaroni Grill. VegBlog indicated via an email from Romano's corporate that the bread is okay and that the salads are so long as you ask for it without cheese or croutons dressed with Balsamic Vinaigrette, Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette, or Italian. Ask for the make your own pasta option. Any of the pastas are vegan. Work with your waiter to determine a sauce. At this time, the garlic and oil sauce option is vegan and the arrabiata is supposedly vegan as long as you specify with no cheese. You can even get a cheeseless tomato bruschetta as an appetizer. They formerly offered Capellini Pomodoro and Penne Arrabiatta, but these are no longer on the menu.
• Quizno's. All of Quizno's bread is vegan (confirmed via letter from their corporate office). Order a veggie sub without cheese and you should be fine.
• Panera. Panera used L-Cysteine in their bagels but only from synthetic sources (confirmed via email from their corporate office). Valid items are: Sourdough Baguette, Sourdough bread bowl, Artisan Sesame Semolina Loaf, Artisan Multigrain Loaf, Artisan French Baguette, Artisan Country Demi Loaf, Artisan Stone-Milled Rye Loaf, Artisan Stone-Milled Rye Miche, Artisan Three Seed Demi, Ciabatta, Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup, Low-Fat Vegetarian Garden Vegetable Soup, 10oz Fresh Fruit Cup, Classic Cafe Salad with balsamic vinaigrette, Everything Bagel, Plain Bagel, Sesame Bagel, Blueberry Bagel
• Atlanta Bread Company. Valid items are: French bread/baguette/roll, Nine Grain bread, Panini bread, Rye bread, Sourdough bread/roll/soup bowl, Tomato onion foccacia, Raspberry scone, Austrian pretzel, Fruit salad, House salad (asian sesame, balsamic vinaigrette, fat-free raspberry), Italian Vegetarian sandwich (without cheese and dill sauce), California avocado sandwich (without dill sauce), Garden vegetable soup
• Book Lovers Cafe. Lots of delicious options for both lacto-ovo vegetarians and vegans. Staff is knowledgeable and very vegan friendly.
• Don Pablo's. Guacamole, tortilla salad (omit cheese), side salad (omit cheese and choose either house vinaigrette or low fat French), portabella mushroom and vegetable fajitas (omit sour cream and cheese), crispy or soft bean tacos (request with refritos and no cheese), bean enchiladas (request with refritos and no cheese), chocolate volcano cake (omit ice cream and chocolate butter sauce), sopapillas (omit brandy butter sauce), iron skillet pie (omit ice cream and brandy butter sauce), black beans, charra beans, chile mashed potatoes, chips and salsa, mexican rice, saffron rice, pico de gallo.
• Gyro Plus. Several vegan pita options including falafel and hummus.
• Papa John's. PETA indicates that the dough and the sauce are both vegan. Just ask for cheeseless pizza with any veggies you desire.
• Ruby Tuesday. In addition to the salad bar full of vegan options, PETA indicates that the veggie burger is vegan. Just ask for it without cheese or mayo.
• Chili's. The salsa and chips is obviously vegan. In addtion, you can order the veggie quesadillas without cheese or sour cream and the cadillac fajitas without meat.
• Auntie Anne's. PETA indicates that all the pretzels except the sour cream and onion are vegan if you ask for them without butter. For sauce, you can get either plain mustard or marinara.
• Cracker Barrel. From a forum post by eclectic_one in September 2005: "Cracker barrel says the following are vegan: vegetable soup, oatmeal, baked potato, and tossed salad." Be sure to ask for your tossed salad without cheese or bacon. By default, they come with a metric ton of both.
• Maude's Classic Cafe. Vegan quesadillas, salads, and a mushroom/veggie sandwich with balsamic vinaigrette. Soy milk is available for coffee.

Vegetarian and Probably Vegan

• Indian place on Archer Road (across the street from Publix and Chili's). Nearly everything on the lunch buffet was vegetarian, but I'm not sure about ghee/butter. They prominently display a vegan sticker on their shop window.
• McAllister's. Vegetarian chili, Spud Ole without cheese.

Vegetarian and Questionably Vegan

• TGI Fridays. Grilled vegetable pasta with vinaigrette. None of the vegan sites seem to be listing this as an option.

Vegetarian and Not Vegan

• Olive Garden. Salad is made with eggs and cheese. All pastas are made with egg. Food is prepared off-site and frozen/bagged, so custom orders are not possible.
• International House of Pancakes (IHOP). "As we understand the criteria for vegan, it is our belief that very little of our menu qualifies. Many of our vegetables would qualify, however due to the cooking methods we cannot guarantee that they would not be subject to exposure non-vegan ingredients." (source)

Places to Check Out Still

• Mildred's.
• New Deal Cafe. Sent an email to restaurant on 2006-03-30.

Not in Gainesville But Damn Tasty and Vegan

• EVOS. Vegan items are clearly marked on the menu. They include a soy-based burger, baked fries, "fruitshakes", and chili. If you ever get the opportunity to go here, it will show you that fast food doesn't have to suck for vegans.
• PF Chang's. Extensive list of vegetarian/vegan options, and the staff tends to be quite vegan friendly. The one in Tampa is in Westshore Plaza, which is extremely close to both Dale Mabry and the International Mall.
• Curly's Vegetarian Lunch. This NYC restaurant is one of the best restaurants I've ever dined in. Unfortunately it lies several hundreds of miles north of where I live.