Bay Area Vegetarians

Maoz, an international falafel chain, has opened in Berkeley, a perfect place with its large student population for quick and easy falafel meals.

Maoz is the East Bay’s third falafel restaurant, following Chick-o-Peas in Berkeley and Amba in Oakland.

Thanks to Greg for the update!

Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro, Foster City’s first vegetarian restaurant, opened in early March. It’s entirely vegetarian, and the menu clearly distinguishes between what is vegan and vegetarian.  Nearly everything on the menu can be made vegan.

It is a spin-off of an earlier restaurant in this same space, which was a mixed Thai restaurant with the same owner.  The owner moved her original mixed Thai restaurant to another location in the same mall, and opened up this all vegetarian bistro.

There’s a nice bayside trail across the street, so bring your appetite and your walking shoes.

Ultimate Guide – Basil Cha Cha:  read it, rate it, review it

With the recent opening of Basil Cha Cha and Garden Fresh in Palo Alto, the Peninsula is now home to a record 5 vegetarian restaurants.

Thanks to Dipti for the heads-up on Basil Cha Cha.

We’ve been waiting since the new year to make this announcement:  Garden Fresh, a long-time favorite of the vegetarian community in Mountain View, has expanded to a second location in Palo Alto on Ramona Street.  Palo Alto now boasts two vegan restaurants.

Thanks to Elizabeth for the update!

Cafe, as well as vegan bakery

Sugar Plum Vegan Cafe opened in downtown Sacramento.  They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a vegan bakery for direct ordering and wholesale.

Ultimate Guide:  Sugar Plum Vegan Cafe – read it, rate it, review it!

(Photo:  Sugar Plum Vegan Cafe)

Flacos opened its long-awaited restaurant on Friday in Berkeley, at the location formerly occupied by Vital Ital Calabash, at 3031 Adeline St.

Flacos is a popular food vendor at Berkeley Farmer’s Markets specializing in authentic Mexican food, vegan-style. Fans of Flacos have long-awaited this day when Flacos food is available fresh every day.

Ultimate Guide: Flacos -read it, rate it, review it~!

Opinionated people welcome! Your ratings and reviews determine the Top Ten restaurants featured in the Ultimate Guide, our online database of vegan and vegetarian foods in the San Francisco Bay Area. Your review is also a great way to support your favorite veg restaurants that make our Bay Area such a wonderful place to live and eat veg.

So help us support them by taking two minutes to share your two cents. You need a userid on the bayareaveg.org website. This userid is distinct and separate from any other userids that you may have on Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. It can reuse or be the same name as one of your userid on another site if you like.

Once you have a userid, just start reviewing all your favorite veg restaurants and businesses. It’s that simple. So what are you waiting for?

1. Register for a Userid – and be sure to add a profile graphic!
2. Find the restaurant you want to review in the Ultimate Guide
3. In the listing for each business, there is a button called “review”. Select that. The next screen may ask you to log in. (This is also where you’ll have the opportunity to select the link “I forgot my password” to re-establish your ability to login)
4. Type your review, and that’s it!

Breaking news!  A new Loving Hut will be coming to Union Square this spring.

And the real good news is that it’s being run by the same family who first brought us Golden Lotus in Oakland, then Golden Era in San Francisco, and most recently Merit in Sunnyvale.  While under the same family management, it will be operated under the Loving Hut brand.

It will be in a high traffic food court, offering a smaller scale of food than the current restaurants.  Similar style to the Golden Lotus steam table lunch offerings (yum!)

Nature’s Express opened yesterday in Berkeley on Solano Avenue.  They bill themselves as healthy fast food, and they’re all vegan.

Check ’em out .. and be the first to review them!  And if anyone has a photograph of the restaurant, please use the ‘add photo’ button to submit it.

Ultimate Guide – Nature’s Express: read it, rate it, review it!

Thank to Marin Veg for the original tip-off.

Bodhi Vegetarian House is a Vietnamese-style vegan restaurant in Rancho Cordova.  While they are newly added to the Ultimate Guide, they have been open for a couple of years.

Ultimate Guide:  Bodhi – read it, rate it, review it

With most of our membership in the San Francisco Bay Area, we do like to include listings for places to eat veg in adjacent areas.  So if you dine out veg-style in the Sacramento area, please check the Ultimate Guide to see if your favorite places are listed.  If they’re not, please add them!

Amba, a new vegetarian restaurant featuring Mediterranean fare, is open in Oakland at 6464 Moraga Avenue in Montclair Village.  For more information (hours, website, etc), please visit the Ultimate Guide link below.  Thanks to Amba for letting us know of their new vegetarian eatery.

Ultimate Guide – Amba: read it, rate it, review it

According to the Ultimate Guide, this is Oakland’s 6th vegetarian restaurant, joining the ranks of  Encuentro, Golden Lotus, Pizza Plaza, Souley Vegan, and The Breakroom Cafe.  If you know of other vegetarian and vegan restaurants that should be included in the Guide, please submit the listing for review and inclusion.

Oakland vegetarian restaurant list (6 entries)
East Bay vegetarian restaurant list (25 entries)
San Francisco Bay Area vegan restaurant list (39 entries)