The Most Vegan-Friendly Cities in America

Most "best vegan cities" lists are a matter of opinion. This one is a count. We took every fully vegan restaurant, café and bakery in the Vegaholic directory as of Sept. 30, 2026 (500 of the 5,577 places we list), and divided by each place's population from the US Census Bureau's 2024 estimates.

Cities are ranked by fully vegan kitchens per 100,000 residents, among places with at least 100,000 residents and at least three fully vegan listings. Restaurants that only offer vegan options don't count toward the ranking, because a vegan menu section is not the same as a kitchen with no animal products on the menu. The full tables, method and CSV downloads are in our State of Vegan Dining report.

Seattle leads with 28 fully vegan places, or 3.6 per 100,000 residents. They are spread across the city rather than clustered in one district: a plant-based bar on Capitol Hill, vegan sushi in Queen Anne, doughnuts in Ballard and Green Lake, Thai in South Lake Union. Our Seattle neighborhood guide walks through them one area at a time.

Berkeley has four fully vegan kitchens for about 122,000 residents, or 3.3 per 100,000. Japanese food is a theme: Cha Ya and Tane Vegan Izakaya are both all-vegan, and The Butcher's Son is a vegan deli.

Salt Lake City surprises people. With seven fully vegan places for about 218,000 residents (3.2 per 100,000), it ranks ahead of Portland. The range is wide for a city its size: Vertical Diner for American comfort food, All Chay for Vietnamese, Jollofology for Nigerian food and City Cakes for baked goods.

Rochester has six fully vegan places for about 207,000 residents (2.9 per 100,000), the highest rate in New York State, ahead of New York City. Red Fern, Natural Oasis (Ethiopian), Squatcho's (pizza) and the Grass Fed Vegan Butcher are among them.

Portland's reputation holds up: 15 fully vegan places, 2.4 per 100,000 residents. Rounding out the top ten are Pasadena, Atlanta, Garden Grove, Philadelphia and Worcester. Philadelphia is the biggest city in the top ten, with 26 fully vegan kitchens.

By state, Washington, D.C. leads with 8.5 fully vegan restaurants per million residents, followed by Oregon (4.2), Washington (4.1), New York (3.5) and Utah (3.4). Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, North Carolina and Colorado complete the top ten.

At the other end, 13 states had no fully vegan restaurant in our directory when we counted. That says as much about the gaps in our map as about those states, so if you know a fully vegan place we're missing, suggest it and we'll add it.