Gluten Free Vegan Food in San Diego
However, we did go to a few really good places with a surprising amount of options for those of us who can hardly eat and here’s a run down of the best places I went.
Shakespeare's Pub & Grille: Real Beer. Proper Food. No Bollocks.
This place partially made me really happy just because it was British and I honestly just haven’t heard the word ‘bollocks’ in so long. Things I miss the most about Britain? Our swear words win over all the other swear words in the world. FACT.
The atmosphere was great and the menu had a lot of options, both gluten free and vegan. I’m 100% gluten free, 100% lactose intolerant and I try to avoid meat as much as possible… HOWEVER, I’m not actually fully vegan at the moment, for a few reasons. I aim to be 100% vegan by the end of the year, and as I am at the moment, I eat meat less than once a week, but sometimes it’s my only nourishing option and I have to put myself and my health first.
The menu was great, because it was split up into different areas, with specific gluten free, vegetarian and vegan sections. I found this so much more helpful than having to view the whole menu and sort through all the different symbols next to them or read all the ingredients. It’s just a lot of effort to read menus anyway, I like that I can just navigate my way through less than ten choices, it’s great. I’ve been gluten intolerant for over three years now and I still don’t have the balls to just ask the staff…
I ordered the Chicken Sandwich for $9.25, which came in a gluten free bun with a side of ‘proper chips’ and it was sooooo good. Proper pub grub, and my friends enjoyed their food too. I’d say it’s a pretty ideal place to go if you’re eating with people who don’t always want to stick to your gluten free, part-time vegan, lifestyle.
They did have a substantial amount of vegetarian and vegan options, but throwing in gluten intolerance as well, left me with ‘proper chips’ and salad as my only meat free option, and I was just too tired and hungry to put up with that. I wanted a burger.
Plant Power Fast Food
Plant Power might just be one of my favourite places in the world. I love eating healthily, but I low-key really miss being able to just go to McDonald’s and binge on everything. I guess I could still do that, but last time I did that (when I was so drunk I forgot I was gluten intolerant) I was in a significant amount of pain the following day. I just don’t feel like it’s worth it, everyone knows it only feels good at the time and you always feel horrible afterwards. It’s the one night stand of foods.
So anywaaaaaay, after we went to Sunset Cliffs one evening to watch the sunset, we found ourselves at Plant Power. It was one of the happiest moments of my life.
As the name suggests, everything on the menu is 100% vegan and a large amount of it was also gluten free or had a gluten free option. For example, all of the burgers were available with a gluten free bun for an additional charge of $1.95 or wrapped in cabbage for no extra charge. I know how weird that sounds and honestly it just reminded me of that meme about what vegans eat after a night out… you know the one? You know… you don’t know? Oh. I'd put it here, but I can't find it.
ANYWAY.
ANYWAY.
In the interest of not wanting to eat too much processed food, I went with the cabbage bun. I mean, honestly, I think I’m just so stingy that I didn’t want to pay the extra $1.95, but I’m going to pretend it was with the motivation of health. I was kind of curious too, because I just felt like a lettuce leaf would be more appropriate, who wraps things in cabbage? Geniuses, as it happens, because the burger was incredible. The patties also had two options, a ‘beef’ patty or a bean burger. You could also add avocado for $1.50… I don’t know why I didn’t do that. Avo is life, obviously I was just too distracted and overwhelmed.
Anyone who has ever spent even a short amount of time with me, will probably realise that I spend an obscene amount of time making decisions. Especially those regarding food. Usually, it’s due to a lack of options, however, this time it was because I had too many. On the way to Plant Power I looked at the menu, I thoroughly analysed it was we arrived, I looked over it further as all my friends ordered and I consulted and questioned the server a substantial amount before making my final decision. Yeah, I’m that person, the girl next to him served like five people before I was finished. I do feel confident that I made the right choice though… Sometimes these things take time.
I went with:
The Classic $6.25
Lettuce, tomato, onions, ketchup, ‘mayo’, mustard and pickles.
(with a ‘beef’ patty, without tomato in a cabbage wrap)
Voodoo Fries $3.95
Kennebec fries loaded with secret sauce, our signature ‘cheese’ sauce, grilled onions
Kombucha Float $7.00
Trilogy (raspberry, lemon and ginger) Kombucha with vanilla ice cream
It was so good and I ate it all sooooo fast, it was disgusting to watch… yet my friends still took pictures. I don’t care, the happiness was soooo real.
Although I felt like that was an obscene amount to spend on a drink, I’ve never had a float before and I’m obsessed with kombucha, so I had to give it a go and I wasn’t disappointed.
My friends who were with me all really enjoyed the food too, and none of them are vegan or gluten free. I can fully recommend the Sweet Potato Medallions and Kale Slaw as sides, they were great.
You’d think after all that food I’d be done… but nope. Plant Power upped its game with a full range of gluten free and vegan desserts and I couldn’t say no to that. These included a chocolate brownie, cupcake and New York and Chocolate cheesecakes. Although I’m not yet strictly vegan, I am very much so lactose intolerant and have been for three years which means I haven’t had a decent cheesecake in over three years. Cheesecake was my favourite dessert… I mean, it was right up there with pancakes and waffles and other foods that my intolerances have mostly ruined for me.
After about ten minutes deciding, I finally settled on cheesecake, and after a further couple of deliberating and referring to the expert advice of my #1 bae, I went with chocolate cheesecake. Big decisions need help.
It was literally the best decision I could’ve made in that moment and I have no regrets.
Sushi Mori, La Jolla
Sushaaaaaaaay.
Can’t go wrong with sushi, I think most sushi places have options for everyone… Maybe not if you don’t like rice, but who doesn’t like rice? Rice is lit.
There’s not much to say really, to be honest! They had several gluten free options and as far as the vegan thing goes, I went with avocado rolls ($5.00) and cucumber rolls ($4.00). They were both delicious. They also had a vegetable roll, that my friend had which looked seriously good and such pretty colours. I low-key regret not getting that, but sushi is great either way, so I can live with my choice. No one ever really regrets avocado, let’s be real for a second. We also shared some edamame and I had some jasmine tea which was just delicious because jasmine tea is delicious. FACT.
The restaurant was located in a really nice street near the beach, with outside seating which was nice because it was soooo sunny. The waitress was also so sweet and lovely, asking us all where we’re from (we get that a lot… probably because we’re excessively loud and have such a diverse range of accents). We told her we were going to LA next and she recommended a few places for us to go and she just generally gave me the vibe that she was a good person, which is always nice and that's basically it. Top quality sushi - but avoid the soy sauce! Sneaky gluten hides in soy sauce.
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