Located just west of Como Park, Bole Ethiopian Cuisine has helped Saint Paul maintain its reputation for top-tier Ethiopian food since Rekik Meratsion and Solomon Hailie relaunched it in the neighborhood in 2021. Among the house specialties are injera rolled with vegetarian fillings like red lentils, yellow split peas, or ground chickpeas. Don’t skip the honey wine.

Vegetarian restaurant J. Selby’s is all about playful and innovative takes on fast food and pub food. Try the crunchwrap, made with vegan taco meat and marinated cabbage on a tostada, the fried lions mane mushrooms (sourced from local farm Minne Mushrooms), or the “Dirty Secret,” a triple-stacked burger with secret sauce. For dessert, J. Selby’s offers dairy-free shakes and soft-serve, floats, halva, and cookies. The Herbivorous Butcher, another local vegan favorite, recently bought J. Selby’s, but has kept the menu largely the same.

Everest on Grand’s vegetarian options span momos stuffed with cabbage and ginger; katahar (young green jackfruit buds with potatoes and spices); and vegetable thukpa, a Tibetan-style noodle soup with snap peas. There’s a whole roster of vegetarian curries, too, best complemented by warm naan or roti.

Long a staple for organic, locally grown food, French Meadow caters to vegetarian brunch-goers with hearty hashes, omelets stuffed with goat cheese and spinach, and blueberry corn pancakes. There’s a tofu scramble and a Herbivorous Butcher quesadilla on the menu, too, for vegans — for lunch, try the blackened tempeh tacos.

Himalayan Restaurant on Lake Street delves into India, Nepalese, and Tibetan cuisine, and has extensive vegetarian offerings. Start with the kothe — steamed momos that are pan-fried and served with a savory tomato-cilantro chutney. You can’t go wrong with the chana masala or creamy Kathmandu curry, either, best paired with aloo paratha or extra-buttery naan. Save room for desserts like kheer and mango pudding.

New American diner the Stray Dog has a separate vegetarian menu. Classic bar favorites are transformed into black bean patties and fries, “not” dogs in chili cheese, Chicago, and Venezuelan varieties, vegetarian breakfasts like fully loaded chilaquiles, and a whole range of Beyond burgers: the “Beyond Junk” with vegan bacon and garlic aioli, the “Beyond Bourbon Brown” with butter bourbon glaze, and the “Beyond New Yorker” on a bialy bun.

This revolutionary butcher shop produces upwards of 15 homemade meat-free meats and an array of plant-based cheeses. Founded by a brother-sister duo, the Herbivorous Butcher is a great place for a vegan pantry restock — but it also offers hot in-store specials like red miso ribs made with a tofu and jackfruit base, or hot chili cheese dogs made with seitan, and shepherd’s pie. Grab a vegan porter cheddar or mint chocolate truffles from the case.

Francis, Northeast Minneapolis’s newest vegan restaurant, serves a great burger. A few, in fact: an Impossible patty stacked with fried seitan bacon, a garlicky black bean burger, even a Juicy Lucy stuffed with vegan cheese. But it’s not only Francis’s delectably greasy meat-free burgers that make it stand out in the Twin Cities vegan scene — it’s the restaurant’s bar program, which is entirely free of animal-derived dyes, additives, and fining agents. You’ll find no Negronis made with dyes from crushed beetles, wines filtered through fish bladders, or beers sweetened with lactose on this menu.

Vegan ramen isn’t an afterthought at Tori 44. The spicy miso, loaded with mushrooms, curry veggies, nori, and chile oil, is the restaurant’s vegan calling card — but five other ramens on the menu can be made vegetarian or vegan. The crispy fried kimchi is a must.

Hark! Cafe recently transitioned from a full menu to bakery service, but don’t miss these entirely vegan and gluten-free treats. The fresh baked goods in the pastry case rotate often, but expect jammy toaster pastries, cranberry orange muffins, and oatmeal chocolate cookies.

Lutunji Abrams is best known for her peach cobbler, but her vegan version is equally sumptuous, made with a flaky coconut oil crust. Abram’s Elliot Park bakery, Lutunji’s Palate, specializes in all kinds of vegan treats, like cashew milk ice cream and vegan sweet potato pie.

After a pandemic hiatus, collectively owned Seward Cafe is up and running with a full vegan-friendly brunch. The Earth breakfast, made with a base of hash browns and eggs or scrambled tofu, is a favorite — but so are the fluffy, diner-style vegan pancakes, with options to add blueberries, chocolate chips, tahini, or jam.

This former Victorian home-turned-cozy-restaurant in Uptown is an excellent stop for Indian and Nepali cuisine. The whole menu here is organic: Start with light and crispy bhel puri or little flavor parcels of golgappa. The aloo bodi or Punjabi spinach paneer make for hearty vegetarian entrees. If you aren’t in any hurry, take a seat on Namaste’s patio, and enjoy a homemade chai.

After a brief pause, Minnesota’s first Black-owned vegan restaurant is back in business as of spring 2024. Trio Plant-based serves 100 percent vegan soul food from chef Louis Hunter. Build a soul bowl with mac and cheese and collard greens, crumbled cornbread, and jackfruit barbecue riblets, or order a platter and add yams and southern slaw. With an entire menu dedicated to Beyond burgers, Trio also serves highlights like the vegan “Mac attack,” the double cheezeburger, or the fiesta, topped with guacamole, shallots, and pepper jack.

Another staple in Minneapolis’s punk cafe scene (with a cozy vibe, though — for “punks and their parents”) Modern Times serves salads and veggie bowls, sandwiches, breakfast burritos, pancakes, and the like, all made with organic ingredients and most vegetarian-friendly. There’s a separate vegan breakfast menu, too, complete with French toast, fried tofu and veggie sandwiches, and blueberry pancakes.

May Day is a quirky Powderhorn cafe and bakery with great vegan options. The menu changes frequently: Expect dill pickle cheese scones and cranberry bread on Friday and raspberry pistachio doughnuts on Saturday. (Keep an eye on May Day’s Instagram for the timeliest updates.) There’s also a breakfast menu of hearty dishes like quiche, breakfast sandwiches, and burritos — and coffee, of course. Take the day’s bakery haul over to nearby Powderhorn Park for a picnic.

A venture by the brother-sister duo behind the Herbivorous Butcher, Herbie Butcher’s Fried Chicken offers a vegan seitan dupe that is as crispy and salty as its meat counterpart (though not a good match for gluten-free eaters). The restaurant serves buckets of chicken, tots, biscuits with maple butter, mashed potatoes, and oat-based shakes out of a tiny window off of Chicago Avenue. Order online if you can — in the summer, the line runs down the block.

Vegan East is one of the Cities’ pre-eminent vegan bakeries: Line up for cinnamon rolls and s’mores bars, pop tarts, cupcakes and cake slices, cake jars, and more. (Gluten-free treats are also available.) Vegan East also offers holiday cookie decorating kits and beautifully decorated seasonal dessert options — the bakery takes pre-orders for cinnamon rolls, specialty cakes, and cupcakes by the dozen.

While a distillery may not spring to mind as an option for the vegan and vegetarian diner in your party, this one has pizzas that can be made vegan with Impossible beef and cheese alternatives for $3 and $2 more respectively. That’s nine whole pizzas fine for diners with dietary restrictions who still want a hefty pie for dinner.