A full vegan Seattle weekend experience

Last year, hubs and I went down to Seattle for a whirlwind 36 hours. This year, he was invited to help at an event for over two days, so we planned a more relaxing trip. This was my opportunity to hit some places I missed last time!

Friday, June 21

We arrived at the border just before 8am and whizzed into the US within the hour. We rolled into Seattle around 11am and went for early lunch since we still had plenty of time before check-in. I was feeling like toast, scrambled eggz, and hash browns, so Wayward Vegan seemed like an ideal place. I was right!

This was the perfect place for breakfast all day, plus they had lots of Mexican-inspired dishes. I saw they had a pancake & waffle section and my idea of toast, eggz & hash faded away. Soon as I saw they had a Chiggen & Waffle dish, it was game over!

So this was more of a chickn patty vs. what you think fried chicken is. I avoided eating it with syrup and I’m glad I tried it.

Hubs got the Huevos Rancheros with tater tots instead of fries, so I satisfied my hash craving too.

Then we headed to West Seattle to get what would be the rest of the weekend’s breakfast and snacks: donuts from Dough Joy!

As we were driving south, we noticed a huge mountain in view, which I originally thought was Mt. Shasta, but it’s Mt. Rainier!

There are two things I learned about Seattle on this trip:

There are no separate bins for recyclables on the street. There is a residential recycling program, but if you have a can or plastic/glass bottle on your hands, in the garbage it goes. We separated our cans and bottles in our hotel room, hoping they had a recycling program.
There are no rules for which way to face when you park. In a few residential neighbourhoods, cars were facing every which way and it was super confusing! (Here’s our red car facing the RIGHT way)

Flavours, clockwise from top left: Cookies & Cream, Bavarian Cream (filled), Vanilla Biscoff, Strawberry Sprinkle (filled)

Dough Joy has 3 locations across Seattle and initially started out as a truck. The fun, pink & purple branding is exactly what you’d imagine a donut shop to look like. There was no sign showing all the donuts were plant-based, so I had to ask to make sure, and got all the recommendations on their top-selling flavours.

I was told the Bavarian Cream was difficult to make vegan and that I should go for that, so that was the first one I tried once we checked in. Also, Dough Joy is queer-owned; another reason to go back and support them.

Hubs took off for a few hours and I took a glorious nap.

Then we headed to downtown Seattle where I was recommended to go on this trip: Life on Mars.

This is a 21+ lounge with all-vegan food and the first thing you’ll notice is a massive wall of records. During certain hours, you can choose a record to play and even buy records.

The playlist they had when we ate dinner was pretty fire, so we didn’t make any requests.

Hubs was starving, so we ordered the Nachos with crispy chick’n and finished it pretty quickly. The chick’n pieces looked like croutons but they had a salty flavour without being too filling.

We both ordered the LOM Classic Burger with salad, which was dripping with cheez. Hubs was skeptical of the in-house burger patty, but enjoyed it. He had a few cocktails, while I went for the N/A Pathfinder Spritz, which had only 0.03% alcohol. It tasted like a real cocktail and I would have put just a teaspoon of maple or other syrup to sweeten it up.

We met up with some friends for a quick drink before turning it in.

Saturday, June 22

Hubs took off in the morning to help at the event and came back to pick me up to go to lunch. Five years ago, he had gone to Pho Vina Burien and noticed their vegetarian menu, so wanted to give this Vietnamese restaurant another try.

After eating a banana and donut for breakfast, I was craving fibre so ordered the Fresh Tofu Spring Rolls to start and then the Mongolian Rice Entree with chickn. On their online menu it only says they have beef or tofu, but they do have vegan chickn on the menu.

The entrée was exactly what I was looking for, with just enough heat. In fact, I took a photo and shared exactly how much chili pepper they had put in this dish to compare it with Kati Vegan Thai where we went last year, which had no chili pepper to be found!

After lunch, we spent a few hours at the event (no photos, sorry!) and then headed to the Georgetown area of Seattle, which is apparently where all the cool bars, pubs, and breweries are. It reminded me of Powell Street in Vancouver.

There were only a few people inside Georgetown Liquor Company when we arrived before 8pm, but it filled up and got louder just before we left. The place is rock-themed with tons of artwork, and again—an all vegan menu. This made me wonder why no one’s opened up a place like this in Vancouver.

Sandra-Nomoto_Georgetown-Cauliflower-Wings

I tried their Cauliflower wings with buffalo sauce and they were probably the best cauli wings I’ve ever had. HOWEVER, do not wait until these babies get cold. It really only works with the house ranch dip if they are HOT!

Despite eating Mexican the week prior, I opted for 3 small Carne Asada Street Tacos that came with a side of tortilla chips and salsa.

Hubs ate the Burger and said it was officially the best vegan burger patty he has ever had. Now mind you, he’s not a vegan, and he hasn’t tried Impossible Foods’ patty, but here’s his testimonial: “It’s the world’s best vegan burger patty.” He said next time we go to Seattle we have to go back to this place so I can try it.

We headed back to our hotel and watched TV for the rest of the night while drinking Liquid Death, which I hadn’t tried before. I am a HUGE fan of their marketing!

Sunday, June 23

We wanted to get back to Vancouver early enough to make a friend’s birthday dinner, so headed back downtown for a late lunch at Plum Bistro, which was recommended by my Seattle friend last year.

Plum Bistro (not to be confused with its neighbouring Plum Chopped, from which you can order online) isn’t big, but had an open floor to ceiling window facing the street that had tons of natural light and a plant on one wall. We sat at the bar and watched all the action happening in the kitchen. Hubs had the Chipotle Plant Beef & Refried Bean Tostadas, and I went for the Classic Reuben with fries.

One-half of the sandwich was stacked on top of the other, so it looked super tall, the same way you see a smoked meat sandwich served in Montreal or New York City.

One thing I wish most non-vegan places had in Vancouver is vegan aioli. Plum Bistro’s was SO GOOD and I know for a fact it’s easy to make without dairy or eggs!

Does this tofu strami taste like real pastrami? No. But who cares? It was just as filling and delicious. I could only eat one-half of the sandwich, so took the rest home and reheated it in a pan for lunch on Monday. 🙂

I had leftover cash from my LA trip, so before heading home, we stopped at Walmart in Quil Ceda for my annual Walmart pilgrimage.

The only place I would have wanted to go to that we missed on this trip was Frankie & Jo’s ice cream. While you can get baked goods any time of year, ice cream’s a good choice for summer. You can check out my SEA 2024 Highlight on Instagram.

Here are the vegan places that were on my list in 2023 that remain on the go-to list: