what i ate in portland

You should know by now how much I love travelling. I mean, have you seen my travel playlist on my YouTube channel?! I’ve been all over the damn place. So when I say that Portland is one of the BEST cities I’ve been to, you know it’s gotta be pretty great. It’s one of my favorites because there’s endless vegan options and cool ass places to check out! Keep scrolling to read about all the vegan food in Portland I enjoyed.

hot for food approved

Bye And Bye

First up was this hip place called Bye and Bye! They had cray cray pretzels that were covered in chunky salt and dipped in cashew cheese! We also grabbed a tofu noodle salad, tempeh reuben sandwich, and washed it down with the swift marionberry cider.

verdict: the salad was a bit on the hot side for me (spicy to say the least!) but they still had lots of yummy vegan choices.

Base Camp Brewing Co.

For a quick sip I had a kombucha from here! I love a good booch so I have no complaints.

verdict: we can confirm that the beer flight and kombucha here are both top notch! They're great sips to indulge in as a break from eating all the vegan food in Portland.

Food Fight Vegan Grocery Store

I think the adult equivalent of being a kid in a candy store is being a vegan in an all-vegan grocery store. Shelves and shelves of amazing new products I’ve never tried before? Take all my money. From vegetarian haggis to rows of dairy-free cheese, they had an overwhelming amount of things I was tempted to buy.

verdict: I hope you’re ready to pass along your life’s savings to this grocery store.

Sweetpea Baking Co.

Some of you might know I’m a bit of a croissant freak… as in, I’d live and breathe them if I could. This almond croissant from Sweetpea Baking Co. was covered in powdered sugar and, put simply, was PERFECTION. 

verdict: I wish I could eat that almond croissant every day for the rest of my life. I’d probably never get sick of it!

Vtopia & Homegrown Smoker

I’m loopin’ these two together because they were side-by-side, and we basically created a vegan feast for ourselves from both of them. There were cheeses from Vtopia on sale at Food Fight, so we were excited to be going to their in-person restaurant! It’s a vegan cheese shop and deli which HELLO, sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? We got slices of the caramelized onion camembert, mozzarella, and sharp cheddar from here. They were all incredible!

We also got a mac and cheese from Vtopia that had melted sharp cheddar on top and super fancy flavors! Then we got the mac and cheese from Homegrown Smoker so we could compare the two and see which one was best. This dish used tofu and nooch as its base, and both looked and tasted a lot different. Although both were delicious, we concluded the fancy AF mac and cheese from Vtopia was the winner. (If this is giving you a mac and cheese craving, I gotchu!)

Homegrown Smoker was still a star because they had INSANE beef deli slices. I seriously couldn’t believe what I was tasting! This was made with mushrooms, beets and wheat gluten (seitan). Honestly y’all, this beef is a game changer!

verdicts: if you visit one, you HAVE to visit the other! These two go hand in hand perfectly, and both offer different vegan cheese and meat-based products. The Vtopia mac and cheese and Homegrown Smoker beef slices, like I mentioned, were my favorites. These places prove that vegan food in Portland is no joke.

Victoria

Victoria was our late-night dinner choice, where we had buffalo cauliflower and ranch gone WILD! It came with collard greens, blackened tofu, corn, and potato salad… kind of like a vegan southern plate! It had the perfect amount of kick to it and was super crispy, which isn’t always easy to achieve with buffalo cauliflower. The waffle fries and southern fried chicken biscuit sandwich were also crazily crispy and delicious. Dessert was a chocolate cake with passionfruit buttercream. I loooove passionfruit and was very passionate about this ENTIRE meal being bomb.

verdict: VICTORIA IS WHERE IT’S AT. That is all.

Portobello Vegan Trattoria

When there’s a vegan Italian restaurant nearby, I’d be silly to not visit it. Bury me in pasta and I’m a happy blogger! Here we had the ravioli with mushrooms and cheese, and gnocchi in a white wine cream sauce. 

verdict: these perfect dishes put me in a carb coma. Seriously, this was some of the best pasta I’ve ever had.

Back To Eden 

I’m surprised I even had room to eat the day after Portland Beer Festival! But somehow we managed to digest the insane amount of food I ate the day before and go for brunch at Back To Eden. It’s a cute little gluten free/vegan bakery. We had the corn chowder and pepper and sausage quiche. I’m always impressed when restaurants can make a tasty vegan quiche, so they definitely won me over!

verdict: this was the perfect way to finish off our Portland vegan eating adventures!

Ohhh Portland, you really outdid yourself! Can you see why I claimed it to be one of the BEST vegan cities I’ve been to?! I was basically cartwheeling down the streets after every meal I had, and never wanted to leave. Make sure to pin this as one of your must-visit spots, and if you try other places that aren’t listed on my hot for food approved checklist, hit me up! I plan on going back as soon as I can for even more vegan food in Portland.

noted, not notable

• Ristretto Roasters