Recommended VEGAN Friendly Cincinnati Restaurants

Amma's Indian Cafe - Roselawn
No need for vegetarians to skip over portions of the menu at
Amma's Cafe because it's one of those rare places in Greater
Cincinnati that is all vegetarian all the time.
People pack the place for Amma's South Indian flavors and
menu items they've never before heard of, let alone seen on
an Indian restaurant menu. But for those looking for
traditional vegetarian Indian options, Amma's has those too.
TRY IT: Wednesday the lunch buffet is all vegan!
WHEN: Open 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m.
Monday and Wednesday-Friday; and 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday. Closed Tuesday.
WHERE: 7633 Reading Road, Roselawn
PRICE: Entrees under $10
CONTACT: (513) 821-2021

CUMIN MODERN INDIAN - Hyde Park
Cumin isn't called "modern Indian" for nothing.
It is a calm, laid-back place with small bud vases on natural
wood tables. Basmati rice is served in copper pots, and the
white square dishes are stylish. You'll appreciate the
atmosphere and the vegetarian choices.
TRY IT: Tandoori mushrooms with six baby portabella
mushrooms marinated in spices and cooked in the
special Tandoori oven ($4.25)
WHEN: Open for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday
and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday; open for dinner 5 to
10:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday
and 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: 3514 Erie Ave., Hyde Park
PRICE: Entrees $10-$20 CONTACT: (513) 871-3287

Green Earth Grill
Green Earth Grill is an all Vegan portable food cart grill that was created in response to our collective desire to preserve our planetary home for ourselves, our children, and the vast array of life upon it. Our menu provides the opportunity for patrons to enjoy familiar foods with the eco-friendly twist of being entirely plant based! Owned and operated by a Cincinnati family, we are proud of our city’s forward thinking measure of encouraging reduced meat consumption in our Climate Protection Plan (The Green Cincinnati Plan). With our Grand Opening on Earth Day 2009 at Sawyer Point, we attend local events throughout the summer. We will also station at Findlay Market and incorporate local seasonal produce into our menu. Please visit our schedule page, or sign up on our Twitter account for up to the minute announcements of where Green Earth Grill will be located. Usually on Fountain Square for lunch on Tuesdays. Their hot wing wrap is spicy and delicious!

Habanero - Clifton or Chipolte grill (several around town)
Ludlow ave
They have a great "build your own burrito" that is really delicious and can be made
vegan as well.

KINNERET CAFÉ
(Jewish restaurant with vegetarian options) The Kinneret Café, which opened in mid-2008, is a kosher Jewish restaurant owned by Karen and Avner Chriqui, who are also the publishers of Cincy Jewish Living. They hope it will become a destination spot for Cincinnati denizens of all religious flavors. Offering a mostly vegetarian menu packed with Israeli and Mediterranean foods such as falafel, hummus, baba ganoush, grape leaves, Israeli salad, couscous, Yemenite fried pancakes and spicy tomato sauce. Menu Sampler Entrée: Mediterranean plate with homemade falafel, baba ganoush, hummus, matbucha (a salad mainly made of tomatoes, roasted peppers, oil and garlic which are cooked together) and Israeli salad with pita bread(9.95) Pasta: Tuscany pasta with marinara sauce, sliced olives, mushrooms and served with a house salad and roll ($9.95) Sandwich: chumus sandwich with avocado, tomatoes, and hummus on a French baguette with a side of French fries ($7.95) The café is a small store front located across Plainfield Road from the Dillonvale Shopping center in Deerpark. It has a comfortable warm atmosphere that evokes a breezy cafe in Israel Kinneret Cafe 8316B Plainfield Rd Cincinnati, OH 45236 (513) 791-1777 Sun. - Thurs.: 11:30 - 8:00 Fri.: 11:00 - 2:00 Sat.: 8:00 - 11:00PM

LOVING CAFE - Pleasant Ridge
The mission behind Loving Cafe is to offer affordable, healthy, vegan cuisine. Our staff shares a common desire to serve the public by offering an earth friendly dining experience that contributes to a high standard of personal, community, and planetary health that also represents living in harmony with all beings. This is an amazing business in that it is owned by 20 or so committed volunteers who are operating it as a non-profit! They are even supplying food to the local homeless shelter. These great folks are showing us that food is the first step that you can change to create a more sustainable footprint. The Raw Kelp noodle dish is my favorite and the most healthy dish in the city.
Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am - 7 pm Sunday & Monday closed
ADDRESS
6227 Montgomery Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45213
CONTACT 513-731-2233 info@thelovingcafe.com

Maribelle's Tavern
Just opened in 2007 a great spot with upscale food and a couple of vegan options.
Try the Black Bean burger - its great!
2062 Riverside Dr (Eastern ave) (513) 861-2484

MYRA'S DIONYSUS - University Heights
Don't let the size fool you (Myra's has only eight tables); this
restaurant is big on everything that's important: taste,
selection and vegetarian options.
Whether you're in the mood for baked tofu, beans and rice,
hummus or a big bowl of soup, Myra's serves it up.
WHEN: Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11
a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: 121 Calhoun St., University Heights
PRICE: Entrees under $10
CONTACT: (513) 961-1578

MELT eclectic deli - Northside
many vegetarian and vegan menu items
gourmet sandwiches and salads
housemade soups and dressings
catering for events and meetings

Mission - To provide a tasty variety of nutritious foods in simple, convenient, environmentally-friendly packaging. To offer an alternative to corporate junk food by using whole, unprocessed ingredients. One of my favorite places to eat!
4165 Hamilton Ave Cincinnati OH 45223 (513) 681-6358
Winter Hours Mon-Sat: 11am - 9pm Sunday: 11am - 8pm

The Veg Head
920 B Loveland Madeira Rd.
Loveland, Ohio 697-7090

Loveland is nicknamed “The Sweetheart” of Ohio and has quite a reputation for as small as it is. About a dozen or so businesses support most of the dining and entertainment in town. There are those that just suck, and others that are quite nice. One such gem among the field of rocks is the Veg Head.
The Veg Head personifies a small business built from the ground up with only one thing in mind...quality. Well not only one thing. In fact, you‘ll find everything about the Veg Head pretty special. For one I doubt anyone has paid close attention to the quality health conscience goods the Veg Head has. For instance, not only do they not use any chemical products in the food, they also use bio cleaning products for the restaurant itself! All the ingredients are organic and even the sodas are “refined sugar free”.
The chef/owner Mark Metcalfe has been a chef for thirty years. He explained to us that the Veg Head’s menu came about because his daughter is a vegan but her husband is not. So he set out to please both palates yet sacrifice nothing in the process.
In an effort to create a menu to satisfy both choices he incorporated the meat dishes into the menu yet still kept the same quality standards. In fact, he uses two separate grills, one meat, one veggie. No cross contamination of the two anywhere in the kitchen. Tell me that isn’t quality conscientious.
One look around the interior and you can tell this place is hospital clean, actually probably much cleaner than any hospital. The surfaces may be almost sterile but the room has an artistic country charm. The decor gives you a feeling of an old country bed and breakfast. Even if you were on vacation at an expensive B&B I bet they couldn’t do a better job than these guys at the service, the food, the cleanliness, or all the impressive information about the dishes and ingredients offered by the Veg Head. Not to mention the prices.
One thing the Veg Head prides itself on is the Black Bean Veggie Burger. It’s won awards and has even been voted the best in Cincy. This I had to try. I’m not a veggie-vour but even I really liked the taste, texture and overall appearance of this burger. At a glance you would never know it’s actually a mix of soy, black beans and other secret ingredients. It’s filling and delicious. It comes complete with red cabbage and a bag of “Ms. Vicky’s” chips which contains no trans fat. These are good chips too. I have had them twice now in two days and it’s hard to believe I’m impressed by a freakin’ bag of chips. All for $5.95. Mc Crap meals are $5.95....Mc Crap!
The Veg Head also has good soup. I mean the good soup people. On my visit the choices were steeped kale or seafood chowder ($3.25). I love chowder so I went for that right away. I expected creamy white chowder, “New England” style, I was surprised to see it was actually a tomato based chowder “Manhattan” style if you will.
I used to eat this kind as a kid, it’s so rarely served I almost forgot about it. It was rich in crab and seafood chunks smothered in a light veggie broth, served with whole grain toast rounds. Marvelous Manhattan chowder!
I couldn’t resist the carnivore cravings that dominate my palate. Fortunately Veg Head doesn’t ignore us meat eaters either. After much deliberation between the Open Faced Roast Beef served with mixed veggies and side salad ($8.95) and the Philly Cheese Steak ( $5.95) I opted for the Philly. Not because of the price difference, (after all where can you get a gorgeous gourmet dinner for $9) mainly because of the filling chowder I ordered as an appetizer. The Philly is fairly traditional with the exception of the whole grain hoagie bun. It’s served with sauteed peppers and lots of melted cheese. It comes complete with red cabbage and chips.
The Philly was just as impressive as the rest of the meal and as the rest of the menu I’m sure. That’s probably why the Veg Head was making a lot of to-go orders. I bet when they really get the word out you’ll pretty much have to get your food to go. There is dining seating for about 8 or 9 inside. So if you find yourself last in line at the counter your getting your food to go. Many people get their grub at the Veg Head and walk over to the Buzzthru and vise versa so you can always get a seat somewhere if your trying to make a day of it.
I wish I could better explain how personal and attentive the service really is. I wish you could smell the food through the pages and feel the small town charm of the surroundings. I wish I could invite the whole Loveland area or the whole Eastside for that matter to come and sample the Veg Head’s delights. Well actually I guess I just did. The Veg Head is another well deserving Mom & Pop business out there just trying to make the products they love and make them with loving care to boot. It’s hard to believe there are so many people still sitting in the stinky drive-thru across the street instead of at the Veg Head. Oh well, the Veg Head is doing just fine and I’m certain it’s going to do even better as the word spreads around town. We’ll be doing our best to help out with that as well.
In Real Estate the saying goes that the three things that matter most are “location, location, location”. In the restaurant business it’s “quality, quality, quality”. If it’s not it should be. After all, how often do you eat out and know what your eating? The answer to that is surprising for most people. That’s sad. There was a time in America long ago when everything was organic. They probably didn’t even know what the name meant but they knew what good tasted like. They grew it, cooked it and loved it. Now you can relive the good old days one bite at a time at the Veg Head.

WHAT'S FOR DINNER - O'Bryonville
Feast your eyes on What's For Dinner?'s large and ever-changing
display case, featuring a rainbow of brightly
colored entrees, sides, soups and salads. Eat in for lunch or
dinner or take away family-size portions for dinner at home.
TRY IT: Carrot-zucchini lasagna; veggie burger
WHEN: Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday.
WHERE: 3009 O'Bryon St., O'Bryonville
PRICE: Entrees under $10
CONTACT: (513) 321-4404 or www.whatsfordinnerdeli.com

For a more complete list of Cincinnati Vegan friendly restaurants see www.VegOhio.com
For a full list of chain restaurants and how they stack up to offering vegan items see NaturalNirvana.com

See some nationally famous vegan restaurants:

The Millenium- San Fransisco

Chicago Diner - Chicago