Plant-Based Eating Florida Style

Hi everyone! I’m currently writing you from 30,000 ft up in the air on my way back to New York from Florida. I had to get to writing this post right away because I was so impressed by all the different plant-based/vegan restaurants I found in the West Palm Beach area near where I was staying. Who would have known that Florida has such a thriving plant-based scene? I certainly didn’t! Here’s my recap:

My first stop was Fruits & Roots in Stuart, Florida. This cute little place offers the healthiest, cleanest form of plant-based eating. (A theme I saw a lot at the Florida vegan restaurants – which is great!) We ordered the garlic breadsticks made with roasted garlic, house parm, olive oil, spices and seeds, the sundried tomato and asparagus flatbread made with pesto, roasted veggies, microgreens, house parm, spices and seeds, and the seriously delicious raw chocolate caramel “cake”. Even my grandma liked everything we ordered!

From what I hear Fruits & Roots is a new favorite spot for people in the area to pick up lunch and healthy snacks on the go. If you’re looking for good, healthy, clean food in the Stuart area, this is your spot. And their chocolate mylk made with cashews, dates, vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa was fantastic too.

Next up came Christopher’s Kitchen in Palm Beach Gardens. My family and I visited this restaurant three times during our stay in Florida and we were all fans of it! This restaurant again has a great, health-conscious concept. Their approach is: raw (aka very healthy, uncooked) food during the day and then your choice of raw or cooked foods in the evening. Christopher’s Kitchen has a large outdoor patio and a clean, bright decor on the inside. In the back of the restaurant they have a wine bar too.

One of my favorite dishes at Christopher’s Kitchen was the artisan aged cheese plate. I absolutely loved it! Their cheese is 100% plant-based and comes with a beautiful variety of fruit, nuts, crackers and greens. For dinner we also had the avocado pizza with red sauce, cherry tomatoes, red onion, arugula, basil, oregano, cashew dressing, brazil nut parmesan and big chunks of avocado. Christopher’s Kitchen’s avocado toast was simple and delicious too and their stacked nachos made with blue corn chips, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and cashew cream sauce were fantastic as well (see below).

Christopher’s Kitchen is also great if you’re looking for desserts that won’t leave you feeling unhealthy or guilty! One night my family and I went there just for dessert. 🙂 One of their special desserts is the ice cream sundae, made with their housemade ice cream, housemade chocolate sauce and housemade caramel sauce. The gluten-free cinnamon roll dessert special was out of this world too. And my absolute favorite dessert that I will seriously miss now that I’m back in NYC is the chocolate mousse pie. It was SO so good while still being one of the healthiest desserts you’ll ever have! And word on the street is that Christopher’s Kitchen will be expanding to two more locations around the south Florida area in the very near future.

And while we’re talking about vegan desserts, another thing to note is that the Palm Beach Gardens Whole Foods sells vegan donuts! In fact, the only donuts they sell are vegan! My Whole Foods in NYC doesn’t even sell vegan donuts, so you can imagine my excitement when I found these! They were SO delicious. Seriously, when stuff tastes this good without eggs or dairy why would anyone ever need non-vegan baked goods anyways?!

Another restaurant we visited was the Darbster, a 100% vegan restaurant in West Palm Beach. My sister was in the mood for some vegan pancakes so we headed there for their weekend brunch. Everyone besides me ordered the pancakes and they all liked them. I ordered the tempeh bacon BLT which was classic and delicious.

But what is coolest about the Darbster is that 100% of the profits from the restaurant go to the Darbster Foundation, which was created by the restaurant’s owners to assist in animal welfare and animal rights efforts. I honestly can’t think of a cooler concept! A vegan restaurant where all the profits go to helping animals in need?! So special. You can read more about the Darbster Foundation, here.

Raw Juce was another one of my favorite discoveries! I checked out the Palm Beach Gardens location (where they were extremely kind and helpful!) and they also have two locations in Boca Raton and one location opening in Aventura, Florida soon. I picked up some juice (the raw green made with parsley, spinach, romaine, kiwi, lemon, gala apple, kale, chlorella and ginger) and a smoothie bowl. This smoothie bowl was seriously the best one I’ve ever had. I got the black magic bowl made with banana, mango, acai, almond mylk, vega sport protein and activated charcoal, all topped with chia seeds, flax seed granola, coconut flakes, bananas and blueberries. If you are in the area and looking for a healthy breakfast or lunch you have got to stop in and get this bowl!!

And on my way out of town I made a quick stop at The Bee located in downtown West Palm Beach. This place was adorable! A perfect place to sit and enjoy a healthy vegan meal with a friend or sit and do some solo work on your computer. The atmosphere is really cute as can be. Had I found The Bee sooner I would have tried out their lunch specials because I overheard some of the customers saying how great they were. The Bee offer smoothies, juices and lunch food at this location and whenever I am back in town I will definitely be stopping in to try their food.

And there you have it! That’s FIVE 100% vegan restaurants I found just during my short visit to Florida. I was pleased as punch to see what a wide variety there was. And I can’t even imagine how many more places there must be in Florida’s other big cities.

If you’re a Floridian leave a comment and let me know your favorite vegan or vegetarian spots!

xo,

Tedi