Surviving as a Vegetarian in Las Vegas
Last update: August 2021
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It took them long enough, but as of 2021 Vegas strip properties are finally making more than a token effort to accommodate vegetarians and vegans. So, you won't be pulling your hair out to find something to eat like you would before, but I'll still highlight some of the better offerings.
Buffets
In 2011, I ate at every single buffet on the Strip with the intention of reviewing them, and to use the experience to try to lobby buffet managers to offer more veg*n food and to label what's veg*n and what isn't. Short summary: They were all bad (few options and nearly nothing labeled), and I didn't get around to the reviewing or lobbying.
Fast forward ten years, and there's been some improvement.
- Caesars, which claims to have the largest buffet at 25,000 square feet, recently added over a hundred vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options, and they're labeled as such. (You might be disturbed by the entire, dead pig that's laid out on the line, though, including the head.)
- Wynn has a fair number of vegan options, which are labeled.
- Planet Hollywood has a Mediterranean station with falafel, hummus, dolmas, baba ganoush, and tabouleh.
- The rest? It's gonna be a while before I can visit all the buffets again to see how accommodating they are, but it seems that the trend is good.
Truly veggie-friendly restaurants
These are places with multiple and/or exceptional vegetarian offerings. The restaurants are listed roughly in order from North to South. My Vegas Strip Map will help you get oriented. I also made a special Google map of Indian lunch buffets.
Downtown
Vegenation • 616 E. Carson Ave. #120 (3 blocks form the Fremont St. Experience) • 702-366-8515 • 11a-8p every day)
Extensive menu that's all 100% vegan. 4.5 stars on Yelp with 1763 reviews, I've never seen any other business match that. It's worth staying downtown instead of on the strip just to be close to Vegenation.
On the strip
FASHION SHOW MALL, 3200 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
- India Masala • Fast-casual restaurant. Tons of vegetarian options, though only one vegan.
- OPA! of Greece • Wraps, falafel, hummus, chickpea salad.
- Pizza Press • Daiya cheese option!
P. F. Chang's (inside Planet Hollywood)
Chinese. Menu has a vegetarian section with five separate entrees. Also has five veggie sides and four appetizers. Everything on the menu that's vegetarian is denoted with a special mark. And brown rice is available instead of white!
Tamba • 3743 S. Las Vegas Blvd. (in the Hawaiian Marketplace across the street from the Park MGM; 702-798-7889)
Indian. Fourteen of their entrees are vegetarian,
and they have a lunch buffet. They can also boast about
winning a fistful of awards. Park MGM itself also gets a
shout-out for being the only non-smoking casino in Vegas.
3743 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
(702) 798-7889
Near the Strip (listed from North to South)
None of these is completely vegetarian, except Paradise City.
Paradise
City Creamery • 197
E. California Ave. #140
Vegan ice cream, founded by a Las Vegas stripper. (added 9/2020)
Komol
(Thai) • 953
E. Sahara Ave
Komol has a generous vegan and vegetarian sections on its menu. Vegetarians used to having to pick the one veggie item at a restaurant will be overwhelmed with the choices here. The atmosphere is also nice and the food is satisfying. A warning, I got one of the dinner sets (#3, I think) and it came with a soup that was mostly oil. It looked like they used four parts oil and one part water. The waiter noticed I didn't eat it and he graciously offered to bring me a normal soup, which I was happy to accept. Note that Namaste Indian (below) is in the same shopping center.
Mount
Everest India Cuisine • 3641 Sahara @ Rainbow
Offers a whopping 18 vegetarian items on their menu.
Ronald's Donuts • 4600 Spring Mountain Road
If you're not a veg*n for health reasons, you'll love this place, since you can't get more junk food than white flour, sugar, and fat. Most of the donuts and pastries here are vegan, and are on two completely separate shelves from the non-vegan stuff. Note that they tend to close EARLY, like around 4pm, and 2pm on Sundays.
Veggie
House • 5115 Spring Mountain Rd.
(2.4 miles west of the Strip) • (702) 431-5802
Chinese. Everything is vegan. They have "Beef", "Chicken", and "Fish" sections on the menu, but those are all vegan versions.
India
Palace • 505
E. Twain Ave
The vegetarian section of their menu boasts a whopping
17 vegetarian entrees, not even counting the veggie options on the
South Indian part of their menu like dosas.
Mint
Indian Bistro ★★★★★ • 730
E. Flamingo
Editor's pick! Their menu explicitly lists seven vegan entrees, as well as an additional two more vegetarian entrees. They also have vegan naan (!), and explicitly list which appetizers and breads are vegan. Wow! Why can't all restaurants be like this? But I'm not done yet: their lunch buffet is almost entirely vegetarian and has several explicitly-labeled vegan items. Eighteen thumbs up.
India
Oven + India Masala • 1040
E. Flamingo Rd.
These two restaurants merged. Serves north + south Indian cuisine.
Gandhi
India's Cuisine • 4080 Paradise Rd.
A whopping 19 vegetarian choices are listed explicitly on their menu. And like just about every Indian restaurant in town, they have a lunch buffet. Really nice interior and tableware, would impress a date.
Paymon's
Mediterranean Café • 4147
S. Maryland Parkway
Offering Greek, Italian, Persian, Middle Eastern, and Indian fare, much of it vegetarian, and much of that vegan. The vegan & vegetarian items are clearly identified on the menu, leaving out the guesswork. A 29-time "Best of Las Vegas Winner" from the Las Vegas Review-Journal (as of 2021).
Abyssinia Ethiopian • 4780 W. Tropicana
One of the better Ethiopian restaurants, with a large vegetarian section, and my go-to for Ethiopian since Cottage Café closed. Get the Veggie Combo.
South
Whole Foods Market • 6689
Las Vegas Blvd. S
Large organic / natural foods grocery store.
West
Go
Vegan Café •
This is it, baby.
Viva
Mercado • 3553 S. Rainbow
702-871-8826, M-W 11-10, Th-Sat 11-11, Sun 11-10
A veggie-friendly Mexican restaurant. Their sopa and rice contain chicken broth, but at least they tell you that in large bold letters on the menu so you know what not to order. Their beans are fried in canola oil and they have a vegetarian section on their menu with seven different entrees. The overwhelming majority of the menu is meat-laden, but it's still a relief when a restaurant takes specific notice of vegetarian diners by printing a note about ingredients and offering a complete vegetarian section on its menu, which is certainly enough for them to get a listing on this page.
Paymon's
Mediterranean Café • 8380
W. Sahara Ave. (6 miles W. of the
Strip), 702-804-0293
Offering Greek, Italian, Persian, Middle Eastern, and Indian fare, much of it vegetarian, and much of that vegan. The vegan & vegetarian items are clearly identified on the menu, leaving out the guesswork. A 29-time "Best of Las Vegas Winner" from the Las Vegas Review-Journal (as of 2021).
Whole Foods Market • 8855 W. Charleston (9 miles West of the Strip), 702-254-8655, 8am-10pm every day AND 7250 W. Lake Mead. @ Tenaya (9 miles West of downtown; map),• 702-942-1500, 7am-10pm x7
Two West locations for this large organic/natural foods grocery store.
Closed / Out of Business
if you can no longer find these on the web, that's why
Bombay Indian (north of Wynn) • Cottage
Café
Lesser offerings
These are places with just some token veg*n options on the menu, or are otherwise nothing special. I'm not going to list the one or two vegetarian options for each the dozens of restaurants out there, but instead I'll list (1) places with entrees that are a little more interesting than normal, and (2) cheap eats, esp. familiar fast food.
On the Strip
listed from North to South
| Circus Circus (across the street from Circus Circus at 322 W. Sahara; cross Sahara to get to it) | Capriotti's
Sandwich Shop has a vegetarian section on its
menu, with four sandwiches. |
| Slots-A-Fun (between Circus Circus and Westward Ho) | Has a Subway sandwich shop. |
| Fashion Show Mall 3200 S. Las Vegas Blvd. | • California Pizza Kitchen. Four
veggie pizzas and several veggie pastas. Vegans note
that the stuffed ravioli has cheese. • Chipotle • India Masala (tons of vegetarian options, but only one vegan) • Johnny Rockets (one veggie burger) • OPA! of Greece (wraps, falafel, hummus, chickpea salad) • Pizza Press (Daiya cheese option!) • Solo Qui (pasta with marinara sauce, panini). x Panda Express: Nothing is vegetarian; every seemingly-vegetarian item has secret meat and/or fish ingredients. |
| Mirage | California Pizza Kitchen (see Fashion Show Mall above for description) |
| Treasure Island / Venetian | Subway across the street from Treasure Island, next to the Venetian. Beware of the Grand Lux Café which perverts things you'd expect to be vegetarian. (e.g., the Crispy Sesame Tofu has oyster sauce, that fact isn't disclosed on the menu, and not all of the staff are even aware of this and might give you the wrong answer if you ask about it). |
| Casino Royale | Subway inside the Casino Royale. |
| Harrah's | Chipotle (burritos) between Harrah's and Casino Royale |
| Linq | Subway |
| Bally's | Sidewalk Café has a portobello mushroom sandwich. |
| Harley Davidson Café 3725 Las Vegas Blvd. S. |
Harley Davidson Café has an Veggie Wrap with roasted carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, shredded lettuce, and portabello mushrooms, wrappend in a tomato basil tortilla with a cream cheese ranch spread, served with seasonal fruit. Also has a veggie burger, grilled on the same grill as the meat. |
| New York New York Food Court across the street from NY NY, 24 hours |
In the food court across from NY NY, Del
Taco offers cheap 1/2-lb. bean & cheese
burritos. Vegans should ask them to hold the cheese and
sour cream.) There's also a Subway here (and a
Panda Express, which looks vegetarian, but has secret meat and
fish ingredients). In NY NY itself, their burger shop has veggie burgers on the menu. And I found this on a messageboard: "Il Fornaio at New York NY has vegan minestrone and a vegan salad. Everything is made on site, and they are very good about answering questions." |
| MGM Grand |
Subway Sandwiches in the Grand Canyon Shops next to
the MGM Grand. |
| Mandalay Bay | The Border Grill has Portabello Mushroom Mulitas ("grilled marinated mushrooms layered with black beans, roasted peppers, and pickled onions served with roasted tomato sauce braised greens, and guacamole"). |
Airport
Subway Sandwiches in Terminal C.
Downtown
| The
Beat Coffeehouse (520 Fremont) |
Roasted veggie sandwich and
veggie pizza on the menu. |
| Walgreens | Has a Subway sandwich shop. |
| Four Queens (Fremont & 3rd) | Has a Subway sandwich shop. |
| The Plaza (Fremont & Main) | Has a Subway sandwich shop. |
East
Merkato & Axum Ethiopian Restaurants • 855 & 8630 E. Twain (2 mi. E. of the Strip), 702-796-1231 & 640-9440 If you want Ethiopian, Abyssinia (above) is a much better choice. Merkato and Axum are right across the street from each other, in a not-so-great neighborhood, and the atmosphere and food are both below average. At Merkato the cooked greens were quite rancid. (Leave a bag of frozen vegetables on the counter for a couple of days and then open it, and it's the same smell.) Merkato's food was also super-greasy. I saw a roach scurry across the bar. The vegetarian section of the menu was rather sparse, and the description for one of the items in it was vegetables and beef! At Axum, I've never had drier, nastier injera in my life.Share:
Related articles & Sites
Vegans Baby. A guide much like the page you're reading now, but way more current.
The Vegas Vegan. Blog of a local resident, with restaurant reviews.