The BEST Vegan Eats in San Diego

Transcript

Kate Rohani: Hi, I'm Kate Rohani. And I'm a volunteer Captain at The Humane League.

Today I wanna show you all my favorite vegan spots in San Diego. We have everything from vegan gourmet pizza to plant-based seafood. There's something for everyone.

Anyone with a sweet tooth needs to check out Maya's Cookies here in San Diego. They have everything from the original chocolate chip to the Drunken Grandma, which includes brown sugar oatmeal and rum soaked raisin. They ship nationwide so you can enjoy Maya's Cookies wherever you are in the country. Oh my gosh, these look so delicious. I love snickerdoodle.

Maya Madsen: Sharing my love, I do that through food. So it's a way that I share my love and you can taste it in every single cookie.

My name's Maya Madsen, I'm the founder and CEO of Maya's Cookies. And I'm on a mission to show the world that being vegan is cool. So I started out with classic chocolate chip because to be honest, that's the OG. It's still our best seller. I created chocolate chip s'mores, marble fudge, brown sugar butterscotch, birthday cakes, snickerdoodle, you name it, I can create it into a cookie. We get so many reactions from customers that can't believe these are vegan. Then they are so surprised. And I use that as an opportunity to have a conversation about the merits of plant-based, veganism, all the things. So cookies are definitely a great gateway to introduce someone who's curious about the vegan lifestyle.

Kate Rohani: I just met Maya and she is such a nice welcoming person. And I'm so lucky that this is my neighborhood cookie spot.

So my husband Rustin, who's also a volunteer at the Humane League, went vegan about two years ago. And after watching his journey after a couple of months, I then went vegan as well. We did lots of research together and we really were supportive of each other and did it together, which is awesome.

And then I joined The Humane League a few months later, because I wanted to do more for animals and be more a part of the animal activist community. And it's been the greatest thing ever since. Community outreach, organizing protests and corporate campaigning makes me feel like I'm really impacting the lives of animals raised for food.

If you're looking for a quick delicious and even a little east coast style, lunch or breakfast, check out Ben & Esther's Vegan Jewish Deli. They serve up traditional delicatessen sandwiches and baked goods. They serve a whitefish salad, Lox, steak and eggs, brisket, boiled bagels with a wide array of vegan schmears. Ben & Esther's Vegan Jewish Deli is doing something completely delicious and very unique. I cannot recommend them enough.

It may look unassuming from the outside but Mission Square Market is bursting at the seams with new and exciting vegan products. The fully vegan market has a massive selection from plant-based meats and cheeses to hard to find ingredients. They have a ton of gluten-free options and if that's not enough, they also have a fully vegan deli, where you can take some delicious sandwiches to go.

What I really love about THL is the wonderful sense of community. I love how it's so flexible, you can really get involved with whatever you're passionate about. So I've done protesting and organizing community events and veg advocacy and corporate campaigning. So there's a really wide variety of what you can get involved with. I know I'm making a positive difference for the animals because by calling and emailing different corporations, they do eventually adopt the Better Chicken Commitment. And I can see I'm having an influence on what these companies are doing and what their policies are. You can just really see the difference we're making for animals.

When planning dinner here in San Diego you must check out the acclaimed pizza at Donna Jean. They stand out by taking home the title of San Diego's best vegan restaurant in 2018, and best vegan pizza in San Diego two years in a row. The culinary mastermind behind Donna Jean is Chef Roy. Donna Jean is a tribute to Chef Roy's late mother. There is so much care and passion put into the menu at Donna Jean. It's a place that really makes their customers feel at home.

Roy Elam: The pitch for Donna Jean really is just pizza, pasta, vegetables. It's like pretty simple. You can do a lot within that realm with staying seasonal. Also, there's not a lot of explanation with that food.

Hi, my name is Roy Elam. I'm the chef and owner of Donna Jean.

We want it to be a very comfortable place for anybody to come. So we look at ourselves more as a neighborhood restaurant that just happens to be vegan. We just want people to come and enjoy good food and not even say, "Oh, that was good for vegan." Like, "That was just good." Everything we do here, we make from scratch down to our hot sauce, all of our sauces, our pastas our everything. We go through the extra effort of making things that are specific for our restaurant. So you can only get this experience here. It's the hard way to do things but I don't want to do it any other way.

Our current lasagna is a Lasagna Verde. Spinach, pasta, noodles, mushroom and lentil bolognese. Our mozzarella, our parmesan, roasted zucchini and pistachio pesto. I really like that dish a lot. And then the Killer Queen is kind of a mashup of a margarita and a marinara, which are two of my favorite pizzas. And then we mix them together and then I also add a little bit of ghost pepper salt to it. So it's got like a little, something.

One thing that's happened in the last two, three years, is that people will come from non-vegan restaurants to learn how to cook vegan in a vegan restaurant, because it's a thing like it's a skill set that they need to learn and they don't teach it in culinary school. So I've had a bunch of people coming through here that are just interested in learning, just what it is to cook vegan. So that's a pretty cool shift that I see happening in the culinary world right now. Like vegetables are becoming like the center instead of the side, which is really nice.

Kate Rohani: Kindred is a one of a kind experience. It offers heavy metal aesthetics with a fully vegan menu that evolves throughout the season. You can come here and enjoy a mocktail or a cocktail. You can always rely on Kindred to offer a new and exciting experience.

THL has volunteers and organizers on the ground throughout the entire country. Stay in the loop with the work we're doing and learn how to get involved by following us on social media. Let us know your favorite vegan restaurants in your hometown, in the comments below. We're always looking for new places to explore and people to meet.