Veg ‘n’ Out: Key West

The Con­ti­nen­tal U.S. South­ern­most Veg Din­ing at it’s Best

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Key West is bet­ter known for Fan­tasy Fest, Duval Street, free roam­ing chick­ens, key lime pie, mile marker 0, south­ern­most point, six toed cats and the Hem­ing­way house, but also among those six square miles of island time are some unique and note­wor­thy veg cui­sine restau­rants.
To max­i­mize your Key West expe­ri­ence, I rec­om­mend rent­ing a moped, which are avail­able through­out the island. No wor­ries if you’ve never dri­ven one before, the rental staff will pro­vide you with an instant les­son in moped dri­ving on a neigh­bor­hood side street. Cruise around the island allow­ing the breeze to cool you in the trop­i­cal air and give you the ulti­mate per­sonal tour of the area. As you work up an appetite, head over to Southard Street for a tasty lunch at The Café, a mostly veg­e­tar­ian restaurant.

The Cafe Key West

The Café offers a wide range of vegan and veg­e­tar­ian menu items includ­ing starters, sal­ads, sand­wiches, piz­zas, daily spe­cials, stir frys and main plates. This casual, full ser­vice restau­rant has a local, homey atmos­phere. They even offer you the oppor­tu­nity to add to their decor by col­or­ing a 3 x 5 index card with your own art­work, which will be hung among the oth­ers on the walls.

Baked Acron Squash at The Cafe

The Café has many delight­ful menu items. Dur­ing my visit, I enjoyed the baked brown sugar acorn squash stuffed Isre­ali cous­cous, quinoa, zuc­chini, dried cran­ber­ries, scal­lions, pine nuts, served over a bed of sautéed spinach. The dish was an out­stand­ing med­ley of tex­tures and fla­vors. It tasted fresh and the sweet­ness of the squash paired with the tart cran­ber­ries was a excel­lent fla­vor com­bi­na­tion. The baked squash was a one-of-a-kind veg­e­tar­ian entree offer­ing not found at other restau­rants.
My guest enjoyed the grilled por­to­bello sand­wich with roasted red pep­pers, goat cheese, spinach on Cia­batta bread with a side of sweet potato fries. Other high­light veg items recommended:

• BBQ tofu with roasted red pota­toes, sautéed spinach
• Kung Pao tofu: crispy tofu and veg­eta­bles over organic brown rice
• Fig and gor­gonzola pizza: caramelized onion, olive oil, gar­lic, wal­nuts and fresh spinach
• Home­made spring rolls served with sweet chili sauce

Por­to­bello Sand­wich at The Cafe

Although some of the prices seem a bit high for the casu­al­ness of the restau­rant, in my opin­ion, it was worth the price for the qual­ity of the meal and the vari­ety of veg offer­ings which were well bal­anced, unique and always delicious.

The Café
509 Southard St.
Key West, FL 33040

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(305) 296‑5515

http://www.thecafekw.com/

$8–15 an item

Hours: Monday-Saturday 11am — 10pm. Closed Sundays.

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Just around the cor­ner from The Café is Sugar Apple Nat­ural Foods, with vegan options a plenty! Sugar Apple is a nat­ural food mar­ket with a vegan cafe attached. Their menu offers items such as smooth­ies, fresh made fruit and veg­etable juices, gourmet veg deli items, sal­ads, wraps,  and a vari­ety of tem­peh and tofu dishes.

The mar­ket side offers organic pro­duce, vegan gro­cery, frozen vegan treats, home­o­pathic reme­dies, books, mag­a­zines and nat­ural vit­a­mins with notable brands such as: Nature’s Way, Nature’s Plus, Nature’s Herbs, Kyolic.

Sugar Apple Nat­ural Foods
917 Simon­ton St.
Key West, FL 33040


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(305) 292‑0043

www.sugarapplekeywest.com

$4–8 an item

Hours: Monday-Saturday 10am — 6pm. Closed Sundays.

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Help Your­self Organic Restau­rant is a Key West stand out restau­rant with fresh, organic foods that revi­tal­ize and nour­ish the body and palette. Help Your­self makes every­thing from scratch using organic ingre­di­ents. Most items are avail­able in vegan ver­sions. They offer break­fast and lunch items daily and have an organic pro­duce mar­ket on Mon­days. Tasty veg items to try:

Help Your­self Restaurant

• French toast made with whole wheat bread, served with maple syrup &  fresh fruit
• Fruit par­fait with organic mixed fruit, home­made gra­nola and house-cultured coconut yogurt
• Super spinach salad: cashew cheese, tem­peh, can­died wal­nuts, apple & bal­samic dressing
• TLT: mar­i­nated tem­peh, let­tuce, tomato, avo­cado, chipo­tle mayo & mixed greens
• Lasagna: a raw food­ies delight!Layers of zuc­chini, brazil nut meat, pesto, fresh toma­toes, mari­nara, served with a green salad
• Coconut curry with mixed veg­etable over udon noodles

Help Your­self Organic Restau­rant
829 Flem­ing Street
Key West, FL 33040

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(305) 296‑7766 ‎

http://www.helpyourselffoods.com/

$5–11 an item

Hours: 7 days, 8am — 4pm
Organic Mar­ket Hours: Mon­days, 11am — 5pm