My Vegan Experiment in Portland

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I’ve been a vegetarian for 23 years but I’ve never wanted to be vegan; even less so as we travel and it’s hard enough avoiding meat and fish, let alone dairy too. It was on a last minute whim that I decided to go vegan for our nine days in Portland, Oregon. While researching vegetarian restaurants in this alternative city it seemed that veganism was widespread. There were tons of options and I thought it would be a good way to start a healthy eating kick, after a rather unhealthy few weeks of chocolate, cheddar, and chips in England.

The Vegan Experiment

I don’t plan to turn vegan permanently, but I thought it’d be an interesting experiment in one of the easiest places in the world for vegans. I don’t like eggs, milk, butter, and cream anyway, so the main things I had to avoid were my beloved cheese and hidden dairy products in things like pastries and cakes. Going vegan seemed like a great way to avoid these temptations, although it turns out there are plenty of vegan treats in Portland.

My breakfasts and lunches didn’t change much. In the morning I ate my usual fruit and muesli (I’ve never eaten them with milk); and I replaced the cheese in our salad sandwiches with hummus or had a salad for lunch. Eating out was easy as there are plenty of vegan options in Portland. I did have to change some eating habits—when Simon picked up pastries from the bakery I had to skip them (no bad thing really), and it made it more difficult to share meals, which we often do, as Simon had no interest in giving up cheese.

Discovering Portland

Street art and vintage clothes shop, Portland
Street art and vintage clothes shops are common sights in Portland

We were surprised by how much we loved Portland. At first it didn’t seem a particularly attractive city, with no outstanding architecture and lots of boxy buildings, but its charm crept up on us.

We stayed just off SE Hawthorne and spent most of our time in the eastern neighbourhoods, occasionally venturing to the small downtown. The neighbourhoods are quiet suburbs of wooden detached houses with porches and vegetable gardens, old trees draping across the streets. It’s a pleasant place to wander and amongst the residential areas you’ll suddenly come across a street of independent businesses—vintage clothes shops, art galleries, funky cafes, vegan bakeries, and the ubiquitous food carts.

We loved the small town feel—it’s friendly, walkable, and laid-back, but with an alternative vibe and so much good food. Yes, Portland is hip—you’ll come across sights like moustached hipsters riding unicycles—but it feels very down to earth, not pretentious.

It also helped that the weather was fantastic. Apparently it rains most of the year, but the summers are hot and sunny, and it was around 30ºC for most of our stay in mid September.

Vegan Portland

Portland is an easy place to be vegan. There are plenty of vegan or mostly vegan restaurants, and even meat-focused restaurants usually offer vegan options—they aren’t always listed so it’s always worth asking.

Most of the places we ate at were casual eateries where you order at the counter and pay in advance, either at food carts or small cafes/restaurants. There’s no sales tax in Oregon and you also save on the big tip needed in table service restaurants. This makes it very affordable and we usually spent around $15-20 for a meal for two, although we had a couple of splurges.

For self-catering there are farmer’s markets, the New Seasons supermarket chain (like Whole Foods and just as pricey), and there’s even a vegan mini-mall with grocery store and bakery.

Here’s the day by day breakdown of my vegan experiment in Portland:

Day 1

After a night in the airport hotel I skipped the not vegan friendly hotel breakfast and stuck with the granola bars we had. Some contained milk powder which I avoided, but I did eat one with honey in it, which although isn’t technically vegan I don’t mind eating, and we had nothing else.

Harlow

After moving to our Airbnb apartment we had lunch at Harlow, a stylish vegetarian cafe that’s gluten-free and mostly vegan.

I had the kale salad, a huge bowl of kale, spinach, beans, avocado, and lovely smoky tempeh. It was filling, healthy, and delicious.

Kale salad at Harlow, Portland vegan food
Kale salad at Harlow

Simon’s chilli mac and cheese was just as good—creamy, tasty, comfort food—and he didn’t even miss the cheese.

Vegan chilli mac and cheese at Harlow, Portland
Vegan chilli mac and cheese at Harlow

Portions were huge and good value at $9, especially as we probably could have shared.

A great start to the vegan experiment.

Harlow3632 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 

Day 2

Portobello Vegan Trattoria

Gnocchi with marinara at Portobello vegan trattoria, Portland
Gnocchi marinara at Portobello

Portobello is a vegan Italian trattoria. We found the food nice but not spectacular, although if you are vegan I imagine it’s a welcome change being able to eat Italian food without worrying about hidden dairy.

We had the beet tartare, a dip of beets and cashew puree on bread; a beet burger which was just OK (we might be spoilt by Roam in San Francisco); and the gnocchi with marina which was our favourite—the gnocchi were lovely and fluffy. Did we miss parmesan on top? A little bit…

Portobello Vegan Trattoria: 1125 SE Division St. 

Day 3

Natural Selection

NE Alberta Street is a cool street in a leafy northwest neighbourhood with plenty of vegan options including the vegan bakery Back to Eden which we managed to resist. We were there for upmarket vegetarian restaurant Natural Selection—a splurge but well worth it. It did lead to my first slip off the vegan wagon…

Natural Selection offers a four course menu for $45, plus $25 for wine pairing (which we shared). For each course you have two choices from the seasonal menu. I was planning to choose all the vegan options, but there was no vegan dessert listed, and I admit I really wanted to try the heirloom pepper soup. I’m sure I could have asked for a vegan dessert option, but I felt weird asking for special treatment as I wasn’t really vegan. With Simon as the devil on my shoulder I decided that as the meal was expensive we should make the most of it and share everything on the menu (all vegan except the soup and desserts).

I felt guilty at first but that passed as soon as I tasted the rich pepper soup.

Non vegan heirloom  pepper soup at Natural Selection
Non vegan heirloom pepper soup at Natural Selection

It was an incredible meal. Everything sounds simple but nothing is what you expect. They take vegetables to a new level with intense flavours and interesting combinations, creating dishes with careful thought and experimentation—these aren’t meals you can easily recreate at home.

Baby artichoke & fried potatoes at Natural Selection, Portland vegan food
Baby artichoke & fried potatoes

The melon and mustard greens salad turned out to be a delectable mix of sweet melon, salty olives, vinegary pickled purple beans, and bitter mustard greens in a tangy lemon dressing.

melon and mustard greens salad  at Natural Selection
Melon and mustard greens salad: sounds simple, looks simple, tastes amazing.

I admit being happy to be temporarily unvegan as I ate my favourite dessert—a gorgeous apple, nectarine, and huckleberry crumble with lemon verbena ice cream. Oh so good.

It was a very special meal and well worth the money. I’m sure they could accommodate vegans if you asked.

Natural Selection: 3033 NE Alberta St. 

Day 4

Back to being a proper vegan again…

Luc Lac

Tofu and vegetable pho at Luc Lac: vegan food in Portland
Tofu and vegetable pho at Luc Lac

Luc Lac is a very popular Vietnamese restaurant downtown. We arrived at 11.30am and still had to queue for 15 minutes. Vegan options are marked on the menu. I had tofu and vegetable pho and Simon had the peanut curry stir-fry with tofu. The food was delicious, the portions enormous, but it wasn’t the most relaxing experience with loud music and people standing next to us waiting for a table.

Luc Lac: 835 SW 2nd Ave.

Buckman Farmer’s Market

Missionary vegan chocolate truffles, Portland
Missionary vegan chocolate truffles

There are many farmer’s markets in Portland and we went to this small one around the corner from our apartment. We bought some organic but pricey vegetables and a couple of Missionary vegan truffles ($3 each). The rich chocolate was so good you’d never know they were vegan and we picked up a box for our friend later (you can also buy them at New Seasons for slightly less).

Buckman Farmer’s Market: SE Salmon St & SE 20th Ave. 

Hotlips

Vegetable and vegan cheese pizza at Hotlips, Portland
Vegetable and vegan cheese pizza at Hotlips

The Hotlips pizzeria was just around the corner from our apartment and surprisingly they had two vegan slices (there are even more options if you order a whole pizza). I got a slice with mixed vegetables and daiya vegan cheese ($4).

Pizza is one of the hardest things to give up so I was happy that I really enjoyed my slice. The vegan cheese was OK but tasted like processed cheese, which it is, and I wonder if regular cheese would actually be healthier. The next time I went back I had a slice without the cheese and preferred it.

Hotlips: SE Hawthorne & 22nd, and other locations. 

Salt & Straw

Our main reason for being in Portland was to attend XOXO, an experimental festival celebrating independently-produced art and technology. At the opening party there was a barbecue but the vegan food options were disappointing—baked beans and watermelon.

I made up for it with a visit to the Salt & Straw ice-cream cart. They had one vegan option—coconut with Petunia’s salted caramel bars and swirls of chocolate ganache. It was rich, creamy, coconutty and in no way seemed vegan.

Salt & Straw: 3345 SE Division St, and other locations. 

It was a day that proves being vegan doesn’t necessarily mean being healthy and that vegan treats can be just as good.

Day 5

I had a slice of Hotlips pizza—focaccia with vegetables and no cheese for lunch.

In the evening we were at the festival which had a number of food carts. Simon had a wood-fired margherita pizza which looked amazing and I admit I was a bit jealous. You could substitute vegan cheese but it was $3 more and I didn’t like it enough to have a pizza dominated by it.

Instead I went to Pok Pok’s food truck. People rave about this Thai restaurant so I was keen to try their coconut curry with mushrooms over rice noodles. It was nice but I wasn’t blown away and it felt overpriced at $10 for a small bowl.

Day 6

Canteen

Bangkok bowl at Canteen: vegan food in Portland
Bangkok bowl at Canteen

As the vegan meals at the festival were disappointing we headed to this vegan cafe for dinner which has a small, healthy menu of bowls, salads and smoothies. The outside tables were perfect on a hot evening.

In Portland vegan eating seems very focused around the bowl—a mix of grains, protein, and veggies. Simon had a tasty Bangkok bowl with avocado curry, red curry peanut sauce, brown rice, aduki beans, broccoli, red cabbage, kimchi, and black sesame seeds.

I had the walnut taco salad (see top photo) which was like a deconstructed taco on a bed of leaves. It included walnut taco crumbles, mixed greens, pico de gallo, avocado curry sauce, carrots, cashew nacho spread, and avocado. It was unique and delicious, and as always, the portions were so huge I had enough left for lunch (although it wasn’t as good the next day)—great value at $8.

Update: Canteen is now closed.

Day 7

I had the leftover salad for lunch and cooked pasta with tomato sauce for dinner at our apartment.

Day 8

As the end of our Portland trip approached we had to step up our eating game to fit in as many of the city’s vegan eats as we could—for research purposes of course…

The Whole Bowl

The Whole Bowl: vegan food in Portland
The Whole Bowl

This popular food cart (with five locations) only makes one thing—a comforting vegetarian bowl of brown rice, beans, avocado, cilantro, olives, salsa, and their tasty lemon and garlic Tali sauce which makes it taste different from a burrito. They usually add cheese and sour cream but you can ask for it vegan. It was delicious, healthy, filling, and very affordable at $5.50 for a bambino bowl (or only $0.50 more for a big bowl).

The Whole Bowl: 4411 SE Hawthorne, and other locations.

Blue Star Donuts

Raspberry, hibiscus & pistachio vegan donuts from Blue Star, Portland
Raspberry, hibiscus & pistachio vegan donuts from Blue Star

After running 10 miles along Portland’s river and then hiking in Mount Tabor park I felt I deserved a treat. Voodoo doughnuts are considered a must-eat in Portland, but we heard some locals preferred Blue Star, who also make vegan donuts. I had to ask for the vegan options as they weren’t labelled and I had the choice of pumpkin spice, blueberry bourbon, and the raspberry, hibiscus and pistachio that I went for ($2.25). It was wonderful—fruity, and rich but light. These are high quality donuts using the best ingredients including fresh organic fruit.

Blue Star Donuts3549 SE Hawthorne and also downtown at 1237 SW Washington Street. 

Bollywood Theater

Bollywood Theater vegan food in Portland
Aloo tikki, pappadums, and bhel puri

You won’t find your usual Indian restaurant menu at Bollywood Theater—they serve Indian street food which brought back fond memories of our time in India.

You have to ask what’s vegan and there aren’t a huge amount of options, but it was enough to keep us happy. Sadly I couldn’t eat the samosas, so we had the aloo tikki instead—spicy potato patties with a chickpea curry; bhel puri, a crunchy, tangy mix of potatoes, onions, cilantro, peanuts, spices, and puffed rice, with green and tamarind chutneys; and some pappadums and chutneys.

It was all very good and reasonably priced at around $6 per dish.

Bollywood Theater: 3010 SE Division St and also 2039 NE Alberta. 

Salt & Straw

Vegan ice cream at Salt & Straw, Portland
My vegan coconut ice-cream on the right

The Salt & Straw store was just a few minutes away so we popped in for dessert. There were two vegan options—plum sangria sorbet and the coconut caramel one I’d had before and couldn’t resist having again. We found the $3 kids cones big enough.

Salt & Straw: 3345 SE Division St, and other locations. 

Day 9

Voodoo Donuts

Vegan donut at Voodoo, Portland
Chocolate and coconut vegan doughnut at Voodoo

On our last day in Portland we finally visited this legendary doughnut shop. The flavours on offer are extensive including plenty of vegan doughnuts. I had chocolate coconut ($1.25) and Simon actually preferred it to his non-vegan chocolate one. Vegan win!

The doughnuts were good but we preferred the gourmet flavours and higher quality at Blue Star.

Voodoo Doughnuts: 22 SW 3rd Ave and other locations. 

Tidbit Food Farm & Garden

Tidbit food cart pod has lots of vegan meals in Portland
Tidbit food cart pod

Our final meal was a classic Portland experience.

Portland’s food carts congregate in permanent pods throughout the city. Tidbit is a new pod with plenty of carts, a nice atmosphere, and seating in the centre. There are lots of vegan options including Mexican, Mediterranean, Hawaiian, veggie burgers, Belizean, waffle sandwiches, ramen, Thai, and more.

We had Indian and shared two vegetable curries and rice for $6 (the naan that usually comes with it is not vegan). We were going to share something else, but I wasn’t that hungry and Simon really wanted a burrito with beans and cheese.

Tidbit: SE Division St and SE 28th Place. 

Am I Staying Vegan?

I enjoyed the experiment and it definitely forced me to choose healthier options (most of the time). It was easy being vegan in Portland but elsewhere in the world is much more challenging. As nomads we often travel to countries where it’s hard enough being vegetarian, let alone vegan. As bloggers who love to write about food, being vegan would make it even harder to find local food that we can enjoy and write about; cutting ourselves off even more from the local food culture. I also missed being able to share meals with Simon.

We’re currently in San Francisco and I’ve decided to continue the vegan experiment for the month we are here, although I have given myself the option of one cheat day a week. Surprisingly it has been much more difficult here than in Portland. Yes, there are many vegan restaurants in the city but not near Lower Pacific Heights where we’re staying. We’ve also been eating out with meat-eating friends and in many restaurants vegan options are limited or non-existent. Sure, they could always make me something up but I’m not keen on paying $20 for a half-hearted meal.

I’m getting tired of having to ask a million questions to determine if a dish is vegan or not—at Roam I had to check whether the veggie burger, bun, jalapeño relish, and caramelised onions were vegan—I was that person holding up the queue.

And yet I feel drawn to carry on eating vegan. I haven’t taken advantage of my cheat day yet. I’m not tempted by the cheese in the fridge. I like that I’m eating healthier—choosing a salad over a grilled cheese sandwich; skipping the cookies Simon buys. I even resisted the incredible looking chocolate cake everyone else ate at dinner last night.

I’m not committed to being vegan permanently, but I’m going to see where the experiment takes me for now.

Vegan Portland Map

Here’s a map of the Portland vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants mentioned in this post. Note that many places have multiple locations in the city, so check out their websites to see if there’s a branch closer to where you are staying.

Portland Tips

  • We recommend staying in one of the leafy neighbourhoods rather than downtown. We stayed in a beautiful, spacious Airbnb apartment surrounded by trees just off SE Hawthorne where we felt so at home we didn’t want to leave. It’s a cool area and only 40 minutes walk or 15 minutes on the bus to downtown. Sign up to Airbnb using this link and you’ll get $25 credit.
  • Portland has the cheapest airport transport of anywhere we’ve been. For $2.50 you get a two hour ticket on all local public transport. You can take the red line on the MAX light rail to the city centre (40 minutes) and transfer to a bus out to the neighbourhood you are staying in.
  • Getting around the city is easy. We walked most places and got the bus occasionally. It’s a very bike friendly city but we didn’t think the rental rates were worth it. We loved being able to buy bus tickets with the Trimet Tickets app, and used the PDX bus app to check times.
  • If you love books don’t miss Powell’s City of Books, a humungous independent bookstore and a local legend. It made us sad that we can’t buy books anymore.
  • If you like retro video games head to Ground Kontrol, a classic arcade and bar.

22 Comments

  1. I recommend Sizzle Pie. The best vegan and veg pizza I’ve ever had. Also the two vegan bars, Sweet Hereafter and Bye and Bye. The Sudra, vegan Indian. Love visiting pdx.

    Reply ↓

  2. Next time you’re in town, please let me know. I’d love to bring you out on one of my Underground Tours (AKA The Worst of Portland) with Portland Walking Tours. Tons of history, and more Shanghai-ing than you can shake a stick at. (Not that shaking a stick would help.)

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  3. PDX is freaking amazing … I’m heading back there next summer for two weeks, and I can’t wait to gorge myself on food like this!

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  4. It looks that you’ve managed to handle you vegetarian diet very well. The dishes from your pictures look very tasty and I think that I, as a non-vegetarian person, enjoy a lot of your meals.

    Reply ↓

  5. I’m a huge fan of your blog! I’m in the planning stages of starting my own. Do you use mailchimp or aweber, or which do you recommend?

    Reply ↓

  6. Hello! I found the site you today through 360meridianos.com.br
    I’m loving the site and loving you even more because I’m vegan =)

    =***

    Reply ↓

  7. These meals look so delicious! I’ve been vegetarian all my life and have considered going vegan a few times- i also don’t drink milk or like eggs too much. I think i might struggle giving up cheese though. I’m gluten-free and often have cheese with a lot of my meals, but these meals look so good!

    Lizzy at Nomad Notebook

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  8. Ditto, Erin!

    If being a vegetarian can often prove to be difficult when eating out, being vegan is even harder :(
    I turned vegan when I was living in the US and now that I am travelling I’ve had to go vegetarian. I am currently in China where the concept of vegetarianism/veganism is not completely understood (tofu in lamb sauce and with shredded pork, noodle soup in beef broth ^_^) and the options when eating out have been so far limited to a few dishes.
    I am afraid I’ll become malnourished, I have already lost weight in the first two weeks =[

    Apart from cooking yourself, do you guys have any tips on how to maintain a healthy and balanced diet when travelling in countries where you can’t speak the language?

    All those pictures made me jealous, haha, great post and good luck on your vegan quest!

    Reply ↓

    • Ah, I hear China is tough! We’ve never been there (except Hong Kong which is easy for vegetarians) so can’t give any specific tips. Try stocking up on fruit and nuts to snack on, check out happycow.com for veg restaurants (most likely in big cities), and ask a local to tell you how to say or write down your exact requirements (I don’t eat any meat, fish, chicken etc). In Japan we did have to resort to eating the noodles and leaving the fish broth in a soup a few times. We’ve definitely had to be more flexible at times and try not to think about hidden ingredients. Good luck with it!

      Reply ↓

  9. A good place to kick off your experiment! We actually went vegetarian in the USA because we found the regular meat so disgusting and the organic meat too expensive. We loved it and only stopped when we flew to South America because it’s so much harder here. We were talking about picking it up again last night so I think we will soon.

    Btw have you watched Portlandia? I think it’s on YouTube, give it a go. It’s hilarious and even though it’s a spoof it describes Portland to a tee ;-)

    Reply ↓

    • Yes we saw an episode of Portlandia! So true :)

      South America is definitely a challenge for vegetarians but we always managed it.

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  10. Wow, you guys really eat out a lot.

    I know all to well just how tough it can feel to travel as a vegan after the past could of months of being vegan through Western Europe where it’s difficult at times – not impossible – but certainly a lot easier than countries outside of Europe.

    As you’ve lived in Mexico for a while I’ll take your word for it that it wouldn’t be the easiest thing ever to be vegan there, whilst also trying to eat the local dishes; but they still do rice and vegetables just like everyone else so it’s only as hard as you make it. That Gay Backpacker wrote and interesting article on the ease of eating vegan in Mexico and that filled me full of good thoughts and hope for when we eventually get to travel there. Plus, there’s also Justin of Lotus & The Artichoke who earlier this year spent three months in Mexico and will shortly be turning all of the recipes he learnt into a vegan Mexican cookbook, another great sign that eating vegan in meat-centric countries is possible.

    Reply ↓

    • We wanted to take advantage of all the great restaurants in Portland while we were there—there were still so many on our list we didn’t get to.

      It’s definitely possible to be vegan in Mexico and if you cooked for yourself it’d be easy. Although we did cook most of the time in Mexico (when we had an apartment) we feel that we’re missing out not eating street food. It was challenging enough being vegetarian at times and being vegan would limit it even further. Mexico City had the most options so you’d probably find some good things to eat there (as long as you can speak Spanish and explain what you can’t eat).

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  11. I’m on an enforced vegan diet at the moment. I’ve caught ever bacterial bug going here in Mexico, which has been less than fun and left me lactose intolerant. So I’ve been eating vegan for the past 4 months. Thankfully we’re housesitting so I’ve been able to cook for myself as I think eating out here in Mexico would be near impossible. They even put cream cheese in vegetarian sushi!

    Love these tips as we’re heading probably heading to Portland in November. Sad to hear that it’s been more difficult in San Francisco, we’re off there on Monday. At least I’ll be able to explain my diet in English, it’s really be stretching my Spanish!

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    • Yes, Mexico would be tough- we ate a lot of cheese quesadillas.

      San Francisco is great for vegans if you are prepared to travel to the vegan/vegetarian restaurants. We’ve written about some of them here: http://www.neverendingvoyage.com/vegetarian-restaurants-san-francisco/

      Don’t miss Millennium for a splurge, Gracias Madre for vegan Mexican, and Roam for the veggie burgers (the wholemeal bun is vegan). The reason we’ve found San Francisco more difficult is mostly because we’ve been eating out with meat-eating friends and the area we are staying isn’t as vegan-friendly as neighbourhoods like the Mission.

      Enjoy!

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      • Thanks Erin. We’ve booked in at Greens based on your glowing report and we’ll definitely check out Roam, It’ll keep me and the meat eater happy.

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  12. All of this food looks amazing and I want to eat it all. Portland definitely looks like my kind of place in this regard! I’m fascinated by your vegan experiment, Erin. My current vegan-ish-ism started in a similar way, so it’s interesting to see how you experience it. I’m also really curious to see where it takes you, because I also get being tired of asking so many questions, yet I’m still drawn to eat this way.

    Generally, I find Italian restaurants are a pretty reliable place to find something vegan (especially in Austria) – usually, dairy is easy to avoid, but egg can sometimes be a challenge there. I agree with you about the vegan cheese on pizzas – I’d rather have no cheese at all because vegan cheese does taste (because it is!) very processed.

    Reply ↓

    • You guys would love Portland I’m sure!

      I think I’ll probably end up eating less dairy (I don’t eat eggs anyway) but not going entirely vegan, but we’ll see!

      Reply ↓

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