Guide to finding tasty vegetarian eats in the Buckeye city
We love taking spontaneous trips. For the most part, we enjoy making elaborate plans, but sometimes doing things on a whim often turns out to be a lot of fun too! We did something like that last weekend and took a trip to Columbus, Ohio to catch up with some friends.
Now, having only been to Kings Island in Cincinnati, we didn’t have any clue about what to expect in Columbus. It is very similar in size to Raleigh, and is also a university town, but the similarity ends there. Thanks goes to our friend, who is a foodie himself, for laying out a food-loaded weekend plan. It so happened that the Columbus Food Truck Festival was happening while we were there and we ofcourse made it a point to visit some of Ohio’s funnest and finest food trucks.
Let’s get eating!
One stop shop for all your food needs – North Market
If you are like us, more often than not, you end up craving variety. What if you cannot make up your mind or just want options? Worry not! North Market is your answer. Be it breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner, this place has something to offer, all under one roof.
Where to find vegetarian food in North Market?
Savory food
- Couscous salad and buttermilk cheddar biscuit from Little Eater.
- Sweet potato gnocchi in mushroom and sun-dried tomato cream sauce, bread, herbed butter, and Tiramisu from Pastaria.
- Vegetarian Gyoza and Veggie Aruba Soba soup-less noodle bowl from Satori Ramen Bar.
- Little eater – An all-vegetarian place specializing in salads, sandwiches, and soups, this place is a must visit if you enjoy your veggies. The quiche was highly recommended but, we settled for a couscous salad and buttermilk cheddar biscuit with whipped honey butter.
- Pastaria & Pastaria Seconda – A fresh, made-to-order pasta outlet that makes over 20 varieties of ravioli fillings every day! They also cater and you have the option to buy freshly made pasta. We LOVED what we ate here! Including the creamy and soft Tiramisu for dessert!
- Satori Ramen Bar – This place has a couple of vegetarian appetizers and vegetarian noodle bowl options. We settled for the soba noodle bowl with mushrooms, and got the vegetarian gyoza. Both were very flavorful.
- Momo Ghar – The name means house of momos and this place truly is! Now, it is rare to find good Nepalese food and this place is easily on our Top 3 places to eat in Columbus, Ohio. Pictured here are two varieties of Momo, one Vegan and one Veggie with the Jhol sauce.
Dessert picks
- Pistacia Vera – Best place to grab some gourmet French pastries and desserts. We got the French macarons (Pistachio, Honey Lavender, and Peach Oat). Safe to say they disappeared in record time during our evening cuppa. We also got a bittersweet valrhona nut-free cookie. It was so crumbly and delicious. They also offer breakfast pastries and have a seasonal brunch menu worth checking!
- Omega Artisan Baking – If bread is your jam, do not miss this place. Scores of freshly made bread adorns this place. Grabbed ourselves a Kouign-Amann. The focaccia was calling out our names but, we saved it for our next visit.
- Bubbles, the tea & juice company – After quite a bit of eating, this place is perfect for your caffeine fix. They offer a wide range both BoBa and fresh fruit juices. Settled for an ube boba and was elated drinking it!
North Market Hours:
Sun-Mon 10am-5pm • Tue-Sat 9am-7pm
Vegetarian-friendly Lunch & Dinner spots
We often hear friends stating how hard it is to find vegetarian food while traveling. In recent times, we have come across many restaurants actually making an honest effort to provide good quality vegetarian food for your money’s worth. Columbus sure seems to be having a restaurant boom and there are many places offering a wide variety of food for people with specific dietary preferences and needs.
It was great to come across such restaurants in Columbus, Ohio and it is only fair for us to share them with you!
Addis Restaurant – Ethiopian Cuisine
Ethiopian food in general is vegetarian-friendly. What made this place stand out was the exceptional taste and their hospitality. We ordered the Veggie Lovers plate and enjoyed every single bite of it. This place is a must visit if you are someone who loves trying global cuisine and like sharing a huge plate of food with your friends and family!
Eden Burgers
You may have come across in the news that more and more fast-food joints are incorporating plant-based burger patties to attract a wider customer base. So it was a pleasant surprise when we found out that Eden Burgers was an all-vegan fast-food joint. They offer burgers and wraps, and their patties are mostly made in-house from lentils and tempeh. Now, that is something that we don’t often see and we thoroughly enjoyed everything we ate here.
Tip: Order their monthly special burger and the loaded fries.
Brassica in the Short North
This place came highly recommended so, the expectations were pretty high. Brassica offers Mediterranean salads and sandwiches. They have a couple of vegetarian options and we tried their pita sandwich loaded with vegetables and falafel, and also got the brassica fries. The sandwich was what we needed after a long day and the fries were high-demand amongst us friends. The fries were flavored with sumac and herbs. but what made the dish exceptional was the Pita which was freshly baked, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside!
Tip: Get their special house sauce as a dip for the fries.
Ye’s Vegan Asian Restaurant
We love Asian food and it is a double whammy when it is vegetarian. After being confused about what to order, we finally settled for the golden soy nuggets, seitan skewers, steamed dumplings, Malaysian curry, and the Singapore rice noodles.
Our favorites were the dumplings and the noodles. We could have definitely had a little more gravy on the Malaysian curry but, the taste was very good.
Dessert Spots
How can our blog post not contain any information about desserts! Like we mentioned earlier in this post, North Market has some great dessert options but, outside that there are multiple other places too. We went on an ice-cream overload during this trip (you will see what we are talking about!) and thoroughly enjoyed every single scoop.
Jeni’s Splendid ice cream
This is one of the few chains that we really enjoy visiting and we have been to almost all their shops on the east coast. This time however, we got exceedingly foodventurous and went all in for their 10 scoop flight! This flight is perfect for ice cream aficionados and is great to share with a large group. Pssst! We actually came back again the next night to try a few flavors we missed out on our first visit!!
Tip: The flavors are pre-determined but you can switch one or two flavors. Two of our favorites were the seasonal nectar honeycomb and strawberry buttermilk.
Graeter’s Ice Cream
We enjoy the occasional tub of Graeter’s from our local grocery store but, going to the ice cream outlet was a fun experience.The French Pot process is what makes this ice cream different and it is something that you cannot miss during your trip to Columbus.
Mardi Gras Ice Cream
When was the last time you tried a saffron-infused ice cream? How about ice cream with dried fruits and cardamom? Mardi gras offers a wide range of Indian-flavored ice creams. The flavor profile of the ice cream were spot-on and it was hard to miss the fruity notes on them. We got the sweet rose and the kulfi (saffron-pistachio combo).
Tip: This place is open only for 6 months in a year. So, check online before heading there.
If you are still hungry after eating at all these places, you always have the option to check out the food trucks! Some vegetarian finds at the Columbus Food Truck Festival.
- Top left: Original Rangoons (fried wontons stuffed with cream cheese and scallions from Big Mouth Egg Rolls)
- Top down: Korean BBQ tofu bowl from Cupzilla (real good spice notes!)
- Center: Loaded fries with housemade black bean patty, cheddar, grilled onions, corn salsa, and cilantro cream sauce (from Put it in your face sandwich cart)
- Right: Buckeye softie and birthday cake softie with churros from Glazed Churro Bar
To conclude , it was obvious to us that apart from all the nature and theme parks that Ohio had to offer, we discovered some truly outstanding food in the area. We hope you get to enjoy these places as much as we did!
