Vegan Food in Louisville

Michelle's Limited Knowledge
Ramsis: Lots of vegan dishes straight off the menu and lots of options for making other dishes vegan (for example turning shrimp creole into tofu creole) or using vegan beef in the East Meets South Fajitas.

Zen Garden: Countless options. My personal favorite is the orange tofu.

Simply Thai: Lots of vegan dishes and options for both tofu and TVP additions to dishes

Third Avenue Cafe: Black bean burger that is so very tasty and at least one vegan soup daily. What really makes Third Avenue Cafe a nice place for vegans though is that they have a completely separate fryer for vegan dishes so there's no risk of, for lack of a better term, cross contamination of fried dishes.

The Grape Leaf: Really good vegan lentil soup and several vegan entrees though I've found the food here to be really hit or miss.

Ray's Monkey House:  They serve vegan pastries and cookies, have soy ice cream and don't have an additional charge for using soy milk in espresso drinks.

My brilliant friend Rob's Knowledge

The best vegan dish I can think of that isn't on your list is "Tofu in a Clay Pot," a peppery dish from Vietnam Kitchen in the South End. I don't think the dish is specifically mentioned on the menu -- but if you order it they know that you're just subbing tofu for whatever the meat is that comes in a clay pot dish. I'm told by the workers there that they leave out the fish sauce when the dish is ordered with tofu.
 
There are some great Indian items that can be made vegan upon request at Shalimar, in the shopping center with the Liquor Outlet (or former Liquor Outlet) on Hurstbourne Ln. We like their Dal Turka (lentils), channa masala (chickpeas), Bangain Bhartha (mashed eggplant), and Aloo Gobhi (potatoes and cauliflower.) If you don't want the food to be too spicy, you can order it mild and it will still have plenty of flavor.
 
Oh yeah, I almost forgot one of my favorites: Queen of Sheba, which offers Ethiopian food. The kik wot (spicy lentils) is pretty great, though there's also a less spicy vegan lentil dish (misir wot). I also like their fossilia (green beans, carrots, onions and spices). Of course all of these items come with injera, the bread you use in place of utensils to scoop up your food. They have a lunch buffet two days a week.
 
You're right about Grape Leaf being hit or miss. Still, I usually like their food. But for even more consistently delicious Mediterranean food I sometimes go to Al Watan on Klondike Lane, which I think has been there for less than a year. They have great falafel, hummus and baba ganoush with tahini, and foul, a tasty fava bean dish that I usually take home with lots of extra pitas to eat as a dip. As a bonus, their pitas are made fresh at the bakery next door to the restaurant.

My very talented friend PJ's Knowledge

Queen of Sheba on Bardstown near I-264. Really good Ethiopian food and many vegan options, a feather in Louisville's cap

All the middle eastern places: Safier (downtown on 4th near BBC), Gyros Cafe aka the Falafel House (Bardstown/Baxter/Highland, used to be Marrakesh), Pita Delites, Shalimar, etc. have a half-dozen options each. I like the Falafel House because it's cheap and pretty tasty. Likewise any Indian place will have some good options.

Amici on Ormsby in Old Louisville has a clearly-marked vegan pizza (or two, not sure if they still have both on the menu) which is very good.

The Rudyard Kipling on Oak in Old Louisville also has a delicious and interesting vegan pizza and is generally vegan-friendly, they have 2-3 options but are only open on weekends nowdays.

Cafe 360 on Bardstown/Bonnycastle has probably 6 or 8 clearly-marked vegan options; I especially l like their Indian dishes, which are very tasty and reasonably priced.

That sorbet place on Frankfort Avenue (near the Heine Brothers) said that they generally have at least two vegan sorbets, the ones I've tried were SOOO good! (Editor's note I think this place is called Café Glacé)

J. Gumbos, the local chain of cajun restaurants, has several vegetarian options every day and some of these are vegan, it's best to ask as I've been told different things by different staff. Nothing egregious, but maybe a bit of cream or butter in a some of the veg dishes.

Lemongrass Cafe on Bardstown next to Wild and Wooly has some mock meat dishes and can make most things vegan, try the Banh Xeo, a savory crepe made from rice flour and turmeric that looks like an omelette but contains no egg!

Vietnam Kitchen has mock duck with string beans and a couple of other options, but with Zen Garden to compete with for Vietnamese, I rarely make it down there.

Vegan breakfast options are sorely lacking in Louisville, lamentably. The North End Cafe on Frankfort is one of the only venues to offer anything beyond oatmeal, with its Tofu Scramble dish. Sadly they don't seem interested in trying vegan pancakes or french toast, though there's at least one vegan server there and she may be able to recommend a few modifications to other menu items. Their sesame asian noodle dish is out-of-this-world good, though maybe not for breakfast.

Highland Coffee usually has both vegan carrot cake and some kind of vegan brownie for dessert.

For the vegan cooking at home:
Cooking-at-home wise I've found that Amazing Grace has a really large selection of vegan items including vegan cheeses, vegan marshmallows and other things like that.

Rob says: "As far as shopping for vegan items goes, we usually hit whatever's closest: Whole Foods (which sometimes has good vegan items on the hot bar, though their soups always disappoint), or Amazing Grace (don't know if they still have the same cook, but they used to have tasty items in their refrigerated lunch case, as well as soups and a noodle bar.) Also, we now are planning regular stops at Meijers because they seem to be the last place in the state that still has the addictive type of Boca Chick'n patties that are vegan. All other places (and I've checked them all!) have either inferior vegan patties or the vegetarian-but-not-vegan Boca patties."

PJ says: "Grocery-wise, the first one that comes to mind is Vietnam Market, on south 3rd St (Iriquois area), a combination market and liquor store...they have a so-so variety of produce and dry goods, but they have a great selection of veggie meat analogs in the back freezer case, all the way to the left. Fake hams, chicken, fish and other seafood, and more...unfortunately a lot of it is vegetarian but not vegan (containing whey), but you can find a lot of great stuff. You can also get canned seitan that is good and goes well with anything, it's called Vegetarian Mock Duck or Mun Chai Ya.

There are a few more Asian markets on the south side of town, though none match VM for fake meats, you will find cheap tofu, produce and other goodies (a wide selection of frozen veggie dumplings at the Korean-owned place in a plaza off of Preston Hwy in the vicinity of Indian Trail/Fern Creek Rd, for instance...sorry, I don't know the name).

I like to buy my bread fresh at Ermin's bakery on the corner of Oak/1st, their multigrain loaf is vegan and particularly good. Ollie's Trolley has about the best french fries I've ever had, covered in an array of maybe 14 herbs and spices; I assume they're vegan but am afraid to ask. :)"
 

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If you have suggestions for other vegan restaurant and grocery options please let me know and I'd be happy to add them to this post.