Chattanooga is a vibrant city tucked in southeastern Tennessee. It’s a cool city right by the Tennessee River, famous for spots like Lookout Mountain and Ruby Falls. It has a growing vegan restaurant scene. But is known for its outdoor fun, Aquarium, the classic song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and a growing arts and culture scene.
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A Travel Guide To Eating Vegan In Chattanooga
This guide will take you through a list of vegan restaurants in Chattanooga and cafes we’ve visited or plan on visiting that offer vegan plant-based cuisine.
Vegan dining has become more readily available when traveling and we're happy to report on Chattanooga’s emerging plant-based dining scene which is growing very nicely.
V - stands for entirely Vegan
G - stands for entirely Gluten-free
VF - stands for Vegan-friendly: businesses that have vegan-friendly options for vegan guests to enjoy.
GF - stands for Gluten-free-friendly: businesses that have gluten-free-friendly options for gluten-free guests to enjoy.
As always this isn’t a sponsored post. It's just our two true loves coming together food and travel.
We always do a lot of research before we travel to make sure we have access to vegan foods that are: good, affordable and hopefully some new eats we haven’t tried before. So sit back and check out some hopefully drool worthy eats that we really enjoyed and think you will too.
Luckily for us Chattanooga is just a quick drive from Atlanta and makes checking out plant-based and vegan restaurants in Chattanooga easy.
Where We Ate
Breakfast & Coffee Shop
1. Southern Squeeze - V,VF,GF
Address: 1301 Dorchester Road Ste 101 Chattanooga, TN 37405
Southern Squeeze, owners Joey & Kelsey; their mission is to provide a menu that is based on an anti-inflammatory diet. The food is housemade, low-glycemic, no seed oil, minimal gluten and dairy and nothing artificial.
Great healthy forward food selections. We enjoyed our breakfast and smoothies there plenty of parking, sweet outdoor dining space and a lovely café environment.
What we ordered:
The work waffles - (no refined sugar and made with oat flour) topped with banana, berries, strawberry jam, almond butter, superfood sprinkles and maple syrup. Morning Shred bowl - quinoa, sweet tahini dressing, zoodles, sprouted herb cashew cheese, avocado, chickpeas, spring mix, pumpkin seeds, slaw, and sourdough garlic bread
2. Sleepyhead Coffee - V - 2 locations
Address: 735 Broad St Suite 104, Chattanooga, TN 37402 (location we visited)
This is a beautiful, calm and tranquil space filled with thriving plants. A great place to sit and read a book. We definitely enjoyed being in this space and enjoyed our yummy breakfast sandwich and lattes.
Sleepyhead Coffee is a vegan coffee and pastries shop. Founded in 2018 with the mission of being a safe space for all - races, religions, genders.
What we ordered:
Breakfast Sammy - vegan sausage, egg, cheese, on a biscuit. Cafe au lait and Matcha made with non-diary milk.
Lunch & Dinner
3. Cashew - V,GF
Address: 149 River St, Chattanooga, TN 37405
Cashew is a full kitchen and bakery with a great variety of plant-based vegan foods and desserts.
It was difficult figuring out what to order because they have such a nice selection of items on the dinner menu. We enjoyed both dishes. They also have a good selection of desserts.
What we ordered: a very delicious and moist house-made beet burger topped with spicy aioli on a wheat bun. We also ordered the Thai loaded sweet potato drizzled with peanut sauce, shredded carrot, cabbage, Sriracha hot sauce, cilantro & green onion. And a refreshing passionfruit cocktail.desserts.
4. Attack of The Tatsu - VF
Address: 818 Georgia Ave UNIT 118, Chattanooga, TN 37402
Attack of The Tatsu
If your a foodie looking for that spot. This is it. Tatsu means Dragon in Japanese and you can really feel the Japanese inspiration here. You enter into a space that is open sitting. But where you really want to go is to the cozy space in the back. Red lanterns hang from the ceiling creating quite the mood. Hence no great photo of our food lol. Attack of the Tatsu's menu centers around fast casual Japanese cuisine and offer lunch & dinner options.
We totally love the atmosphere. one big caveat is cross-contamination. A lot of the items on the menu are labeled vegan but it seems that a lot of the fried vegan selections share the same deep fryer as meat items 🙁 . We got the diced tofu to avoid any possible cross contamination.
What we ordered: I enjoyed my vegan bowl, good flavor. Shad got the katsu curry bowl and wanted a little more flavor.
Desserts
So far in our long weekend’s and day trips to Chattanooga we have yet to find an all vegan bakery, donut or ice cream shop. But we'll be sure to let you know when we do. Below are several cafes, coffee shops and restaurants that have vegan dessert options.
Sleepyhead Coffee - V, GF -2 locations
Address: 735 Broad St Suite 104, Chattanooga, TN 37402 (location we visited)
Cashew - V,GF
Address: 149 River St, Chattanooga, TN 37405
Honorable Mention
- Plant Power Cafe & Juice Bar - V
Address: 6215 Lee Hwy, Chattanooga, TN 37421
Vegan and Gluten Free
Plantpower Cafe And Juice Bar is plant-based
To Try: Vegan Chunky Mushroom Patty Melt & Vegan Philly Cheese - Barque BBQ - ~VF - two vegan selections
Address: 2309 E Main St, Chattanooga, TN 37404
You may ask why did we even include this one.
To Try: Their smoked portobello mushroom and smoked tofu along with a nice side salad and tangy slaw is what you'll be ordering here. We think it's worth it. - Taco Mamacita - VF
Address: 109 N Market St, Chattanooga, TN 37405
109 N Market St, Chattanooga, TN 37405
To Try: They have a vegetarian menu that can be made vegan, such as vegan enchiladas and several vegan taco options. - Sluggos - V, VF
Address: 505 Cherokee Blvd., Chattanooga, TN 37405
To Try: Spicy Cheeky Wings - grilled seitan covered in spicy sauce, lentil patty melt or mushroom walnut burger. - Chattanooga Pizza Co. - V (formerly Homeslice Pizza)
Address: 2000 E 23rd St, Chattanooga, TN 37404
To Try: Cauliflower wings, vegan cheese bread, vegan calzone and of course vegan pizza. - The Hummus Bowl - VF, GF
Address: 3931 St Elmo Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37409
To Try: A big menu of appetizers, bowls and wraps.
Site Seeing
Ruby Falls
Address: 1720 S. Scenic Hwy., Chattanooga, TN 37409
Located on top of Lookout Mountain. Enjoy a guided tour of tallest underground waterfall.
Caveat: if you are claustrophobia this is a cave like small space.
The Kitchen Collection
Address: 2440 Broad St, Chattanooga, TN 37408
Offering all things cooking, catering, and food. TKC offers everything you might need for your next food event. It’s super cute, we even picked up our first madeleine pan from here.
Where We Stayed
Hotel Chalet
Address: 92 Choo Choo Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37408
To our pleasant surprise the hotel has turned restored train carriages into hotel rooms. Definitely a splurge worthy experience. Nostalgic vibes abound.
Transportation
The drive up from Atlanta is a little under two hours. They do have public transit; Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA), serving the City of Chattanooga but we haven’t ventured into trying it out yet.
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Comment down below if there is any place we missed or should include and tag us on Instagram #thevgnway, share your favorite vegan restaurants in Chattanooga and make sure to check back! We update annually with new restaurants.
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