Tauranga Restaurants and Cafes with the Best Vegan Options

There’s not often the choice of having french toast done vegan, so George Cafe surprised us! A thick piece of soft, moist bread piled high with kiwi fruit, bananas, whipped coconut cream and topped with berry compote and drizzled with maple syrup. Our vegan jaws hit the floor when we saw it.

George Cafe is well known by locals. Located just next to the beach it was totally packed and pumping! With a homey atmosphere and both cabinet and menu food, they use ingredients from their very own organic garden! They serve a mainly vegetarian menu, with clearly labelled vegan options and a couple of meat dishes. The menu isn’t large, but the freshness and quality made this our favourite spot in Tauranga!

Mount Maunganui is home to a mainly plant-based and gluten-free wholefoods restaurant; Gratitude Eatery. This place serves food good for the gut and good for your soul. Taking it a step further being refined-sugar-free!

Similar to Barefoot Eatery in Christchurch, with plenty of cabinet food (raw bits and pieces, organic chocolate and orange cakes, even black bean brownie!) and menu items packed with veggies and tofu and goodness. We ordered the avocado on toast (a classic), and the jackfruit tacos with guacamole for lunch. However, we couldn’t help but try the fluffy buckwheat pancakes too! No regrets.

Vietnamese food is one of our favourite cuisines, so when we saw Hello Banh Mi has a few vegan options we put it on our hit list!

The menu had several different dishes, with a decent amount of them having vegan alternatives! Banh Mi has a special place in our hearts (and stomachs), meaning we obviously had to order that (pictured). A Banh Mi is a fresh baguette (made in-store daily) with avocado, marinated tofu, pickled daikon, and coriander. There is also a vermicelli noodle salad with tofu, bean sprouts and peanut sauce, or fresh spring rolls to choose from!

A tasty and affordable option in The Mount if you want a quick bite when you’re on the run, or for when you want to sit in.

Walking into Lantern is like walking into an oasis. A modern outdoor seating area with sparkly lights and tropical fauna makes it feel like an escape. The smell of delicious hot Southeast Asian food wafting out from the kitchen makes your mouth water.

Lantern is a more expensive option, best for special occasions. Their Vegan Chefs Selection is $55pp and perfect for a smaller or bigger group! The vegan options on the a la carte menu include a variety of sharing dishes from a butternut yellow curry with lychee and kumara (a curious combination, but trust us, it works!), to wok-tossed rice noodles with Lions Mane mushrooms, tofu and soy chilli garlic sauce (unbelievably delicious). They’ve even got fresh summer rolls with vermicelli noodles and soybean peanut sauce!

MeXa is a pop-up taqueria, that found their way to the Vegan Vibes festival in Tauranga. While they’re not solely vegan, they do serve solid veggie and vegan options, keeping us plant-based babies happy! Their weekly pop-ups around the bay happen every Monday.

We tested (by tested we mean ate too many of) their spiced eggplant tacos with blue corn tortillas at the Vegan Vibes festival, and all we could say was “Mmmmmmm”. Soft tortillas and fresh veggies topped with guac and salsa verde. A simple, and delicious taco. Try and catch them when you can, and let us know your thoughts!

Mount Delice is an ice cream and sorbet truck found on Omanu Beach in Mt. Maunganui. But we discovered them at Vegan Vibes!

They serve unique vegan flavours like a raspberry kombucha sorbet which we really enjoyed (different, but pleasant!), as well as a basic strawberry or pineapple sorbet. At the festival, they even had vegan crepes (yum) and creme brulee! These were super popular, but we are unsure if the creme brulee was just made for the special occasion. Just means you’ll have to make it to the next North Island Vegan event!

With a restaurant located in Mt Maunganui and another branch in Hamilton, the Tauranga restaurant scene is lucky to have Rice Rice Babys‘ fresh and traditional Vietnamese kai.

We came across Rice Rice Baby at the Vegan Vibes festival in Tauranga, and they did not disappoint our tastebuds (or pukus). Their Banh Mi was SO GOOD, the warm baguette filled with crispy tofu and pickled veggies. Or if you feel like something smaller, they offer summer rolls with hoisin sauce, fried cauliflower bites, plant-based wontons with mushrooms and mung beans, and plenty more! We’ve eaten a lot of Vietnamese food in our time, and this was definitely in our top three favourites!

This one is for our gluten-free babies! Just across the road from Rice Rice Baby, Sea People is an entirely gluten-free and plant-based ice cream shop in The Mount. Most of their ice creams are made out of fair-trade organic ingredients, mainly using cashew and coconut milk to create their special treats.

As far as vegan gluten-free ice cream goes, this is genuinely one of the best we’ve tasted. Writing honestly, we do get a little sick of only being able to have fruity sorbet. So when there’s a creamy, dairy-free ice cream on offer, we jump at the opportunity to devour it. They even have ice cream cookie sandwiches! Gah!

We had to try the Cosmic Cookies and Cream flavour made with blue spirulina, because who can refuse blue ice cream? Not us. It doesn’t have that over-powering coconut flavour like some ice creams do, you wouldn’t think it’s dairy-free (but it is!). Summers coming up quickly, so make sure Sea People is your next sunny day treat!