The Crumby Vegan in Valencia

Posted on by The Crumby Vegan Posted in Food/Nutrition, Wonderful HusbandTagged , , , , , , , ,

This post is written for two sets of people:

  1. For the non-vegans that think vegan food is boring
  2. For the vegans that think they’d have trouble eating out in Spain

If you fall into one of these categories, get ready to be proven wrong! 🙂 

A bit of background…

So two years after Wonderful Husband and I got married, we finally made time to go on a long weekend away together. We travelled only 100km from our little Spanish town, Dénia, to the beautiful city of Valencia. Our trip had no set plan other than food, food, food, food, walking tour, food, food and food.

Below are the restaurants we dined in. I hope you enjoy the photos of the food, we definitely enjoyed eating it. 

Copenhagen

Our first stop was, what was supposed to be a quick bite, in the veggie restaurant, Copenhagen. Once Wonderful Husband had a glimpse of the menu, we decided on staying for three courses. There was so much to offer at this restaurant and although the menu is predominantly vegetarian, I’d guess that more than half of the dishes can be made vegan.

We shared guacamole with yuca fries to start, I had a vegan burger (one of the nicest burgers I’ve ever tasted!) for my main and for dessert I had macadamia nut ice cream. The perfect end to a perfect meal on a lovely sunny day.

 

El Passatge Dels Gats – Cat Café

To my surprise, Wonderful Husband reluctantly agreed for us to visit the Cat Café in the North West of the city, his aversion to cats clearly wasn’t as strong as I thought anymore.

El Passatge Dels Gats is a non-profit in the form of a café/animal shelter, rescuing the cats from the streets of Valencia and finding them loving homes. The merging of the shelter and cafe works perfectly, enabling the business to make money to care for the cats and allowing people to socialise with the cats, therefore creating awareness for adopting animals instead of buying from breeders (#AdoptDontShop).

The café has such a positive energy, the cats are clearly well looked after by the wonderful mother and son team and you get to hang out with cats! What more could you ask for?

 

Aloha Vegan Delights

The first evening of our holiday was coincidently the first meeting between Arsenal and Athletico Madrid in the Europa League Cup semi-final. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, then just note that Wonderful Husband was insistent we grab take-away food from somewhere before heading to a bar.

We stumbled across Aloha Vegan Delights and (I don’t mean to sound vegan cheesy) it was in fact, a delight. I chose a sobrasada paste (incredibly Spanish sausage made from ground pork, paprika and salt), cheese and caramelised onion toasted sandwich with a side of chicken nuggets – all vegan of course. The food was delicious, super reasonably priced and I’ll definitely be going back to try their kebab (which came highly recommended by one of their diners!).

 

Brunch Corner – Sant Bult

The next morning we were on our way to a walking tour so we had to grab breakfast from somewhere in town. Brunch Corner had great reviews on Trip Advisor so we thought we’d give it a try.

I adore going to non-vegan places and finding little, unexpected, vegan treats on their menus and Brunch Corner was no exception. To my surprise there was a yummy PB&J sandwich, made with home-made cashew butter and strawberry jam. It was delicious!

I must add that their customer service was also outstanding. They were not only lovely in the restaurant but when I messaged them to ask if they could send me a photo of the sandwich (because mine looked sooo bad!) they were more than happy to help 🙂 

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Picnicity

After the walking tour, we needed recharging and Wonderful Husband had been super keen on trying out the empanadas in Picnicity, a very popular restaurant in the region of Carmen.

To my amazement, they had a whole vegan section (photographic proof below!). I began by trying out the seitan and mushroom empanada… And they were so good that I went back for another! Then I had a slice of vegan carrot cake. What was only supposed to be a snack turned out to be a full-on, yummy, three course meal.

 

Almalibre Açaí Bar

We’ve eaten at Almalibre Açai Bar many, many times before and instead of trying a new restaurant on our second night away, we chose to return to our old favourite. We LOVE the food and the atmosphere but most of all we LOVE THEIR AÇAI BOWLS… and can you believe I didn’t take a picture of the açai bowls? However, if you’re desperate to glance at their beauty then feel free to check out my Instagram – you’ll find evidence of my past meals at Almalibre Açai Bar.

For dinner, we shared a huge bowl on nachos, Wonderful Husband had the red rice and tempeh burger (featured below) and I had a hotdog (I know, no photo, I’m lame) and, of course, we had açai bowls for dessert.

 

Bluebell Coffee

We started off the third day of our holiday as we meant to go on – great surroundings, good food and lovely company. Bluebell coffee is a very understated little cafe off a little road in Ruzafa. They had a beautiful courtyard at the back so we opted to sit there. They had mega vegan options (like a buddha bowl!) but I went with the simple, yet yummy, Spanish choice of tomato on toast and a cappuccino with soy milk. The breakfast was a perfect way to start the day.

 

Valencia Principe Felipe Science Museum

Chick Incubator

Chick

To my disappointment, the Valencia Principe Felipe Science Museum featured two incubators on the first floor. Inside both incubators were unhatched eggs and very few chicks (I think one had died). 

There were several other exhibits keeping living beings captive. 

We do not need to keep animals in captivity to learn about them. Please do not pay to enter the Valencia Principe Felipe Science Museum as you will be indirectly funding animal cruelty.

Food Truck

FoodTruck

There was a music festival taking place outside the museum and alongside the stage were a mass of food trucks, one being a vegetarian food truck offering several vegan options. The line was longer then the rest of the food trucks (possibly due to lack of availability or just the high number of people wanting vegetarian food) but it felt great to see the food truck being so popular. 

Wonderful Husband doesn’t look too happy standing in line :-/

Jardin Urbano

Jardin Urbano is the level 100 vegan restaurant that every vegan dreams about! Plants hanging from the ceiling and walls, paintings of birds and nature everywhere and a huge menu of dishes, some that I hadn’t eaten since going vegan!

It was genuinely quite hard to choose but we eventually decided on ordering the tomato and cheese puff pastry and a pulled pork baguette. Both were super yummy! I’ll have to head back, at least, another ten times to try out the rest of the menu. 

 

Ubik Cafe

Ubik cafe was probably my highlight of the trip.

This very retro library turned cafe had books from floor to ceiling but was quite clearly a place in which people came to drink, eat and socialise. They modestly mention ‘vegan options’ on their TripAdvisor profile so I was not expecting the many vegan options on their menu, far more than most non-vegan establishments.

In the end, we chose a cheese, sun-dried tomato and rocket sandwich and some polenta chips to share. Both dishes were super good and perfect for a casual night out. I couldn’t have asked for more from Ubik Cafe.

 

Valencia is one of the many cities in Spain that has awoken to the vegan life and wow, they promote it so well! I absolutely recommend visiting Valencia and every restaurant I’ve mentioned above, whether you’re vegan or non-vegan, you’ll have a fab time! 💚

56 thoughts on “The Crumby Vegan in Valencia”

  2. Reply
    klolszewski says:

    After reading this, I’ve decided that Trey and I MUST come here to experience all of this food! It’s really hard to find a restaurant with vegan options that isn’t….you know… a salad. I have no problems cooking, it’s just I want to go out sometimes, too. It sounds like you and the hubby had a wonderful time in Valencia! Loved the pics 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Reply
    kimberlylove13 says:

    I’m definitely in the category where i’m a non vegan who thinks vegan food is boring lol I’ve even thoight it looked gross at times. You have proven though that it’s not always the case. The food options here look quite good.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      The Crumby Vegan says:

      I’m glad you like the look of the food 🙂 I can appreciate people thinking about that about vegan food years ago, but it is one of the most invested industries now and vegan food is actually amazing… I would highly recommend trying something new (vegan) when you get the chance 💚

      Like

  9. Reply
    Mostly Julia says:

    I love reading posts like this! This way I can always know where to eat when I travel. It’s always so hard to find good vegan places! Thank you so much for sharing this!

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Reply
    Natalia says:

    I’d love to visit Spain. I also like all the places you presented in the pictures, I don’t really think that vegan food is that boring. 😉 All the pictures were just mouth-watering. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      The Crumby Vegan says:

      You are right Tom! There are definitely two different kinds of vegans, the side that like the fake meat and the side that likes to stay away from anything that could possibly resemble an animal product. I know which side you’d be on if you did go vegan 😉

      So happy you thought the dishes looked good and thank you for commenting 💚

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Reply
    Sarah Camille says:

    I went to Spain several years ago but didnt make it to Valencia unfortunately. I totally need to go back for some of this food! I love trying vegan options in other countries and that pb&j sounds awesome. I love cashew butter. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Reply
    fivebeansfood says:

    Great to see that you found some very cool vegan food havens in your travels. Sometimes it’s worth searching to find those places, and take time to dig a little deeper into our destinations to uncover the gems!

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Reply
    Array says:

    Well I absolutely love vegan food (currently digging into Haagen Daaz’s Chocolate Salted Fudge Truffle). Anyone who thinks vegan food is all about grazing on grass is pretty daft. I did take a road trip around Spain and came across this super yummy vegan place in Malaga called Canadu. I highly recommend it if anyone is in the area.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Musaafir the Bedouin says:

        Thank you. I am in the process of ‘veganizing’ Indian food and putting up the recipes. So far so good! Plus I am learning a lot in the process 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Musaafir the Bedouin says:

        Thats awesome. Gotta love a man who cooks! Thanks for the follow. My blog is travel oriented, so restaurants and home cooking adventures are a big part! Enjoy! I look forward to reading your recipes 🙂

        Like

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