Vegan Omaha restaurant round-up (2024)

Smack dab in the middle of the country, vegan fare isn’t necessarily the first thing to come to mind when you think of Omaha.

However, you’d be surprised!

In Nebraska’s largest city, you can feed your need for caffeine at a vegan café & coffee roaster.

There’s an upscale vegan eatery, worthy of a birthday or anniversary dinner.

Or you can visit any number of veg-friendly restaurants, including a mall food court that’s known for its plant-based options.

In this post:

If you can only visit one place while in Omaha, make it Modern Love.

Modern Love offers vegan comfort food with an elegant twist.

Thanks to large windows, the dining room is bright and welcoming. Plus, it’s beautifully decorated.

The menu changes depending on the season.

That means that just as soon as you’ve driven to Omaha and gotten your fix, you’re sure to have FOMO with their next menu update on Facebook.

Their generous servings, full-bodied flavors, and local ingredients leave you satisfied in all the best ways.

Look for dishes like mozzarella balls that are crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside.

(Want to make this at home? Grab the fresh mozzarella recipe on Post Punk Kitchen. Then use the breading from my fried almond cheese balls.)

Dive into a bowl of comfort food with fried oyster mushrooms on mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy.

It’s served alongside a crunchy slaw that’s the perfect light complement to the heavier main course.

Don’t leave without getting dessert!

A slice of vegan cheesecake and/or ice cream shake are a must.

(The strawberry swirl shake is outstanding!)

Some of my other Modern Love favorites include:

• Seitan buffalo wings
• Vegan nachos
• Kale Caesar salad
• Gnocchi a la vodka
• Mushroom stroganoff with chickpea cutlets
• Seitan piccata

Their weekend brunch is also incredible!

Amateur Coffee is a vegan café & coffee roaster in the Joslyn Castle neighborhood.

They have a bar with stools for dining in, as well as a few tables on their outdoor back patio.

They offer lattes with a wealth of flavored syrups, cold & filter brewed coffee, hot cocoa, and a variety of teas.

If you like a sweet coffee drink, a pistachio latte is a tasty option.

While the standard latte has just the right amount of steamed non-dairy milk to weigh against the espresso.

Oat and almond milk are available.

Instead of having paper and plastic to-go cups, they have a reusable glass jar program.

Or you can dine in & enjoy your drink in a mug.

If you’d like something on the sweet side, they offer pastries from nearby Sweet Magnolias Bakery.

Look for options like baked donuts, gluten-free brownies, or gluten-free coffee cakes.

Sometimes they also have scones, like the blueberry one shown here.

For something more substantive, they have gluten-free brunch options including fried mushroom chick’n and waffles, quiche cups, and breakfast sandwiches.

The waffles are made in house. The other items are made by Veg Edible.

The breakfast sandwiches are made with gluten free biscuits, a crumbly made-from-scratch veggie sausage, tofu egg, non-dairy cheese, and maple syrup.

Judging from the blazing hot nature of the biscuit, I’m guessing they pop the whole thing in the microwave or oven together as an assembled sandwich to reheat.

The tofu egg is very turmeric heavy, which isn’t my favorite. I’ll try the vegan chick’n & waffles next time instead.

Sweet Magnolias Bake Shop is a cute bakery with two locations. One is in Midtown, and the other is in Millwork.

Not everything at Sweet Magnolias is vegan.

However, they always have some vegan options like bouncy cinnamon rolls, baked cake donuts, streusel buns, or gluten free brownies.

You can also order whole vegan cakes in the flavors of vanilla bean, chocolate ganache, or almond orange blossom.

JINYA Ramen Bar is a chain Japanese restaurant with 46 locations scattered across the United States.

Located in a strip mall near a Taco Bell and office supply store, the Omaha location is unassuming.

But once inside, the restaurant is sleek and dark.

What makes this chain exceptional is the variety and amount of vegan options.

Options include multiple types of ramen (including a gluten free option and another made with Impossible meat), Impossible tacos, Impossible gyoza & buns, an Impossible rice bowl, and a vegan kids meal.

The Impossible gyoza are made with light wrappers stuffed with Impossible meat and browned.

It is just the right amount to whet the palate without getting overly full.

The spicy creamy vegan ramen is made with thick noodles in a bowl of vegetable broth, garlic & chili oil, garlic chips, crispy onions, sautéed spinach, onions, and cubes of silken tofu.

It has wonderful rich flavors.

And the serving size is very generous. Enough for two meals.

Plain silken tofu isn’t my favorite texture. I’d prefer firm tofu and/or fried tofu.

But the other flavors more than make up for it.

The Impossible rice bowl is served with crispy chickpeas, kale, pickled red cabbage, crispy garlic, and pine nuts over steamed rice.

It’s finished with a creamy vegan curry ranch dressing.

Block 16 is a casual eatery, where you order at the counter.

They market themselves as farm to table street food.

This non-vegan restaurant has several plant-based options available like a veggie burger, Sloppy Joe (called Sloppy Nick), vegan poutine burrito, big house salad, dragon wrap with tempeh, and dragon fries.

While you nosh on vegan comfort food, you can also have a glass of wine or beer while you’re there.

Speaking of beer…

If beer and appetizers are your game, swing over to Benson Brewery.

It’s a non-vegan restaurant with vegan offerings like a black bean burger, seitan gyro, house salad, and seitan wings.

The seitan wings come with your choice of hot, BBQ, or IPA mustard.

The mustard sauce has boozy undertones and a rich umami flavor. It’s my favorite of the bunch.

All of the seitan wing options come with a side of vegan ranch.

Go on Wednesdays for $3 off all vegan items.

Usually at shopping malls, the vegan options are slim or underwhelming.

But at Flagship Commons, the food court is tremendously vegan-friendly.

Many of the vendors have more than one vegan option.

It works out well when dining with people who have different tastes, because everyone can grab something that suits them.

Options include a falafel sandwich & falafel plate at Amsterdam Falafel, root burger at Blatt Beer & Table, sushi at Yum Roll, vegan ramen at Yoshi-Ya Ramen, and a green goddess wrap at Clever Greens.

(The vegan currywurst with sauerkraut on a pretzel bun is pictured here. But it’s no longer on the menu at Blatt Beer & Table.)

At Crystal Jade, the menu is a hodgepodge of Asian cuisines – from Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian dishes to Indian and Korean options.

It’s located inside of a renovated Village Inn.

Crystal Jade isn’t a vegan restaurant.

But they have an extensive vegetarian menu available upon request with loads of vegan options.

The vegan egg roll is pretty standard.

And the curry puffs are like a flattened samosa.

The sauce in the peanut butter tofu is nicely flavored. But I recommend asking for additional vegetables to fill it out.

The spicy tofu bulgogi is okay, but nothing to write home about.

The tofu is deep-fried and spongy, which can make the dishes rather oily.

You can find more plant-based options at these restaurants:

• Saddle Creek Breakfast Club (Three vegan breakfast options on the menu. This small restaurant fills up fast!)
• Wilson & Washburn (Not a ton of vegan options. But they have a beet burger with smoked peanut butter & occasional specials.)
• Blue Sushi Sake Grill (They have a full vegan section on their sushi menu.)
• Ted & Wally’s ice cream shop (They have locations in Old Market & the Benson district with one or two vegan flavors daily.)
• Kitchen Table (Options change. Look for things like a tofu torta, vegan fishless filet sandwich, vegan reuben, or hummus salad.)

Omaha has several natural grocery store options including Whole Foods, Natural Grocers, and Trader Joe’s.

If you’re in a rush, you can find vegan fast food options at , Chipotle, HuHot, or Qdoba.

Omaha also has a location of chain restaurant, P.F. Chang’s, which has a number of plant-based options.

For more vegan restaurant guides for the Midwest, check out these travel posts.

• Kansas City, Missouri
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Detroit, Michigan