How we build and check listings

Vegan Eats Map lists 2,291 US restaurants with vegan food in 752 cities. This page explains where that data comes from, what our labels mean, and what we do not claim.

Where listings come from

Most listings started as places found through Google Maps searches for vegan and vegetarian restaurants, kept in a spreadsheet we maintain. New places are found the same way, city by city, and are added automatically only when Google's main category for the place, or its own name, says vegan, vegetarian or plant-based. Places that Google tags vegan only as a secondary category, and mixed chains, are held for a person to review.

For each place we store Google's business details: address, hours, phone, website, price level, rating and review count, menu items with prices where Google has them (1,990 listings), the topics diners mention in reviews, and a sample of Google reviews. Ratings and reviews on our pages are Google's and are labelled that way. We do not collect our own ratings.

What "100% vegan", "Vegetarian" and "Vegan options" mean

Every listing carries one of three labels. Today: 835 are labelled 100% vegan, 107 vegetarian and 1,349 as having vegan options.

• Checked by hand first. 505 listings carry a label we checked by hand, for one location or a whole chain, against the restaurant's own site or menu, with the source and date recorded. That decision overrides everything else.
• Then Google's category. A place Google categorises as a vegan restaurant is labelled 100% vegan, unless it also lists meat categories such as steakhouse or seafood. A vegetarian category gives the Vegetarian label.
• Then the name. A name that says vegan or plant-based counts, but names like "vegan-friendly", "vegan options" or "Thai & Vegan" do not.
• Everything else is labelled "Vegan options". We say a place is "not fully vegan" only when we checked it; otherwise we say we have not confirmed it is 100% vegan.

Menus change and kitchens share equipment. Always confirm with the restaurant if it matters to you.

How closures are checked

When Google marks a place as permanently closed, it leaves the directory. A place Google shows as open again comes back. A place Google lists as temporarily closed keeps its page with a notice, but is left out of rankings, guides and recommendations until it reopens. We last re-checked every closed listing against Google Maps in October 2026; 289 closures were confirmed and dated. Each listing page shows the month its Google data was last checked.

How rankings work

"Top rated" lists and our city guides sort by a weighted score: a place's Google rating, pulled toward the average rating across the directory when it has few reviews (as if every place started with 75 reviews at the average). That stops a 5.0 from eight reviews outranking a 4.8 from two thousand. City guides also require a minimum number of reviews (100 in large cities, 25 in smaller ones).

There is no paid placement. Restaurants cannot pay to be listed, to rank higher or to change their label.

Statistics and guides

The numbers in our vegan restaurant statistics and guides are computed from this directory on every build. They count what we list, not every restaurant in the country. Per-capita figures use US Census Bureau 2024 state population estimates.

Corrections

If something is wrong (hours, menu, a closure or the label), use "Is this your restaurant?" on the listing page, the listing form, or contact us. A person reads every submission; nothing is published automatically.