Best Places to Eat Vegetarian Food in Calgary, Canada

After spending a week visiting Calgary, I came away with a list of some really great desserts and food. I was expecting to have a huge list of the best vegan and vegetarian restaurants to eat at in the city. Unfortunately, despite going to some highly-rated places, I had some food that I cannot recommend. Food is just one of those things that can be difficult to predict when travelling. A place can have great reviews and then end up feeling overpriced and lacking in quality.

Luckily, I did have some great pizza and checked out some fantastic cafes in Calgary and these places made up for some of the disappointments I had. All of these places have vegetarian options and some have vegan options, but even if you aren’t following a specific diet, I would recommend these places to eat in Calgary.

If you only have a short time in Calgary before heading onwards to Banff, these are the places you should eat in Calgary.

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Best Food in Calgary

It’s pretty easy to find vegetarian food in Calgary. These places are mostly located in Calgary’s downtown area and on 17th Avenue. 17th Avenue is Calgary’s place to check out if you are looking for lots of delicious restaurants in a fairly compact area. It’s a bit of a walk from the downtown area but is worth checking out. Calgary has tons of options out in the more suburby type area but because Calgary is such a sprawling city, it’s not as convenient for visitors to the city. You can check out any of these places using public transit, generally the C-Train and doing short walks from there.

Calgary isn’t the most foodie city I’ve been to but they do have options for vegetarians and often vegans at most popular restaurants. The cafe scene here is very strong though and there are lots of cute coffee shops with yummy food.

Michael’s Pizza

Website | 139 10th Ave SW

I’m still thinking about this pizza. It’s become something of a tradition that where ever I travel, I have to try the pizza there. Each region seems to have its own style of pizza, and if Michael’s Pizza is representative of Calgary, then I’m extremely impressed. Seriously, in my notes, I wrote delicious twice.

Michael’s Pizza is conveniently located downtown, not far from Stephen’s Avenue. The pizza here is heaven. It’s a thick crust pizza that puts all the toppings under the cheese. I know that doesn’t appeal to everyone but they are super generous with the toppings and have a perfect amount of cheese. The pizza sauce here is also to die for, and I think has lots of basil in it. I love that they cook it long enough to get the cheese nice and browned and bubbly.

If you only eat at one place in Calgary, make it Michael’s Pizza as this is the must-eat place in Calgary.

Ollia Macarons & Tea

Website | 810C 16th Ave SW

This little shop just off of Calgarys 17th Ave serves up some of the best macarons I’ve ever had. Each cookie is packed full of flavour and is perfectly light and airy. The standard menu has lots of great options and they also have seasonal offerings as well. They also have one of the friendliest bakery workers I’ve ever met which just makes everything that much better.

My favourite macaron here actually ended up being the cotton candy. The flavour is just so much fun and the cookie itself is bright blue with a dusting of sprinkles. Second up was Valentine’s seasonal flavour, chocolate cake. How is this not permanent Ollia?! I’m just saying, something that delicious that imitates good chocolate cake that well should be on your forever menu.

Every single macaron I tried at Ollia’s was top notch and delivered what it promised. You really can’t go wrong here with your choice. They do teach macaron baking classes here that I wanted to attend but it looks like they book up a few weeks in advance.

Deville Coffee

Website | Multiple Locations

Deville Coffee is a local Calgary coffee chain that has a half dozen locations in the city and is opening up in Edmonton soon. I can see why, their food and coffee, is delicious.

I had the nutella latte here, it was delicious and I would definitely recommend it. If you really love the coffee here, you can buy a bag of beans and get a free latte.

The real highlight for me at Deville Coffee was the food. Specifically, the vegetarian breakfast wrap. This breakfast wrap is seriously delicious. I don’t want to set your expectations too high but they totally nail the flavours. Eggs, cheese, salsa, black beans, and a paprika aioli inside a panini pressed tortilla wrap. It made for the perfect brunch food and is super quick and convenient. I definitely had this more than once while in Calgary and have zero regrets about it. There are a few other options on the sandwich menu and some delicious looking pastries as well that you can grab.

Alforno Bakery and Cafe

Vegan-Friendly| Website | 222 7th St SW

I knew Alforno was going to be good when I stumbled across it by following my nose to the great bakery smell. Beautiful white brick building and gold doors and fresh bread? Definitely a win. Alforno is located extremely close to the Calgary Peace Bridge so I suggest stopping in when you visit the bridge or park nearby.

Alforno serves up a full breakfast menu, pizza, sandwiches, and pasta. I didn’t end up eating a main meal here but it looks great. I did, however, try their vegan almond tart. Super yummy, and you truly cannot tell that it’s vegan. The crust is a really yummy coconut chocolate crust, almost like a coconut cookie. The filling is a decadent creamy chocolate almond filling. Super yummy and intensely chocolatey.

I was disappointed I found Alforno so late during my stay in Calgary because I would have loved to try out more from this bakery.

Zero Issue Beer

Website | Served at multiple locations | Taproom – 4210 12 Street NE

Calgary has a really strong microbrewery scene. I don’t normally recommend beer but this beer is really good. Zero Issue is a microbrewery in Calgary that offers up a variety of beers, each with really striking artwork on the can. The artwork is comic-book inspired, as are the beer names.

I tried four of Zero Issue’s core products and each of them is good. The Innsmouth Sour is fruity and sour and would be perfect for summertime. The Nemisis IPA, has mango and passionfruit notes and ended up being my favourite of the four. If you like dark beers, Terraform Porter has a surprising coffee note to it, despite no coffee being added.

You can try these beers either at their taproom or any of the places that serve it including Snap Foto Club, Milestones on 8th Ave SE, or pick up some cans from the Co-op liquor store.

Rosso Coffee Roasters

Vegan-Friendly | Website | Multiple Locations

The location of Rosso’s that I visited you could actually see the coffee being roasted behind the counter. So their beans are definitely very fresh roasted. There’s a huge selection of the beans you can buy here as well.

I had their Aztec hot chocolate, which was a special for the Calgary Hot Chocolate Festival, and it was really tasty. I loved the bit of salt and spice that they added to the hot chocolate. On the food side, I had the Roma wrap, which was an egg wrap with tomato and cheddar that came with salsa to dip in. What I’ve learned from this trip is that Calgarians really love salsa and eggs together. The wrap was really good and I would definitely return to Rosso’s for more food.

On the vegan side, there is a chickpea vegan sandwich and vegan soup as well as salads that would be great to pick up if you are looking for lunch to go.

Hoopla Donuts

Vegan-Friendly | Website | Multiple Locations

I have mixed feeling about Hoopla donuts. I wouldn’t recommend every donut they make as I felt like the glazed style donuts lacked a bit of flavour. The dough texture is perfect on every donut though and the filled donuts really are delicious. My favourites here were the churro donut and the creme brulee. The churro donut definitely doesn’t look the prettiest but it filled with an amazing dulce de leche tasting filling. The creme brulee is also a solid pick, with the vanilla pastry cream filling really kicking it up a notch.

There are quite a few vegan options at Hoopla Donuts. I did try a few and my favourite out of these was the lime and coconut cream donut. I wanted a bit more of a lime kick to balance out the coconut but it still ended up being quite tasty.

Other Places to Eat in Calgary

On this trip I didn’t get a chance to revisit some great restaurants I’ve ate at in the past. Give some consideration to visiting The Coup. It’s one of Calgary’s original vegetarian restaurants and they do serve up delicious food. Another, cheaper favourite of mine is Ambrosia Veggie House. It’s a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant which serves up a very affordable lunch buffet during the weekdays.

Vegetarian Food in Calgary

Despite striking out a few places, I ended up having some great food while in Calgary. If you’re in the city for Stampede or maybe on your way to Banff, there are definitely some places worth checking out, Ollia Macarons and Michael’s Pizza are definitely top of my list for places I want to eat at again. I’m still dreaming of both.

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