Seattle, WAVegan

A fine-dining vegan tasting-menu restaurant built around five courses with wine pairings; roasted hasselback butternut squash over purple carrot risotto is the kind of dish that makes the case plant-based cooking can be genuinely special-occasion food.

A longtime fully vegetarian Madison Valley institution with deep vegan customization across the menu, dairy-free dips, risotto, and an Italian black bean burger finished with sun-dried tomato jam. A reliable sit-down option that predates the current plant-based wave.

An entirely plant-based Mexican counter turning out jackfruit carnitas and seitan carne asada, plus an al pastor built from soy curls marinated in adobo with pineapple, sweet, charred, and convincingly meat-like without leaning on novelty.

A Vietnamese deli stocking nine different plant-based meat substitutes, lemongrass chicken and sesame beef among them, built into a genuinely good BBQ vegan pork banh mi that doesn't read as a compromise.

A Detroit-style vegan pizzeria working from a century-old sourdough starter for a chewy, puffy crust, with five vegan pies including versions built on plant-based pepperoni and mozzarella that hold up on their own merits.