Vegan Eats in Nicaragua

Here's my list of recommendations and non-recommendations of places where I ate as a vegan during my trip to Nicaragua in May 2024.

Restaurants are listed in order of preference by city.

Managua

Ananda: Counter service vegetarian restaurant. The price of the plate is determined by the different items you choose to put in your plate. It’s very good, I recommend! They also have a juice bar. However, I was disappointed with mine, which was a red fruit mix.

El Sultan: Morrocan restaurant with several vegan options, including vegan chicken nuggets! We chose the vegetarian platter, which included hummus, baba ganoush, fattouche salad and falafels. Very good restaurant too!

Granada

El garaje: Restaurant located in the home of the couple who owns the place, who looks like Europeans. Don't look for typical local food here, but you'll still find absolutely delicious food! I had the chana masala pita and it was excellent! PS: Don't rely on the address on Google maps to get there.

Garden Café: For dinner, there weren't many vegan options, but the Buddha bowl was fresh, nourishing and delicious! You can eat in the outdoor courtyard with its cute decor!

Verde: Although there are a few vegan options at Verde, the vegan burger was very disappointing. Would not recommend.

Ometepe

Café Campestre: Among other things, they serve delicious, typical Nicaraguan curries, some of which are vegan. The food is tasty and you can eat outside, in the restaurant's backyard. We loved it!

Café Comedor Isabel: It doesn't get more typical than Café Comedor Isabel. We ate typical food prepared by Isabel in her own kitchen, at the front of her house, right next door to her family. The vegan option is a plate of rice, red beans, plantains and boiled vegetables. The very ordinary look of this plate doesn't reflect its taste at all. We loved its simplicity!

Zapote: This is the restaurant of the place where we stayed. They offer several vegan options and everything is made from ingredients they grow themselves on their land, or at the very least local ingredients from the island. The nachos are to die for! If you stay there, breakfast is included, which is vegetarian with several vegan or veganizable options.

El Zopilote: This restaurant in the El Zopilote hostel does pizza nights on Saturdays. There are a few vegan options, but we were disappointed by the cheeze, which looked like more like ricotta than melted cheese. The taste was also very acidic.

San Juan Del Sur

La reina del Sur: We loved the counter service restaurants, which are very inexpensive (around CA$4-5 for a meal). This restaurant with a view of the Pacific Ocean offers a vegan plate of typical local food (rice, beans, plantains, salad...). Delicious!

Gastro Garden: Don't let the name fool you, we didn't get sick at Gastro Garden. This outdoor food court offers a choice of 6-7 restaurants (what I recall). So everyone can eat the type of cuisine they like! Several of these places offer vegan options, like Beta-Pita, a Lebanese restaurant. The falafel pita with fries was delicious!

Ding Repair Café: This restaurant offers several vegan options. For lunch, I chose the Feast & Fiesta bowl, which was delicious and filling. The decor is very cute, as is their outdoor courtyard where you can also eat!

The space (hostel): We stayed at this hostel, which had a restaurant with several vegan options, such as burgers, pizzas, bowls and breakfast. I don't know if it's open to people not staying at the hostel, you'd have to ask!