While your choices will be limited, it’s not too hard to find something vegan to eat at Grand Canyon National Park. I took a solo winter trip and did not starve while admiring that giant hole in the ground. Here’s where you can go when you need a meal.
El Tovar dining room
Let’s start with the most delicious thing I ate: a huge Mediterranean salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing at the fanciest place in the park, El Tovar Lodge. This imposing building dates back to 1905. Trigger warning: the lobby is full of dead animal heads, including moose shot by former President Teddy Roosevelt himself. I know, gross. But get past the oppressive lobby and you’ll find the historic dining room. It started out as a Harvey House restaurant, named for Fred Harvey, who brought decent dining to railroad towns around the west.
First thing to know about El Tovar: reservations are required. Even for breakfast! I managed to score a lunch reservation. The menu has clearly marked vegetarian and vegan choices. Or choice, if you’re vegan. That being the quinoa salad bowl with black beans, arugula, cactus caviar and Beyond chorizo. I was in more of a lettuce mood, so I asked them to leave the feta off the Med entrée salad.
Now one weird note here. You could add tofu to your salad for five dollars. I decided this investment in protein was worthwhile. But they served it raw, just chopped up from the flaccid white block. The server told me that usually they fry it, but it’s a fryer shared with animal products so they gave it to me raw since I’m vegan. It really made me wonder how many non-vegans come to El Tovar and add tofu to their salads. If the tofu is mostly for vegans, why don’t they have a better vegan way to prepare it? Fortunately there was enough lemon vinaigrette to keep the tofu from being totally blah.
Grand Canyon vegan dining at Maswik Lodge
On the other end of the ritzy scale, there’s the Maswik Lodge food court. No reservation needed for this friendly, light-filled, cafeteria-style place in a new building. I stayed at the Maswik Lodge, which is a 15-minute walk from the canyon rim. You can get a Beyond burger at the food court, chocolate or vanilla soy milk, and a changing array of hot dishes. The server pieced together various salad and side ingredients like rice, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes for a filling, nutritious and inexpensive meal.
On the other end of the ritzy scale, there’s the Maswik Lodge food court. No reservation needed for this friendly, light-filled, cafeteria-style place in a new building. I stayed at the Maswik, which is a 15-minute walk from the canyon rim. You can get a Beyond burger here, chocolate or vanilla soy milk, and a changing array of hot dishes. The server pieced together various salad and side ingredients like rice, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes for a filling, nutritious and inexpensive meal.
What to eat at Bright Angel Lodge
Bright Angel Lodge is another historic must-see, built in 1935. When I visited on President’s Day weekend, its restaurant was totally mobbed for lunch! I was getting hangry by the time I was seated at the Harvey House Café and was thrilled to find a few vegan things on the menu. There’s a Southwest protein bowl, tortilla soup and the canyon vegan burrito. I ordered Tres Amigos, which is corn chips, guacamole and pico de gallo, and the canyon vegan burrito. The server said, “Uh, is it just you?” Yep. When she brought the chips I understood why she’d asked if I was alone. The serving was pretty much a whole bag of chips and the scoop of guacamole was as big as my cat’s head. I ate leftover chips and guac for days! Good thing my room at the Maswik had a fridge.
The burrito was serviceable but not too exciting—mostly beans and cactus—and the rice was pretty hard. But I felt better from all that protein.
Vegan cookies at Desert View Watchtower
Since I’d arrived at the Grand Canyon on the fun and relaxing Grand Canyon Railway, I found myself carless at the South Rim. No problem. That’s what bus tours are for. I really wanted to see the Desert View Watchtower, designed by pioneering female architect Mary Jane Colter (who’s responsible for many of the Grand Canyon’s best buildings). It’s a fabulous structure, full of Hopi art and with even more excellent canyon views from the top. The café is stocked with many flavors of vegan cookies from the Alternative Baking Company. I got a cookie and a soy cappuccino and watched a dusting of snow fall on the watchtower.
Grand Canyon vegan eating in Tusayan
I also spent a night at the Red Feather Lodge in nearby Tusayan to check out the experience of staying just outside the park. This is a good option if you’re driving and the park lodging is full, though you might face a hellish line at the entrance station. Added bonus for travelers in recovery: twice weekly AA meetings are held in the Red Feather Lodge conference room.
Just a couple of blocks from the Red Feather Lodge, you can get delicious pizza with vegan cheese at We Cook Pizza & Pasta! It’s pretty exciting to find vegan cheese in a small town. Good salads here, too.
Grand Canyon Gateways – Williams and Flagstaff
Williams and Flagstaff both call themselves gateways to the Grand Canyon, and I’ve spent a couple of nights in each during the last year. For my Flagstaff recommendations, see this Inhabitat article.
Williams is the terminus of the Grand Canyon Railway (which offers quite a few raw veggies and fruits in its first-class buffet).
Williams has a very strong Old West/Route 66 vibe. I spent two nights in the very comfortable Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. My best dinner there was at the Red Raven, where I ordered the smothered portabella. In this case, it was a huge array of veggies doing the smothering, with some nice roasted potatoes on the side. Not much in the way of protein, but vegetables galore. This restaurant is kind of romantic and upscale and I felt a bit awkward being a solo person taking up a four-top at a busy time, but the server quickly recovered from her shock and was gracious.
When dining alone, I prefer not very fancy restaurants, the emptier the better. My second dinner in Williams was more like that, with the restaurant doing more takeout than dine in. I ate at Dara Thai Twisters, the most Coca-Cola/Americana themed Thai restaurant I’ve ever experienced. I got a big plate of noodles, tofu and vegetables at a reasonable cost.
For breakfast in Williams, you can get good avocado toast or vegan oatmeal at the Pine Country Restaurant. The best soy cappuccino I found was at Brewed Awakenings.
While this article aims to be useful in keeping vegans from starvation, the main point is going to see the Grand Canyon. Don’t miss this awesome natural wonder!
