Santa Fe, NM is a pretty artsy-fartsy town, so one would think they’d be the open minded kind of people to have some good vegan food.  I found a few good spots, but not a whole lot.  One of these spots was a small chocolate shop that offers some vegan varieties.  Kakawa Chocolate House may not label anything as vegan, but most of the dark chocolate truffles are vegan.  We asked the chocolatier and she was very helpful to point out what we should get.

From their selection we got four different vegan chocolates.  The Pomegranate Truffle (chocolate, agave, pomegranate, vanilla) was my least favorite – the most bitter.  The Rose Truffle (chocolate, agave, rose water) and the Dark Chocolate Truffle (chocolate, agave, oatmilk, mexican vanilla) were both very creamy and less bitter than the pomegranate.  My favorite was the Dark Chocolate Pistachio Clusters – the creaminess and saltiness of the nuts cuts the strong bitterness of the chocolate.  Each truffle is around $3-3.50 and is worth the stop to this very cute store.

Because my mom and I were on a road trip, we didn’t have many meal opportunities to eat in Santa Fe.  We wanted to spend dinner at a vegan friendly restaurant (Body Cafe), but got there at 8:28pm.  Apparently the kitchen closes at 8:30pm and the whole place closes at 9pm.  WTF?  We made the deadline and they turned us away.  Not cool!  So we stopped at a Whole Foods on the way back to the hotel and got a bunch of vegan food.

The Couscous Salad and the Red and Black Quinoa Taboule from the deli case weren’t that great, but the Sonoma Wrap (Gardein chicken salad wrapped with grapes in a tortilla) was delicious!  They even had some vegan donuts!

The donuts were displayed from MIGHT-O.  I thought it must be a typo, but what were Mighty-O donuts doing in Santa Fe?  When we got back to the hotel and I tasted them and I knew they were from Mighty-O.  I didn’t like them when I had them in Seattle, and I still didn’t like them.  They have this sort of chemical leavening flavor.  Not my cup of tea, but very exciting that vegan donuts exists in Santa Fe.

When we finally made it to Body Cafe, my mom and I shared two vegan-friendly dishes.  Body Cafe didn’t have a whole lot of vegan dishes to choose from.  A few dishes are raw and they have many juices/smoothies.  One thing that really irked me (besides being turned away before they closed the night before) was their statement on their menu.  Describing vegan, Body Cafe states it “does not contain any animal products including eggs, dairy. We often use honey in our vegan recipes.”  So your vegan stuff isn’t actually vegan if it contains honey (yes, I know some vegans eat honey).  Knowing I now have to ask if their vegan food is actually vegan, I discovered that the Caesar Salad ($11.95) [romaine hearts, jicama, sunflower croutons, capers, house caesar dressing] is totally vegan.  Maybe it was my annoyance at Body Cafe, but I just wasn’t too thrilled with the food.  My mom enjoyed it, though.

And the Green Chile Burrito ($9.95) [tofu, pine nut cheese, green chile, potato, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, salsa fresca, onion, spelt tortilla] just wasn’t that good, either.

Body Cafe
333 Cordova Rd.
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505-986-0362

Monday-Friday 7 am – 9 pm
Saturday 7 am – 9 pm
Sunday 7 am – 9 pm

Kakawa Chocolate House
1050 E Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM
505-982-0388

Monday – Saturday 10-6
Sunday 12-6