Other vegan-friendly places we found in Barcelona and Madrid

In a recent post reviewing Barcelona's Juicy Jones, I said I'd stumbled on the cafe. In the comments, Theresa who writes the (excellent) Tropical Vegan blog asked if I'd stumbled randomly or on purpose. In Juicy Jones' case, it was deliberate, but during my time in Spain, I did a good bit of stumbling and finding veg*n delights on the way! 

Here's a little round-up!

First up, La Boqueria market in Barcelona. It's a great sprawling place, where you pick up your fruits, veggies (alas, meat too - gross), bakery goods or stop for a glass of cava.

A lot of the stalls have a nice line in takeaway smoothies and fruit cups, like these ones:

It also has its own veggie restaurant, Organic. It's a sort of sandwich-y, falafel-y type place, and one that leans more towards veggies than vegans, but it might be one to check out if you're in the area.

Another place I found while strolling around is the Cat Bar, an artisan beer hangout in the Gothic quarter. I was massively excited to see a place that proclaimed its veganness on the sign outside too - no ambiguity there!

And it had this supercute vegan graffiti outside:

We didn't get a chance to stop in at the Cat Bar, but it looked like a cosy little hangout and the menu looked appealing - sort of junk foody. Just what you want with all that beer then! One thing that stuck in my mind was the mention of vegan quiche. One for next time!

The other Barcelona restaurant we stumbled upon was Veggie Garden, another all-vegan place just round the corner from Biocenter. It had a good few tables outside and looked like a good bet on a warn Barcelona evening.

The menu was fairly eclectic, with a world food leaning, and it was packed. Again, another one for next time!

Onto Madrid, which seems to be heaving with veg*n places - on the way from the station to where we staying, we found our first one (my hands were full with luggage, so sadly no picture!) called La Biotika, which is of a macrobiotic bent. It's vegetarian, but has vegan dishes, including all-important vegan cake.

Another place we found not a million miles from our accommodation was Isla del Tesoro, another vegetarian macrobiotic restaurant that's vegan-friendly. I really liked the look of the menu but Mr Flicking the Vs couldn't be persuaded. Luckily, he found Yerbabuena instead, so I forgave him given the amazing chocolate cake they ponied up.

We then ended up discovering two veggie places within a stone's throw of each other when we stopped in a square called Plaza de la Paja. The first was Viva la Vida!, a veggie buffet place that HappyCow tells me is vegan-friendly too. We debated having dinner there one night, but after stopping for a drink and finding it a torturous process, we skipped off. Again, Mr Flicking the Vs found a gorgeous alternative - the Green Break Vegan Takeaway - so it worked out in our favour.

The other Plaza de la Paja veg*n eaterie we found was El Estragon. Despite a nice outside area, it's not really a good option - El Estragon maybe veggie but it doesn't give a monkey's about vegans. The menu has a few egg-free dishes, and maybe it has a few animal-free ones too, but you wouldn't know from the menu.

But don't let El Estragon put you off - both Barcelona and Madrid have a lot of good vegan and vegan-friendly places. If you want to check out all my reviews from my trips, they're all here.