October 6. 2025
Every August, food lovers across the Twin Cities (and beyond) flock to restaurants throughout the metro area to discover bold, original plant-based dishes in the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge. This year marked the biggest challenge yet in its seven-year history, with diners casting more than 1,600 votes across 27 participating restaurants.
Diners were blown away by what they tasted:
- “Vibrant flavors, unique texture combinations, this dish is amazing!”
- “There wasn’t anything I’d change about this dish — it was great!”
- “Not a vegan eater typically, but this kicked ass.”
What Is the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge?
An institution of the Twin Cities summer food calendar, the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge invites restaurants to add an all-new plant-based dish to the menu for the month of August for diners to taste, rate online, and share on social media for a chance to win gift cards and prizes. It’s drawn coverage from the Minnesota Star Tribune, FOX 9, Bring Me The News, and Eater Twin Cities, with some of the dishes being so popular that they stay on the menu long term!
Who Won the 2025 Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge?
At this year’s Twin Cities Veg Fest in Saint Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park, we crowned the challenge winners chosen by our community of compassionate voters. And the winners are:
First place: Namaste Cafe’s Masala Fire Tacos, with masala-spiced tofu served on corn tortillas, topped with crunchy cabbage, pickled onions, avocado, cashew mayo, cilantro sauce, and green chilies, and served with a side of refreshing watermelon cucumber mint salad
Second place: Reverie Cafe + Bar’s Chili Crisp Burnt End Tacos w/ Smoked Corn Ribs, with shredded burnt ends, lemongrass slaw, bourbon aioli, and scallions, served with mojo jalapeño aioli and tofu queso fresco
Third place: Food on the Fly’s Crispy Chicken Rice Bowl, with crispy, house-made mock-chicken strips, chili oil aioli, cucumber, pickled daikon, edamame, pickled onion, fermented bean sprouts, and fermented purple cabbage
All participating restaurants were awarded a special title, based on comments from satisfied diners. Check out all of these creative awards:
Barbette – Flavor Fest Award
Book Club – The Supreme Bean
Crasqui – “Crispy Ball of Heaven”
Duke’S on 7 – Best Pasta
Food on the Fly – Best Vegan Meat
Gigi’s Cafe – Flavor Fiesta
Hard Times Cafe – Hail Seitan
The Himalayan – The Sauce Boss
Lulu EthioVegan – Spice Mastery Award
Lutunji’s Palate – Best Comfort Food
Namaste Cafe – Fusion at Its Best
Pat’s Tap – Tantalizing Flavors
Reverie Cafe + Bar – Flavor Explosion Award
Sawatdee – Mushroom Majesty
Stanley’s NE Bar Room – Lip-Smackingly Good Food
Starling – Best Curry & Chutney
Stonegarden – Picture Perfect Plate
The Block – Rogers – Fantastic Crunch
The Block – SLP – “Vegan Chicken Done Right”
The Howe – Best Vegan Twist on a Classic
Brianno’s Chart House – Rich Flavor Combos
Tiny Diner – Deliciously Sustainable
Tori Ramen – Fresh & Complex
Umbra – Great Garlic & Greens
Well’s Roadside – Best Diner Food
Find out more about each restaurant’s dish on the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge page.
A Lasting Impact on Local Menus
Since 2019, the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge has added more than a dozen plant-based dishes to local menus long term — including at some restaurants that didn’t have any vegan entrees before participating.
This year, six locations are keeping their challenge dishes available long term:
Brianno’s Chart House’s Caribbean Vegan Bowl, with a jerk-spiced black bean patty, jerk plant-based beef crumble, cilantro lime rice with Argentinian chimichurri, fire-roasted corn salsa, avocado chimi-mousse, and pepitas
Crasqui – Vegan Bollitos – Corn dough, eggplant-zucchini-squash, ratatouille, basil, tomatoes, spicy plantain sauce and black bean sauce – gluten-free.
Food on the Fly’s Crispy Chicken Rice Bowl, the third-place finisher that’s here to stay
Lulu EthioVegan’s Chili Fries, with their award-winning Ethiopian-spiced chili, topped with non-dairy cheese and sour cream
Reverie Cafe + Bar’s Chili Crisp Burnt End Tacos w/ Smoked Corn Ribs — the challenge runner-up — available at the all-new Dreamstate Cafe
Starling – Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry – tomato, coconut milk, wild cumin, cilantro, pineapple chutney, jasmine rice – gluten-free, contains nuts, vega
We’re so excited that these restaurants are keeping the dishes on the menu that we’re organizing a dine-out at each location before the end of the year. Find all upcoming events online and RSVP soon — space is limited!
Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge: A Resounding Success
Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) organizes the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge every year to drum up excitement for plant-based foods, introduce new people to compassionate living, and show local restaurants there’s a vibrant market and demand for vegan cuisine. Most importantly, the challenge helps take animals off the table for thousands of meals across the Twin Cities every year.
This year’s challenge was a resounding success, with a record number of voters participating across 27 restaurants. Over the past two years, the number of unique Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge voters has grown by 79%, with the number of votes going up by 96%. This year, we also engaged more than 700 voters who never participated in the challenge before.
Discover More Information About Past Challenges:
Check out these blog posts for some highlights of past challenges:
And the Winner Is: Results of the 2023 Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge
The Results Are In: Discover the 2024 Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge Winners
Challenge Accepted: One Family’s Adventure in Trying All the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge Dishes
How to Keep the Challenge Momentum Going Year-Round
The Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge may come and go every August, but there are simple ways you can enjoy great vegan food and advocate for animals year-round:
- Vote with your wallet. Visit restaurants with great vegan options and order their plant-based dishes. Restaurants craft their menus based on customer demand, and nothing speaks louder than consistent sales.
- Ask for what you want. If a restaurant doesn’t have vegan options, politely let them know you’d visit more often if they added plant-based dishes. You can even share information about the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge and comment on their social media pages to encourage them to sign up next year.
- Connect restaurants with resources. If you know a restaurant or other food service provider that’s interested in serving more plant-based food, get them in touch in CAA’s Wholesome Minnesota program. We share valuable information and best practices to help food service providers expand their plant-based offerings successfully. Contact us to let us know or ask for more details.
Together, we’re building a Twin Cities where delicious vegan food is available everywhere. Here’s to another summer of advocating for animals, one delicious plant-based dish at a time.
