In this article you will find my favourite vegan recommendations from our recent trip to Valencia, which excitingly, is the birthplace of paella.

Valencia is the perfect place for a city break, with so much to offer anyone and everyone. Sightseers, beachgoers, history buffs and foodies will all find so much to love here. I really appreciate Spain’s laid back vibe, as well as their attitude to food. Every drink is served with a little snack, and there is a much stronger focus on good quality, rather than large quantities, of food and drink. Despite this, I wasn’t super confident that I would find many vegan options in Valencia. The last time I was in Spain was a trip to Barcelona in 2017 before I became vegan, so naturally all I remember eating is ham, cheese, chorizo and seafood; all of which are extremely easy to get your hands on. I was optimistic that I’d find something, though, even if it meant living on oranges all week. Spain isn’t famed for it’s vegan fare, but it is famed for it’s oranges. My fiancé Ollie and I packed our bags, left sunny and humid London for a slightly sunnier and (thankfully) less humid Valencia.

The first thing I did was message our Airbnb host, Alessandro, and ask him if he had any recommendations for local vegan restaurants. Alessandro was more than happy to oblige and sent me a long list of recommendations from his vegan friend Yulia, who was the real MVP. Perfect! I created a ‘Valencia’ list on Google Maps so I could view all the restaurants on a map when I was out and about. You can see the map with all of the places recommended in this article here. We used many of Yulia’s suggestions and discovered a few of our own along the way.

Food

Best place for a burger – Khambu, Carrer de Quart, 41b, 46003 València, Spain

Khambu does unapologetic vegan fast food properly. It was really hard to choose from their extensive menu, but I was really glad with my Indiana burger. We had eyed up the cakes whilst ordering, but our burgers left us too full! Heartbreaking.

My personal recommendation: The Indiana Burger (vegan fried chick’n style) with fries.

Best place for tapas – Arandinos, Plaça de l’Àngel, s/n, 46003 València, Spain

Arandinos is tucked away in a peaceful little corner of the old town, serving really tasty and affordable tapas and drinks. We ate delicious padron peppers, beef tomatoes with olive oil and salt, crusty bread and patatas bravas: cubed potatoes with paprika and garlic with a spicy tomato sauce.

My personal recommendation: All of the above washed down with sangria makes for a lovely tapas dinner!

Best place for paella – Restaurante Canela, Carrer de Quart, 49, 46001 València, Spain

Ollie was desperate to try paella at some point on the trip, and eventually he found this lovely restaurant just around the corner from our apartment. This was probably the closest to a fancy restaurant that we got to, and we were lucky to get a table at all. I definitely recommend reserving a table if you go there. We sat outside right by the historic Torres de Quart. We were served warm bread with olive oil and salt to start and then shared a vegan paella that was packed full of veggies and flavour. It was *chef’s kiss* delicious!

My personal recommendation: I think this was the only vegan option on the menu (other than a potato salad, which… eh) but it was the best paella I have ever tasted so you need nothing more!

Best place to buy food to cook at home – Mercat Central, Placva de la Ciutat de Bruges, s/n, 46001 Valencia, Spain

Valencia’s Central Market is not to be missed under any circumstances. It’s a stunning Valencian Art Nouveau style building with roughly 900 vendors selling coffee, groceries, wine and much more. I could have wandered for hours, but the market closed at 2pm and we only arrived at 12pm. Inspired by the tapas at Arandinos, we decided to cook our own tapas at home and grabbed some courgette, padron peppers, beef tomatoes, plantain (because why the hell not?) and crusty bread. The ingredients were all incredibly fresh, affordable and tasty.

That evening I fried up the plantain, courgettes and padron peppers in olive oil, chopped and drizzled the tomatoes in olive oil and salt and toasted the crusty bread with, you guessed it! Olive oil. Poor Alessandro’s olive oil supply took a hit that night.

I love cooking and this was all pretty simple which allowed the quality of the food to really show itself off. We grabbed a bottle of €2.50 cava (using the Barnivore app to check it was vegan) from the local Consum supermarket, sat out on our terrace and ate our way to a vegan food coma.

Best place for healthy fast food – Aloha Vegan Delights, Carrer dels Cavallers, 45, 46001 València, Spain

Aloha Vegan Delights was truly a dark horse for me as it was around the corner from us and we kept walking past it and saying “oh, we must go there at some point”. We decided to go on our last night and I am SO GLAD WE DID! It’s only a little place with two seats, so we took our food and ate in the plaza nearby. They sell burgers, sandwiches, smoothies and smoothie bowls. I foolishly didn’t take any pictures of my sandwich but it was incredible: thick toasted spelt bread, hummus, avocado and tomato with garlic. I had my eye on their smoothie bowls for dessert, but much to my disappointment, I was too full.

My personal recommendation: The Mahalo Sandwich. I can’t recommend it highly enough – if I could eat it every day for the rest of my life I would be ecstatic.

Best place for a buffet – Loving Hut, Carrer del Comte d’Altea, 44, 46005 València, Spain

Loving Hut was a last minute find on our last day after visiting the Science Museum in the morning. I was excited to read it was an all you can eat vegan buffet for €11.50 per person (drinks not included). We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, which is a mixture of salad bar, home comforts such as vegan burgers and lasagne, and an asian inspired food section. They also have loads of dressings and sauces available; in fact, I was so hungry that I drizzled a lot of what I thought was balsamic vinegar onto my salad and bread but turned out to be soy sauce. Not a great match, it turns out.

My personal recommendation: Fill up on that fresh salad bar with hummus and bread (but hold the soy sauce) and then go and indulge in their sticky soya balls (picture below). Then have some of their flan for dessert. I’ve never been a flan fan, but Loving Hut converted me. It was light and a good palate cleansing after a big meal (because I have no self control when faced with a buffet).

Best place for dessert – Khambu, Carrer de Quart, 41b, 46003 València, Spain

I was determined to try the red velvet cake at Khambu after eyeing it up on day one, but had returned a few times since to find it sold out. On our second to last day, after our paella at Restaurante Canela, I marched into Khambu and the red velvet cake was sold out again, much to my chagrin! However, I had built it up in my head so much by that point that I would have gone to bed sad without my vegan dessert, so I bought the chocolate orange torte and Ollie bought the carrot cake. When we got home I tried them both and found that I preferred Ollie’s carrot cake (the frosting was out of this world!!), but that didn’t stop me from taking my chocolate orange torte out to the terrace for a photoshoot.

My personal recommendation: Their carrot cake is incredible, and this is coming from a person who is not usually a fan of carrot cake!

Drinks

Best place for Agua de Valencia – Cafe de las Horas, Carrer del Comte d’Almodóvar, 1, 46003 València, Spain

I had never heard of Agua de Valencia until this week, but Yulia (the real MVP!) recommended it to us as a local cocktail. It was lovely; made from champagne, fresh orange juice, vodka and gin, but it just tasted like juice. We went to the lovely Cafe de las Horas on Yulia’s recommendation. It’s in a great location in the old historic centre of town.

Best place for Orxata (Horchata) – Horchateria de Santa Catalina, Plaça de Santa Caterina, 6, 46001 València, Spain

This was another of Yulia’s recommendations. I was super keen to try Orxata as it’s made from plant milk (typically tiger nut milk). The taste initially took a little getting used to, but it’s really refreshing and very, very moreish. I found myself craving it every subsequent day!

Best place for cocktails on the beach – La Mas Bonita Patacona, Passeig Marítim de la Patacona, 11, 46120 Alboraia, València, Spain

La Mas Bonita has a beach bar with sun loungers and shades adjacent, which you can rent for a reasonable €4.50 per half day. It’s located in Alboraia beach, which is the northern part of Valencia beach, about a half an hour from Valencia city centre by bus or metro.

Best place for a coffee – Beat Brew Bar, Carrer de Murillo, 22, 46001 València, Spain

Beat Brew bar is the coolest and most laid back vegan coffee shop I have ever been to, with the nicest people serving you. The interior was super cosy and cute, with lots of kitschy repurposing of functional objects into furniture. I drank a delicious strawberry kefir and Ollie had a carob and cacao oat latte, and we ate pure cacao chocolates.

Where to stay

Ciutat Vella, the historical city centre.

Granted, I don’t have anything to compare it to in terms of staying in other areas, but Ciutat Vella was a lovely place to stay and was also my favourite area to wander through. It’s packed with lovely old buildings, restaurants, cafes and bars. You could spend almost all your time there and not miss out on anything, unless you wanted to go to more commercial places! Our apartment was beautiful, well located and we couldn’t have asked for a better host than Alessandro (and a better vegan guide than Yulia!).

Where to take a day trip

Sagunto, a town approximately 30km north of Valencia and a quick and easy 50 minute train from Valencia Estacio del Nord. Return tickets cost about €12, but plan your trains carefully or you may end up waiting around all evening in Sagunto!

Sagunto is home to Castell de Sagunt, a relatively intact roman forum, castle and roman theatre that you can wander around pretty freely. Wear your walking shoes, though, because it’s at the top of a pretty steep hill. We cleverly decided to visit Sagunto on the hottest day of our trip, and I discovered that walking uphill in 36ºC heat isn’t my favourite thing to do. Who knew?

When we reached the top of the hill, we were presented with two options; explore the ruins of the castle or take a 3km walk around the castle walls. We’re Londoners, so we walk everywhere and we shrugged at each other thinking 3km would be nothing. Also, the path looked pretty flat at the beginning, so we set off. Don’t be fooled. The flat paving quickly became a hazardous up-and-down mountain path with loose stones. The sun was somehow always above us even though we were walking around a hill and it was 4pm. We were rationing our water and taking refuge under any small shade we could, but the view was good. Wandering around the old castle and forum was really fun though, and really interesting for a history fan like Ollie. Well worth the day trip!

Essentials for Valencia in June

• SPF – with my Irish skin I go a lovely redbrick colour in the sun, so I always go with factor 50.
• Comfy sandals or flip-flops, but be smarter than me and break them in before you go! I bought some vegan Birkenstock Arizonas for the trip which I absolutely love, but unfortunately my feet did not echo my loving sentiments after two days of walking roughly 20,000 steps in a row.
• Comfy shoes you can actually walk in, like trainers. These were a godsend to allow my feet to recover!
• Swimming costume/bikini/shorts/whatever you like to wear at the beach. Valencia has a lovely beach about half an hour from the city centre, and it’s definitely worth spending at least half a day there!
• Reusable water bottle – most restaurants in Valencia are pretty conscious about not using single use plastic and will give you glass bottles of water, which I recommend you use to fill up your own reusable water bottle. The tap water is safe to drink, but I wasn’t crazy about the aftertaste.
• Less clothes than you think you need! Most people in Valencia dress pretty casually, so thin cotton and jersey clothes will be your friends here. We didn’t visit any posh restaurants that would have objected to shorts and trainers. Side note: I brought a hoodie and a jacket (London has given me permanent weather-related trust issues) and they sat in our wardrobe the entire time.
• Hand-held fan – oh how I wish I had one of these! The weather reached 36ºC whilst we were there, and not every building has air conditioning, so it’s nice to have something to cool you down.

Click here to view my map of recommendations in Valencia. Did you find my Vegan in Valencia guide helpful? Did you visit any of these places, or is there somewhere I missed? Let me know in the comments below!