Eating vegan in San Cristóbal de las Casas: our favorite spots

Tucked into the highlands of Chiapas, San Cristóbal de las Casas is a place of slow mornings and cool evenings that call for bowls of beans and thick handmade tortillas. Traditional Chiapaneco cooking leans humble and hearty: tamales steamed in banana leaves, pozol made from fermented corn and cacao, soups filled with local greens and squash blossoms, and fresh salsas ground by stone. The region’s Indigenous Tzotzil and Tzeltal roots are everywhere: in the nixtamalized maize that still shapes most meals, in the use of herbs like epazote and hierba santa, and in the deep respect for seasonal vegetables and for the land that grows them.

Though meat and dairy appear often in regional dishes, many of Chiapas’s oldest preparations remain naturally plant-forward. The foundations of tortillas, beans, cacao, and quelites (wild greens) easily welcome vegan interpretation without losing their spirit. Even the traditional drink pozol, made from ground corn and cacao, is often vegan by default, a reminder of how pre-Hispanic foodways already knew how to nourish without excess.

In recent years, San Cristóbal has become a quiet refuge for travelers, artists, and long-term nomads seeking slowness, altitude, and a kind of mindful rhythm. That mix has brought a small but distinct vegan scene: cafés serving cold brew with oat milk from nearby farms, cooperatives turning out daily plates of vegetables and grains, and market vendors offering tamales sin carne alongside herbal teas and fresh juices.

Eating vegan here isn’t about seeking substitutions so much as recognizing continuities: between Indigenous foodways and new plant-based kitchens, between the markets’ abundance and the travelers who move through them. Below, we’ve gathered some of our favorite places to eat vegan in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Art Librería

Art Librería's walls are lined with books and handmade art, Zapatista posters watch from the corners, and every detail seems to hum with Gerardo’s quiet conviction. He’s the kind of host who lives his politics through presence: deeply engaged in veganism, environmental activism, and the defense of local water rights. (He was even featured in a documentary about how Coca-Cola’s bottling operations ruined San Cristóbal’s local water system.)

There isn’t a fixed menu here, and that’s part of the beauty. Gerardo will cook what feels right that day—often a vibrant plate of seasonal vegetables in vegan queso, a comforting bean soup, homemade salsas and guacamole, soft tortillas still warm from the comal, and a cold hibiscus drink on the side.

His cacao, rich and strong, comes from a neighbor who grows and grinds it in small batches.

Come hungry, come curious, and let Gerardo guide you. Every meal here feels like a conversation about care for the land, for animals, for art, and for the people who pass through his door.

Gerardo also offers a vegan cooking class (read our full post on it). Depending on what you're looking for, he can show you how to make vegan cheese, vegan mole, or something else.

Te Quiero Verde

Te Quiero Verde is filled with plants and sunlight filtering through the windows. Everything here is made from scratch, and everything is vegan.

We especially love their enchiladas, best ordered with both rojo and verde sauce and topped with vegan cheese that melts just right. The al pastor taco is another standout, richly spiced and layered with pineapple, cilantro, and lime. There are also global comforts here—a fragrant lentil dhal, Greek-style gyros, and ramen bowls—but somehow it all fits together. It’s food made with curiosity and care, without pretense.

Being in Mexico, we mostly stuck to the local plates, but everything we tried carried that same balance of flavor and generosity that defines the place. Whether you’re craving something familiar or ready to try something new, Te Quiero Verde feels like a small world of vegan abundance tucked into the highlands.

La Casa del Tamal

La Casa del Tamal became one of those places we found ourselves returning to again and again—the kind of restaurant where the food is generous, the atmosphere is easy, and the chef starts greeting you by name after just a few visits. It isn’t a vegan restaurant, but it might as well be for how many plant-based options fill the menu.

Our favorites: the mole with mushrooms, rich and layered with the deep spice of cacao and chiles; the enchiladas, perfect with either the rojo or the verde sauce; and the calabazas rellenas, tender zucchini filled and cooked until soft. The guacamole is always fresh, and the tamales—which give the place its name—are a quiet revelation. There are several vegan versions: veggie, zucchini flower, mushroom, and mushroom with mole. Each is soft, fragrant, and wrapped in a layer of corn that tastes unmistakably of Chiapas.

Pair everything with a glass of agua de jamaica (hibiscus tea), bright and tart, the kind of drink that cuts through the richness of mole and the mountain air alike.

La Casa del Tamal feels homey and honest, proof that traditional Chiapaneco food can hold space for vegan eaters without losing any of its soul.

Inina

Inina was the first place we ate after arriving in San Cristóbal, and the memory of that day has stayed with us. We weren’t yet used to the altitude, and after ordering, we felt like we were going to faint. We went over to Ben, the owner, and he took us out to the garden, spread a blanket on the grass, and brought a sweet drink to help us recover. That small act of kindness told us everything we needed to know about the place.

Inina is a fully vegan café, calm and light-filled, with a menu that feels both nourishing and inventive. The hashbrowns are what we keep coming back for—crisp and golden, scattered with mustard seeds, and served with apple chutney, homemade kraut, avocado, and sprouts. Everything tastes fresh, unhurried, and made with care.

It’s an easy place to linger, especially on quiet mornings when the mountain light drifts in through the windows. Ben’s presence gives Inina the kind of warmth that can’t be designed, the kind that grows naturally when someone truly loves what they’re offering.

Kinoki

Kinoki is a cultural space where food, film, and conversation meet. Upstairs, a cozy theatre screens independent documentaries and local films (we caught one on the Zapatistas while we were there), and downstairs, the café hums quietly with travelers reading, writing, or just watching the street below.

The menu isn’t fully vegan, but there are a few thoughtful options that make it worth a visit. We especially like the vegan Aztec soup,a warm, tomato-based broth filled with tortilla strips, avocado, and spice. Another good choice is the papas la playa, roasted potatoes with a red sauce of paprika, chili, and garlic. There’s also a build-your-own smoothie option; our favorite mix is coconut milk, strawberry, and banana, light and fresh after a morning walk through town.

Head up to the rooftop if you can. It’s one of the best spots in San Cristóbal to work from or linger with a book, with wide views of the red-tiled roofs and the hills beyond. As the sun moves across the city, you can feel the pace of the day shift.

Sweetbeat

Their chai is the best we’ve found in San Cristóbal, spiced just right and made creamy with your choice of plant-based milk (there are several). The vegan pancakes are soft and comforting, perfect for slow mornings, and the chard on homemade toast is simple but grounding, one of those dishes that reminds you how good fresh ingredients can taste.

There’s also vegan cake, which pairs perfectly with another cup of chai when the mountain air turns cool.

Sweetbeat is a pleasant place to plant yourself for a few hours—to read, write, or just rest between walks. It’s one of those rare cafés that manages to balance energy and ease, a soft corner of the city where time moves differently.

Veganer

Veganer is a small, mobile kitchen that makes some of the best vegan burgers in San Cristóbal. You’ll usually find them in Co404 around lunchtime, serving a steady stream of hungry colivers.

Their mushroom burger is our favorite—juicy, smoky, and layered with just the right balance of crunch and savor. They also sell kombucha, the perfect companion to a midday meal in the mountain sun.

Jazmín, who handles delivery, brings an easy warmth to every interaction. Veganer is a delicious quick option when you don’t want to leave the coliving or venture far, proof that simple food, made with care, can feel like enough.

Astro Café

Astro Café became one of our go-to spots for long mornings, a place to work and slowly make our way through brunch as the light shifted across the street. It’s bright and welcoming, with a calm rhythm that makes it easy to stay for hours.

Their chilaquiles are our favorite in town, crispy, layered, and spicy.

The mushroom mole burrito is another standout, rich and balanced, and there are plenty of other vegan options to choose from: avocado toast, soup, and generous Buddha bowls filled with grains and veggies. Everything feels clean, colorful, and made with care.

Astro has the kind of atmosphere that supports quiet work or slow conversation.

You’ll see travelers with notebooks and locals catching up over coffee, all sharing the same easy pace.

Comal, Cocina de Barro

Comal is often described by locals as one of the best and most authentic places to eat in San Cristóbal, and it truly feels that way. The name itself, comal, refers to the traditional clay griddle used throughout Mexico, and the kitchen honors that lineage with deep, careful flavors.

While the restaurant isn’t exclusively vegan, the chef was more than happy to adapt a few dishes for us, and each one came out beautifully. We started with a warming black bean soup, earthy and simple, followed by a tetela, triangular corn dish stuffed with black beans and topped with salsa. Every bite tasted like it belonged: rich, smoky, and alive with the flavors of maize and clay.

The sopes and picaditas were other favorites of ours.

We also tried tascalate, a traditional Chiapaneco drink that feels both ancient and comforting. Made from a blend of roasted maize, cacao, cinnamon, achiote, and a touch of sugar, it’s usually mixed with water or milk and served cool. The result is earthy, lightly spiced, and softly sweet, with the texture of ground corn giving it a warmth that lingers.

Casa de Willy

Casa de Willy isn’t very vegan-friendly, but it earns its place on this list for one simple reason: the salsas. Every table is greeted with a small feast of complimentary sides—three different kinds of salsa and a bowl of crisp totopos made from fresh corn tortillas.

One salsa in particular stands out: rich, smoky, and layered with just enough heat. Aside from rice and guacamole, there are zero vegan options here, but Casa de Willy is worth a visit if only to sit down with those salsas, a cool drink, and the slow rhythm of the afternoon. Prices are cheap and it's got a nice local atmosphere.

Taniperla

Taniperla isn’t fully vegan, but there are a few labelled vegan dishes that make it well worth a visit.

We especially like the fresh vegetable rolls and the sweet potato sopes, small rounds of masa topped with veggies and just the right touch of salsa. Everything tastes fresh and balanced, the kind of food that feels good in the altitude and light of San Cristóbal.

Histórico Café

Histórico Café sits right in the heart of San Cristóbal, central, warm, and full of the kind of easy energy that makes it perfect for spending a few hours with a laptop. It’s not a vegan café, but there’s one item on the menu that always draws us back: the vegan babka.

They usually offer it in two versions, frutas rojas (red fruits) or chocolateh. Paired with a strong coffee or tea, it’s a simple but satisfying treat, especially on cooler mornings when the city is still waking up.

Kukulpan

Kukulpan is a café we kept returning to, mostly for one small, perfect thing: their vegan chocolate chip muffin. It’s sweetened with banana, soft and just a little dense, with the kind of flavor that feels homemade in the best possible way.

Beyond that, it’s simply a lovely place to spend time. The outdoor tables catch the light through the trees, making it an easy spot to settle in with a laptop or a book for a few unhurried hours. The coffee is good, the air moves gently, and there’s a calm hum of conversation that seems to match the slower rhythm of San Cristóbal itself.

Frontera

Frontera is one of the more well-known cafés in San Cristóbal, and even though it doesn’t have vegan food options, it’s still a place we return to. The draw here is the courtyard—a wide, open space filled with plants, sunlight, and the sound of conversation that drifts easily from table to table.

We usually come for the fresh juices, which are always bright and refreshing, especially on warm afternoons. It’s the kind of spot that invites you to slow down for a while, to sit outside with a book or a friend and let the day move past.

La Charcu

La Charcu has what might be the best view in all of San Cristóbal. Perched just beside the Iglesia de Guadalupe, it looks out over the city’s rooftops and hills. A perfect place for sunsets.

It’s a great spot to go with friends, especially in the late afternoon when the light softens and the whole city starts to glow. They can make vegan tacos on request, simple and satisfying, the kind of food that pairs well with a cold drink and good company.

Cooking class with Itzel

One of our favorite experiences in town was a cooking class we did with Itzel (read our full post on it), which was easily made vegan for us.

The class includes all ingredients, plenty of tasting as you go, and a full meal at the end. Itzel also gives tips on where to buy the freshest produce in town, which vegan-friendly vendors to look for in the market, and how to adapt traditional Mexican recipes without losing their heart.

For travelers who want something more intimate and practical than a restaurant meal, this class is a really solid way to learn local techniques while supporting a home-based cook doing thoughtful, plant-centered food.

Chocoleto

Just a short walk from Co404, Chocoleto quickly became our top spot for cacao. The air inside hums softly with the scent of roasted beans, wood, and fruit.

Each cup is served in half of a cacao shell, still warm to the touch, its surface textured like the forests it came from. There’s no sugar here, no additives—only the natural syrup drawn from the cacao fruit itself, lending a delicate, honey-like sweetness that rises and fades on the tongue.

Element Cacao

If you're looking to make vegan chocolate on your own, we highly recommend taking Element Cacao's workshop (read our full post on it).

Guillermo walks you through every stage of the process, beginning with the raw cacao beans and moving through roasting, peeling, grinding, and preparing traditional drinks. It’s a small, hands-on class where you’re not just observing but actually working with the beans yourself.

He explains the differences between local cacao varieties, how fermentation affects flavor, and why cacao in Chiapas carries so much cultural and historical weight. Even if you’ve made chocolate before, doing it alongside someone who treats the process with this much respect is a completely different experience.

Jangala

Jangala is one of our favorite spots in town for anything chocolate. You can order a traditional cacao drink, thick and deeply flavored, or pick up one of their vegan chocolate bars to take with you. There’s even a vegan brownie, dense and just sweet enough, perfect with a cup of hot cacao on a cool highland afternoon.

The cacao is locally grown and prepared in small quantities, and the people behind the counter know it well.

Casa del Pan

Casa del Pan is small health food store.

They carry a thoughtful selection of vegan products: coconut kefir, hummus, and a variety of house-made salsas that change depending on what’s in season. You’ll also find grains, teas, and a few locally made staples that are hard to get elsewhere in town.

Santo Domingo Market

No guide to eating vegan in San Cristóbal would feel complete without the Santo Domingo Market. Just beyond the old church, the market spreads out in waves of color.

You’ll find women selling tamales wrapped in banana leaves, often filled with beans, vegetables, or squash blossoms—many of them naturally vegan. Nearby, stalls pour pozol, the traditional drink made from ground corn and cacao, cool and restorative on a hot day. There are baskets of avocados, bundles of fresh quelites, chili pastes, and local cacao sold in small rough blocks.

This is also where the texture of San Cristóbal’s food scene comes into focus: farmers and artisans from surrounding villages bringing their harvests into the city, selling directly to the people who will cook them.

Fungi hike and vegan meal

The fungi hike was one of our favorite experiences in San Cristóbal. It begins in the surrounding hills, where the air is cool and pine-scented, and the ground gives way to soft moss and fallen leaves. Guided by a local mycologist, you spend the morning learning about the wild mushrooms that grow in the highlands: how to identify them, how they connect to Indigenous food traditions, and how deeply they’re woven into the region’s ecology.

The morning ends in an outdoor kitchen, where the team cooks what’s been foraged. The meal is hearty and communal, with a delicious vegan option.

Eating vegan in San Cristóbal de las Casas

Eating vegan in San Cristóbal de las Casas is relatively easy. Corn, beans, cacao, quelites, avocado, hibiscus, chile, squash. These are the ingredients that have nourished this land for centuries, and they continue to shape its daily life.

What’s most striking is how naturally plant-based food fits into the rhythm of the highlands. Between markets and cafés, you’ll find people cooking from what grows nearby, drinking cacao from their neighbors’ farms, or serving tamales filled with beans and flowers instead of meat.

San Cristóbal is layered: Indigenous, revolutionary, creative, and deeply ecological. Vegan eating here reflects all of that: the politics of land and water, the reverence for maize, the resistance that runs through everyday acts of nourishment. Whether you’re sharing a meal with Gerardo at Art Librería, sitting under the sun at Inina, or working from a café with a view of the mountains, you begin to really develop an appreciation for the food here.

The best meals in San Cristóbal are simple ones: a bowl of beans, a warm tortilla, and salsa made over fire. Eating vegan is about tasting what’s already here, learning from it, and taking part in a slower, more grounded way of living.