Sunlight Cafe is a vegetarian restaurant that has served the Seattle community for over 35 years. The Cafe focuses on natural and non-processed foods. It also features healthy vegan and gluten-free menus, organic coffee/espresso, and additive-free beers/wine.

 

Creative Hearty Vegetarian Cooking

 

Breakfast * Lunch * Dinner * Weekend Brunch
Vegan Pastries * Organic Coffee & Espresso * Additive-free Beers * Wine
Open daily 8:30am - 9pm 

 

Review

 

That the Sunlight Cafe does a number of things right should come as no surprise. It is, after all, the longest-standing vegetarian restaurant in Seattle. The popular Roosevelt enclave offers inexpensive yet highly nutritious lunches, dinners and the ever-crowded Saturday and Sunday brunch.

 

The food is your basic, functional vegetarian fare: lots of salads, soups, veggie burgers, stir-fries and grain dishes. It is not as creative as some of Seattle's newest vegetarian restaurants, but neither does it disappoint. You'll find lots of vegan and wheat-free options here.

 

The food, simple decor and even the restaurant's name combine to give the Sunlight Cafe a 1960's granola feel. Specials boards in the restaurant's two rooms let you know the day's special soup, salad dressing, entree and desserts. Eating here is like stepping back to a simpler time of community and friendship. It is a place that attracts a lot of regulars who enjoy the low prices and the large plates of food.

 

Sit, if you can, in the cafe's sunny southern room. Its huge windows offer a pleasant place to sit and chat with a friend or read peacefully. In the darker northern room, you can sit in a booth or a smaller table in the center of the room. Or sit at the long counter and watch as the staff prepares your food. Local artwork adorns the walls and changes frequently.

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The food is mostly American with some international influences. Diners with dietary restrictions or allergies will do well here: there are plenty of wheat-free choices, and servers can direct your attention to desserts sweetened without sugar and alternative drinks (additive-free beers, Knudsen's natural spritzers, herbal teas, etc.). You can even ask for raw milk cheese on your sandwich.

 

A nice appetizer is the pita with hummus. $4.70 gets you four whole wheat pita pieces and a big batch of smooth, creamy hummus for dipping. You can also choose a salad or soup as an appetizer or as your main meal.  Vegetable Plate with Hummus is $6.50.

 

One of my favorite lunches is the soup, salad and bread combo, for $9.75. You get a good-sized salad, a cup of soup and a piece of hearty bread for dipping. It's also hard to go wrong with one of the salads, which typically have lots of different veggies. The lemon-tahini dressing, an option on many of Sunlight's salads, is one of the highlights of the menu. Some people with sensitive stomachs might request that the broccoli or cauliflower be lightly steamed. One of the biggest draws for weekend brunches is the eggless sesame crunch waffle, served with Vermont maple syrup and fruit.

 

Sunlight Cafe serves red and white wine, and a variety of coffees, espressos and lattés. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner, and brunch on weekends.

 

Sunlight Cafe was listed by the Food Network as the best vegetarian restaurant in Washington state for 2018!