Let’s start with a disclaimer: I personally am far from vegan, and I’m very fond of gluten, so I’m not the target audience for Cosmic Veggies, a completely vegan and gluten-free restaurant in downtown Anacortes.
However, I enjoy a well-made sandwich, a cup of good soup and a fresh smoothie regardless of its meat or gluten content. I also have enough friends with special dietary needs to know how hard it is to find real food that’s safe for them to eat, so an entire restaurant of safe food is a godsend. As a bonus, most of the menu can be ordered nut-free as well (with a few exceptions, just ask!)
The business, started by Elizabeth Weaver in 2015, began as a small farmer’s market stand called Drink Your Veggies, selling juice and smoothies, then opened as a storefront in 2019. Eventually, the business was reinvented as Cosmic Veggies, a restaurant with an emphasis on smoothies and juice cleanses plus a large menu of vegan, gluten-free items. The current storefront in downtown Anacortes opened in 2022, and there’s also a franchise location in Oak Harbor.
The Anacortes location isn’t huge but has a comfortable feel, with big windows looking onto Commercial Avenue. The menu is handwritten on large blackboards near the ordering counter, and you can help yourself to drinks from the cooler and a multitude of baked goods from Shambala Bakery in Mount Vernon.
There are lots of salads, including a “tuna” salad made from chickpeas, available as a side with other dishes but also on its own with greens, cucumber and sprouts ($12.75). It’s very generously dressed, with plenty of celery and loads of dill, which worked surprisingly well with the chickpeas.
If you prefer, you can get it as a wrap (in a gluten-free flatbread), along with most of the other salads on the menu. I also tried the taco salad ($13.50), a very generous bowl of greens, avocado, cucumber, tomato and a very tasty vegan “taco meat” made of beans and walnuts, served with salsa and creamy dressing.
Their popular falafel wrap ($15) was completely different from any falafel I’ve ever tried. It seemed to have been baked as a sheet, then cut into cubes. This meant that there wasn’t the rich crispiness of traditional fried falafel, but it made for a pleasant soft texture mixing with the other ingredients in the wrap.
Along with greens, hummus, onions, avocado and a vegan ranch dressing, there was a plethora of alfalfa sprouts (possibly a few too many). The flatbread it was wrapped in was a bit spongy and heavy, but held together fairly well.
Other sandwiches include an “egg” breakfast sandwich with hummus, a banh mi with tofu and several different burgers. I tried the sourdough burger ($15.75), in which a bean and grain patty sits between slices of toasted gluten-free sourdough, well slathered with mashed avocado and barbecue sauce. The bread had that slightly-too-crunchy texture that gluten-free bread often has, but the taste was excellent and, in fact, I didn’t remember it was gluten-free until I’d eaten more than half of it.
Sandwiches come with potato chips, or you can get a bowl of soup, as they always have a few soups in the cooler that can be bought as is or heated up. The red lentil is pleasant and warming with curry spices, full of carrot and celery ($7.50 for 16 ounces).
The smoothie and juice menu is enormous. They have juice blends targeted for immune boosting and detoxing, and smoothies made with every possible fruit and vegetable combination. I tried the Skagit Rise and Shine smoothie ($8.90 for 16 ounces), made with a bright mix of carrot, mango and pineapple, with an impressively pungent note of cayenne and ginger.
You can also get smoothie bowls topped with all kinds of goodies like granola, chia seeds and fruit. If you’re interested in doing a cleanse, Cosmic Veggies can provide you with a complete juice system for as many days as you like, or you can get a multiple-day detox meal plan (with or without juice included), with everything planned and provided.
Their full menu is available for online ordering, with a massive amount of customization. You can even order a meal as a take-home kit to assemble later, and there are plenty of ready-to-go foods in their cooler, making them an easy one-stop shop. Whether you’re a meat eater or not, with this much selection, you’re sure to find something healthy to enjoy.
Cosmic Veggies is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday–Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at 615 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. Info: cosmicveggies.com.
