Mad Mex

Awesome food! Staff is super knowledgeable about vegan food. Try the fall vegetable tacos! Amazing. They'll even do the quesedillas on the kids menu with tofu and bring them veggies with vegan branch as an appetizer. My vegan kids love it!

Here's the rundown: Mad Mex specializes in "Cal-Mex", which is basically a healthy, fresh take on Mexican. Their menu is huge and has vegan and vegetarian options in every section (except dessert, unfortunately). They denote vegetarian items with a green cactus, and they denote items that can be made vegetarian by substitution with a red cactus next to the item name. For any item, they offer free substitution of vegan Tofutti sour cream and vegan Daiya cheese. They do two different types of tofu: a crispy/fried and a grilled, both of which are vegan. For salads they offer a vegan ranch dressing. (Although that is the only vegan salad dressing aside from oil and vinegar, so be careful!) On their website you can find an awesome, detailed allergen menu which denotes all the items that contain dairy or eggs (as well as gluten, peanut, and soy). The allergen menu also outlines what substitutions can be made to remove dairy. They have a great kids menu too, which offers vegan/vegetarian options. They are super transparent with their ingredients and almost everything is made on-site from scratch, so they know exactly what is in the food if you ask them.

My take: Mad Mex is an amazing option for vegans in Erie. It's one of the only places where you can actually get something with cheese on it (vegan cheese, of course!). The crispy tofu appetizer is my favorite. It's SO tasty. I've had this with non-veg folks, and everyone that I've tried it with has loved it, sometimes even more than whatever they were eating. The seating arrangements are kind of strange. If it's busy, you can sometimes get seated at a tiny table that's super close to strangers. Request a booth ahead of time, if you don't want to get stuck in one of those weird spots. They also have outdoor seating, and it's pretty nice (especially considering the view is the Millcreek mall parking lot). Lots of plants and a fire pit.

Definitely check Mad Mex out. It's a huge upgrade to the vegan food scene in Erie.