Vital

I ate lunch here three times. Each time the food was almost cold, soup tasty and warm though. Good value for money if your hungry. Good store to buy vegan foods.

This place is great! Since I came to Santa Marta I are here every lunch. You can choose of a buffet with various food. You can get your veggies here! Really good lunch deal for 8500 with a drink. Totally recommendable!

I ate here a couple of times. mostly for lunch and also breakfast before we went to tayrona. smaller selection for breakfast. picked 4 items and cost me 12,500 with juice. lunch was 8,500 for the largest size option - any 4 items and juice. quite a lot to choose from and great flavours. the girls working there are pretty grumpy. one guy who was there was really friendly and helpful (maybe owner/boss). eat in the room to the right of the counter as I found it much cooler.

Very nice. I tried some very fresh vegetables that I had never tried before. loved the pizza. tastes like my mums home made dough! super cheap for the food try everything. one guy that worked there was really nice but the other staff weren't :-/

The only cheap vege restaurant in the center. Pretty good, and has counter food too

nice cheap place

the best vegetarian restaurant in down town,excellent buffet.

The food is good, and the prices are very reasonable. They have a big steam table, and you can actually look at the food and point to what you want. While you are ordering, they will encourage you to get soup and other items, but remember you have to pay for each item you choose. (This is not a set meal as you'll find in most of Colombia). If you order at least 3 items, your meal comes with a free juice drink. So I usually ordered 3 items, which costs 6.000-7.000 pesos as of January 2014. They are open for lunch, but also for dinner until 630pm. For dinner, don't get there any later than 600pm, as they start putting the food away. I paid 8.500 at lunch for 4 items plus juice drink. The people that work there are really nice. They are connected to a vitamin store right on the corner. They told me they are only open until 100pm on Sunday so don't get there too late. There's another dining room on the other side of the wall with additional tables, so don't despair if the first dining room you see is full. I would give them 5 cows for value and food quality. Warmly recommended.

We loved this bustling lunch spot that seemed to be very popular with Colombianos. We think we were the only international tourists there. We got an immense amount of food for just about $4 each and were able to select which dishes we wanted. I had a soup, salad, rice, beans and grape juice.

I ate here 2 or 3 times, my first time was a sunday & it was only the main & juice, no soup. The 2nd say was spagetti,rice & veg with veg soup & juice. They had soya mince aswell but was gone when i arrived at 1.30pm. This place was only average but not many other choices in main area. I bought some quinoa to cook which was handy as you cannot get it in supermarket & i tried some cake & arepa which were ok too.Give this place ago & see what you think.Pity there wasnt more healthier options, staff were friendly though.

I ate here twice. The first time was on a Sunday and they had only had fried rice and salad consisting of tomato and white onion. I thought it was a bit average.

Then I went back the next day when they had the full menu del dia on offer and it was much better. They like their fake meat here, so beware of that.

As far as vegan food in Santa Marta goes, this place is your best bet. It won't be the best meal you ever have in South America, but it will be far from the worst.

We got a lunch plate which had unseasoned yellow potatoes, decent falafel, some great fake ham, bland yellow lentils, and decent stir-fried vegetables. The nispero soy milkshake was excellent, the guanabana juice was watery. So the food wasn't amazing, but it was nice that they had tons of vegan options, and it was cheap.

I sadly only made it here right before they closed, so they only had leftovers from lunch. I almost cleaned them out as I tried many different dishes, though. Loved their vegan tamales with TVP (a bit heavy on the oil though). The vegan deep-fried potato balls were also really tasty. Wasn't a fan of their lentil patties (?kind of like falafels) but they travelled well. In short, tasty food although not the healthiest. Mostly veganized version of South American dishes. I wish I could have tried their lunch but they have great take-away options.

What a fantastic treat this place is and a great break from the usual Colombian vegetarian fair. Even the locals seem to love this place. The vegan set lunch will fill you up and leave you feeling satisfied. They also sell everything from veggie meats to vegan cheese, which are very hard to find in South America. I plan on eating here as much as a can while visiting Santa Marta. This place is not to be missed.

Santa Marta sits on Colombia's Caribbean coast to the east of Cartagena. Vegans/vegetarians will be delighted to find this restaurant/health food store conveniently located in the center, near the beach. Though they are open for all 3 meals, I have eaten only their "set lunch" ($8,000 COP), which includes soup, a main plate with brown rice and several veggie dishes, plus salad and a drink. The meal is dished up in front of you so you pick and choose what you want.

By South American standards, the food is quite good, more sophisticated and flavorful than in most places. There's seating for about 15 people and at lunchtime the place fills up with locals, always a good sign. The set lunch is over when the food runs out, as was the case the first time I went, so get there early!

Apart from the regular meals, they offer a variety of prepared items, from sandwiches to pizza, for carry-out.

They sell "whole-grain" baked goods, including bagels, though I find that in Colombia this often means white flour mixed with wheat germ and caramel color! An attached vitamin/mineral shop sells supplements.

(Please note that Govinda's no longer serves meals to the public, so Vital is the only veggie place left in Santa Marta.)