Conscious Cravings, Austin

From a culinary perspective, Austin offers delicious, fresh vegan fare at extremely low prices. When I started researching the city, I was amazed with how many vegan/vegetarian restaurants there were! I found it very difficult to choose the eight places we would eat during our 4-day stay there, but one of the places I definitely wanted to hit was Conscious Cravings.

On our first day in Austin, we set out to explore the city. Our first stop would be Conscious Cravings. They have three locations and we were heading to the one on Rio Grande. Their website said they were in the Longhorn Food Court. Little did we realize, this was actually a food truck park. Ha! We looked over at the trailer and realized that was our destination!  In DC, there is definitely a food truck phenomena, but the food trucks are in different places every day. In Austin, they are mostly stationary trailers located in a lot with other food trucks/trailers. They even have permanent addresses. It wasn't what we were expecting, but we were still game!

While their menu is short and simple, all of the items seemed appetizing. From the spicy chickpea wrap to the pan seared tofu, it all sounded delicious!  Zach and I both wanted the same item so he gave in and ordered something else so we could try a couple of different things. He is such a good sport. We placed our orders and sat down at the shaded picnic tables. Because everything is made fresh, we waited about 15 minutes for our food, but it was worth it.

I ordered an organic flavored lemonade, which was delicious, and a chimichurri seitan wrap.

Conscious Cravings is all about fresh, organic, local food, which I love. The seitan is housemade and grilled to perfection. I seriously could have eaten it by itself. But, to make it even better, it was slathered in their homemade green chimichurri sauce and paired with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Top it with Daiya and you are in pure heaven. They even grilled the wrap so it was crisp. I mean, this was one of the best wraps I've ever had.

Zach ordered the bella, which was grilled portabella mushroom topped with onions and olives and dressed in herbed vegan mayo. It was also topped with Daiya. It was incredibly fresh, but was definitely missing something. We decided it needed more sauce. So he got more of the herbed mayo and some Sriracha and added it to the wrap, which made it perfect.

We also ordered some of the rosemary salty fries, which were really good.

The total of both of our meals with drinks was $16. Unbelievable. These wraps were better than most wraps I would normally pay $10 for in any other cafe!   I would put Conscious Cravings at the top of my list of all places I ate at in Austin. It is definitely worth stopping by. They mentioned they may actually move into a brick and mortar location soon. I think that would be great. Either way, I'll be back for more the next time I'm in the area.

Conscious Cravings
1901 Rio Grande
Austin, TX 78705
(512) 782-0546