Vegan food in Buffalo, cooked like it matters.
If you have searched for vegan restaurants near me in Buffalo and come up with three juice bars and a lot of side salads, this page is for you. The Steer is a chophouse on Main Street with thirteen genuinely plant-based dishes on the regular menu — including one our reviewers keep driving across town for.
Why a steakhouse
The hardest table to book is a mixed one.
Most people looking for vegan food in Buffalo are not looking for a vegan restaurant. They are looking for somewhere the whole group can go — where one person eats plant-based, someone else wants a rib eye, and nobody has to apologize or eat beforehand.
That is the table we built for. The wood-fired grill is the reason most people come, but the plant-based menu was never bolted on afterward to fill a gap. It gets the same kitchen, the same cooks, and the same care as everything else. If a vegan dish were not good enough to sell on its own, we would not put it out.
There is a real vegan scene in this city, and we are not pretending to be the center of it. What we are is the place where everybody can eat well on the same night — which is a longer story than it sounds.
Plant · Based ·
On the menu tonight
Thirteen dishes, no side-salad energy.
Plates
Starters & salads
Sides
Vegan if you ask
Getting here
Main Street does most of the work.
From Amherst — Snyder & Eggertsville
The closest of the suburbs, and the easiest. Main Street runs directly from Snyder and Eggertsville down to our door with no highway involved. Under ten minutes for most of Eggertsville.
From Williamsville
Also straight down Main Street — Williamsville, Snyder, Eggertsville and University Heights are all beads on the same string. Roughly fifteen minutes outside of rush hour, and you can skip the 290 entirely.
From Kenmore & Tonawanda
Kenmore Avenue over to Main is the simple version, and it puts you here in about ten minutes from Kenmore, a bit more from Tonawanda. Worth knowing if you have been driving to Elmwood for plant-based food — this is closer.
From Cheektowaga & Depew
Not on the Main Street line, so this one is a genuine drive — Kensington to Bailey, then north. Call it fifteen to twenty minutes. Easier on a Thursday than a Saturday.
From North Buffalo & Parkside
Hertel or Amherst Street across to Main and you are here in under ten minutes. This is the crowd that turns up on a Tuesday because it is barely a drive at all.
From Clarence & East Amherst
Transit down to Main, then the same straight run through Williamsville. Twenty minutes or so, and it is the reliable direction — you are driving against the evening traffic, not into it.
Without a car
Right on Main Street, parking on site.
Main Street runs straight through the neighborhoods people drive in from, the lot is on site, and the kitchen cooks until 10 — so a plant-based dinner here is an easy plan, not a project.
Driving instead? There is a lot on site, shared with Lake Effect Diner next door. You are not circling for a spot on Elmwood.
3151 · Main ·
Before you drive over
We are a dinner house. Plan accordingly.
The kitchen runs Tuesday through Saturday, 4pm to 10pm, and the bar stays open later — until midnight Tuesday and Wednesday, until 2am Thursday through Saturday. We are closed Sunday and Monday.
If you were hoping for vegan food earlier in the day, walk across the parking lot. Lake Effect Diner is the same family, serves breakfast and lunch all day, and keeps its own plant-based options — the Veggs Benedict and the VLT among them. Between the two kitchens, there is somewhere to eat here every day of the week.
Kitchen & bar
| Tue – Wed | 4pm – 12am |
|---|---|
| Thu – Sat | 4pm – 2am |
| Sun – Mon | Closed |
| Kitchen | Tue – Sat, 4 – 10pm |
3151 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214 · on-site parking.
Straight answers
What people ask us before they come in.
Is The Steer a vegan restaurant?
No, and we would rather say so up front. It is a steakhouse and saloon with a full plant-based menu running alongside everything else. If you want a fully vegan kitchen with no meat in the building, Buffalo has those and you should go to them. If you want to eat well with people who do not eat the way you do, that is what we are for.
Is the vegan menu actually vegan, or just vegetarian?
The thirteen dishes listed above are plant-based, including the cheese on the pizza and the Stinger and the hemp ranch on the salad. The two under "vegan if you ask" are the honest exceptions. Anything you are unsure about, ask your server — they are briefed on it.
Can you handle a mixed group?
That is the normal Friday here. A table ordering a rib eye, a fish fry, a vegan Stinger and a kids' meal is not a special request. Larger groups are easy too — the banquet room takes 20 to 100 and the custom menus include plant-based courses; here is how to plan a banquet menu for vegan and non-vegan guests.
Do I need a reservation?
Not usually midweek. Weekends after 6pm get busy, and if you are bringing a group of more than six it is worth calling ahead. Game days are their own animal.
While you're here
Win dinner for two, on the house.
Free Dinner for Two
Two people, dinner on us, at the table of your choosing — the lentil meatloaf has your name on it. Name and email is the whole entry. No purchase, no catch.
No purchase necessary. Must be 21+. One entry per person per drawing. Prize: dinner for two, approx. retail value $150. Void where prohibited. Drawings are held from time to time, on dates chosen in our sole discretion — there is no fixed or recurring drawing schedule. Winners are selected at random from all eligible entries on file at the time of the drawing, contacted by email, and announced (first name only) on Instagram. Winner status is not final until we have confirmed eligibility; if a potential winner cannot be reached, does not respond within 7 days, is found ineligible, or declines, the prize is forfeited and an alternate winner may be selected at random. We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue this promotion at any time; entries remain eligible until a drawing is held or the promotion ends. By entering you agree to receive email from The New Steer — unsubscribe anytime. For everything in detail — the prize, eligibility, and how winners are chosen — read the full contest rules.
