arvard Square bustles with tourists, students, and residents on the hunt for a bite to eat. The streets are lined with restaurants catering to just about every taste: for juicy burgers, there’s Shake Shack or Russell House Tavern. For a late-night pizza slice, there’s Pinocchio’s or Joe’s Pizza. For sushi, ramen, or spicy Thai food, there are plenty of choices, while local ice cream shops, bakeries, and cafes offer an assortment of sweet treats.

But for some guests, including vegans and vegetarians, the choices narrow, and finding a satisfying meal among the Square’s many restaurants is more difficult. The Harvard Square Business Association’s directory lists 86 restaurants, but only 20 remain when it is filtered for vegetarian and vegan restaurants. For diners accustomed to making do with limited vegan options, the restaurant Veggie Grill is a rare find, with a menu devoted entirely to plant-based dishes.

Veggie Grill’s white and carrot-orange lettering stands out against the building’s brick exterior. It is an unmissable site for the busy passerby walking on John F. Kennedy St. Immediately inside, bright lighting and decor give the restaurant a vibrant atmosphere. Large spherical lights hang overhead, while green, red, and yellow posters showcasing the menu’s signature bowls and smoothies line the walls. Above it all, a sign declares the restaurant’s mission: “making food matter more.”

Veggie Grill’s manager Rudis J. Santa Maria proudly wears a black t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Vegan AF” in lettuce-green. “We have good quality, we have organic product, which is healthier for our guests,” Santa Maria says, making the case for Veggie Grill. “We always care about giving the best quality of food and making sure our guests enjoy it.”

While Harvard Square’s Veggie Grill belongs to a nation-wide franchise, it is the only Veggie Grill location on the East Coast. The chain describes its offerings as an “All American Vegan Menu,” emphasizing familiar comfort foods reimagined with plant-based ingredients. Its menu extends beyond burgers and sandwiches to include 80+ options spanning the gastronomic globe, from grain bowls and tacos to shakes and desserts.

Suraj S. Shah ’30, a repeat customer, is comforted by the fact that “there’s no cross contamination” in meal preparation. According to Santa Maria, Veggie Grill doesn’t allow animal products inside the restaurant. Even at vegan-friendly restaurants, this isn’t always the case. The Clover Food Lab, an establishment with majority plant-based menu items and a franchise location inside Zimmer Hall, admits on its website that “they may have cross-contamination” in their kitchens. The all-vegetarian, vegan-friendly Life Alive Organic Cafe states on their website that their products may contain allergens, which include egg and milk. Veggie Grill is one of few establishments that precludes contamination in the first place.

A focus on the needs of particularly vegan visitors drives Veggie Grill’s customer base. Two Marks, Mark D. Foy and Mark Kennedy, dine together there. Foy is visiting Cambridge briefly, but has been to Veggie Grill locations near his home in California. He serves on the board of an advocacy nonprofit called Vegan Outreach. He has been vegan for 36 years to avoid causing animal suffering. In Cambridge, he notes that the Veggie Grill carrot cake he’s having is “a little heavy on the icing,” though he celebrates that the accessibility of veganism has “improved a lot” over the years.

Sitting at a table near Foy and Kennedy are Elisabeth and Madeline Shin, twins from Boston College. The twins are not vegan, but they try to eat sustainably — perhaps informed by their studies in environmental geoscience.

“Livestock emissions are crazy bad,” Elisabeth says.

Madeline adds: “We use so much land to make the meat that goes into our groceries.” As a result, the twins often cook their own vegan meals or frequent restaurants like Veggie Grill, which they find delicious.

Veggie Grill also gets traffic from Harvard students, some of whom are looking to escape the monotony of Harvard Undergraduate Dining Services. Mia G. Frieden ’30, who went vegan twelve years ago, says that the options at Annenberg Dining Hall aren’t her favorite, but that she doesn’t “necessarily think that’s a problem with the vegan food.” She first visited Veggie Grill during Visitas and “fell in love.” Their mac and cheese — “it was love at first bite.” She, too, finds comfort in the vegan-assurance of the restaurant. Although Annenberg labels its vegetarian and vegan options, she recalls a few times when the labels didn’t correspond to the food’s listed ingredients.

Shah, another Harvard freshman, says he goes to Veggie Grill “not only because it’s vegan, but it’s actually really tasty food.” He finds Annenberg makes veganism accessible, though “sometimes it’s just grains and vegetables, and those are less exciting.” The restaurant is also affordable: Veggie Grill offers a 20 percent discount to students with valid IDs.

“Some vegan places, they’re very expensive because they use a lot of really niche ingredients, and they’re trying to appeal to the very classy elitist,” Shah says. “I feel like Veggie Grill is not like that.”

There seems to be a consensus among Veggie Grill customers that the restaurant is reliable. Foy says the food is served quickly, and Frieden appreciates its diner-style menu with a diversity of options. “It adds up to what I’ve seen from other vegan restaurants,” Frieden says.

For some, though, it is just what’s nearby.

“Clover just closed, right?” Kennedy remembers. He’s referring to Harvard Square’s Clover Food Lab location, which shut down earlier this year. With one fewer vegetarian restaurant in the area, Kennedy wonders: “How many vegan options are there in Harvard now?”