I hate the even leave a negative post for a vegan restaurant. I love the idea and the values, but the food was just lackluster. The best thing I had was a basic side salad. I think I'd go back and try other options to support a local vegan place. If I get that chance and have a better experience, you bet I'll update this review. The atmosphere was cool and the staff was nice enough. I want to see this place thrive. I recommend you check it out and make your own call. The wings certainly smelled good so I'd give those a try! read more

Honestly, I hate to even talk bad about vegan restaurants but this review is out of love for these guys at Root. I have been to Root about 4 times and the first 2 times were amazing! The food was delicious, creative and 5 star worthy. The third time I was there the service was kind of slow and the food wasn't as spectacular as the first two times. I was just there a few days ago and I was extremely disappointed. The service- ok (still waited pretty long for food) but the food was not good at all. We had the spicy Thai noodle salad which the noodles were undercooked and chewy and there was really no flavor. We also had the kimchi mushroom tacos which were ok but the rice was also undercooked (gritty and chewy) and I had the white pizza which had tons of flour on the bottom so every time I took a bite I got dry flour in my mouth (not pleasant) also it was underwhelming in flavor. What happened guys? You used to be amazing and now it's just lacking. If you are going to serve vegan food it has to be the bomb.com or else people are going to think vegan food sucks. I am vegan and can eat bland boring food but when I go out to a restaurant I expect it to be tasty. read more

My wife is a vegetarian, I eat everything. I love trying places like this , I wasn't disappointed. The southwest tofu scramble lasagna had great spice and flavor. My Bloody Mary was nice and spicy. Stylish rustic interior , with great light from the large windows; a terrific brunch spot on a , finally, sunny winter day. read more

This restaurant is probably one of if not the best Vegan , plant-based eating establishment I have had the pleasure of dining in. My wife and I probably go in there every 2 to 3 weeks. The menu changes every Friday and we are right there to check it out. Though they do keep the favorites ,which we do love. The buffalo tofu bites and the Rueben, the Big Mic are some of our favorites. We were there this past Saturday and ordered the Lasagna egg rolls, noodles , vegetables, ricotta in a seared wrapper. FANTASTIC! I don't know how the chef does it but every week the menu just gets us crazy. I ordered the pasta special and my wife had the Rueben. The pasta was cooked perfectly tossed with potatoes, peppers, olives in a Calabrian chili sauce topped with what looked like Battered fish from a fish and chips meal but was actually tofu, just the right amount of spicy. Another FANTASTIC idea. The craft beer selection is great and they always have a cider too. The servers are great, friendly and always welcoming. You can't beat the prices and food portions. The desserts are a must if you have room. Keep up the great work! 5 stars on here means great, what does FANTASTIC mean? 6 stars? read more

Was looking for a vegan restaurant in Lancaster and Roots produced! Awesome tacos to start, avocado Reuben for dinner, vegan cake for dessert. Great atmosphere, service, and food quality! Abby was very attentive and helpful. Definitely plan on stopping in. Park at the lot off Water street. read more

We aren't vegan but just spent 4 days with a vegan and had a good time, so on the way home we decided to try this restaurant. Chase greeted us at the door and made us totally comfortable. The ambiance is fun and hip and the food! Was Great! We were stuffed at the end.. We started with Seitan Wings with Sweet Chili sauce.. was crispy and although it isn't exactly "wings" it was pretty close. Hubs took fish and mac and cheese.. It was really good.. not fish of course and not cheese of course but for what it was it was good. I got the BBQ Pizza with sausage.. It took a while but came with homemade dough and was the best. Chase dropped off some spinach dip with great toasted bread for us to munch on while waiting and that was seriously good. All in all, it could have turned us into Vegans, but it didn't!! :) If you are in the area and had enough "Homemade food" try them, you won't be disappointed! read more

I had my experience with this awesome place and was highly impressed! Great combinations of vegan foods that greatly hit the spot!!

Delicious food. The food took a while but was worth it. Creative and tasty food. I'd definitely go back.

Root has always been a great restaurant, but they are raising the bar again. Truly delicious food. Stuffed shells, avocado reuben, the pesto pasta, all so full of flavor. It is the best restaurant in Central PA. read more

I really wanted to like Root and support a vegan establishment in Lancaster. I would describe Root as bar food for vegans. Edible, but don't expect anything great. On positive note, the service was outstanding and our waitress was very friendly and helpful. Our food and drinks came very quickly. The food was mediocre at best. We got the oyster mushroom fritters and jackfruit tacos for an appetizer. The fritters were bland (better with the sauce). The tacos were just ok. The KFC bowl was barely edible with runny gravy and not much flavor. I have grown accustomed to some great vegan restaurants in Philly and Pittsburgh (Vedge, Apteka) and unfortunately Root has a long way to go to hold a candle to those places. read more

This place tastes so good you'll forget you are not eating meat. One of my favorite spots, and you got to try the mic mac!

I was SO excited to find this place. It opened in December 2015 and after hearing about it, I came in for brunch and dinner. Both times I've been there the sign told us to seat ourselves. The staff have been really friendly and helpful, the place has a bar with vegan beer/wine options (and I assume a full bar available). The food is reasonable and everything has been delicious! Also, as far as I can tell, everything is vegan so if you are as well, it's brilliant to order off the menu without having to analyze the ingredients. As far as parking, there's street parking (the meters are free on Sunday and after 6pm Mon-Sat) and there's a public garage one block over from the restaurant. read more

If there was a 0 star option I would choose. EVERYTHING on their menu is VEGAN. ordered fries and salad, took 45 MINUTES. By the time my food came I was hoping it would be worth the wait ITS NOT. Do not waist your time here. read more

Root - Salad Near Me - Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Vegan or not, you do not want to miss out on the delicious food at Root!! I have been here four times now and I have loved all of the apps and dinners I have ordered. The changing menu is very exciting. Everything tastes so fresh, nourishing and satisfying. Even my picky non-vegan boyfriend has found items he loves like the trifecta, big mic and the spring rolls all from the last menu. The chicken pot pie was absolutely incredible, I LOVED the crust. Root has food that tastes great, has no cholesterol or animal fat and by eating there you are saving animal lives and the earth...seriously what could be better??!! Oh and the employees are super nice and food comes in timely manner! read more

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Friendly service, yummy beer, delicious food, super reasonable prices and a very cool old brick interior. Go now! read more

Root - Red curry soup. Just lovely. - Salad Near Me - Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Good vegan options but food was primarily bland. We tried a few different dishes for a variety and the buffalo tofu was about the only thing that really had any flavor which was hot sauce flavor. As a vegan, I really appreciated the effort and the options, just wish they added some spices to provide more flavor. We also tried the bar and it might be the only time we had a margarita with orange juice and some sort of coconut flavor. We had a feeling the guy doing the serving and bartending might be somewhat new. I doubt we will make the trip back especially with places like Vedge and V-Street in Philly. read more

Great food and alcohol, all vegan. GF choices also!!!! Great for a quick bite, drinks out, or a whole dinner. Casual dress, cool atmosphere. You could bring kids to sit at the table if you wanted to. read more

Wow, oh the things you can do with a mushroom. This is a must try even if you're not vegan. Treat yourself!!! ... and this from a Portland traveling, LA living knowledgeable (former) vegan!! Delish! read more

I took my sister here who is vegan and we did not enjoy the food. The service was very slow and the veg Mac and cheese was very disappointing read more

My friend and I are vegetarians from out of town. We looked on Yelp for a vegetarian-friendly place for dinner and came across Root. The atmosphere is relaxing and pleasant. Nice, modern decor. I ordered the Bar-B-Que Jackfruit Calzone and my friend ordered the Sloppy Joes. Both meals were delicious and good servings! Very reasonably priced as well. We were very happy and will definitely come back. read more

Root - Bar-B-Que Jackfruit Calzone - delicious! - Salad Near Me - Lancaster, Pennsylvania

This place has been such a disappointment. The service is consistently slow no matter the time of day with items often forgotten, inattentiveness, and negative attitude common. The food is amateur and portions are generally small for the pricing. The beer selection is as bland as the food. I tried so hard to like it, but I won't be back. read more

Excellent!!! The food was delicious, the portions were large and the service was friendly. It can be challenging to find high quality, tasty vegan fare when visiting from out of town. Root was perfect. Will definitely visit again when we are back in Lancaster. read more

We had "Sunday Brunch" and it was fantastic ! My partner had Pumpkin French Toast Casserole and I had Gallo Pinto with Tofu Scramble. The menu changes every Sunday and everything is appetizing and reasonable in price. Two meals with coffee for each was $18. Excellent food and a great setting. read more

Cool atmosphere Delicious food Nice selection of drafts (a couple were organic) Definitely coming back! read more

Food is great, beer selection is great. My only real complaint is that the drinks are super overpriced for lancaster, you can get the same beers a tellus360 or the fridge for about $2-3 less a beer read more

Ok Bland Cool atmosphere However, no parking ..so we parked in closed Med office lot directly behind restaurant...empty lot on a Sat. Car towed costing $250 by a dude( Absolute Towing) that seems to be lurking in lot towing all of Roots customers while they eat a 30 min meal. Root owner apologized but has no signs warning customers about parking options....made me wonder if there was collusion with the tow company guy who was happy to tell me he assaults people regularly when they give him a hard time about getting towed....very shady dudes in downtown Lancaster today....would I return....uh NO! read more

Was pleasantly surprised to find a all vegan restaurant in Lancaster. This is probably one of the best that I have been to. It's perfect for people just trying a vegan meal too because they have a lot of 'meaty' meals that people typical like and order. Their substitutes are great! I took a big group of non-vegans with me, so a tough crowed already, and they loved it. They couldn't believe vegan could taste so good. A lot of people got the 'Big Mic' and loved it. I got the tostado and it was delicious. They also have vegan wine which is great. I was sad to hear they didn't have vegan desserts though. They said "not today" so maybe other days they have some? Overall, amazing place for vegans and non-vegans! read more

Drove over an hour to this place, and the service was horrible. Our server, Neil, was plain rude and made it obvious that he didn't want us to be there. I simply asked about a few of the different appetizers and he acted like I was burdening him. He wasn't busy as there was only 2 other couples in the restaurant at the time. Later into the evening the cooks were so loud joking and laughing at each other that is sounded like a bar-fight. My wife and I are vegan and looked for a nice place to eat on our 1st wedding anniversary, unfortunately this is not the place. read more

If I had food like this everyday, I could go vegan full time! Great place, food, and service. Also, it's not expensive!!

Mmmmm so good! We drive a half hour to get this vegan comfort food! I dream of their 'Big Mic' with fries. Just tried their 'wings' with a side of ranch last time we were there- so tasty!! The 'Buffalo Jackfruit Pizza' was also delicious. We have also tried the potato nachos and avocado Reuben - they were nothing to write come about but not bad. They have a nice beer selection and the seating is very cozy - we opt to sit at the bar so we can watch the open kitchen and get a glimpse of what other people order. Next on our list to try is the noodle bowl- people seem to love it and it smells amazing! read more

I have never had such an awful experience in a restaurant. Our dishes were SO SALTY that it was painful. The gnocchi were incredibly over-salted. The mashed root vegetable was so salty it seemed like someone was playing a bad joke on us. And the boiled asparagus was so salty I had to spit it out on the first bite. The collard green burrito was an ice-cold boiled collard leaf with cold rice inside. It was supposed to be a hot dish. It was bizarre. Period. I cannot believe anyone would have eaten any of these items. Is it possible that they just had a really awful cook subbing in the kitchen that night? This was on 10/21/18. If this is what they serve, I cannot see how they could have even one decent review. What a terrible terrible terrible experience. read more

This place had so much potential... we got the zucchini fries (which were great) and the potato nachos (which were literally potato chips with a few beans and sparse cut vegetables). SO disappointed. read more

I got married this past weekend with Root as our caterer. Rob, the owner, was wonderful to work with and we had several tastings with him throughout the process to make sure that we had the exact food that we were dreaming of for our wedding. They drove almost 2 hours from Lancaster to our venue with the food, and used some of the space to finish preparing the food for our cocktail hour and dinner. We had many compliments on our food from both vegetarians/vegans and meat eaters. Most people ended up getting a second plate of food! I cannot recommend their restaurant more for wedding catering! We have been to the restaurant in Lancaster several times, and the wait staff and food has always been excellent. The prices are very reasonable for the amount of food that you get. As a side note, they have the best Cuban sandwich that I've ever had--it's definitely worth a try! If you're looking for excellent vegetarian/vegan restaurant with options that meat eaters will also love, look no further! read more

After several delicious visits we asked if Root does catering and were pleasantly surprised to find out the answer is yes. We were looking for a caterer for our wedding since I'm vegan and my wife mostly eats vegan as well. We were put in touch with Rob, the owner who invited us to come up with anything we could imagine being delicious and he would do his best to create it for us. He brought us in for three different tastings and we were able to create the perfect menu of all things that we'd been able to taste in advance and knew that we would love. Our venue was about an hour and a half away from the restaurant and they were able to bring burners and do most of the cooking on site so the food was fresh and delicious. We got many compliments on the food from out mostly non-vegan guests. We were delighted with our meals and have saved all the leftovers to eat over the next couple of weeks. Rob also was able to keep the price within our budget, charging less than half what some other caterers quoted. It was clear that he wanted our day to be as special and perfect as possible, requesting direct feedback about every dish and wanting to tweak everything in every way possible to make it exactly what we wanted! We like to eat a meal at Root whenever we're in Lancaster and cannot recommend their catering enough! Thanks again Rob and crew, it was perfect! read more

Root has a great selection of beer, pleasant ambiance and convenient location. The waitstaff can come off as a bit aloof but are generally friendly and I have no complaints about the service. I come here with my family every few months when I'm home in Lancaster since they my non-vegan family can find something they like. They change the menu seasonally but consistently serve below-average food. I had the coconut curry ramen last night. It came with glass noodles instead of the spinach noodles listed. The broth was salty but had no flavor. I'm vegan and when I eat out I want something that is better (or at least as good) as what I can make for myself. Maybe they need to focus on perfecting more dishes instead of changing the menu. I liked their KFC bowl and have had alright pizza here but have been disappointed more often than not. I'd recommend Root for drinks and an appetizer, but if you're vegan don't expect to be blown away or even really satisfied by anything on the menu. If you are used to cooking vegan food you can make easily make something better at home in 20 minutes. I want to love Root and have resisted leaving a bad review because I love the idea of a purely vegan restaurant in Lancaster but there is A LOT of room for improvement here. There are other restaurants in Lancaster with great vegan options. read more

Super tasty, farm fresh vegan food with a great environment. Fair prices with nice portions too. I love it!

Wow! This place is awesome! I saw there were a few bad reviews but wanted to try it myself and so glad that I did. I'm not vegan but have Celiac Disease so I can be picky about restaurants. I had a fabulous vegan gluten free meal and did not miss meat on a night out. Let's face it, you don't need meat at every meal and you need to experience well made veggies. They are changing their menu soon so I'll need to go back to try something else! The staff was very nice and gave us great recommendations and they have a full bar so I also had a nice glass of red wine with my fried brussel sprouts. Vegan, vegetarian or a meat eater (like me!)....you should try Root! read more

Vegan, vegetarian, herbivore, carnivore, and foodies alike...Root is where you SHOULD be eating! Amazing service, OUT OF THIS WORLD cuisine, stellar specials, not to mention how beautiful the restaurant is (swear to God, not only gorgeous but immaculately clean) incredible...serious je ne sais quoi (in the best way) Can't wait to visit again! Thanks for making Scrappy and my 2nd anniversary such a perfect beginning to another happy year together :) read more

The food here is so good and the menu is always changing. Definitely stop here if you're a lancaster vegan or want to try something a little different! read more

Went here on a Sunday afternoon and it was very good. Service could have been a tad faster but we weren't in a hurry. Will be back