Vegan Filipino Restaurant Opens in San Francisco

Vegan restaurant Nick’s on Mission recently opened in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco. Open for breakfast and lunch, the eatery serves a variety of vegan Filipino dishes—including lumpia, pancit, sisig, kaldereta, ube pancakes, and leche flan—in a take-away setting along with packaged items. In 2017, founders Reina Montenegro and her partner Kenny Annis transformed the flagship location of Nick’s Kitchen—previously owned by a Filipino family who served a meat-heavy menu—in Daly City to an all-vegan establishment and added 30 plant-based menu items that includes a mixture of American comfort food and traditional Filipino dishes. After a successful year as a vegan restaurant, the duo opened Nick’s on Grand in South San Francisco in 2018. The newest location of Nick’s is in the center of SoMa Pilipinas, San Francisco’s Filipino cultural heritage district. “It’s been a wild ride since we first transformed our business into 100-percent plant-based back in 2017. With Nick’s on Grand being a huge success in South San Francisco, we knew our next location had to be part of SOMA Pilipinas,” Montenegro, who was born in the Philippines, said. “I hope Nick’s on Mission opens up the community to try more plant-based foods in their daily lives. Who knows, we might be able to turn your mom or lola (grandmother in Tagalog) into a vegan.”