Taste Community Restaurant: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Taste Community Restaurant is a nonprofit, pay-what-you-can restaurant in downtown Arlington, and a vegetarian can build a full meal from its seasonal menu. Taste Project, the nonprofit behind the restaurant, opened the Arlington dining room at 200 North Cooper Street in March 2025. Fort Worth hosts the original, at 1200 South Main Street. Both serve meat, and neither labels vegetarian dishes. You find them by reading the descriptions.

Menus carry no prices. Guests choose to pay what they can afford, pay what they’d typically pay, or pay a little extra to help a neighbor. People in need and people who want to help sit in the same room. The kitchen rewrites the menu with the seasons, and the current fall version covers small plates, full plates, kids’ dishes, and drinks.

At lunch, Arlington’s meatless options start with the Miso Roasted Vegetable Salad: kabocha squash, sweet potatoes, and Asian pears over baby greens with a miso ginger vinaigrette, green onions, and furikake. Hot Honey Flatbread adds whipped ricotta, arugula, toasted walnuts, and Calabrian chili honey. Butternut Squash Bisque comes topped with brown butter and fried sage leaves. The description doesn’t name the broth, so ask your server if that matters. Mushroom French Dip fills a toasted hoagie roll with roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, and melted provolone, with a mushroom au jus on the side. Pumpkin Curry puts cauliflower, mushrooms, kabocha squash, and sweet potatoes in a Thai red curry with pumpkin and coconut broth over jasmine rice. Curry pastes sometimes contain shrimp, so confirm that with your server.

Brunch gives vegetarians more. Wild Mushroom Toast layers roasted wild mushrooms, whipped ricotta, a fried egg, truffle oil, and chives on sourdough. Fall Vegetable Hash sautés butternut squash, parsnips, celery root, fennel, and sweet potatoes in herb butter with kale and fried eggs. Pumpkin French Toast comes with whipped cream and brown butter streusel. Fort Worth’s breakfast menu adds Apple Chai Pancakes and a Fresh Start Oatmeal with caramelized apples and walnuts.

Watch for the meat. Grilled chicken tops the Fall Salad, pancetta goes into the Ribollita, the Quesabirria Tacos and Birria Rancheros use beef, and the Autumn Burger is an all-beef patty. Breakfast Sandwiches come with sausage. I found no vegan label on any dish, so vegans should plan to ask.

Arlington serves lunch Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and brunch Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Arlington posts no other dining hours. Over in Fort Worth, doors open at 9 a.m. on the same days. You don’t need a reservation, but Taste Project recommends one. Book on the website, not by phone. Parties of more than six should send the contact form at least 24 hours ahead. Call 817-759-9045 for the nonprofit.

Beyond the dining room, the nonprofit runs a culinary job training program and offers a private room for events. Arlington’s dining room sits near UT Arlington. Plan a late breakfast or an early lunch, since service ends at 2.

Start with the Wild Mushroom Toast on a weekend, or the Mushroom French Dip on a weekday, and pay what the meal was worth to you.