Palermo Pizzeria: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Palermo Pizzeria in Simi Valley is a straightforward vegetarian option and a workable vegan one if you are willing to ask for modifications. This family-owned Italian spot has been open more than fifty years and came under new ownership in spring 2023, and its menu of New York-style pizza, pasta, and salad naturally includes vegetarian choices, though nothing here is built vegan from the start.

What’s vegetarian and vegan at Palermo Pizzeria

For vegetarians, this is easy: a cheese pizza topped with fresh, locally handpicked vegetables, a house salad with tomatoes, red onions, and carrots, and spaghetti with marinara sauce all work without any special requests. For vegans, the house salad is vegan as served, and the pizza can be made vegan by removing the cheese and loading up on vegetable toppings instead. Spaghetti with marinara can go vegan too if you skip any garlic bread or cheese that normally comes alongside it. A minestrone soup is on the menu as well, though it is worth confirming whether it is made with a meat-based broth before ordering it as a vegan option. Salad dressings on offer include Italian, ranch, thousand island, blue cheese, honey mustard, and balsamic vinaigrette, so vegans should stick to the Italian or balsamic to avoid dairy.

How to order

Vegetarians can order straight off the menu: cheese pizza, salad, or marinara pasta all work without modification. Vegans should ask for pizza without cheese and confirm the marinara sauce and minestrone do not use a meat-based stock. Since the pizza dough and sauces are made fresh in house daily, the kitchen is used to customizing pies to order, so a no-cheese, extra-vegetable pizza should not be an unusual request. Online ordering is available directly through the restaurant’s website for pickup and delivery if you would rather skip the phone call.

What to watch out for

This is a traditional pizzeria that also serves meat toppings, meatball dishes, and other non-vegetarian Italian standards, so cross-contact in a shared kitchen and shared pizza ovens is possible if that matters to you. Vegan options depend entirely on removing ingredients rather than being built into a dish from scratch, so double check the minestrone soup’s broth and confirm no cheese sneaks into a vegan pizza order.

Is Palermo Pizzeria worth it?

For vegetarians, yes. Ordering here is no harder than at any other pizzeria, and a 4.4-star rating after fifty-plus years in business says the food holds up. For vegans, it is workable but takes a little more effort since every plant-based order is a modification of something built for everyone else.