Plant Power Fast Food

Where Snooze banks on pancake flights and Calvin's perfects one battering technique, Plant Power takes the In-N-Out model — burgers, fries, shakes, done fast — and strips out every animal product without announcing it like a manifesto. This isn't a wellness cafe. It's a counter-service spot wedged into UCSD campus infrastructure, which means you're navigating V-permit parking and wondering why they didn't put a sign on Nobel Drive.

The **Big Zac** is the anchor — double patties that hold their structure better than most fast-casual veggie burgers, pickles that actually taste pickled, sauce that doesn't dissolve into mush by the last bite. The **Buffalo 66 'chicken' sandwich** shows up in reviews with consistent praise for flavor and consistent complaints that the patty runs soft, which tracks — breaded protein alternatives rarely nail the texture window that real fried chicken occupies. The **milkshakes** run horchata alongside standards, a quiet flex that suggests someone in product development actually thinks about what works regionally.

Service skews friendly, the kind of efficiency you get when staff aren't battling dinner rush chaos. Orders come out hot and fast, which matters when you're between classes or meetings. Outdoor seating exists but feels incidental — this is takeout infrastructure pretending to be a dining room.

The value equation works if you're already vegan or vegetarian-adjacent. If you're skeptical about plant-based fast food, the burger will probably convert you. If you're looking for parking that makes sense, good luck — campus lots operate on their own logic, and V spaces are the move if you're coming from outside the institution. Just know that "fast food" here means the pacing, not the experience. You're still on a college campus where nothing is optimized for visitors.