Dancing Avocado Kitchen (daK) — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

Hands down our favorite of the restaurants offering vegan options, that we tried in Daytona! While they aren't exclusively vegan, they offer a nice variety of dishes, and they are all super yummy! For breakfast (8-11 am) DO NOT MISS the tofu scramble! It was AWESOME! For lunch, which we tried on our first visit, (11 am- 4pm) the avacado hummus veggie wrap was a delight, and the tie-dyed slaw was an amazing side dish! Also, my wife raved about the mushroom spinach quesadilla. (They do offer a few different vegan cheeses, so be sure you ask for them if you want cheese on it, and want to stay vegan). The service, both times we visited was also spot on, and the owner/manager is/was on hand and makes you feel welcome. The overall ambience is bohemian cool and eclectic, and sense of peaceful, poetic harmony. It's a great vibe with an large number of tropical plants at the entry, and a calming waterfall feature right at the door. Outside seating is available on two cozy patios flanking the entrance, and with the outdoor plants, gives it a calm and yet relaxing beachy feel. In addition to all the yummy food, if you're in a juice or smoothie mood, they also offer an array of freshly pressed juices and smoothies. Oh, and they make several varieties of hot sauces and salsas, so you will definitely want to try those (and probably take a bottle or two home with you). And, while they are acutely aware of vegan and vegetarian needs, they also serve dishes with animal products in them, making them a unique dining experience a group of people with various diets can meet...

As a vegetarian with food allergies, it's hard for me to find places to eat out. We went to the Dancing Avocado in hopes of having a great meal free of allergens.

They were all "no worries" about my food allergies, which was a little too blase for me. A little too nonchalant. They hadn't even checked the ingredients. So I asked the server to go check please. She did and it seemed I could eat the veggie or mushroom quesadillas. Perfect!

I get my food and confirm again that it's allergy free. They were both confident and really laid back about it.

One bite.

Just one bite and I knew we were about to have a medical situation on our hands. We call the server over and she takes it back to the kitchen...

... Brings me the SAME quesadillas but had put it on a different plate and changed out the sides.

To be fair, the quesadilla was allergen free, but c'mon... Seriously? I will say that the quesadilla was tasty and I are what I could before my throat closed up.

So my throat starts to close up and my words start to slur while my dining companion runs to get the car from half a mile away. I pay for the meal, take Benadryl, get out my Epi and slump over on the table to wait.

The staff kept coming over to check on me. I was too focused on staying calm to pay them much attention, but it really upped my already-high levels of anxiety.

Bottom line: food here is delicious. It's a cool, weird, quirky little place and I wanted to love it. Maybe my situation will cause them to take food allergies more seriously. But I have no intentions of going back...

I had such high hopes for this place. We had two smoothies Lizzy chia blast and a dakchinno. Both were good. To eat Sundance sandwich with potato and pasta salad. Curry chicken wrap with potatoes fried with dancer Dust. The sundancer sandwich is warm and delicious it had a fried egg on it. the fried potatoes with dancer dust were pretty delicious. The curry chicken sandwich wrap was missing a little something. I don't know. It had a little bit too many vegetables and not enough chicken salad. The potato pasta salad was just plain. I went to use the restroom and the floors were so dirty and sticky. They had a fan on the wall not running but completely covered with dust. The ceiling fans in the restaurant were filthy covered with dust. There was two little bitty bugs crawling on my table. I don't know what they were but it wasn't a pleasant experience. The whole place needs a deep deep deep cleaning. The food was good but you know how clean is the food if the building itself is not kept up. I mean hire somebody once a month to come in and do a deep cleaning for goodness sake. It had 50 years of dust and dirt. Otherwise, it had a good chance of being a really good place. The atmosphere is really cool and hip with a good vibe. So if you want to try this place just close your eyes. Don't look at anything and just use your taste buds and you'll be just fine. Owners just please please clean your place. Put $200 a month into hiring somebody to clean it from top to bottom. Just trying to give some...