A vegan restaurant chain you've never heard of is gearing up for a massive expansion

At first glance, Veggie Grill's menu doesn't seem that different from your average fast-casual restaurant, serving up fried food, tacos, and salad. 

But there's one major thing that sets Veggie Grill apart from its competitors - the restaurant is 100% vegan. That means it doesn't serve anything made with animal products. 

Now, the meat and dairy-free concept is attracting some major attention. 

Last week, the 28-location chain announced it had raised another $22 million from investors. The chain plans to double in size in the next three years with the new round of funding.  

Veggie Grill launched in 2006, opening its first location in Irvine, California. Today, all locations are on the West Coast, though Steve Heeley, Veggie Grill's CEO, told Nation's Restaurant News that the chain is considering expanding to the Midwest and the East Coast. 

Walking into a Veggie Grill, you might not immediately realize the restaurant doesn't serve meat.

The menu is broken down into bowls and plates, sandwiches, and salads, plus snacks and desserts. 

The restaurants' bowls are packed with vegetables, with options like the Sonoran Bowl, which includes quinoa, black beans, carrots, avocado, salsa, jalapeño, tortilla strips, and roasted red pepper sauce. 

Plates and sandwiches often include creative meat-substitutes. The "Grillin' Chickin" sandwich, for example, swaps out meat for a combo of ancient grains, soy, wheat, and peas intended to taste like the actual thing. 

In December, you'll be able to try the Beyond Burger at all Veggie Grill locations. The Bill Gates-backed burger is made mostly from pea protein yeast extract, beet juice, and coconut oil, and it "bleeds" plant juices, like animal meat would. Earlier this year, Business Insider declared the Beyond Burger the best veggie burger you can currently buy in a grocery store

While Veggie Grill is 100%-meat free, it doesn't aim to only serve vegetarians. 

"Our market research shows us there are a large number of what we call 'veggie positive' people who are our target consumer," Heeley told Nation's Restaurant News. "It's not just vegetarians and vegans but people who want to move vegetables to the center of the plate."

While only about 3% of Americans identify as vegetarian or vegan, an increasing number of people are cutting meat from their diets. According to a 2015 study, 26% to 41% of Americans report that they cut down on the amount of meat they ate in the past year.

Veggie Grill's rise fits into a larger trend of restaurants boosting the amount of vegetables on the menu. Mainstream chains like Panera and Taco Bell have recently doubled down on vegetables, in order to win over both vegetarian customers and people who simply want to include more veggies in their diets. 

Veggie Grill's website emphasizes that it doesn't want to be seen as a tired, vegan alternative to tastier, meatier options.

"No old school tofu," the site reads. "Our tofu and tempeh help us make satisfying sautéed, grilled and glazed food with pleasing textures."