Vegetarian Dining

[creaton]

I'll be visiting the DC area this coming weekend with a vegetarian friend, and am looking for good veg/veg-friendly restaurant recommendations.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Schneier]

Nora's is vegetarian friendly, and has excellent food besides.

Bruce

[vengroff]

The vegetarian brunch at Cafe Atlantico is an excellent bet.

[Mark Sommelier]

Try the elegant and impressive Bombay Club.

[DonRocks]

If you're feeling hungry, get the buffet lunch at Woodlands (out in the hinterlands, either in Fairfax, Virginia or Langley Park, Maryland).

The buffet is really good, but the thing to get at Woodlands if you want top-notch cooked-to-order southern Indian is the Special Onion Rava Masala Dosa (pay close attention to what I type here, as there are a good half-dozen Dosai on the menu). I go sometimes with an Indian friend when she's in town, and I walk in and feel like, gee, I really want to scarf the lunch buffet, but I'm never sorry that I order this thing. It's great, and it will set you back all of $6.00-or-so.

Alert, alert! No alcohol served.

Edited December 1, 2003 by DonRocks (log)

[Malawry]

Zaytinya is a great place to share vegetarian mezze that will blow you away. I especially love the spanakopita with handmade filo, the fava bean dip, and the fried eggplant with yogurt sauce.

Yanyu in Cleveland Park has a vegetarian tasting menu, which includes all kinds of wonderful goodies...when I went I remember enjoying tofu skewers and mu shu veggies as two of the courses. I think it's a 7-course meal, all small tastes, all excellent.

One of the best vegetable plates I had when I was a vegetarian came from Vidalia. I especially liked the brown glazed pearl onions and the mashed potatoes. I got really sick of vegetarian plates composed of side dishes after a while, but this one rose above the pack. It wasn't on the menu but they gladly made it for me several times when I used to work around the corner. Call in advance as they've since revamped their menu to make sure it's still available; I bet they have something similarly good if not.

Sorry, Don, I am not fond of Woodlands. The one time I ate there I found the food greasy and I thought the spicing was unbalanced, plus I thought the Langley outlet had no ambiance. If you're coming up to Langley Park I think you'd be better off with one of the many dosais at Udupi Palace just down the road on University Blvd. They have a menu of 10 or so, along with many other South Indian favorites...like Woodlands, Udupi is all-Vegetarian. Plus they have interesting versions of barfi (Indian fudge) available from a counter up-front if you want to try an Indian dessert other than gulab jamun. I'm pretty sure Udupi has a limited wine list and sells beer (I know their sister North Indian restaurant Tiffin a half-block away does), and while it's in a crappy-looking shopping center and it's too brightly-lit I kind of like the environment in there.

Vegetable Garden in Rockville has excellent Buddhist vegetarian Chinese-style food. The whole menu is vegan actually, with many organic dishes. The sesame "chicken" and the brown rice california rolls are perennial favorites in my household.

Some of the local destination restaurants, including the Inn at Little Washington, cheerfully accommodate vegetarians. 2941 can do a great job too, most of their cooking uses vegetable stock instead of chicken stock meaning they already have a lot of vegetarian-friendly components on-hand to assemble you and your friend a great meal. Laboratorio del Galileo made me a great veg meal for my birthday a few years ago, too.

It's very unusual for me to not see at least one vegetarian entree on a menu around Washington. Overall I believe DC is a very vegetarian-friendly city, and you'll dine well on your visit here. Please let us know what you ate after your trip is over!

[BBhasin]

Why restrict yourself to just dosas, if you can handle a bit of spice there is no dearth of Indian restaurants in the area in a broad spectrum of ambience, price range etc. all with very respectable vegetarian options.You can get a good list by searching washingtonpost.com or washingtonian.com

[creaton]

Thanks All for the recommendations!! I'll report back next week how things turned out.

[Al_Dente]

Why restrict yourself to just dosas, if you can handle a bit of spice there is no dearth of Indian restaurants in the area in a broad spectrum of ambience, price range etc. all with very respectable vegetarian options.You can get a good list by searching washingtonpost.com or washingtonian.com

I'm happy to give BBhasin a plug-- he runs a great place in the Delray section of Alexandria. Affordable, delicious, and friendly accomodating service.

Not sure about how much veggie stuff he has on the menu, I'm too busy enjoying the butter chicken and lamb vindaloo to notice what the veggie options are.

[DonRocks]

I'll throw my hat into the ring for 15 ria. Jamie Leeds serves fine "Meat and Two" specials consisting of one meat (their choice) and two vegetables (your choice). There is also a $16 vegetable plate that consists of choosing five items from the side-order list, and this came up a strong winner tonight. Seasonal, organic, local vegetables, fixed up on an attractive plate in large portions - it's a pretty darned good plate of food. Highly recommended, in a down-home southern way. 15 ria is a restaurant where it pays not to stray too far from the obvious, and if you stick with these simple items, then you'll leave feeling satisfied both with the food and the money you spent.

Cheers,

Rocks.

[creaton]

We ended up at Jaleo and absolutely loved it!! They had a great selection of vegetarian items which we enjoyed. We tried at least 6 or 7, a few desert and and more than enough Sangria. I was quite suprised how inexpensive the whole meal was, considering how impressed I was with the food..

Most memorable (its been almost 1 year) was a red pepper stuffed (sorry I don't recall the name) with a wonderful cheese filling. I was trying to re-create these a few weeks ago, but couldn't figure out what combination of cheeses went into the filling.. Any suggestions?

[JennyUptown]

Which Jaleo did you check out?

[creaton]

Which Jaleo did you check out?

←

The one on 7th... I cannot wait to check out some of the other locations!

[Achaia]

[Most memorable (its been almost 1 year) was a red pepper stuffed (sorry I don't recall the name) with a wonderful cheese filling. I was trying to re-create these a few weeks ago, but couldn't figure out what combination of cheeses went into the filling.. Any suggestions?

The filling for the dish which is named Pimientos del piqillo rellenos de queso y setas is goat cheese and mushrooms

Steve

[DonRocks]

Two recent vegetable plates I've had have been at Corduroy and Komi, and they are just as good as the other things at these fine restaurants. At Corduroy, it's listed as a main course ($mid-upper teens), and at Komi, you can assemble it yourself from the $4.00 side orders.

[KVentura]

Cordoroy and 15 Ria are my two favorite veg plates in the city. Haven't tried Komi but good to know of another option...

[Gastro888]

Teaism has good vegetarian options as well. Nooshi and Signapore Cafe near 19th and M has some good noodles dishes that can be made vegetarian (ex: mee goreng). Malaysia Kopitam (I know I'm spelling it wrong...) is a good choice, too. These 3 places are solidly decent, reasonably priced eats. Don't go to Penang - it's overpriced and the food's crappy. If you want some trendy place to hang out, go for it but otherwise, pfft.

[JennyUptown]

Buck's (at least last night) would be ok vegetarians if one is willing to pull together a meal of appetizers and sides. Last night, they offered a vegan mushroom soup. The mozzarella appetizer was vegetarian, as well as delicious. The leg of lamb was offered with green lentils...I almost asked my neighbor at the communal table for a taste, they looked so good. I would have loved them as a side.

I know how Ms. Greenwood feels about substitutions, but I wonder if she'd allow for no bacon on the iceberg lettuce wedge.

[hillvalley]

Two recent vegetable plates I've had have been at Corduroy and Komi, and they are just as good as the other things at these fine restaurants.  At Corduroy, it's listed as a main course ($mid-upper teens), and at Komi, you can assemble it yourself from the $4.00 side orders.

←

While I strongly second the Komi recommendation I would call ahead and make sure the veggies are vegetarian. At least one on their menu right now has bacon in it which I guess would make a vegetarian cranky.

[redfox]

I'm happy to read the suggestions in this thread, as a vegetarian who lives in the area and seems to get around to fewer restaurants than most of the other active eGulleteers around here. I do heartily second the suggestion of brunch at Cafe Atlantico -- the vegetarian tasting menu, in particular, is excellent and (I think) a shockingly good value.

Edited to add: I've long been afraid of eating at Buck's, as I feel sure to run afoul of Ms. Greenwood's strong feelings, and I always fear that vegetarians as a category may well be on her hate list. I can't imagine that she's super interested in making sure that there are vegetarian options on her menu, nor in making the things that sound vegetarian on the menu be vegetarian in practice.

Edited January 10, 2005 by redfox (log)

[JPW]

I put my 2 cents worth of opinion on Zaytinya.

Middle Eastern restaurants in general are a good source of quality vegetarian dishes.

Myself, I tend to prefer eating the baby sheep.

[plpcolumbia]

Maestro has an excellent vegetarian menu.

Also, I would second recommendation for the Inn at Little Washington. They were kind enough to prepare a vegetarian tasting menu for my wife while I had the regular tasting menu. We each had different wine pairings as well. That place (The Inn) is awesome...

Also, Cityzen, has vegetarian options also (with a special request they prepared a vegetarian tasting menu for my wife too!).

[KVentura]

Hmm...I wonder if Cityzen would accomodate a vegetarian that hates mushrooms