So I embarked on an odyssey last week (does that sound too serious?), to find out about cville’s vegetarian offerings. Given some of the comments on the posts related to this, let me clarify what that means. I was not looking for vegetarian ONLY restaurants, just places that, lets says you took a date to that happened to be vegetarian, he/she would be quite happy. So all of you hippies take a hike, this is not the post for you.
Everyday last week I tried a different place, which all turned out to be good, and you all gave me your two cents as well:
- Himalayan Fusion: probably the most veggie friendly restaurant of the roundup, and the most tasty variety of dishes. A lot of you either agreed, or went on to bash their lunch buffet which apparently tastes like caca. All was not lost as Anoop gave us terrific insight into a hidden veggie friendly cville gem, The Royal Indian.
- Café 88: During a very detailed Google search I found a place called Ming Dynasty which many cvillains said they preferred. Reading more I find out the owner/chef sold the place to someone else and setup shop in what I called the hippie corner of cville. Café 88 is a Taiwanese “small-snack” cafe in a teeny tiny spot serving freshly made food. I had a tofu dish which was good and satiated my craving for Asian fast food….but this was somewhat healthy. I discovered in stir fried tofu forms a chewy nugget of tofu in the center reminiscent of my elementary school days when you bought ice cream bars (eclairs) for 50 cents and everyone always saved the bottom corners for the last bite since they were the best. Yes, we now have a tofu equivalent of the eclair corners…life in cville is getting exciting!
- South Street Brewery: Beer and vegetables? Well beer is made FROM vegetables, so I guess we aren’t too far off the mark. I hit their portabello ravioli like Burt on Ernie. I wouldn’t have expected that kind of quality from a pub style restaurant and was pleasantly surprised. Our favorite oy suggested we try the goat cheese puff pastry with balsamic vinegar. Mmmm….goat
- Eppie’s: I took a turn for real comfort food and tried this downtown mall favorite. Out of all the places I tried, Eppie’s delivered the most bang for the buck. A lunch plate combined of three vegetable sides for around $6…amazing, and more amazing is that this could have been enough for two people. My only big complaint was the taste of everything on my plate could have been kicked up a notch. Notwithstanding, there are MANY Eppie’s fans in the cvillain community, job well done!
- Zo.Ca.Lo: So I labelled this the King of Veggie food in cville, and many of you missed the point. This was the fanciest veggie dish I tried and everything from plating to taste to texture was really fun. Just for Shenanigans, you have no idea how long it took me a picture to tie to my little French/Mexican anecdote in the first paragraph…that was frikkin tough.
So this wasn’t meant to be a complete stand-alone review of the ONLY veggie offerings in cville, it was the beginning of a conversation that will probably continue for quite some time. Here are some veggie resources to help those meat haters on their quest:
- Happy Cow
- Veg Guide
- 11th Annual Cville Veg Fest (this actually exists!)
And here is a list of restaurants with veggie dish recommendations (if available) that I found trolling the net as well as from the commentary on the Veggie Tales posts as well as:
- Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
- Ming Dynasty
Maruthi South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant -closed down, sorry!- The White Pig B&B
- Mesob-Orchid highly recommends the lunch buffet
- The Royal Indian-Anoop claims this restaurant can give his mom’s home cooking a run for her money.
- Bang and Blue Moon Diner-Silmo Syrup commented how much the veggie offering sucks and is a cop out for most restaurants in cville, but did offer up these two as the saving graces of the town.
- Hamilton’s, Fleurie, The Box, The Local, and Mas: Shenanigans did a run-down of veggie optioned restaurants and graded them. These five came out with an A or higher.
- Duner’s: this place out on 250 was recommended by Hooligan
- Nicola’s Veggies: a new raw food “hut” on the downtown mall recommended by our famous Shenanigans. This TINY restaurant is at the corner of 1st and West Market on the downtown mall. They have great juice/smoothie options, just be prepared for what I think is the most expensive food on the mall (per lb). $6.50 for 16oz kefir smoothie. They used organic frozen berries and what not, but an entire bottle of kefir is half that at retail. Interesting to see how they do. I am dying to have their lunch salad/sandwiches though
On an ending note (looking at you Shenanigans), I just can’t offer real photos unless someone sends me one of these. Until then, take the Flikr pictures as humorously as possible, or take the pics yourselves and send them in. Did I miss any veggie haunts in cville? Even if they aren’t 100% pure veggie, dish recommendations at our local restaurants works as well.
Picture yoinked from Flikr.
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Tagged as: Charlottesville, charlottesville vegetarian festival, cville veg fest, diet, dining, eat, farm, farmers market, Food, happy cow, Local, no meat, non-dairy, Organic, raw food, recommendation, Restaurant, restriction, slow food, vegan, Vegetarian, vegetarian guide, veggie heaven, veggieheadonline, vegguide.org
Amazing post, Villanavy. Hopefully everyone will tell their friends about this. Also, if anyone chimes in and thinks we missed something, we’ll add it!
So I labelled this the King of Veggie food in cville, and many of you missed the point.
Those are the people who haven’t had that Relleno. I have. I grok your point, and concur.
I weep for those who haven’t had that Relleno.
Sweet…relleno fan club! Imagine if they had 2-3 kinds of relleno……..mmmmm pass me some relleno
thanks villanavy! now i know where to go with my vegetarian-freak friends
(maruthi has been closed for some time though.)
oh snap, caught me! I shall remove
While not a vegetarian restaurant, The Local has an appetizer of fresh mozzarella over heirloom tomatoes that is deelish. Also, the portobello mushroom & tofu entree is quite good.
I just can’t offer real photos unless someone sends me one of these. Until then, take the Flikr pictures as humorously as possible, or take the pics yourselves and send them in
Of course you can. Flikr has more pictures than just menu shots… and then there is the rest of the tubes. and then photoshop. But maybe I am just a bit bitter (stuttering even) because you I just can’t offer real photos unless someone sends me one of these. Until then, take the Flikr pictures as humorously as possible, or take the pics yourselves and send them in repeatedly ignored my offers to assist…
I just can’t offer real photos unless someone sends me one of these. Until then, take the Flikr pictures as humorously as possible, or take the pics yourselves and send them in
Of course you can. Flikr has more pictures than just menu shots… and then there is the rest of the tubes. and then photoshop. But maybe I am just a bit bitter (stuttering even) because you repeatedly ignored my offers to assist…
ok, find me a pic of a mexican getting it on with a french person, or vice versa, that is made for Free Use on the net and we can play. Do I have to mention it should not be NSFW?
Nice wrap-up V-dawg. You shoulda called me, we coulda worked on this homework together while drinking herbal tea and munching on carrot sticks. You forgot Rev Soup (mucho salads and soups with vegan options), Sublime on the corner, and Burger King. That’s right folks, BK has veggie burgers now.
In last year’s Best of C-ville, The C-ville tallied Milan as the town’s favorite vegetarian restaurant. Just thought I’d share.
/reading this makes me crave a hamburger
@10: Easy. Mexican actress Salma Hayek is married to Frenchman François Pinault. They have a baby so that means there was some hot intercontinental getting on-age.
interesante….if we could only find a pic that would blatantly stereotype them. Perhaps Salma munching on a gordita and Francois holding a wheel of brie while shopping for a beret?
@ 10 Put up or shut up, eh? Ok.
1) Everything is fair use once it is sufficiently altered from the original.
2) I did a graphic for that story already, shall we do it again? Very well then.
3) The SFW needs not even be said. “Getting it on” though? Alrighty then, you get what you ask for. Subtle, eh?
As a long time ‘annoying freaky’ vegetarian, I really do appreciate your post and the series. I ain’t trying to rain on your parade, nor am I telling you what to do. Just putting my offers and opinions out there…
/wanna have a juice box?
Personally tho, I’d have gone with something likethis.
/hugs time?
Not to be picky, but ’sufficiently altered’ is not the fair use test (although the facts which inform sufficiently altered might well be the same facts that inform the amount and substantiality criteria of the actual fair use test).
@ 15 A beret wearing french lady and a moose headed canadian?
handshake is boring, that first pic is hot!
@ 17 Fair enough, I concede your point.
@ 18 Ahhhh, but its a Mexican moose! Mooseñor! Ole!
@19 Handshake is boring but a close up of a menu is? Just sayin…
Thanks for the ‘hot’ vote though. I’ll drop the issue now. Cheers.
I have a few veggie friends and we generally don’t have too much trouble eating out around town. I do have a vegan friend that makes it a bit more difficult, but there’s generally something on the menu even if it means a special request of no cheese on top.
Mas is pretty veggie friendly (as shenanigans mentioned).
Zocalo used to be more veggie friendly when they had the polenta fries and the grilled asparagus on the sides menu.
Mono Loco is pretty veggie friendly - wild mushroom tamales, spicy mushroom burrito. Chips, salsa, and guac :p
Cville Coffee has a lot of good salads and tofu for the noodle bowls.
@17 I think vanilla ice learned that the hard way.
@ 22 I always knew Vanilla Ice was a photoshop!
Well that explains what happened to Ming Dynasty. My wife and I used to love that joint, but then it took a torpedo nose-dive all of a sudden. I’ll definately be giving Cafe 88 a shot now.
@15: Jamiroquai and a Shroomgirl from Mario World
had the zocalo relleno last night - amazing as always.
Can’t decide - is this a vegetarian cookbook or not? linkypoo
dan, i don’t think i raved enough about my meal to you today. my (vegetarian) friend & i had never been to eppie’s before, and we LOVED it. we’ll definitely come back really soon!
@13 Anything with Salmita is hot.
@27 Had Eppie’s last night myself (but not just veg) — awesome as always.
Et tu Brute?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Thanks Orchid and Brutus. Glad you guys enjoyed.
Personally, just had dinner at Maya (Satty night) and brunch at Zocalo (this am). Both were great. My folks are in town, so I’m living large. I’ll comment in greater detail later.
maya has lotsa veggie options.
they are super local foodies, as well.
given seasonal eating and whatnot,, their new vegie option: “chicken fried” seitan is tasty, as well as one of their viggie apps: bbq tofu with a bett/turnip/pineapple coleslaw.
of course they have a bunch of sides that are veggie, and a soup that is vegan (without the buttermilk biscuit crouton).
it’s yummy.
A great downtown option is The Flat: Takeaway Creperie, 111 E. Water St., +1 434-978-3528. Sweet & Savory Crepes, European Style, Delightful Patio, Affordable! (listing lifted from http://wikitravel.org/en/Charlottesville) A review from La French Connection (http://www.lafrenchconnection.com/info/FrenchFood/RestaurantReviews): “This is the best place to eat French Crêpes! There are no tables and no chairs (just a couple of rusty benches outside), but the crêpes are delicious! The portions are generous and the crêpes are well priced. I wish this was a smaller stand like we see in France where you can see the crêpe made in front of you and most importantly, where you can smell it! So, in my opinion, even if the place is really small, it’s still too big!
If you don’t know what to order, try the Brie and ham crêpe, followed by a lemon one. My daughter’s favorite is Nutella banana. It’s messy but just exquisite! Make sure you bring your camera; you don’t want to miss a shot of that cute chocolate face!”
OMG I forgot about Maya. Their veggie meatloaf rules. I HAVE to try the fried chix thing!
What is the most economical place in town to get vegetables? I’m assuming it is probably just the Kroger or something when they go on sale, but just checking.
@33 Farmers Market!! Support Local! I buy most of my produce from a local farmer/s and it is so much cheaper and so much better. The stuff at the store has likely travelled very far, so no flavor, and not fresh.
i was under the impression that the market was significantly more expensive than the grocery store. not the case?
I think the farmer’s market has some pretty good prices. Plus, how much are you willing to pay for fresh?
as someone who has typically been eating frozen and canned vegetables, i’m not very concerned about relatively minor variations in freshness and am mainly looking for low prices.
@21. there still are polenta fries and asparagus on the sides menu.
and almost all the sides are veggie.
as a veggie myself, i find it best to ask the server-they sometimes know the darndest things…
@33 Best deal on veggies? Either C’Ville Market on Carleton Ave or Foods of all Nations. I know Foods is called “Foods of all Prices”, etc., but they actually have many low prices on excellent veggies. It’s my go-to place for veggies. Just watch the prices and beware some of the other products — they may be good, but they can be pricey. Their bread is awesome too.
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