This article is co-written by Sonya Harway and Jeff Chubb.

So you all know about Vegetate, Java Green, and the other popular vegetarian restaurants in DC, but where else can you go for a delicious veg*n meal? Say your grandmother is coming to town and wants to go out for a traditional omni dinner, or perhaps you’re going out with a large group of friends and don’t have time to convince everyone that they will love tempeh and seitan… So you need a restaurant where everyone can be happy with meat dishes AND meat-free dishes! We’ve compiled here a list of “unlikely contenders,” or omni restaurants that have a few outstanding vegan options for when you want to share the table with your meat-eating friends.

• Go for breakfast some weekend at Keren and order ful (fava beans) and a great espresso, no milk. You have to ask for your check here– it won’t come automatically– and it’s not fancy, but it’s cheap and DELICIOUS. And great hangover food, I might add!
• Try the veggie platter at DC Cafe– if you substitute okra for tzatziki/lebneh (yogurt), it’s completely vegan. Have a mint tea and check out all the pictures of famous people on the walls.
• Order the bibambap at Adam Express with tofu and avocado instead of beef and egg. Beware though– the kim chee has fish/shrimp paste.
• This one’s probably already on your radar, but go for a veggie pizza with no cheese at Astor (they do carry vegan cheese now, but we recommend cheese-less). Enjoy the caraway seed in the pizza dough, roasted eggplant, spinach, and kalamata olives. And treat yourself to some dolmades (grape leaves) beforehand.
• My favorite dish hands-down at Chinatown Express is the sauteed green leaf with garlic (with all the condiments that decorate the table). You probably already know about the handmade noodles, but try the ma po tofu next time– delicious!
• Mandu will make a completely vegan version of several dishes, including duk bok gi, a stewy dish with glutinous rice cakes. And YUM, have a sojutini while you’re there– all the flavors are incredible. Unfortunately, the kim chee here also has shrimp paste in it.
• At Sticky Rice on H Street, all the vegan dishes are clearly marked, but we especially recommend the Mock Chicken Szechuan… And there’s also a dish called Dirty Vegan, how can you resist?
• Malaysia Kopitiam has many omni dishes that can be made veg*n, but I especially liked the Gluten with Scallions and Ginger.
• If you’re in the mood for a splurge, try the vegan dinner tasting menu at Equinox; it’s not a printed menu, but they do “cooking on the spot” so the chef puts together the vegan highlights for you
• There are several branches of Pain Quotidien around town with a vegan-friendly menu– go for brunch some day and have a pastry (especially the green tea muffins), the Six-Veggie “Quiche” (made with tofu, not eggs!), and soy milk rice pudding. The menu clearly notates which items are vegan, which is pretty impressive for a chain restaurant, don’t you think?
• The pizza crust at Open City is now completely vegan, hopefully with dairy-free cheese to soon follow. (Feel free to put the pressure on, but in the mean time, just go cheese-less.) They also have a tofu scramble on their All-Day Breakfast Menu, in case you get the hankering for breakfast at 4 p.m.

Feel free to add your own suggestions for those hidden gems in the comments section. What other secrets do you have that we should all know about?

Thanks to Kerry and Kristin (who I met at DC*Vegan Drinks this month) for their suggestions, too! No thanks at all to Howard.

Related Posts

1. Zpizza has vegan pizza!
2. Vegan French Bread Pizza
3. Vegan Day at Brookland Cafe
4. The Perfect Pizza
5. March feature on VegDC.com
6. Vegan / Vegetarian Tasting

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 25th, 2009 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Food, Restaurant Rating. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.