Vegetarians of Bham, meet the "veggie friendly" tag and the "veggie page"

Today, Mr Foodie and I received an email from loyal blog fan Rachel.  She pointed out an important omission on our part.   She writes:

“I myself am a huge carnivore and I always will be, but it’s just my luck that the love of my life is a vegetarian. Ugh. I found that out of the multitude of tags you have for your blog veggie isn’t one of them.”

If you are taking the time to read this post, you are probably painfully aware that Bham has exceptionally limited veggie options.  Few (one?) veggie only restaurant, and still few that are truly veggie friendly.  I’m not talking about places where you can get a plate of plain noodles, but places where you have options you actually WANT to eat.

So veggie friends and friends of veggies, here’s what we’ve done in response to Rachel’s on point observation.  We created a veggie friendly category.  In WordPress terms, this means that if you use the drop down menu at your right or this link, you can see an up to date list of all restaurants we’ve blogged about that we have tagged as “veggie friendly.”

But we have a request.  We can’t do this without your help.  Here’s what we need.

We aren’t vegetarians.  We have many friends who are, and we often choose veggie dishes, but we aren’t really experts. We need you to:

1) tell us if we have mistakenly labeled something as “veggie friendly” that is not, or if we skipped over a place

2) reply to this blog post with ideas about veggie friendly places we’ve never tried that you would recommend, or favorite veggie dishes at Bham restaurants.

From this point forward, this will be our “veggie page.”  In the absence of a real resource on veggie places in the ‘Ham, this post, the link to the “veggie friendly” category, and all of your responses will be Bham’s veggie restaurant resource.

Come on vegetarians of Bham, we know you’re out there!

Comments: 14

Jil Sea

Encouraging to hear other veg-friendly local folks out there. !!

My husband and I choose a plant-based diet and are constantly on the lookout for ideas about places to go out to eat.

Some of our standard go-tos are (in no specific order):

Golden Temple (they can make almost anything vegan–open for lunch only, hours are limited)

Taj India (buffet is super)

PF Changs (I love that they offer brown rice option–we always order Ma Po Tofu, but curry veg, Buddha’s Feast are also good–and the veg friend rice without egg is good too; veg dumplings, veg spring rolls and side of asparagus are favorites too)

Magic Wok, near UAB (they, too, offer brown rice option for $2–their Kung Pao Tofu is my favorite!)

Los Amigos in Forest Park (spinach enchiladas on the menu, nice option)

Nori

Cantina food truck (events like Magic City Beerfest, Sidewalk Film Festival)

Bamboo on 2nd

Slice (offers vegan cheese)

Your Pie (also offers vegan cheese)

Brick Pizza (yep, vegan cheese option)

Mellow Mushroom (vegan cheese yet again)

Carrigan’s

Regions Field has a veggie burger, it’s damn good, Cantina is also there.

Taco Bell–7 layer burrito is pretty amazing when you’re starving. We get it without cheese and sour cream.

Excited about Saigon Noodle coming to the old Bottletree

Rojo

Maki Fresh (brown rice for sushi, what?! Their seaweed salad is a refreshing change)

Whole Foods–deli has mock chicken salad which is delicious; wood oven pizzas with vegan cheese available

More places I’m sure….please share ideas!!

jil & Jeffrey

deepsouthfoodie

Sorry it took me so long to approve this comment – I’ve had a crazy summer! This is a FANTASTIC list. Thank you for writing it. Looking forward to others’ responses!

Jesse

Thanks for this! I was a vegetarian for about a decade and am slowly reincorporating eating meeting (thanks in part to your blog!) but still try to eat mainly veggie. One thing that was always hard to find is a satisfying and yummy veggie burger (not the preprocessed crusty microwave patties). Don’t know if you’ve been to Shindigs food truck as it is not on your blog. They are all around delicious and will make any burger veggie and their patty, which I presume includes beets, is delicious!!!! Also, Five’s veggie sliders have been some of my favorites. Hope that’s helpful!

deepsouthfoodie

thanks Jesse! Shindings is amazing (did you see they are going to have a full service restaurant in the old V Richard’s space??). I’ve never had their veggie burger but I’ve had their “meatballs” which are veggie and made of beets. I dreamt about those things for weeks afterwards. Have not had Five’s veggie sliders, awesome suggestion!!

Tom

Vegetarian here. I’ve had a little time to find some good eats. As others have said, the concept of vegetarian food is fairly hit or miss in the south, with beef/chicken stock in broth or collards with ham being considered “vegetarian”. Nevertheless, there are a few that I’ve enjoyed:
– Bottega Cafe (and Bottega) – They always have at least 2 pizzas that are vegetarian and usually have at least 1 pasta that are vegetarian. Plus they are absolutely delicious. A number of their appetizers are also vegetarian
– Highlands – This is probably my favorite fine-dining vegetarian option so far. They had an incredible vegetable risotto and seemed overall very accommodating. The other fine-dining option in town, Hot and hot, sounds like it is great for others but not so great for me. When I went to Hot and Hot, Ibasically got a sampler of all their sides minus the meat and – duh – every dish felt like it was missing something
– Urban standard is one of the few in town that has serious meat substitutes like tofu and seitan I saw once I think. The options are plentiful but the food itself is decent.
– Sitar is great for vegetarians as is true of most indian places
– Los Dos Hermanos food truck – there’s no vegetarian stuff on their menu but you can ask and they’ll accommodate. Best veggie tacos I’ve had in Birmingham, hands down. The guy at the window knows me know and always gives me a hard time for not eating meat but always makes delicious tacos.
– Bamboo on 2nd – there are a decent number of vegetarian options on the menu. The owner is Nepalese which has a strong vegetarian community. They have a veggie thukpa and a vegetarian bahn mi that are good. There’s also a veggie roll which is off menu.
– Paramount has a solid sandwich in the Fun Guy, which is vegetarian
– Taste of thailand – also has a few veggie options on their menu and some not on their menu. They’ve made me a tofu larb without fish sauce which was pretty solid.
– Rojo always has vegetarian stuff
– Interestingly, the Mooyah’s veggie burger (which once was not vegetarian after all) is one of the better veggie burgers I’ve had
– Pho pho – there is a vegan pho here. It’s alright.
– Saigon noodle – also a vegan pho here. Was meh.
– There was a hot dog place that used to borrow Rojo’s kitchen that was pretty good, actually. Hopefully that catches on.
– Whole Foods has a little ramen station with a vegetarian ramen option. This town definitely needs a good ramen house.

Overall Birmingham does have options, just a limited set for every restaurant. I’m hopeful more places will start having more vegetarian options in town.

Richard Grooms

I am mostly vegan and have been since the late 90’s (I eat seafood). I wish more places here had more veg/vegan selections, but there’s a way around this problem. Ask the server if they can do things with no meat or if they can substitute the meat with tofu, etc. I’ve almost never had any place refuse this request. In this way, B’ham is just like my experiences in SF, NYC, London. I can only remember one place that was rigid, and even then it was only about some dishes. That place was Taste of Thailand, which is, BTW, an excellent Thai place otherwise (though they do charge a little too much).

What places have I had good experiences at? All the Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Middle Eastern and Indian places in town I’ve eaten at. I seldom eat out anywhere else.These include El Barrio, Little Donkey, Mi Pueblo, Red Pearl, Red Bowl, Great Wall, Black Pearl (both locations), all the Vietnamese places in town, all the Indian ones in town, all the Thai ones in town. And Makarios. Places are sensitive to diets because they don’t want to get sued.

I think your experience with vegetarian food here is most unusual. I know many vegetarians and vegans here and they have little complaint because, like me, they ask for substitutes and ask to have things left out and they’re rarely disappointed. But, like me, they wish places had more specifically veg and vegan entries on menus.

As more Americans become veg/vegan, more restaurants will have to adapt. If they don’t they will go downhill or fold.

I can list more veg/vegan friendly places if anyone wants them.

Richard Grooms

bridget

that’s my girlfriend you’re talking about!!! this is so so amazing and it means so much to the both of us, but i REALLY appreciate it as a vegetarian. thank you! also, i have suggestions for your list!

Urban Standard
Makario’s
Sitar
Rojo

any others i can think of, you already have on your list. i hope this helps. again, thank you!

Sara

I learned to love vegetables eating from my Aunt Floy’s garden in Cordova, Alabama, when I was growing up. So I think of Birmingham as potentially a great place for vegetarians, except that meat is often cooked with vegetables. I eat everywhere in Birmingham and cannot think of a place refused to prepare a meatless dish for me when I have asked. Post Office Pies is a favorite for all of their veggie pizzas and, when I asked for a vegetarian plate at Chez Fonfon, it was just the best. More to come…

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