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!
Julie
Long time vegan here (although I occasionally have a “moment” with cheese, usually when I’m traveling and can’t avoid it easily). Here are a few of my favorite vegan/vegetarian options:
Surin – sweet and sour tofu or cashew nut with tofu (specify no brown sauce)
El Barrio — vegan tostadas
Hot Box food truck (always has a vegan tofu option, which has been a spicy Asian-inspired dish when I’ve eaten there. Delish, but did I mention spicy?)
Cheesecake Factory — several options, but the vegan cobb salad is great (and love that it has protein)
Highlands, Bottega, and any of the nicer restaurants — we always let them know ahead of time (usually when we make a reservation), that I’m vegan, and they’ll make yummy vegetable plates for me)
Revelator – avocado toast
Paramount — although it’s seasonal, the bacon (ask to substitute avocado for the bacon, and leave off the aioli to make it vegan vs. vegetarian) is to. die. for.
Would love to hear everyone’s favorite “fast casual” foods for quicker dinners or lunch — we run out of options and end up eating at the same places all the time.
. . and now I’m hungry!!
Julie
Olivia Pierce
I’ve found mellow mushroom to have many vegetarian options with their tofu and seitan hoagies as well as the mushroom soup and plentiful mushroom, veggie, and make your own pizzas!
Pho Pho also has vegetarian pho which is delicious!
Taipei 101 on greensprings also is very accommodating with doing tofu substitutes and veggie dishes
Hunan Wok just up the road also has many veggie dishes and for extremely low prices
Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe, also on greensprings, has great veggie pizza that you can get by the slice as well as spinach pasta dishes and others.
Next to Alfredo’s is Purple Onion, which I know isn’t the best for fine dining, when you’re starving and it’s late at night with nothing open, they are open 24/7 and have very good veggie pita wraps on their breakfast menu and falafal plate/wraps
Your Pie in Downtown Homewood has vegan cheese that you can put on your custom pizza as well as many creative vegetables
Dave’s Pizza in Homewood is also very accommodating to vegetarians with multiple veggie only pizzas and stuffed mushrooms that are TO DIE FOR
Just up the block, Real and Rosemary has a yummy beet and goat cheese sandwich which, when paired with their sweet potato wedges and lemon rosemary ice cream sandwich, makes a great lunch or dinner
Finally, my newest discovery has been the veggie burger at Hickory Tavern outside the Brookwood Mall off 280. It is by far one of the best, if not the best, I’ve ever had. Definitely at must try there