A delightful gastronomic fact about New York City (NYC) - that's known to most of its visitors and residents - has been the enormity of vegetarian-friendly restaurant-choices you may find anywhere in the city plus the boroughs. Depending on your budget, time, willingness plus readiness to venture into new nabes (neighborhoods), you will always find the best deals you'd ever laid your hands on when it comes to eating out in NYC (or even by phoned-in deliveries for any kind of food anywhere in the city). This is mostly true, too, if you've got a vegetarian palate.

Allow me to draw a basic guide for you to call or visit when you want to go vegetarian (or stay strictly vegetarian) while in NYC (note: this is far from being exhaustive, and just being persuasively suggestive). This guide attempts to go nabe by nabe, following listings that you may (actually) also find by doing a search on your internet-accessible mobile phone. However, check first for updates, as some of these food places may have moved to other locations, or have closed shop for one reason or another (given the finicky but very fulfilling nature of food and food-related ventures).

Whenever available, we'll provide you with links to let you click on, to help you get more details, if any of these food places gets to pique your interest.

In the Theater District (also including the Hell's Kitchen area) where most visitors seemingly congregate in big numbers, you may see at least 5 restaurants. Hummus Kitchen (found also in the Upper East Side), a Middle Eastern restaurant, leads the pack, being the most visited and heard of from reviewers. Would you believe its food is also kosher? Also consider visiting Zen Palate, looking like a stylized Asian restaurant with Mexican influences (which is actually an intriguing mix).

If you find yourself somewhere in Midtown East and the Fashion District, you can expect to see at least 8 restaurants offering vegetarian delights. Your best bet would be to head off first to Wu Liang Ye, a Chinese restaurant also known for its vegetarian dishes (note also its moderate prices up to $30 for your meal).

There are at least 26 vegetarian friendly restaurants within the vicinities of the West Village, Flatiron, Union Square, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and Meatpacking District. Foremost of your choicest would be: Red Bamboo (also offers soul food), Dojo Restaurant (mainly Japanese cuisine), and Maoz (a fastfood place, also offering Middle Eastern food selections, with locations too in Union Square, Times Square, and the Upper East Side).

There are even 27 choices to go if you're somewhere in Stuyvesant Town, East Village, Little Italy, Lower East Side (LES), plus Chinatown. We can't help but recommend at least 8 food places, including: Teany (in LES, a nice coffee shop, too!), Angelika Kitchen (in the East Village;will call for an adventurous streak in you as they're pioneering in the trade and uses organic ingredients!), Hummus Place (4 outlets in Manhattan), Curly's Lunch, Kate's Joint (almost a fixture on Avenue B), Vegetarian Dim Sum House (on Pell St, Chinatown, would you believe experiencing veggie-filled dim sum galore?), B & H Dairy (looks like a deli; kosher, too!), and Counter (which is also a bistro/bar that offers raw/live food!). Let me also include Buddha Bodai, also in Chinatown on Mott Street (and it's seriously vegetarian, in the midst of all those other types of Chinese food places along its row of location).

In the nabes of Queens, we've seen at least 12 restaurants. We'll choose Happy Buddha Vegetarian Restaurant (also in Flushing, where Buddha Bodai also has an outlet), Annam Brahma Restaurant (strictly Indian vegetarian cuisine, in Briarwood, and could have been around since the late 1970's), the One-ness Fountain Heart (in Kew Gardens, try their tiramisu, in addition to any of their gourmet fake meat dishes and sandwiches), and Smile of the Beyond (somewhere in Briarwood, in Jamaica; try their veggie burgers).

Moving to Brooklyn, it's a big challenge to recommend vegetarian restaurants here as it's such a diverse-filled neighborhood of a borough (much like Queens, with certain differences you'd notice depending on your preferences and biases). We have identified at least 18 food places here where you may enjoy vegetarian cuisine. And just like Queens, you may have to venture in the nabes that are far from each other to cover the areas where the food places included here are located.

This guide recommends the following (in Brooklyn): Zen Vegetarian House (Chinese cuisine, in Prospect Park South, with straightforward ambiance), Siggy's Good Food (in Brooklyn Heights, serving its version of vegetarian-American cuisine), Imhotep's Health & Living Foods (looks like Caribbean cuisine to us; located in Crown Heights), Food 4 Thought Caf (another vegetarian-American food place, "kinda slow" service but it seems to be part of the service that calls for the customer to slow down), Wild Ginger (on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, that's really Asian fusion in its food offerings, and confusingly similar to other restaurants almost of the same name), and Boneshakers (also in Williamsburg; we like their scrambled tofu sandwich) .

If ever you would venture to visit the Bronx, you may consider having vegetarian meals at Taqueria Tlaxcalli (which is located somewhere in Parkchester/Castle Hill). It's Mexican cuisine with a difference, and offered in a hole-in-a-wall location, but there's more to its food offerings. Consider asking for their guacamole, vegetarian burrito, and empanadas (apple and strawberry) - all at very reasonable prices you'll never find in Manhattan. There's also the H.I.M. Ital Organic Restaurant along Burke Avenue (Olinville neighborhood), which can be another choice for those seeking vegetarian-cum-Caribbean cuisine up in the Bronx.

If you happen to take the ferry to Staten Island (or cross by car via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge), you may also want to consider visiting Call It A Wrap, in Westerleigh that's close to New Jersey. It offers its vegetarian-versions of wraps and sandwiches, just like other delis but with emphasis on what's healthy and right for you. Plus there's Chin Chin Palace, on Forest Avenue, Mariner's Harbor, which offers Chinese cuisine, with many choices on vegetarian dishes.

So there you go! Come and visit now, if you can find the chance.

Learn more about this author, Jerome Espinosa Baladad.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Guide to vegetarian- friendly restaurants in New York City?
We want to hear your view. Write now!