How vegetarian friendly is your city?

Question

I read a lot of questions from people who have a hard time finding vegetarian and vegan options in grocery stores and restaurants, so I'll ask you, how vegetarian friendly is your city?

Mine is pretty accomodating. I gained some weight when I first moved here because there were so many vegan goodies and I wanted to try them all!

@ hello_be_happy, yeah I'm a student at UC Berkeley. It pretty much rocks here.

There are so many good answers...I think I'm going to let this go to voting.

Answer 1

I live right next to Berkeley, CA, and I'd say thats a very veg (both vegetarian and vegan) friendly place. They have some good vegan restaurants over there, including a recently opened Herbivore restaurant, and I have easy access to Trader Joes, Elephant Pharmacy, and Natural Foods and Whole Foods, so I certainly can't complain. If it wasn't for places like these I would find it very difficult to eat a vegan diet, let alone find proper animal-free bath, body, and household products. They have lots of yummy vegan snacks apart from the regular vegan stuff (soy milk, nut butters), and even soy yogurt.
Btw, are you from around here too? I couldn't help noticing that you mentioned Berkeley, CA, on one of the questions in the veg section. I personally don't know any vegans in my area but I'm sure there are a fair number. I'd definitely be interested to know. Don't worry, I'm just curious, not trying to be nosy.

Answer 2

I'm in the Inland Empire of Southern California. We've got a handful of good places to eat meat-free dishes, but not that many strictly vegetarian places.

My favorite is Chico's in Riverside, a Mexican place that can make probably 75% of their menu vegetarian or vegan if you ask (they have the menu items starred). My favorite are the vegan steak tacos and potato taquitos! They also make a mean salsa.

We also have a really good all-vegetarian grocery store in Riverside - it's near the Seventh Day Adventist college, La Sierra. It's changed my life to have found a place where every single thing is meat free and they have a lot of the more specialty items and beter selections you won't find in a place like Henry's or Trader Joes (Trader Joe's is my second favorite place to grocery shop!). There's a vegetarian cafe next store but...it's not very good.

Loma Linda is nearby and that is a very Seventh Day Adventist town so you can get meat-free dishes at pretty much anyplace around the University. Again, though, it's not really gourmet fare. Think big hunks of gluten floating in sauces and a lot of proccessed, fried crap.

There are a lot of great vegetarian restaurants in Southern California, but they're mostly by the beach cities. I'm getting ready to move south a bit to Temecula very soon and I haven't found a single vegetarian restaurant. :(
I'll be making monthly treks to my beloved La Sierra Market for sure. I think every town should have a veggie market, darn it!

Answer 3

I live in NW Ohio and my city is not super veg-friendly. (Ohioans like meat and lots of it!). There are quite a few options for veggies in the grocery stores. I'm still surprised when I find different meat substitutes in the stores as well as non-dairy ice cream and cheese. Of course, there is always the fresh fruit and vegetable market - that's where I do the majority of my shoopping.
Unfortunately, really isn't one place tha boasts its a vegetarian or vegan restaurant. :-( I can understand why - I don't think that one of those would do well here. But like other posters say, I can order something healthy still and just ask for them to hold the meat.

Answer 4

When there is a reasonably large population and some influence of younger people (colleges) there tends to be more veg-friendly things going on. Austin, TX is a lot different than Texas, it has the University and the whole music scene going on there, so people are more in to different things. I would think the south in general would be hard, but the colleges in Georgia help influence those areas. Sometimes these things are in the oddest places. I ate at an excellent veggie place in Reno, NV, which is mostly a gambling place with not much else.

Answer 5

Originally I am from Boston, I miss it a great deal. Veggie Restaurants and food stores were common. Being vegan was extremely easy.

I now live in Northern Delaware, I don't like or want to drive far to support my diet. There are restaurants that offer vegetarian dishes. But most put chicken broth in veggie dishes, thinking it is harmless. Whoever heard of marinara sauce with chicken broth in it?

So I have to keep on my toes and ask questions. But it is a university town, so it isn't too difficult.

Answer 6

The Washington DC area is great. I'm not a vegetarian but love eating vegetarian fare. There are lots of vegetarian restaurants that are actually very good and it's not your usual Indian cuisine either. There's a fabulous Asian (Chinese/Japanese/fusion) restaurant that has dishes in both vegan and vegetarian options. All the out-of-town vegetarians rave about it and say it's their favorite restaurant anywhere. Check out their website. Maybe you'll get a chance to eat there someday!
http://www.crystalsunflower.com/

Answer 7

Mine is not friendly at all. I live about 30 minutes away from a store that is vegan/vegetarian friendly, but that's like the only one that's not in either Cleveland (hour or so away) or Columbus (two hours away). The local Giant Eagle carries some good brands, but other than that, I just have to fend for myself.

Answer 8

I live in Brighton, England and its about as vegetarian friendly as you can get there are vegetarian and vegan restaurants and even a vegetarian pub. Al our local supermarkets keep a good variety of veggi/vegan options and there are so large independent retailers which keep pretty much every vegan item you can imagine. oh and we have a vegetarian shoe shop too.

Answer 9

I live in Ghent which is the district of Norfolk, VA where PETA is headquartered. It's great. Almost every restaurant has vegetarian options, and all the grocery stores cater to vegetarians/vegans.

Answer 10

Mine isn't very friendly. I am surrounded by white trash everywhere who shout obsenities towards the thought of not eating meat. However, about an hour away in either direction are two places that have a pretty decent vegetarian and vegan selection.