Thanks for all of you who responded to my thread about the Coast Starlight. The European houseguests decided against 12+ hours on the train. Actually, they had a chance to add NYC to their itinerary and subtract LA. Sooo, we are flying up to San Francisco to spend a day with them instead. \/

We will probably stay at the Harbor Court, which has a special running right now. I looked at previous threads about this place and it seems to get the thumbs up from Mr. & Mrs. Kal, which is all the recommendation I need.

We would like to find a great place for dinner on the Saturday night. They (cousin and spouse) are vegetarians we are not, so we would like to find a restaurant where we can all have a really good experience. We were thinking maybe a small plates or Tapas place?

I looked over the top 100 in the SF Chronicle, but I became so overwhelmed that I decided to come to the Fodorites for help whittling down the choices.

Thanks so much for your help!

PS: A nice view would be a big plus, but not a must.

lvk: Faina and I had a nice day out recently and we went to the Cliff House where she had some kind of vegetarian pasta (I had the lamb shank, being one who will eat anything).

Food is not bad and the view is great over the ocean and the huge expanse of beach. Good for an early dinner to get full advantage of the view.

Tapas: my favorite in SF is Cha Cha Cha in the Haight-Ashbury area. Can't remember how vegetarian their dishes get as I love their calamari and their sangria. Fun place. Make reservations!

Lots of Asian restaurants serve vegetable only dishes along with everything else.

If you wouldn't have a car, then the Ferry Building is close to the Harbor Court and you could just walk over. Again, being a devout carnivore, I can't tell you which restaurants are vegetarian or not.

Good luck and I'm glad they decided against the train!

Hi lvk, here is a list of vegeterian restaurants in SF per the SF Chronical Food Section http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listin...o.x=12&Go.y=6e SF Chronical.

I hope this helps you.

If you are thinking of Spanish tapas, sadly and imho, the Bay Area doesn’t offer the same caliber that are available, say in other major foodie city, especially New York. But they are good, nonetheless. I am not knowledgeable on the various level of vegetarian diet, but I know that these restaurants have vegetable-only tapas.

Anyway, I have tried almost all of them in the city and these are the ones that we usually go for if we’re in SF and are craving for some:

The best, in my opinion, is Zarzuela along Hyde Street in Russian Hill. The dishes are as authentic as they can be in terms of the types that I’ve had in Spain. There are a lot of vegetable options, too. BTW, extremely tough street parking in this neighborhood.

http://www.themenupage.com/zarzuela.html


Alegrias of Spain, along Lombard near Chestnut St., serves the next best authentic stuff. Each year, the restaurant closes for a month as the owner chef normally takes off for a culinary re-discovery in and around Spain and France.

http://dinesite.com/info/rstrnt-230206/??&t=0


If you can make the trek to Berkeley, then Cesar along Shattuck Ave. is your place. This is a very good restaurant with some Cali take on Spanish tapas that, imho, really worked well. Very good drinks, too.

http://www.barcesar.com/


Thistry Bear is a tapas place in the city and we’ve enjoyed some after work drinks and tapas there as it is the closest to where I worked at before.

http://www.thirstybear.com/

A fair number of restaurants in San Francisco have a small-plates format inspired by, but not hewing strictly to, the tapas experience. Isa in the Marina district, Cortez near Union Square, Eos in Cole Valley, Range in the Mission and Blue Plate in the Mission/Bernal Heights area are some examples. The above are also places which give fair play in their menus to the vegetarians who abound here - there is usually more than just the one token veggie risotto or pasta to choose from.

I have often chosen a dinner from several small plates at Eos and Blue Plate and have had a meal much more to my liking than the usual salad/main course/last course route. Sadly, none of the choices above are "view" type places, but they are all in interesting and accessible neighborhoods.

OH NOOOOO...pressure is on!

I don't think any waiter will be surprised if you ask to make a dish vegetarian. This is not a problem in San Francisco.

The absolutely worst case scenario: order a salad or several sides.

True...I heard SF Comical's restaurant reviewer Michael Bauer on the radio recently and he mentioned even if you go to Harris' or House of Prime Rib they can make you a veggie dish or the veggie sides are huge enough for a meal.

Hey...it's SF.

Any waiter will not be surprised if you ask to make a dish vegetarian ?

I think you are confusing a good restaurant with an established chef manning or supervising the kitchen with a cafeteria or deli where the waiter can also double as the cook. In the case of the latter, yes, the waiter will not be surprised.

Yes, even in SF, good restaurants will refuse to compromise their set dishes and magically turn their meats into vegetables.

Besides, since the OP is looking for a restaurant where ALL, vegetarians and carnivores, “can all have a really good experience”, going to, say, House of Prime Rib (which, imho, is a bad place to go whether one is a carnivore or a vegetarian) would not provide the really good experience for the vegetarian when all they end up eating are potato halves/wedges and the really bad vegetable salads.

Oh my gosh, as a vegetarian whose friends are all omnivores, I am so tired of going to "fantastic" San Francisco restaurants and ordering "the vegetarian option." It kills me to pay $25 for a plate of pasta, and the dish always feels like an afterthought. At comfort-food restaurants (Nopa, Presidio Social Club, Home), it's usually mac-and-cheese. Sigh.

Someone mentioned Asian, and I think that or something like Indian is the way to go. (I love tapas, but I can only eat so many potato dishes.) Slanted Door does some things with tofu that blow me (and my meat-eating friends) away. In the Tenderloin---not necessarily where you want to bring visitors---Pagolac serves exceptionally good Vietnamese on the cheap. I love Helmand in North Beach for Afghani food, though the atmosphere is a bit hushed.

There are a ton of terrific neighborhood eateries---Chinese on Clement, etc---and if you do a search on this list you'll find a lot of suggestions. Or check the Top 100 by cuisine types for good options.

Good luck!

I usually go to Italian or Asian restaurants with my vegetarian friends as there are always a good selection of non meat dishes. Fortunately my closest friend who is a vegetarian eats seafood so that increases the options when dining with her. When I visit another vegetarian friend in the UK we usually have Indian food because of the availability of vegetarian dishes. Some places that I have gone with such friends are Limon, Delphina, Perbacco, Dosa, Citizen Thai and the Monkey, A16, Plouf (with the friend who eats seafood), Pesce, Acquarello, and Slanted Door.

Delfina and Limon have very, very limited vegetarian options as stand alone dishes.

Thanks for all the replies. I will look up the menus online for the places mentioned to see if they offer enough vegetarian choices. I don't want them to be limited to a couple of potato, salad or pasta dishes. By the same token, we don't want spend the time and energy to fly up to this culinary gem of a city only to nosh on tofu and brown rice. (okay, okay, I know they can do wonderfully creative things without meat, but I would like to have more options)

Thanks again. I'll let you know what we choose.

I've heard good things about the Slanted Door. Haven't eaten there myself, but they may be able to accomodate your tastes. I know one vegetarian friend who was happy there last year. It has nice water views from the Ferry building, if you get a table at the window.
>-

I like Home on Union Street, and while it's not a great variety for vegitarians, it's better than just Mac & Cheese. http://www.home-sf.com/union/dinner.html

Oh, I just thought of another one:

Greens in the Fort Mason area.

The original San Francisco vegetarian restaurant. Great views, Good food, even for carnivores, just high prices.

We love Greens and non-vegetarians who eat there with us have always loved it too. The food is great and the view of the Golden Gate Bridge is beautiful.

I also recommend Millennium in downtown San Francisco. Amazing food and lovely upscale ambiance.

Another vote for Greens. Best vegetarian menu in SF, IMHO.

Green's definately is the most expensive vegetarian in SF.

Okay, I have looked at a few dozen menus, and have come up with these places that have interesting menus and lots of choices for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian: Aziza (Moroccan), Zarzuela (Spanish/Tapas), and Slanted Door (Vietnamese).

I looked at a few Italian places, but the menus I saw did not have many non-meat or non-seafood options. Does anyone knows of an Italian restaurant with a good number of vegetarian choices?

I'm also still working on the Chinese, or any Pan-Asian options. I would like to email them with a few choices of different cuisines, then try to get reservations.

They now live in England, so I'm guessing they get enough Indian food at home.

Thanks again!