How vegetarian friendly is your city?

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!|||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.|||In my hometown as well as many surrounding towns, I have no trouble finding vegetarian and/ or organic foods.


It's wonderful!|||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.|||I'm in NYC and there are lots of options (dining and shopping). And there's a good variety of cusines, like japanese and indian restaurants with lots of vegetarian items.|||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.|||I live in Rocky Mount, NC. It isn't veg-friendly at all.


I will move up west to Raleigh or Chapell Hill at the


first oppurtunity.|||You'll eat any old crap as long as it's not scrapple huh? Glad you're so "open minded".|||Every market around carries many vegetarian products but since most every market carries grains, veggies, fruits, beans, nuts etc...it's easy to find vegetarian options.|||Small town, north west UK:





Well, we have one natural foods (wholefood) shop, its a co-operative so pretty good. supermakets ( in the UK ) also stock a decent amount of veggie food, not vegan though - you need the wholefood shops for that.





because we run a veggie guest house all the resturants and bars now cater for veggies, all of a sudden they are veggie friendly and want our guests cash .....we're having a big impact on the area, its quite funny really - gradually taking over !





I think we might rename it VeggieVille or something.|||I live in San Jose, California.


I'm pretty lucky I guess. We have grocery stores specifically for vegan and vegetarians plus we have restaurants, cafes and bakeries.|||Forget it, over here they even have vegan restaurants in our hospitals (after getting rid of the fast food chains). Its all over the place over here, it helps to have vegan restaurant chains too...


Actually, I notice that it is quite "fashionable" here to eat vegan food few times a week, to clean the system. Most do it few times only, as organic vegan food is very expensive (over the traditional one).





One of those chain:


http://www.commensal.com/en/default.idig鈥?/a>|||here in India we may proudly say that more than 50 % people are vegetarian so vegan or vegetarian food or hotel we have no problem here .|||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.|||Very friendly. You can find pure veggie food and grocery stores almost everywhere, town, city, airport, shopping malls, etc. We also have Meatout week, talks, exhibitions and vegetarian food fairs. Check it out: http://www.vegetarian-society.org Thanks!|||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.|||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.|||I think it is in where you look. I can find good veggie selections in any city I am in as long as I spend the time.





Safeway, Save-On-Foods, IGA, all carry a big selection of vegetarian foods. And there is at least one health food store in any town I have ever visited.|||Mine is OK, we have a Health Food Store 2 miles away.|||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!|||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.|||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/