Vegetarian Food in Louisville

A few weeks ago, I broke my own cardinal rule and ordered a veggie burger in a local restaurant. It was sad. To this day I cannot understand why otherwise skilled restaurants cannot seem to construct a decent veggie burger. Heck, I'd settle for a frozen Boca burger, if they'd just stock the vegan variety...

But, to the point of my post--can anybody suggest local places where vegetarians and omnivores can cohabit in peace? My partner took me to Zen Garden for my birthday, and I loved it. But there's only so far she can go with tofu...

I eat fish, now that I live here, but I can't eat cheese, which makes Italian difficult for me. (Oh, the pasta marinaras I've consumed to date....) So help me out, HotBytes Gurus...where in town can I stick to my almost-vegetarian guns while still providing my partner with the variety she desires?

Go Asian and I think you'll find what you need.

Ramsi's, they even have vegan cheese on a couple of dishes.

I know it's a chain but the veggie burger as Ruby Tuesday is phenomenal. It's also huge.

Vietnam Kitchen, Lemongrass Cafe and Le Que all have awesome options for both meat and non meat eaters.

Those are just a couple off the top of my head.

Ethnic is almost always a good option.

I think the BBC in St Matthews has a really good homemade veggie burger.

I was vegan for years and went out to eat with meat-eating friends and family plenty of times during that period, so let me think. . .I second Ramsi's and would add Lemongrass, Vietnam Kitchen, Cafe 360, Sitar, Shiraz, Safier's, Monkey Wrench, 3rd Ave. Cafe, August Moon. . .that's all I'm coming up with at the moment, hope it helps.

How could I forget, Amici has vegan pizza.

Third Ave. Cafe Black Bean Burger was amazing last time I had it (it's been about 4 years, though).

Great suggestions have already been made. I would add Red Pepper to the list as well. I am addicted to their pan-fried tofu, but they have wonderful meat dishes as well. I also find Thai food to be very vegetarian friendly.

I will also back up the suggestion for Ramsi's. Ramsi is very very careful in creating his vegetarian and vegan dishes. We make vegan cakes for him at Sweet Surrender, but before they started ordering them I sat down with him and showed him all of the ingredients that we use. He wanted to be certain that they really were vegan. So I always recommend Ramsi's to my vegan friends and customers.

If your partner is feeling less omnivorish one day, I hope you'll give our all vegetarian menu a try.

Zen Garden (2240 Frankfort Avenue) might be another option....

John! LOL!

John! LOL!

That's what I get for not reading the post thoroughly....

At North End Cafe you can get a vegan reuben, tofu curry (yellow), a tofu stirfry served w/ homefries, trout hash, vegetarian (and often vegan) soup, vegan taco, veggie enchiladas, and a grilled veggie salad w/ sunflower seeds and goat cheese (also available as a sandwich). Also, gluten free pancakes.
We serve all of these until 3pm, and the evening menu has options as well. Just specify your wants and we will work it out.

Mojitos! It's sure to please everyone . . . . I often get veggie type things (grilled veggies, flatbreads, stuffed peppers) and the Hub usually gets a meat and a seafood.

I was going to suggest North End and Shiraz. In addition to what was already mentioned, North End has a great salad with black bean cakes. I don't know if it's seasonal or not though... It's been a while since I was there for anything except breakfast.

Shiraz has several good options.

You're right though. I rarely order a veggie burger when I"m out. They invariably suck.

eta: Havana Rumba has several good vegetarian options as well.

Someone already mentioned this, but Third Avenue Cafe is a great place for vegetarians and carnivores to dine together. Also, it's not the best coupon ever, but if you visit http://www.OldLouisvilleHunt.com and sign up, there is a coupon for a free beverage with entree. Good Luck!