Boston Vegan Eateries

Looking for fine dining in the great city of Boston but all you can find are steakhouses and pizza parlors that cater to animal-eating diners? For someone new to the area or just visiting, spending a great deal of time trying to find a restaurant that caters to your dietary habits and palate can be time-consuming and hard to cope with when you're hungry. Also attempting to find strictly vegan choices can be a hassle as most places offer food more along the lines of a vegetarian's diet with few vegan options included. Most restaurants trying to supply health-conscious folk choose to aim their focus at the former moreover the latter.

Boston offers a great variety of vegetarian and vegan cuisine. Whether you prefer simplistic foods or extravagant meals, plain Americanized favorites or Asian platters, Beantown has a little something for everyone.

Original Buddha's Delight is a lovely little Asian-themed restaurant on Beach Street in Chinatown that provides stomach and wallet-friendly dishes with appetizing flares of flavor. Offering an assortment of rice and noodle dishes with pseudo-meat cooked in, you can bet there will be something to fill you up, whether you're a carnivore, omnivore, or vegetarian/vegan. Original Buddha's Delight is an excellent place to order comfort food - somewhat greasy, but nonetheless scrumptious.

TJ Scallywaggle's Vegan House of Pizza and Subs is the epitome of great eating at a cheap price. Just over in the Allston area on Cambridge Street, TJ's offers a menu of vegan pizzas and subs to satiate any appetite. With traditional plates like cheese pizza and meatball subs, the conventional ingredients are replaced with delicious, creature-friendly ones. A smorgasbord of choices, I highly recommend Maggie's Meetbahl sub and the Capt. Jazelda's Sauhsage-Pineapple specialty pizza. Food not being the only thing on the menu, Thursdays are live music nights, featuring local bands. For more information on upcoming performances to coincide with your great meal, check out: http://www.myspace.com/tjscallywaggles.

If you're looking for a higher class of dining, recently opened Grezzo Restaurant on Prince Street offers a classy attitude with classy meals. With soups and appetizers in the $8 - $15 range, entrees around $20, and desserts just over $10, be prepared to spend a pocketful of money on small portions. Grezzo is renowned for having 100% raw organic vegan dining, adding an extra touch of authenticity to the menu. On a weekly basis the menu changes, so if you do find that one perfect meal, there may run the possibility that it won't be available the following week.

Not exactly in Boston, but rather located in the outskirts of town in Waltham is Masao's Kitchen, a 100% vegan and macrobiotic restaurant with all the right moves. Lunch buffets are offered daily with great choices, at about $8 a pound for all-you-can-eat. Small and out of the way, Masao's is a delightful eatery where upon entry, you're greeted like family and given great amounts for a little price.

Never underestimate a restaurant's facade - you're only cheating yourself when you don't try the hole-in-the-wall eateries. For more information, please visit The Boston Vegan Association's webpage: http://www.bostonvegan.org.