Vegetarian Restaurant Eating

If you are a vegetarian or thinking about becoming a vegetarian, you might be worried about how you are going to be able to eat in a restaurant with your meatless lifestyle.  It can be intimidating to think about eating in a restaurant when you are a vegetarian, but the reality is that you actually do have many, many options available to you on menus in restaurants that can support your vegetarian eating habits.

To begin with, you can always order a healthy salad that contains no meat.  Many vegetarians take this option when eating in a restaurant.  Salads are made of a variety of vegetables and if you want to get some protein, ask for a bit of garbanzo beans or seafood if your vegetarian diet allows you to eat seafood.  Add a nice balsamic vinegar and oil dressing and you have a delicious vegetarian meal.

You can also scan the menu for any meatless meals that are available.  If you are going to be choosing the restaurant you are eating in, a good choice for vegetarians would be either an Italian or Mexican restaurant.  These two types of food styles don’t rely on meat for their entrees, so there are almost always a huge variety of meatless meals on the menu.

Another option for the vegetarian when eating in a restaurant is to ask the cook to prepare your meal without the items that aren’t in your diet.  At most sit-down restaurants, they will be happy to adapt their recipes to adhere to your vegetarian eating habits.  It is usually easy to cut out the meat from a simple pasta sauce or take the chicken out of the grilled chicken salad.

What do you do, though, when you are a vegetarian eating in a fast-food restaurant?  While most fast food restaurants are starting to offer more salads on their menus in an effort to adhere to new governmental health standards, your choices are much more limited when eating at a fast food restaurant as a vegetarian.  Really, the only thing you can do is order one of their salads, or opt for the fish option if you eat fish.

Don’t make a big deal about your vegetarian eating habits when in a restaurant.  You’re likely to be met with some disdain, so order what you want that will meet with your lifestyle and then go about the business of enjoying your meal as well as the company!
