loquacious

Seattle Vegetarian (and Vegan) Restaurants / Dining / Food

This is a list of some of my favorite places to eat. Most of them are not, in fact, exclusively vegetarian. If you've been searching for vegetarian-only places in Seattle, you've already probably found the (rather short) definitive list of them somewhere else on the web.  

Upon reflection, the places on this list are as much about the atmosphere there as the food...as there are actually approximately one million good restaurants in Seattle now.  I have been to all these places many times, and have found them consistently good (except where noted).

Vegetarian Only (vegan noted when I noticed)

Moonlight Cafe. just outside the International District, getting into the Central District near 20th and Jackson, this Vietnamese place has mastered the art of the faux-meat dish (and so, most everything is vegan as well). It's really pretty amazing. There are some amazing dishes here, the likes of which one could never make at home. Try the sesame beef, the fish hot pot, or the salmon.  About $7/entree.  Make sure you are ordering off the (extensive, must be 100 items) vegetarian menu. Actually, I've never seen anyone order off the real meat menu, I'm not even sure why they have it. In a strip mall, but again, it's the food. No atmosphere.  (206) 322-3378 http://www.lostinseattle.com/LIS/restaurant/moonlightcafe.html

Carmelita. In the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, an exclusively vegetarian place, with quite a few vegan entree options. I've eaten here many times, and to be honest, it's really hit and miss. I'm not sure what to point you towards. The pizzas are actually pretty good, and the humus plate is the only substantive meal, order that if you are hungry. Or it would make a great appetizer to share for the whole table.  Entrees: about $15 as I recall. Nice atmosphere. (206) 706-7703. http://www.carmelita.net/

Cafe Flora. Probably the largest vegetarian institution in Seattle. Does a great breakfast. Southwest influenced cuisine. It's a little bland for my taste, but some people swear by it. If you are only in Seattle for one or two days, I'd try other places first.  Nice atmosphere. http://www.cafeflora.com/

Hillside Quickie. In the U Disrict and also on Capitol Hill/15th. Really, amazingly good sloppy sandwiches and other dishes. Sort of down home/souther kind of a feel. Perfect for lunch, not bad for dinner. No atmosphere, but really great food -- again, not the kind of thing I'd ever even think of making at home.  Despite the name, not quicker than a regular restaurant.  I believe the vegan options are numerous. http://www.hillsidequickie.com/

Not Vegetarian Exclusively.

A note on the criteria here: as above, there are a ton of good restaurants in Seattle. I find a lot of them to have one or two bland vegetarian options. And they tend toward a corporate blandness in their style and service that I also don't find that appealing. The list below is mainly slightly quirkier places with friendly staffs that have a bit of character and really good, flavorful food.  Except for Marco's, they are not convenient to downtown. But they are worth the trip.

Nice Dinner Spots: (ie. a nice evening out/nice atmosphere)

Marco's Supper Club. Italian joint in the near-downtown Belltown neighborhood. Not a ton of veggie variety on the menu, but everything I've ever had there has been superb. And the service has always been impeccable. Also, it really is a superclub, in that the table is yours for the evening, they are not going to try and rush you out. Courses are served slowly, one at a time. So take your time, get some wine, and spend 3 hours here.  With wine, about $50 each if  you do 3 courses and desert. Stand alone entree: about $15.  Well worth it if you have $50 to spend in one place on on one evening.  Reservations recommended, and they even have a small outside area for eating in the summer.  Great ambiance. (206) 441-7801 http://www.marcossupperclub.com/

Tamarind Tree. Theoretically Vietnamese, but it seems more pan-Asian at times. A few vegetarian items, but the thrill here is those that there are, are terrific. Start with Tamarind Tree roles. Yummy. Also recommended are the mango salad (with lemongrass tofu....to die for), and the Bahn tray: basially, you make your own salad roles. Fun and yummy. Also not very expensive for such a nice place, $8 entrees.  It's always busy after 7, any day of the week. Make reservations if you can.  On 12th and Jackson, just outside the International District. http://www.tamarindtreerestaurant.com/index.php

Kingfish Cafe. On Capitol Hill/19th, but not near much of anything. Southern cuisine, which as we know is not very vegetarian compliant. Once again, only one or two entrees are veggie, but the salads and desserts and sides are SO good, worth the trip. On the downside: no reservations, and there is often a very long wait on a weekend evening, sometimes even on weekdays.  Entrees run about $15.  The coconut cake is to die for. (206) 320-8757.http://www.thekingfishcafe.com/

Swingside Cafe. An Italian place in Fremont, though you'd never know it from the name. Very homey, cosy, converted house that seats not many at all. It's been a while since I was here, but they have a couple of signature dishes that are vegetarian -- try the aglio olio. (206) 633-4057. http://seattle.citysearch.com/profile/10774466/#

Slightly less expensive Dinner, more downscale, also good for Lunch:

Seattle has great Thai food. Here are some of my favorites, most have the $8-$10 entree.  Ayutthaya (206) 324-8833 (Pike/Pine neighborhood; Harvard and Pike); Noodle Ranch (206) 728-0463 (Belltown, actually more pan-asian, the thai salad is great).

Jamjuree (206) 323-4255 (on 15th Ave/Capitol Hill), I will single out for special mention in the Thai category. Food always good here. There's at least one vegetarian special each week, I usually just get that and am never disappointed. http://www.jamjuree.com/

Agua Verde: cafeteria-esque Mexican, probably my favorite Mexican place in Seattle, in the University District on the ship canal. You can rent a kayak here as well. If you go for lunch, arrive before noon or after 1:30 as it is packed at noon. Evenings (especially weekends) can be bad too.  This is because there is absolutely no other place of any merit in the U District. (206) 545-8570; www.aguaverde.com

Lunch:

Venus Cafe: in a nameless neighborhood (S. Lake Union?) north of downtown, this little joint, attached to the Mars Bar, has a bunch of great salads and sandwiches and a nice waitstaff. (206) 624-4516. http://www.cafevenus.com/

Than  Bros. Pho: the lunch deal of the century, they have a great veggie pho (a vietnamese noodle soup) for $3.85. Which I should warn you is the sole vegetarian option. On Broadway on Capital Hill. Good for a cheap dinner as well, but completely lacking in atmosphere. (206) 568-7218

 

Breakfast:

And by breakfast, I mean weekend breakfast/brunch.

Hi-Spot Cafe.  In Madrona, at the end of Union street. Great little cafe, with a great staff. Sometimes a wait, especially around 9 or 10am. Everything you might want for breakfast. (206) 325-7905. http://www.hispotcafe.com/

Portage Bay Cafe.  In the University District on Roosevelt Ave (also now in South Lake Union), a great place to go for breakfast/brunch. I love the 'pancake bar:' all the pancake toppings you could ever want, all laid our for you to help yourself.   They've changed their menu now, there are more veggie items on the lunch and dinner menu, but I haven't had them so can't vouch for them. (206) 547-8230 http://www.portagebaycafe.com/Home.html

Government Funded Research to De-Gay Sheep

Well, now I've seen three of my current areas of interest collide: queer issues, vegetarianism/animal rights, and brain science. And not in a good way.

Researchers at Oregon State University are experimenting on 'male-oriented rams' (about 5-8% of all rams apparently are uninterested in mating with female rams, though not all of them try to mate with male sheep). Essentially, they are conducting experiments to alter their male orientation to be female oriented. This is done through various heartless methods, and of course ends with the death of the rams and the dissection of their brains.

Read details in the Oregonian.

Because there is no reason on the planet to try and 'fix' a 'problem' with 5% of all male sheep, it doesn't seem like to large a stretch of the imagination that these experiments may have intended impact on humans at some point, not just sheep. In fact, the researchers have said exactly that, in a 2004 journal article (Physiol Behav 83:233-245): "This research also has broader implications for understanding the development and control of sexual motivation and mates selection across mammalian species, including humans..."  (cited in a PETA letter picking apart the Universities' lame excuses for doing these experiments)

As a gay person, I'm offended by this research. I can't say why it'd be worth anyone's time to try and change the way that only 5% of all rams are? Can you?  I don't want to think that these researchers have an alternate agenda against gay humans, but it's hard not to suspect that that is someone's goal here. Gay people have been belittled, degraded, and treated inhumanely, including attempts to exterminate us, in the past -- so please forgive me if I'm seeming sensitive about experiments that are supposed to make any creature 'un-gay'.

I've been having this nagging little thought in the back of my brain, as I read more about neuroscience, genetics, and brain research: will it really be a good thing if a genetic or biological basis (or even tendency) for homosexuality is found? One the one hand, it completely vindicates what most gays and lesbians feel: that they were born this way -- and punishing us for an fact of birth is wrong (and immoral). However, people being what they are, and science being what it is, we can all be sure that if there is a 'test' for homosexuality that can be given in utero, some (maybe most all at this point in time) parents will get that test, and most (maybe all) I'd guess will stop that pregnancy. [out, I'm sure, of what they feel is a good motivation, to 'save' their prospective child from what they misunderstand to be a lifetime of strife]

And so, voila!  No gays and lesbians. Extermination through birth selection. Hello, eugenics, been a while since we saw you last.

A long ways off? Wrong. Genetic screening for fetuses is already here. Sex can be screened for, and in effect, selected for legally. Screening for genetic diseases will be next. If the 'gay' markers are known, how would anyone stop anyone from exercising their own right over their own bodies?  [Science and technology is already paving the way to the potential elimination of one group of people -- the deaf culture - see Sound and Fury.]

There are going to be tough times ahead, with some hard choices to make: are we against all genetic screening? are we against a woman's right to control her own body? should we begin a campaign to make sure the genetic/biological basis of homosexuality is never found? Will it all come down in 5 years or 20? No way of knowing. Where will gays and lesbians be by that time? Accepted by society? Enough not to be screened out at birth?  Will we shrink to .5% of the population?

For me, it creates even more urgency about the public education that needs to be done about gays and lesbians, because if by the time this all comes to pass, we're still viewed as having a problem that needs to be fixed, we're going to get fixed, and good.

Sign the PETA online campaign.

More information on the bad science behind this work, and the connection to intersex issues.

Book 17: Rattling the Cage: toward legal rights for animals

Rattling the Cage: toward legal rights for animals
Daniel Wise (2000)
270 pp.
Rating: 5 of 5

I’m not sure whether the whole vegetarian/animal rights thing should be a dot in the Connect The Dots network of ideas.  While I personally gravitate towards these ideas as illuminative of our sense of what it is to be human and act morally in the world, the truth is that I’m not so sure how easily I can connect this dot to the others (eg. globalization, masculinity, the rise of conservatism) that do seem to all go together much better. Maybe I’ll figure it out before I give up on this blog!

At any rate, this is an excellent book. I had a chance to meet Jane Goodall several years ago, who handed this book out to the group I was in. Took me this long to get around to reading it. Shame on me, because it’s an extremely interesting and thought-provoking book.  Although the book Is putatively about making the legal, scientific and moral arguments about why chimps and bonobos should be consider legal (non-human) persons (rather than property, their current status), the book to me was really about having to understand what it means to be human. Because to understand how close these animals are to us, it’s necessary to understand what make us, well, us (human beings).

What is usually understood to distinguish humans from other animals is consciousness. Most importantly, an awareness of self as conscious, as well as an awareness that others are conscious as well; as well as a tertiary awareness that those others are aware of your own consciousness. Just think about it, we wouldn’t get very far if we were only aware of our own consciousness (see Mind Wide Open).

After some drier legal chapters (skippable!), Wise gets into discussing the wide variety of conclusive research that shows that chimps (and bonobos, but I’ll just say ‘chimps’ from here) raised in supporting, language-rich human environments, have this ability (and in spades!). In fact, as you’d expect, the secondary level of awareness is also proven in cats, dogs, parrots, pigs, dolphins… the list goes on). What makes chimps somewhat different than these others, is that they can master a language – sign language. So they can also communicate to us. Dramatic evidence of their consciousness is given in the book, which seems to pretty conclusively show that these chimps reach at least the developmental stage of a human 3 year old.   

Only a few chimps have been raised in this supportive environment, but all chimps have this capacity. Unfortunately, most chimps are endangered – entirely from humans, who hunt them for food, who torture them in medical experiments, who jail them in zoos. You really can’t look at chimps the same after you read this book.

The irony, of course, is that many humans who lack the abilities of these chimps – say, humans in deep prolonged comas, the profoundly mentally retarded, and in many place, unborn humans – have many more rights than these chimps do.  Of course, I am not arguing for reduced rights for any humans. I'm saying it's time to take a cold hard look at how we are treating other conscious species.