Doper Vegetarians: Favorite Chain-Restaurant Selections?

Cafe Society
1

Hi Out There in Doper Land!

Two weeks ago, I began transitioning to vegetarian (with occasional eggs and dairy, organic if possible – hell, I might even evolve into a flexitarian, though I haven’t desired meat for 10 days now). Friday night out to dinner at a local chain restaurant is a regular institution with me and the SO – it’s practically the only time we see each other face-to-face all week! So I’m looking for your favorite, tried-and-true vegetarian meals/selections/adaptations from the following chain restaurants, so I won’t cry in inexperienced frustration when I see the menu:

-El Torito
-Acapulco
-TGIFriday’s
-Chili’s
-Olive Garden
-Joe’s Crab Shack
-Outback Steakhouse
-BJ’s Brewhouse (might be only West Coast)
-Red Lobster
-Cheesecake Factory

Thanks in advance!
Yamirskoonir

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I have been a vegetarian for years, though have recently started experimenting with fish. We don’t have all of the chains you listed here, though, and I’ve never bothered with Joe’s Crab Shack or Outback (I mean, why?).

I avoid most chain restaurants but, on your list, I have found Olive Garden among the most vegetarian-friendly. Eggplant parmesan seems to be a staple, and there are almost always several options. Olive Gardens are my “out of town” staple. When passing through Iowa, there seem to be Olive Gardens on or closely off the interstates in major cities, but finding anything else vegetarian friendly is a challenge. (Dubuque, I’m looking at you. I’m sure there are other things, but, not close to our route.) This also tends to be my go-to chain when with people who insist on chains, since I hate most chains so much. I know it’s not great, but it’s serviceable at least.

Cheesecake Factory has tons of options. I find their dishes kind of a crapshoot overall, but on the occasions I’ve gone there, Evelyn’s Favorite Pasta is a pretty serviceable dish. Stay away from the eggplant sandwich if they still have it - way too greasy! The bread was falling apart from grease. They had Pad Thai at one point, but it doesn’t seem to be on the menu now. Not recommended. Lots of dessert options, of course. I like their house bread that comes with dinner.

Among the worst would be Applebee’s, which you fortunately did not list. I hate the Veggie Patch Pizza and that seems to be the only regular menu item that is vegetarian. They also seem very poor at customizing orders. It’s been a long time but I did not find TGIFriday’s or Chili’s much better, but this was years ago.

Red Lobster is dreadful for vegetarians. The only thing - other than a side salad - I could get there was some kind of lackluster chicken pasta alfredo, minus the chicken. Dreadful.

Surprisingly enough, a little lower on the totem pole, IHOP has lots of vegetarian friendly options. Breakfast food generally is good as it’s easy to order dishes just without bacon or sausage. I love the cheese blintzes.

If you have Village Inn or Red Robin, they have all of their burger options available with a meatless patty, so I don’t mind going there on occasion. (Dry restaurant Gardenburger? No thanks. Add avocados or blue cheese? I’m there.)

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One other thing - since you’re new to being vegetarian, I’ll give you some non-chain recommendations too. I find that chains are much less willing to give vegetarian options.

The typical Mexican restaurant usually has about 6 vegetarian choices, occasionally more. Bean burritos, guacamole, cheese enchiladas, chile rellenos, and occasionally vegetable fajitas are expected.

Chinese is a good option too, and I have never found a Chinese place that would not make a dish slightly different than asked. One note, I tend to find the stuff right off the menu a little bland. I often will ask if they can make a dish “spicy” since that seems to mean “having some spices in it”.

Indian food and Thai are among my favorites but are too adventurous for some. Thai often has fish sauce hidden, but, I don’t worry about it too much based on the quantity. Indian of course is vegetarian friendly and packed with flavor. This is great as many vegetarian options tend to be bland.

Italian is a standby for me as long as you’re in the mood for pasta; there’s generally not much else on the menu (well, other than pizza or calzones, if you’re at that sort of place) or salads.

The ubiquitous Caesar salads generally have anchovies (in the dressing, if nothing else) as is traditional. I tend to avoid these.

4

fluiddruid is right to mention Chinese. I find PF Chang’s to be particularly veggie friendly. I adore their Ma Po Tofu.

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I’m not a vegetarian, but I do keep kosher (but will eat kosher fish or vegetarian meals in non-kosher restaurants), and my parents like chain restaurants.

Most chain restaurants have menus online. If Mr. Neville and I are going out to dinner with my folks, and they suggest a chain restaurant, we check the menu online ahead of time to make sure there will be something we can have. The key is to check the menu before committing to eat at a particular restaurant, if at all possible. A lot of restaurants post their menu somewhere outside the door, so you can look over it and see if there’s something you can have before you go in. Or you can ask to have a look at a menu before being seated.

It’s usually not a problem at most chains, as long as you’re willing to accept things like pasta, veggie burgers, salads, pizzas, cheese, and platters of side dishes.

I find that Chili’s doesn’t have much that we can have- they don’t have much in the way of vegetarian entrees or even kosher fish IIRC. I second Applebee’s as not a good choice for a vegetarian.

Seafood places in general don’t tend to have much that’s suitable for vegetarians- not too surprising, that.

Mr. Neville and I don’t go to steakhouses, though I think some of his family members who also keep kosher do- they get side dishes, since the steaks aren’t kosher.

If Mexican restaurants aren’t too authentic, they often have things like cheese enchiladas, chili rellenos, and bean or grilled vegetable burritos.

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I’m with fluiddruid: Indian food is my favorite, and most of the menu is vegetarian.

I can eat a salad and find at least one veggie appetizer at every restaurant. I tend to avoid soup (except tomato) because it is often prepared with a chicken or beef stock. I still eat some dairy, so a grilled cheese and salad is easy for the kitchen to prepare if sandwiches are already on the menu. If the menu has an a la carte list, a plate full of side dishes is an easy option for the kitchen to put together as well.

At Chili’s I order the black bean burger and add pepper jack cheese.

Friday’s: portobello pasta

Olive Garden: Ravioli di Portobello

The seven layer burrito at Taco Bell is meat free, and I love McDonald’s special sauce so I order a Big Mac with the meat on the side. Nearly all pizza restaurants offer a veggie option.

A lot of how much trouble eating out will be depends on how hardcore you are about avoiding animal products. Many cooks use chicken broth to steam vegetables in to add flavor, and a lot of saucy dishes on the Chinese buffet start with a chicken or beef base. Cheaper mozzarella cheeses and some pizza sauces contain chicken fat to make the flavor taste “richer”. It is up to you whether or not you can tolerate small amounts of meat added for flavor.

I try not to aggravate the restaurant staff with substitutions, so before I assume that I can get a special order, I ask. “Can I order the club sandwich with the meat on the side, like a grilled cheese?” or “I really want the pasta, do you have any sauce in the kitchen that doesn’t have meat in it?”

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Congrats on going veg; if you eat right I think you’ll find it really tasty and healthy! I hope you don’t regard this as thread-shitting, but my restaurant recommendation would be to try some non-chain restaurants. I totally get it if you have a specific chain restaurant you’re really attached to, but I don’t quite understand the general desire for any chain restaurant. If the concern is money, personally I find most chain restaurants to be really expensive for what they are. Eating at local joints supports your neighbors instead of national companies and the food is more likely (though still probably not extremely likely) to use local food sources. Also, it tends to be way fresher. No cite, but I’ve heard that places like Chili’s and the Olive Garden heat up pre-made meals from corporate (again, I can’t personally back this up but I can sure believe it). Finally, with regards to the crux of your OP, chain restaurants can be less flexible for vegetarians. If that pasta dish is pre-made in large quantity with ham, you’re out of luck-- but somewhere where things are made more to order, they can leave it out.

Sorry to not strictly address your question, but I figured I’d add my two cents. I don’t mean to sound preachy or condescending-- your mileage will always vary. I just think you’ll find a lot of delicious stuff if you branch away from chains!

8

Subway of course is veggie friendly and I really like their veggie patty; I assume however that you are excluding fast food joints. At Chilli’s, if you order a burger you can replace the meat with a delicious veggie patty. This has caused the local establishment to skyrocket up my list of favorite dinner locations.

Another good place to eat is Moe’s Southwest Grill. It’s a meximerican place with tofu as a “meat” option. In the opinion of a newly converted friend, their tofu is “surprisingly good.” I visit almost every time I’m in a town with a Moe’s (usually college towns or towns with 60,000+ populations.

I definitely would not reccomend Applebee’s. I’ve had a bad experience there. On their menu they stated that they would replace the meat with a veggie patty, so I ordered a burger there. 40 minutes later, after the table next to us goes through all 3 courses, pays, and leaves, I get my burger, inspect it to make sure that the patty is indeed a veggie, and ravenously dig in - only to taste an odd, greasy, and decidedly unpleasant essence. I open the burger up for further inspection and underneath the patty and the vegetables are bacon strips. Morons :smack:

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At Cheesecake Factory I usually get a salad and a side of mashed potatoes. I know I’ve eaten at Friday’s and Olive Garden, but not recently enough to remember what I’ve ordered. I don’t think I’ve been any of the other places you list.

I second the advice to avoid Applebee’s at all costs.

Mexican restaurants are usually fairly easy, but inquire about whether things are vegetarian. Often the refried beans are not, but the black beans are.

Mostly, you just need to be willing to order off-menu a bit. If bland food is your thing, check out the kids’ menu. They often list things like grilled cheese, so you know the kitchen is willing to make it. Otherwise, I often order two appetizers, one as the main course. That’s usually plenty of food.

Good luck!

10

Also, the veggie patty is regional. I actually talked to one owner and she said it was a choice to even carry it. It is barely known in the Midwest - Dodgeville, WI has been the only place I’ve found it.

Ha! This happened to me with a quesadilla once there. I literally had an argument with an Applebee’s waitress who insisted that bacon was not a meat.

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Moved from IMHO to CS.

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Bacon, by the way, is not a meat in some parts, it’s a condiment.

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The bean burrito at TB is vegetarian, too, and they’re good about replacing meat with beans for most things on the menu. Crunch wrap, mexican pizza, etc.

For mexican restaraunts, you’ll want to ask if there’s lard in the beans, and if they make their rice with chicken stock.

We don’t do Olive Garden, but I know they have at least one veg soup, plus breadsticks, salad, pasta with marinara.

Outside of chains, almost everyplace has stir frys and such. Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern (falafel! grape leaves! yum!), and Mexican are probably your best bets for multiple choices.

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According to my HS human ecology teacher neither seafood/fish or poultry are meat either. :smack:

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Olive Garden:
The cheese ravioli and the portebello ravioli are good. You can get them with various different sauces, too–just be sure to ask which sauces are vegetarian.
A few times I’ve ordered the “Chicken Giardino” (“Fresh vegetables and chicken tossed with farfalle pasta in a lemon-herb sauce.”) without the chicken. So it’s basically a pasta with a lot of veggies in a pretty tasty lemon-herb sauce. They’ve never batted an eye at ordering it sans chicken.
The manicotti is veggie AFAIK but I haven’t tried it.

**
Outback** is nearly impossible. They even put chicken stock in the mashed potatoes.

Macaroni Grill hides meat in everything. Their alfredo sauce has chicken stock and their marinara has beef broth!! (At least it used to–I gave up on them long ago.)

On the Border is also bad, as their beans have bacon in them.
Wherever you go, remember about the “hidden meat” items. Things like caesar salad are almost never vegetarian as most caesar dressing contains anchovies, for example. Same goes for anything with worcestershire sauce.

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Ceesecake Factory has a really good Veggie Burger, not a Gardenburger, Boca, or really like any other Veggie Burger I’ve had- except that they have the exact same Veggie Burger at Houston’s :confused:

Anyway, rice is used as the base of the patty and I think maybe beets are involved because the patty ends up being purple. It falls apart if you’re not careful with it, but it’s really pretty delicious- kinda sweet.

Taco Bell was mentioned upthread, not actually vegetarian. There’s lard in the beans and in the tortillas. Del Taco has no lard in either their beans or their tortillas, so a bean burrito or a “veggie works” burrito at Del Taco would actually be vegetarian.

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bienville, thankfully, Taco Bell stopped using lard several years ago. There is a “ingredient statement” on this page, (click on ingredient statement) and lard isn’t included in any non-meat products.

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Noted. Good to know, thanks!

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The only “hidden nonvegetarian” thing at Taco Bell is the sour cream, which contains gelatin. (Many sour creams do)

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IANAV, but I adore Noodles & Co. as a great place to eat. Plus, every dish comes without meat - I’m not sure exactly which ones contain no meat products, but they’re pretty good about telling you what’s in their dishes. It’s the go-to place for my best friend and I when we want to eat lunch out together - she’s vegetarian and I am not. We both have plenty of tasty options.

If you have one near you, I highly recommend them.