Top Spots For Vegetarian Tasting Menus

Thanks to talented chefs
who know flavor doesn't have to hinge on meat, vegetarian diners have
more and better options than ever around DC.


And when it comes
to fine dining tasting menus, the city's tops chefs have taken the
vegetarian challenge and answered with elegant and satisfying meat-free
meals.


Take 2941, for example, where
chef Bertrand Chemel offers a nightly six-course vegetarian tasting menu
for $65 featuring dishes such as pearl onion stuffed with eggplant and
red peppers, and chestnut velouté with Armagnac custard. Hardly the veg plate du jour some chefs used to pass off as an adequate meal.


If
you're opting out of the carnivore clan, many places are more than
happy to accommodate, especially if you call ahead to let them know.


But when you haven't made that call, here's a look at some of DC's best restaurants that always offer vegetarian tasting menus.

• Cafe Atlantico

At the popular Nuevo Latino dim sum brunch on Sundays, the veggie tasting menu offers 12 dishes for $25 a person.

• CityZen

Chef Eric Ziebold packs as much elegant whimsy and flavor into his six-course vegetarian tasting menu ($95) as the regular menu.

• Komi

Since there really is no menu at Johnny Monis' intimate restaurant, a reservation involves a conversation about food preferences,
and the kitchen can do a vegetarian version of the indulgent $135 degustazione
menu.

• Rasika

At this temple of Indian cooking, vegetarians can opt for chef Vikram
Sunderam's four-course menu for $50 or a six-course menu for $60. (PS - A
second Rasika will open at 1177 22nd St. next year.)

• Restaurant Eve tasting room

The
meat-less options on chef Cathal Armstrong's tasting room menu are
popular with meat-eaters as well. There's always one vegetarian choice
under each of the tasting menu's courses. Tasting menus start at $110.

• Restaurant Nora

At Nora Pouillon's organic cuisine pioneer restaurant, the four-course vegetarian tasting menu runs $75.

• The Source

Vegetarianism takes on Asian flavors on chef Scott Drewno's nightly veggie tasting menus, featuring seven courses for $135.

• Vermilion

Tony Chittum's four-course vegetarian tasting menus win raves even among the meat-eating set. The menu costs $55.

• Volt

In Frederick, Md., vegetarians will find creative options like a "study
of parsnip" with bourbon gastrique or hedgehog mushrooms in farro
risotto on Bryan Voltaggio's six-course market vegetable menu ($95).

• 2941

In addition to his nightly six-course vegetarian menu for $65, chef Bertrand Chemel just added "Meatless Monday" specials, priced from $8-$19, to the menu.


Had a great vegetarian tasting menu? Tell us about it in the comments.