My husband and I got awfully sick of grilled cheese sandwiches a couple summers ago while vacationing for six days in the Upper Peninsula. Breakfast wasn’t usually a problem, but finding vegetarian options on lunch and dinner menus was rare.
So we were relieved to get back home. Ann Arbor has several restaurants with 100 percent vegetarian menus and many others featuring a dozen or more vegetarian options. You’d expect vegan options in very large metropolises on the east and west coast, but Ann Arbor has an extraordinarily good food scene for vegetarians, especially for its size.
Founded in 1973 and recently relocated to the Westgate shopping center, Seva is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the area and one that many diners think of first. Because the menu’s focus is on vegetarian comfort food, even confirmed meat-eaters don’t mind visiting with their vegetarian friends. The Pasta alla Bosca—penne pasta tossed with chargrilled portabella mushrooms, soy sausage, spinach, olive oil, garlic, hot pepper flakes, and parmesan—and the Enchiladas Calabaza, filled with butternut squash and cream cheese, are two of my favorites.
The Earthen Jar, an all-vegetarian Indian cuisine buffet where customers pay by the pound, is another well-known venue for those who avoid animal-based foods. In recent years, Hut-K Chaats, serving nutritious and delicious vegetarian and vegan Indian street food, and the Lunch Room, serving all-vegan sandwiches, soups and comfort food, have joined the list of vegetarian and vegan local restaurants.
Amy Wright-Olsen, a vegan who lives in Ypsilanti and works in Ann Arbor, likes the Kerrytown Lunch Room but has recently fallen in love with their second location, the Lunch Room Bakery and Café in Huron Towers. “My current favorite is the Beet Bot Boop Bagel, with cashew cheese, marinated beets, and greens on a house made everything bagel,” Wright-Olsen says.
In addition to the all-vegetarian restaurants in the area, many of the ethnic restaurants have a menu page or more dedicated to vegetarian entrees. And even bars and grills in Ann Arbor often have a number of selections for vegetarians and vegans.
“Thai, Indian, and Middle Eastern are reliably good for vegan options,” says Wright-Olsen. “But Arbor Brewing Company is definitely the most vegan-friendly local restaurant that’s not specifically vegetarian. There is a vegan section of the standard menu with an excellent selection of vegan or veganized options.”
And the city is gearing up for one more addition to its list of veg-friendly restaurants. As the City Guide was going to press, the owner of Hut-K Chaats was remodeling the former Jazzy Veggie on S. Main St., turning it into a 100 percent vegan restaurant featuring healthy, whole-grain versions of Indian street food.
