Photo Gallery of Washington Restaurants

There are so many meat-free options in Washington that when vegetarian friends from Copenhagen came to visit, I didn't have to worry about their dining choices. During their stay here, they sampled a different vegetarian-friendly restaurant every day and didn't get bored.

For starters, they headed to Teaism, also Pan-Asian but with a quasi-cafeteria feel. Tea, as the name indicates, is prominent, but the vittles include a vegetarian bento box; an Indian vegetable curry; freshly baked naan to order; cilantro scrambled eggs and wonderful sides like edamame (salted Japanese soybeans in the pod) and cucumber salad (or whatever is seasonal). Their three locations are distinctly different in size and feel -- the original Dupont Circle store is often cramped yet very full of neighborhood energy; the Lafayette location, near the White House, is more stately and open only during the day; and the newest store, located near the Seventh Street Galleries, is the roomiest and most peaceful of all. Make sure you check out the downstairs seating.

Then they ventured to Equinox, Todd Gray's home for regional and seasonal Italian-inspired cooking. Although Gray's menu is fairly meat and fish-heavy, meat-free folks can rest easy and request a vegetarian plate. Gray's wife is a vegetarian and so he's very sensitive to the needs of the meat-free camp. Pasta is house-made; those mushrooms are straight from a forager; the corn could have been picked earlier that day.

If there had been time, we would have peeked into any of the following: Heritage India in Georgetown, which offers a luxurious vegetarian feast served on a silver platter; Café Asia for some seaweed salad, vegetarian dumplings, a sip of miso soup and asparagus sushi rolls; Lebanese Taverna for traditional mezze; and Restaurant Nora, a certified organic restaurant that takes care of the meat-free without a blink of an eye.

A couple of pointers for the road if you get stuck: Middle Eastern, Indian and Ethiopian restaurants generally offer lots of choices for the meat-free crowd, and the Vegetarian Society of Washington DC offers an extensive and current list of "Vegetarian and Veg-Friendly" restaurants throughout the metropolitan area.

-- Kim O'Donnel