Many of the more upscale restaurants in L.A. buy their vegetables at the local farmers markets (particularly popular is the Wed. market in Santa Monica). As a result, it is easy to ask for a roasted vegetable platter and one can rest assured that the vegetables will be fresh and beautifully prepared. Also, it is easy to eat a vegetarian meal at most good Italian restaurants. I was a vegeterian for several years and avoided most "vegetarian" restaurants as I thought that the food was generally terrible..particularly the ones which tried to use tofu as a meat substitute. The worse dish I have ever eaten was at a vegeterian restaurant; it was a "tofu sloppy joe."