Just posted a new review -- 21 Club -- probably my most disappointing experience in recent memory. http://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/20...-club-2-stars/

*ldsant, your pasta sounds similar to what I had at elsewhere (http://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/20...where-3-stars/) I found the pasta + pistachio combination too dry.

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I have to say I'm a bit baffled as to why you would even include them? Aren't their specialties steak tartare and hamburgers?

Ha, yes, it's a good question. I was with a group that wanted to go there, and they do hold themselves out as a top restaurant in the city, so I thought I would see what they could do. Not much, as it turns out...

Actually, they seem to have improved their vegetarian choices in the few days since the blog post (no doubt because of my post!)

Instead of the "Jersey Tomatoes" (which were made with bacon even though the description did not mention bacon), the menu lists "Breaded Buffalo Mozzarella, arugula salad, grilled marinated eggplant, roasted red pepper sauce". And there is also a vegetarian entree (there were none when I went), "Paccheri Pasta, wild mushrooms, pumpkin, basil, Parmesan cream sauce". (See the note updating the post: http://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/20...-club-2-stars/)

Carmelized veggies on the side is the new trend..

restaurants who do this, I considered on the medium to upper end..

The blog branches out!

Check out my recent posts -- Supper, in Philadelphia:
https://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/2...elphia-brunch/

and El Chile, in Austin, TX:
https://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/2...ile-austin-tx/

Don't worry, I'll be back in New York soon, reviewing Bottino (in Chelsea) and Eleven Madison Park.

Spoiler alert -- EMP gets a perfect five-star rating!

oops..

My experience during the past 35 years in the US is that most high class restaurants don't know how to cook vegetarian entres and have hardly one or two on the menu. The high priced items are usually over cooked rice and undercooked beans with plenty of inedible leaves.
Save lots of money and go to a good Thai or Indian restaurant.

Well this is the very purpose of the blog. So for example if you went to Jean-Georges over the summer, they were featuring a tofu salad as one of their starters, a very good beet salad, and a corn ravioli. http://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/20...orges-4-stars/ Eleven Madison Park (review forthcoming) was great for this vegetarian.

I agree that Thai or Indian restaurants have nice vegetarian options. But (1) sometimes you want a really top notch dining experience, and (2) I'm often eating out with others, and I don't want to force them to go ot the same couple of places each time. (See http://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/about-this-blog/ )

But yes, in general I agree with you about the paucity of options...

Top notch dining and vegetarian dishes I agree isn't synonymous..

But if there is a market for it, then restaurants should provide the choices..

I find high end restaurants such as Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian.. do have the extensive vegetarian choices.. perhaps in NA, our preferences are more meat?

Although choices aren't great, they aren't uniformly awful. On the blog I try to highlight the places that stand out. "Farm to table" is a new trend nowadays, and places that try to highlight farm fresh food often have good vegetarian options. Blue Hill is one such place , http://withoutbacon.wordpress.com/20...barns-4-stars/ . And as mentioned, Jean-Georges and Eleven Madison Park both do really well.

This is true at Merrimans' on the BI as well..

Their fish is caught the night before for lunch, and the day of for supper.. and the vegetables are brought in from the farm fresh each day..

This is true of Mama's Fish house on Maui as well..

I think market fresh is a pretty good way to go.. the menu seemed quite appetizing..

Some do have good veggie options on the menu, many more don't. But what I do find is that good restaurants seem happy to make me something that isn't on the menu, when I tell them I am vegetarian. I quite like it that way, as often the chef gets creative (my normal verbage is 'no mushrooms, no celery, other than that, go wild!), and I get something much more adventurous that a mainstream menu entree would be. I've had chefs come back and ask if it would be ok if they send some amuse bouche while they take a little longer making my main, no worries, and they have been very good in those circumstances.

Indeed really top tier restaurants can do an amazing job whipping up something off menu. Like I commented on the OP's blog, last year mrsmicah and I had a meal at the Modern where mrsmicah asked for an all-veggie entree off menu ("no mushrooms, no olives, no parsnips"), and they put together one of the best veggie dishes I've ever eaten. Our server told us that the line cooks look forward to those requests as an opportunity to one-up each other, and when we told her it was actually the best thing all night (not that anything else was bad, but this was just that good), she laughed and said she'd relay our compliments but would have to do so quietly to avoid getting the line cook in trouble for being too good. :)

+1 with themicah.
the best thing to do is just say "freestyle a tasting menu" and see what they bring you. as was previously posted, if you have any allergies/food hates, let them know, and you will be amazed at what shows up for you. chefs love this kind of off-menu experimentation. i also enjoy the surprise of amazing veg stuff that shows up. if you are at a really good restaurant, this is never a problem (well, unless you go to Peter Luger's or the Strip House perhaps).