Recommendations for Madison, WI and Des Moines, IA please. I would think that Madison, being a college town, would have some type of vegetarian restaurant.

Best vegetarian restaurant around the world
 

In my younger days (35 years back! sounds ancient), it was very difficult to find a good vegetarian restaurant outside of India. I have had tough times in places like HongKong and Japan, and even in the US. However, during my recent visit to Beijing, I had some of the best vegetarian food (in Budhist restaurants). In SFO area, there were some good ones.
Other than generic Indian vegetarian restaurants, have you found good vegetarian restaurants in places where you wouldn't have expected?

Dragonfly in Columbus, Ohio. Excellent (albeit pricey) gourmet vegan/vegetarian food.

Plenty in L.A., but I wouldn't exactly call that unexpected :)

Tamarind Cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam. Upstairs also had a CHEAP excellent massage parlor as well.

There is a dining/food forum on Flyertalk, called Dining Buzz: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diningbuzz-371/

There also is an existing thread on this topic within the Dining Buzz forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...ve-thread.html

Happy Flyertalking!!

Moving this over to the Dining Buzz Forum, where it may be merged with existing threads by the Moderator.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

A lot has changed in the past decade. I'm not vegan but have noticed that almost all airlines have vegan dishes in their mainstream F/J menus. Similarly regular restaurants in foodie cities often have vegan choices on their menu, particularly if fish is allowed. Even McDonalds has vegan choices in much of the world! So easy to find, and not so difficult to get stellar quality at all price points, at least outside of the US mid-west.

In Rio de Janeiro there are quite a few options, vegan and not. Here's a list:

http://www.vegetarianismo.com.br/sit...=127&Itemid=92

Vegan, Vegan is one of my favorites. the national dish, feijoada, is served in a vegan from and is delightful. I have even taken carnivores there without complaints, although I was the one paying the bill.

I've been doing the vegan thing for the past month or so, but I'm not a strict vegan. While I'm home, it is pretty easy to do a strict vegan diet, but when I'm away, I usually don't have the option to find a vegan restaurant, and a lot of times the choices stink,or they have lots of vegetarian options but nothing vegan.

In addition, I mostly went vegan for the health benefits, not the "humanitarian" benefits, as I have no problem with humans being at the top of the food chain.

My question is: if I am going to stray from vegan on occasion at restaurants, is it better healthwise to go with a vegetarian option or with a fish option (without dairy/egg)? I'm thinking that fish is healthier than milk/eggs/cheese, especially if it is a real fish (like a whole fish) and not heavily processed fish food. Any thoughts?

If this is something you plan to do on occasion at restaurants, I think you should just eat whatever you like best. There are certainly concerns with fish as well, but if this is an every once in awhile type of thing, the health benefits or risks from either of those choices likely isn't enough to matter much.

Google is your friend:

http://madisonvegan.com/

Happycow.com and its app has worked wonders for me.

I love veggies but I can't say that I'm a fully pledge vegan because I also eat meat and fish. I know the benefits of veggies that can give to our health so I ensure that I will eat them often. It's a great health investment that can really make our life longer.

Of course you can get pizza and pasta in Rome without meat, but the best meal we had in Rome was at restaurant called Un Punto Macrobiotico. It was in the neighborhood closeby to the apartment where we were staying. I can't explain the difference between vegan, vegetarian and macrobiotic but I know good plentiful food when it's put in front of me.

For 8 euros, we were given soup followed by full plates with 4 different vegetarian dishes. I think bottled water was included. We were stuffed by the time we cleaned the plates. Then they came by and offered us seconds!!!!!! It was included in the price.

In the last 4 years, we have moved to a diet much more vegetable and fruit centric, with meat appearing on the table an average of 2-3 days a week. Since moving to FL, I do eat more fish, but we've maintained a good diet and are healthier and lighter than ever before and I owe it all to this place showing us just how much variety and flavor vegetarian cooking could provide.

Anyone had anything good lately?

I'm looking for some must-trys in Dublin, Edinburgh, and Berlin. I was a little worried about Dublin, but after some googling, there seem to be some really great vegetarian restaurants there. I was drooling over some of the menus.