San Francisco, as you might expect, is a very vegetarian friendly city. Most every place you go to eat will have more than one decent vegetarian option. There are, of course, some exceptions (I’m looking at you, Blue Plate), but even somewhere like the marvelously meaty Back Porch has a different vegan special each day, which changes according to what looked good at the market that morning. Oh, and their in house hot sauce is insanely good. Of course, on top of this, it’s hard to beat a super vegetarian burrito!

Anyway, I digress. There are some excellent specialist vegetarian restaurants in the city here, and I wanted to share five of my favorites.

1. Cha-ya, Valencia and 19th St

One of the most popular stops on Valencia, its Japanese menu is long and varied. There are soups, hot pots, goiza and a full selection of vegan sushi. It’s cash only, and gets pretty busy, so go early. They also have a great range of sake, as well, so this is a great place to go on a Friday or Saturday evening, before stopping across the road for a beer in the Elbo Rooms.

2. Millennium, Geary and Jones
Winner of ‘Favorite Vegetarian Restaurant’ in the 2008 VegNews Veggie Awards (now there’s prestigious), this is a top class restaurant that takes vegetarian and vegan cooking very seriously. Taking vegetarian cuisine into the realm of high end dining, it’s pricey, but more than worth visiting for a special occasion. They also have monthly special events, where they show case a holiday, or seasonal ingredient. Their summer tomato plate is really worth saving up for.

3. Herbivore, Valencia and 21st st, and Divisadero and Fell
Cheap, all vegan, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner… this is somewhere that vegans and vegetarians can take their meat eating friends for some tasty and affordable quick eats, and not have them complain about how dull things are without flesh on their bruschetta. Also good if you’re with someone who is lactose intolerant.

4. Golden Era, O’Farrell and Jones

Here’s their description of one of their dishes “Soy "chicken" sautéed in special sweet chili soy sauce, embedded on lettuce, tomato and cucumber.” How tremendous is that? It’s cheap, it’s tasty, it’s nonspecifically South East Asian… what’s not to love?  A good place to stop before heading to the theatre, or to a bar on Polk street.

5. Pirate Cat Radio and Café, 21st st.\ and Florida

Not strictly a restaurant, but a great place to have a coffee at their sidewalk tables (it’s a quiet street, so there aren’t cars all the time), listen to their radio broadcast going out, and do some reading. Oh, and did I mention that they have vegan doughnuts? In three different flavors, as well.

These are just my favorites – I’m sure you have yours. And yes, as always, we’d like to know. Especially if you don’t live in San Francisco – tell us about your city!