Now serving: Carnivores only

In previous entries, we've highlighted some area restaurants that provide nice eating options for vegetarians. Today I'm going to highlight a couple that DON'T do a good job of considering vegetarian eaters.

Obviously, there are some restaurants that are clearly not going to be vegetarian-friendly -- barbecue joints and steakhouses, for example. I'm not really concerned about those, because I'm not very likely to go there. I am concerned with restaurants that I think could and should do a better job of being vegetarian-friendly, the ones that you go into thinking you stand a pretty good chance of getting something vegetarian and are then disappointed.

Julie and I decided to try out Christopher's New Global Cuisine for lunch recently, but discovered to our dismay when we got there that the vegetarian item on their online menu that we'd had our eyes on -- a grilled-vegetable sandwich with tofu -- wasn't actually on their menu. The only vegetarian options we had were a fried green tomato sandwich and an unhearty salad or two. This was disappointing, considering that they have a separate vegetarian menu for dinner (which unfortunately isn't on their Web site -- though considering they don't seem to keep the online menu updated too well, might be a moot point). I'm not sure why the same consideration for vegetarians can't be shown for lunch as well as dinner. Do they think that vegetarians don't eat lunch?

I live in the Clemmons/Lewisville area, and a new sports bar/restaurant called J. Butler's recently opened just off 421. Admittedly, one doesn't have high vegetarian hopes for a sports bar, but they have a pretty large and varied menu -- but there's not one vegetarian entree to be found. In this day and age, I expect most restaurants to at least have ONE token vegetarian dish -- for example, the seemingly ubiquitous portabello sandwich or pasta primavera.

Have you had any memorably disappointing visits to area restaurants when you were surprised to find that you couldn't eat anything on the menu?

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