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Surviving
as a Vegetarian in Las Vegas
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Las Vegas
airport ranks dead last for healthy food
options
McCarran International
ranked dead last in a study of healthy food options
at the nation's airports in a 2004 survey conducted
by the Physicians Commitee for Responsible
Medicine. Neither the Phoenix nor Vegas airports
offered a single healthy option in half their
eateries. Miami and Detroit received the highest
scores. The good news is that healthy options are
increasing at airports in general with 75% of
airports improving their scores over last year.
(see
the
rankings...)
|
Vegas definitely doesn't seem to
cater to vegetarians as much as other metro areas. If
you've traveled as a vegetarian before, you probably know
some of the tricks, such as to look for ethnic restaurants.
Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and usually Italian
restaurants all offer veggie options. In a Chinese
restaurant, they'll at least have one vegetarian dish called
"Buddha's Delight", which is just vegetables and rice. (Just
ask the server to make sure there's no chicken or fish
broth.) Middle Eastern fare for veggies includes hummus,
tabouli, falafel (if not fried with meats), and dolmas,
which are stuffed grape leaves. For Italian food, there's
always pasta, as long as the sauce doesn't have meat or
fish. In a pinch you can always order a pizza without meat
(and without cheese, if you're vegan). Just stay away from
Mr. Gatti's, which uses meat in their tomato
sauce.
This page is divided into two
sections:
- Truly veggie-friendly places
with several choices, where you might actually
want to go to eat.
- Places with only 1 or 2 veggie
"options", useful only for avoiding
starvation.
In each section, the places are
listed roughly in order from North to South.
Please let
me know of any corrections
or worthy additions to this list. (e.g., If it's
not on the Strip or downtown, then it should be way
better or way more vegetarian than what you can
get on the Strip or downtown.)
Truly
veggie-friendly
(multiple and/or exceptional vegetarian
offerings)
None of these is completely
vegetarian (they serve meat as well), except Go Raw,
Veggie Delight, and Rainbow's End.
Near
the Strip
listed from
North to South
Komol has a generous vegetarian section on
their
menu. Vegetarians used to having to pick the
one veggie item at a restaurant will be overwhelmed
with the choices here. The atmosphere is also nice
and the food is satisfying. A warning, I got one of
the dinner sets (#3, I think) and it came with a
soup that was mostly oil. It looked like they used
four parts oil and one part water. The waiter
noticed I didn't eat it and he graciously offered
to bring me a normal soup, which I was happy to
accept.
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Rainbow's End
Natural Foods Cafe
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1100 E. Sahara
(1.5 mi. W. of the
Strip), 702-737-7282, website
Cafe:
M-F 10-5, Sat
11-4, closed
Sunday;
Store: M-F 9-9, Sat 9-8, Sun
11-6
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Not quite what you'd expect from a natural foods
place -- there is no bicycle rack, and in the
café your smoothie will be served in a
styrofoam cup and your meal will come with plastic
utensils. Although there's sit-down seating, you
order at the counter. In some places of the store
the shelves are only half-stocked, and the cooler
doors list prices for products which aren't inside.
I saw a staffer snap at a woman who asked for
advice on what kind of supplements she should get.
However, the café food is completely
vegetarian, largely vegan, and delicious. My taro
burger was everything you'd want in a taro burger.
Do note the limited hours!
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Veggie
Delight
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Spring
Mountain & Wynn Road
(1.5 miles W. of the
Strip; get on the #203 bus at Sands/Spring
Mountain next to the Fashion Show Mall or
the Wynn)
702-310-6565 • 11am-8pm
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A little-known, tiny Vietnamese/Chinese
café, specializing in faux meats. Everything
on the menu is at least vegetarian, and can be made
vegan for $1.00 to $1.50 extra. The menu is
extensive and the food is good, but brown rice is
not an option. It's less than a block away from
Ronald's Donuts (see below), so if you were
venturing out this way, it's worth doing both.
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Ronald's
Donuts
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4600 Spring Mountain Road
(1.5 miles West of the
Strip, near Arville St.),
702-873-1032
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Most of the donuts and pastries are vegan, and are
on two completely separate shelves from the
non-vegan stuff. I resisted adding this place for a
long time, because it's just donuts, not dinner,
and I didn't think anyone would want to leave the
Strip just to buy some unhealthy junk food. But it
turns out that lots of locals use this site too,
and many of them aren't particularly concerned
about eating tons of sugar and fat. Also, I
recently learned about Veggie Delight, which is
less than a block away from Ronald's, so if you're
already making a trip out to Veggie Delight, and
fat/sugar isn't an issue for you, Ronald's is worth
a visit.
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Gaylord's
India Restaurant
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3700 W. Flamingo
(in the Rio, 1 mile W. of
the Strip)
702-777-7923 • 777-2277,
website
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Elegant dining, with entrees at around $15. Dinner
5-11pm nightly, brunch buffet Fri/Sat/Sun
11:30-2:30pm. A staffer came to our table to take
our picture to try to sell it to us.
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Shalimar Fine
Indian Cuisine
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3900
Paradise Rd.(1.5 mi.
E. of the Strip off Flamingo, in the
Citibank Plaza), 702-796-0302,
Lunch Buffet ($7.50):11:30-2pm Mon-Fri
• Dinner ($11-16): 5:30pm-10pm
daily
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A seven-time winner in the Best of Vegas poll in
the local paper, the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Features twelve vegetarian
entrees on a mixed menu.
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Gandhi India's
Cuisine
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4080 Paradise Rd. (1.5
miles E. of the Strip along Flamingo),
702-734-0094, 11am-2:30, 5-10:30 x7
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Many vegetarian choices are listed explicitly on
their
menu.
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P.F.
Chang's
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4165 S. Paradise Rd.
(1.5 miles E. of the Strip
along Flamingo), 702-792-2207,
website
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Menu has a vegetarian section with five separate
entrees. Also has five veggie sides and four
appetizers. Everything on the menu that's
vegetarian is denoted with a special mark. And
brown rice is available instead of
white!
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Origin
India
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4480 Paradise Rd.
(1.5 miles
E. of the Strip, across from the Hard
Rock, next to CVS)
702-73-INDIA • website
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Elegant Indian dining. Voted Best of Las Vegas in
the local paper. The atmosphere is impressive in
every way -- the lighting, the furniture, the
tableware, everything. There are eight vegetarian
entrees (avg. $14) though I expect a bit more than
that in an Indian restaurant. Still, the food was
good, and if you want a lovely dining experience,
this is it.
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Cottage
Café - Ethiopian
Cuisine
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4647
Paradise Rd.
(1.5 miles E. of the
Strip between Harmon & Tropicana, 1
block S. of Hard Rock),
702-650-3395
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Editor's Pick! Menu is about 1/3
vegetarian, but what you really want is the
Vegetarian Combo, a generous serving of all the
other dishes. Delicious! Open til midnight every
night.
East
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Long Life Vege
Restaurant
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4130 S. Sandhill Rd. #A4
(4.5 miles East of the
Strip)
702-436-4488 • Closed Sundays
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A Chinese restaurant with a traditional Chinese
menu, offering wheat- and soy- versions of all the
regular meat dishes. Careful, the "beef", "pork",
and "chicken" on the menu are all veggie-safe
substitutes, but the shrimp is the real thing.
West
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Viva
Mercado
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3553 S.
Rainbow (4 miles West of
the Strip)
702-871-8826, M-W 11-10, Th-Sat 11-11, Sun
11-10, website
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A veggie-friendly Mexican restaurant. Their sopa
and rice contain chicken broth, but at least they
tell you that in large bold letters on the menu so
you know what not to order. Their beans are fried
in canola oil and they have a vegetarian section on
their menu with six different entrees. The
overwhelming majority of the menu is meat-laden,
but it's still nice when a restaurant takes
specific notice of vegetarian diners by printing a
note about ingredients and offering a complete
vegetarian section on its menu.
A raw foods restaurant which appears to be all
vegan as well. Their full menu is listed on
their
website, which is a nice touch. I've eaten at
the West location (see below) several times and the
food is always very impressive -- even my
non-vegetarian, now-raw friend suggested we eat
there more frequently. Prices are a tad higher than
you might expect, but if you want gourmet vegan raw
food, this is it.
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Whole Foods
Market
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8855 W. Charleston (9 miles
West of the Strip),
702-254-8655, 8am-10pm every day
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A large organic/natural foods grocery store.
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Whole Foods
Market (formerly Wild Oats)
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7250 W. Lake Mead. @ Tenaya
(9 miles West of downtown; map),
702-942-1500, 7am-10pm x7
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Another large organic/natural foods grocery
store.
South
(See the description for their other location
above, under WEST.)
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On
the Strip
listed from
North to South
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Stratosphere
India
Oven
2218
Paradise
Rd.
702-366-0222
11:30-2:00 & 5-10pm daily
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The Stratosphere's veggie options are
nearly non-existent. So I once skipped
their restaurants and went to their indoor
mall, ordering a veggie burrito with no
cheese from the Mexican fast food place
there. The cashier even put "No Cheese" on
the ticket, but when I finally got it a
good 15 minutes later, I found the cook
had smothered it with cheese anyway.
Anyway, this far north on the Strip you
have exactly one option: India
Oven, and it's not a bad one.
There's a special vegetarian section on
the menu sporting no less than 15
different entreés, all priced at
$13.
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Riveria
Meskerem
252 Convention Ctr. Dr.
702-732-4250
11am-4am daily
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Meskerem
(an Ethiopian
restauarant at 252 Convention Center
Drive, just South of the
Riveria) On the downside, the menu
is Americanized and surprisingly
meat-heavy. There's only one vegetarian
dish on the menu, the Veggie Combo. The
plus side: One's all you need, and it's
awesome. Two or more people can share the
one big plate of spinach, spicy lentils,
and potatoes served over a big pancake
called injera. You rip a piece of injera,
pinch the veggies, and eat with your
hands.
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Fashion Show
Mall
3200 Las Vegas
Blvd. S.;
near Nordstrom &
Bloomingdales
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California
Pizza Kitchen. Four veggie
pizzas and several veggie pastas,
including portobello mushroom-stuffed
ravioli(!). Unfortunately it's also
stuffed with cheese. In fact this place
isn't really good for vegans at all, but
non-vegans will be more than
satisfied.
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Mirage
3400 Las Vegas
Blvd. S.
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California Pizza Kitchen. (see
review above)
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Caeser's
Palace
3570 Las Vegas
Blvd. S.
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Cheesecake Factory.
Despite the name, it's a
full-service restaurant. PETA says: "This
savvy purveyor of fine fare offers no
fewer than 16 vegetarian entrées on
its menu. Included in the animal-friendly
lineup: roasted artichokes served with a
vinaigrette, grilled vegetable pizza,
portobello mushroom burgers, Asian
vegetable stir-fries, roasted vegetable
pasta dishes, and grilled eggplant
sandwiches!"
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Planet
Hollywood (formerly
Alladin)
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P.
F. Chang's (Chinese). Menu has a
vegetarian section with five separate
entrees. Also has five veggie sides and
four appetizers. Everything on the menu
that's vegetarian is denoted with a
special mark. And brown rice is
available instead of white!
Spice Market Buffet. We had it
on good authority that the buffet is one
of the best for vegetarians, with a
Mediterranean station featuring falafel,
hummus, dolmas, baba ganoush, and
tabouleh, as well as Asian stir-fry
options, but we haven't yet confirmed that
the buffet survived the transition when
the Alladin became Planet Hollywood.
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Monte
Carlo
Open Noon to
Midnight daily, lunch buffet Noon-4pm.
(702) 798-7889 (3743 S. Las Vegas
Blvd.)
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Tamba,
an Indian restaurant in the Hawaiian
Marketplace across the street from the
Monte Carlo. About 10 of their 30 entrees
are vegetarian, and all go for $9.75.
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Mandalay
Bay
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The Border Grill has Portabello
Mushroom Mulitas ("grilled marinated
mushrooms layered with black beans,
roasted peppers, and pickled onions served
with roasted tomato sauce braised greens,
and guacamole"). Kind of pricey at $16,
but on the South Strip your options are
limited. They also have Chile
Relleno ("roasted poblano peppers
stuffed with manchego, panela, and cotija
cheeses, served with roja and tomatillo
salsas, rice, and black beans").
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Cheap
fruit on the strip
For years I've had about five pieces
of fruit for breakfast. That's a hard
lifestyle to maintain in Vegas, at least
at reasonable prices. A cheap buffet is
$10, and at the Wynn gift shop a single
banana with tax is $2.15 each! Here are a
few other options.
Right across from the Stardust and
Westward Ho on the north strip,
Walgreens has oranges and bananas for
$0.69 and 7-Eleven has bananas for
$0.69.
There's also a Walgreens on the
south strip next to the Monte Carlo,
and there's one downtown, too.
By the way, the CVS next to the Monte
Carlo has Odwalla Bars.
If you know of other good sources for
cheap fruit on the Strip, let
me know.
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Out
of Bu
siness
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Raw Truth Cafe
- CLOSED East
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Erby's
Vegetarian Cafe & Juice Bar -
CLOSED
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4596 W. Spring Mountain (2
mi. W. of the Strip)
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Special note about
Panda Express
We mistakenly listed Panda Express, the
Chinese fast food restaurant, as offering
a couple of vegan options. We based this
on what a server at the Panda Express near
Mandalay Bay told us. In fact, nothing at
Panda Express is even vegetarian, since
they use chicken stock in all their
entrees. Panda Express confirmed this in
the letter they sent us (Nov.2003)
following my inquiry to them, based on a
reader's tip. We apologize to everyone who
was as misled as we were into thinking
that Panda Express offered any vegetarian
or vegan fare.
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Related articles
Limited
options for vegans in Las Vegas
(Las Vegas Review-Journal, April
2007)
|
Other
resources for
vegetarians...
Vegetarian Guides for other
cities:
|
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Survival
only
(typically only one or two veg. options on the
menu)
Near
the Strip
listed from
North to South
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Lotus of
Siam
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953
E. Sahara Ave.(1 mi. E. of the Strip),
702-735-3033, 11:30-2:30 & 5:30-9:30
x7
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Here's another Asian restaurant in the exact same
shopping center as Komol (above). Jonathan Gold of
Gourmet magazine (Oct. 2000) called this the
single best Thai restaurant in North America,
according to an
article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and
Mark from CheapoVegas
says: "They make a fabulous tofu salad that even
non-vegetarians love...[This place is] the
best Thai food I've ever had."
Despite the rave reviews but I wasn't very
impressed. Although they tell me that most of the
131 dishes on the menu can be made
vegetarian, there is almost nothing on the menu
that's already vegetarian. This doesn't exactly
inspire confidence, or comfort. And if you're
already in this area, Komol Thai restaurant is just
a few feet away in the same shopping center, with
an extensive vegetarian menu.
Vegans will at least be happy that Lotus of Siam
has nondairy coconut ice cream with sticky
rice.
Pink Taco (inside the
hotel, 702-932-2387) offers a Vegetable
Burrito and Vegetarian Chilaquiles on their
menu. (Not vegan, but one supposes you can hold
the cheese.) The Hard Rock Café has
an $11 veggie burger served on a whitebread bun and
grilled on the same grill as the meat. (When I
asked that's how they said it was normally grilled,
but they could cook it on a special grill if I
liked.) If you're in this area, just go to the
Cottage Café (listed above) that's
just one block away, and have a fine vegetarian /
vegan meal, for a lot less money to boot.
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Johnny
Rockets
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4480
Paradise Rd.
(1.5 miles E. of
the Strip between Flamingo &
Tropicana, across from the Hard Rock
Hotel), 702-932-2387
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The "Streamliner" burger on
their menu is a genuine vegan Boca burger --
grilled on the same grill as the meat.
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Subway
Sandwiches
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At the airport, Terminal
C.
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Downtown
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Walgreens
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Has a Subway, a chain sandwich
shop.
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Four Queens
(Fremont & 3rd)
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Has a Subway, a chain sandwich
shop.
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Las Vegas
Club (Fremont & Main)
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Their "Upper Deck" restaurant has a
veggie burger on the menu. They also make
a pretty good pizza, and they'll make it
without cheese if you ask.
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The Plaza
(Fremont & Main)
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Has a Subway, a chain sandwich
shop.
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Other
resources for
vegetarians...
Vegetarian Guides for other
cities:
|
Related articles
Limited
options for vegans in Las Vegas
(Las Vegas Review-Journal, April
2007)
|
On
the Strip
listed from
North to South
Most
Strip hotel restaurants now have at least one thing
that's vegetarian. I'm not going to list the one
vegetarian option for each the dozens of Strip
restaurants out there, but instead I'll list
(1) entrees that are a little more interesting than
normal, (2) cheap eats, esp. familiar fast
food.
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Circus Circus
(across the
street from Circus Circus at 322 W.
Sahara; cross Sahara to get to
it)
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Capriotti's
Sandwich Shop offers a Soy Turkey
Sandwich, a Veggie Burger, and a Veggie
Dog.
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Slots-A-Fun
(between Circus Circus and
Westward Ho)
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Has a Subway, a chain sandwich
shop.
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Fashion Show
Mall 3200 S.
Las Vegas Blvd.
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Has a Subway on the third
level.
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Treasure
Island / Venetian
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Subway across the street from
Treasure Island, next to the Venetian
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Casino
Royale
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Subway inside the Casino
Royale.
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Harrah's
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Chipotle (burritos) between
Harrah's and Casino Royale
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O'Sheas
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Subway inside O'Sheas.
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Bally's
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Sidewalk Café has a
portobello mushroom sandwich.
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Planet
Hollywood (formerly
Aladdin)
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The Spice Market Buffet is
reputed to be one of the better ones for
vegetarians, with many Mediterranean
options. Yolo's restaurant has
portobello mushroom fajitas. Cheeseburger
has Gardenburgers and Tofu Burgers, in the
Miracle Miles mall.
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Harley
Davidson Café
3725 Las Vegas
Blvd. S.
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Harley Davidson Café has an $11
Veggie Wrap with roasted carrots,
zucchini, yellow squash, shredded lettuce,
and portobello mushrooms, wrappend in a
tomato basil tortilla with a cream cheese
ranch spread, served with seasonal fruit.
Also has a $9 veggie burger, grilled on
the same grill as the meat.
|
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Monte
Carlo
Open Noon to
Midnight daily, lunch buffet Noon-4pm.
(702) 798-7889 (3743 S. Las Vegas
Blvd.)
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Golden Bagel is inside the Monte
Carlo and has a peanut butter & jelly
bagel for just $3.00. Yeah, again, not
fine dining, but a lifesaver if you're
starving, and the price is right. Get
two.
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MGM Grand
3785 & 3791
S. Las Vegas Blvd.
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Two Subways outside, near the
corner of Tropicana & Las Vegas Blvd.
One is in the Grand Canyon Shops, the
other is in a food court.
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New York,
NY
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Their burger shop has veggie
burgers on the menu. And I found this
on a messagebord: "Il Fornaio at New York
NY has vegan minestrone and a vegan salad.
Everything is made on site, and they are
very good about answering questions."
|
East
More of a quiet restaurant than a café,
offering a $13 Vegetarian Combo (hummus, tabouleh,
falafel, dolmas, baba ghanoush, fries, and a few
other items), a vegetable kabob, eggplant parmesan,
and a few veggie pastas and sandwiches. Perhaps
three of the eight combo items have dairy, and you
might have trouble asking for substitutions. I
tried to ask for a non-dairy version, but when the
plate was delivered there was a suspicious green
and white item. My conversation with the server
went something like this:
Me: And none of this has dairy?
Server: That's right.
Me: And what is this?
Server: Spinach and sour cream.
Me: [long pause] And that's not dairy
to you?
|
Merkato Ethiopian Restaurant
|
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855 E. Twain
(2 mi. E. of the
Strip), 702-796-1231
|
This place is a bit out of the way and if you want
Ethiopian, Cottage Café (above) is more
convenient and provides a much better experience. I
list Merkato only because eventually I intend to
list every Ethiopian restaurant in Vegas on this
site. Unfortunately my experience wasn't good. The
cooked greens were quite rancid. (Leave a bag of
frozen vegetables on the counter for a couple of
days and then open it, and it's the same smell.)
The food was super-greasy. The place in a bad part
of town and I wondered before I went in how clean
it would be, and sure enough, I saw a roach happily
scurrying across the bar. The vegetarian section of
the menu is rather sparse, and the description for
one of the items there was vegetables and beef!
Finally, the waitress didn't know how to
process a credit card transaction. When she brought
the slip for me to sign, she'd marked through the
"Tip" section because (she said) I hadn't told her
that I wanted to put a tip on the card. I had to
tip with cash. (And yes, I tipped in spite of the
bad experience, because waitstaff make $2.13/hr.
and unless they insult me or something I'm not
going to stiff them.)
|
Last update: May 2008
|
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