Six Vegetarian Meals in Europe Worth Travelling For

I will try almost any restaurant once, and I am lucky enough to have friends whose enthusiasm for food matches my own. That helps, because the two years I have spent in Europe have not always been easy for a vegetarian. There were evenings when the only meat-free option cost a fortune and arrived as a small bowl of potatoes and yoghurt, and I paid it because I was hungry.

Against those meals, there is a short list of places I still think about, the kind that produce a craving at odd hours. They are spread across four cities and three countries, and none of them is fancy. This is the list.

Prague: carrot cake at Estrella

Six months or so before I wrote this, I went to Prague with friends. The trip was good in almost every way except the rain, and the memory that outlasts the rain is a vegetarian restaurant our friend led us to after a long day of walking.

Estrella served two things I have not stopped thinking about: a carrot-cream soup and a carrot cake. I ordered the soup with real suspicion. Carrot and cream sounded like a combination that could go badly wrong, and then the first spoonful settled the argument. The cake was the kind you want to buy by the lifetime. I have eaten a lot of cake since and none of it has matched that afternoon.

Tübingen: dumplings at Neckarmüller

Tübingen is a university town in southern Germany, and a friend who is as serious about food as I am lives there. She had done her research in advance and had a mental list of every place we needed to eat, which is the best kind of host.

We went to the Neckarmüller, which sits overlooking the river Neckar. As usual I had no idea which vegetarian dish was the safe choice, so I followed her advice and ordered the dumplings with mushroom sauce. I have not found that taste anywhere else since. It is not a joke when I say I have considered making the day trip purely for the dumplings. One day I will write the longer post they deserve.

Bonn: enchiladas at Tacos

Bonn is where I was living, and my friends there introduced me to Tacos. When the craving for something cheesy and hot arrived, that was where we went, and the enchiladas were the reason. My choices were limited, as they often are for a vegetarian, but my meat-eating friends were happy with almost everything they ordered.

The queue tells you what the neighbourhood thinks. Waiting 45 minutes to an hour for a table was normal, and we did it more than once.

Bonn: the Chinese buffet at Ding Dong

Anyone who has lived in Bonn will have an opinion about this one. Ding Dong was, for me, the best Chinese buffet in the city, and the only one where the food tasted good rather than tasting of the oil it was cooked in. I have filled plates to the edge there, and I have asked for the leftovers to be packed when I could not manage another bite. I miss it.

Heidelberg: North Indian food at Raja Rani

Finding good Indian food in Bonn was a long disappointment. The dosas at Taste of India: South were the exception; elsewhere, my friends cooked better at home than the expensive restaurants managed, and I said so at the time.

Then a friend took me to Raja Rani in Heidelberg, and the search ended. The North Indian food there is the best I have found in Germany, and the price is reasonable enough that it never feels like a treat. I could not quite believe the standard was possible here. Since that first visit I have sent people there, taken friends there, and spent a good number of weekends at a table. Another friend told me he goes whenever he misses Delhi.

Heidelberg: falafel at Arbil

Falafel shops are everywhere in Germany, and a falafel sandwich has rescued me from burgers and pizza more times than I can count. Only one place has made me stop and pay attention: Arbil Restaurant in Heidelberg, directly across the street from Galeria at Bismarckplatz.

I walked past it for months without going in. Then one day I did, and the falafel balls, made fresh, were unforgettable. It is also the only falafel counter I know where you have to wait a while for your order. The queue is not a problem. The wait is worth it.

The list keeps growing

That is the best food I have found in Europe so far, and I will keep adding to it as I travel. If you have eaten at any of these places, I would like to know what you thought. If you have a favourite of your own, especially one that treats vegetables with some ambition, tell me in the comments.