Andrea writes: “I want to take my boyfriend someplace really nice for his birthday. It needs to be fine dining (well, at least fancy) that is vegetarian friendly and ideally, local food-centric. I’d also like it to be REALLY, REALLY cozy and romantic. Please help!” She also mentions having tried Barbette (not enough vegetarian options) and Alma (“aircraft hangar” ambiance) in the past.
Fine Vegetarian Dining For My Boyfriend’s Birthday
18 Comments
Comments are closed.
Cafe Brenda, Spoon River, Lucia’s.
Spoonriver always has awesome vegetarian options. The restaurant is lovely, but I wouldn’t say cozy — it is located in the romantic (I think) Mill City area, if that helps.
If you are willing to travel to St. Paul – Heartland
Grand Cafe – the vegetarian options are existant, but limited. Otherwise cozy, friendly, very tasty.
Heartland is great, and reminded me about The Craftsman. There are some vegetarian options; here’s the link to their dinner menu: http://www.craftsmanrestaurant.com/files/dinner.pdf.
Not sure if it qualifies as fancy enough, but Ngon Bistro has great, local food. http://www.ngonbistro.com
I recommend Jasmine 26–Many vegetarian options and a lovely, romantic ambience.
How about Corner Table? It is definitely food-centric with an emphasis on local food. There are vegetarian offerings. (I would check with them to be sure there are enough to suit you.) I think the room is cozy. It doesn’t have a lot of trappings and is relatively simple. But it’s small so you don’t have the hangar feeling.
No mention of price points, so I’ll say La Belle Vie as a stone cold lock at #1 most romantic. and they do the tasting menu entirely veggie-fied if you wish.
Hands down the Craftsman
I met my sweetie there on our first date about this time of the year.
Cafe Agri on Bryant is vegetarian and local.
I was going to say La Belle Vie and Corner Table. Frankly, pick your chef-driven-restaurant, call ahead, and arrange a vegetarian dish. You should be good to go.
I am vegetarian and I usually go to Heartland or Lucia’s for special occasions. Heartland does a nice prix fixe offering where you can choose a Flora (vegetarian) or Fauna multi-course meal. You can also order a la carte. Check the menu out on their website. La Belle Vie is wonderful too, of course, but more formal and spendy.
First Course, 128 Cafe, and Levain are my go-to places for romantic meals. Their vegetarian options are a wee bit limited, though.
Cafe Agri is pretty cozy… candle lit and great prices on wine!
Recently noticed that both Ngon (University Ave., St. Paul) and FireLake (7th/Nicollet, d/t Mpls.) have impressive local offerings on their menus. The latter has some good veggie offerings, but only a few…it’s sort of traditional American food.
I second both Cafe Agri in Minneapolis and Ngon in St. Paul. Not as nearly so local but very veg-friendly and romantic is Namaste in Uptown. And I keep meaning to give Blackbird a try.
thanks to all of you mentioning Cafe Agri. I hadn’t heard much positive about the place, but it must be good if 3 of you have mentioned it. Could someone review it on here or chowhound please? thanks
We reviewed Cafe Agri earlier this year – https://heavytable.com/cafe-agri-in-east-harriet/.