For vegetarians: Café Boulud or Telepan?

[daniagee]

Between Café Boulud and Telepan, which of the two is recommended/better for vegetarians?
Both my husband and I are vegetarian (yes to cheese and eggs and no to meat &fish) and are looking for a nice place to celebrate my b-day.
I checked out quite a few fine dinning restaurants but after narrowing it down via fully booked/too expensive/not enough veg options, I'm left with these two and trying to decide.
We want it to be nice but not pretentious and it's important that the chef has a will/flexibility to accommodate vegetarians (i.e. some chefs would not "ruin" their creations by omitting bacon from a dish..,)
Would like to get your feedback.

[Nightfly]

I vote for Cafe Boulud, which has always been highly veg-friendly. One of their four sub-menus is "Le Potager", which is composed entirely of seasonal vegetarian items. You can't ask for more from a top restaurant than a permanent vegetarian section of the menu. Cafe Boulud is an outstanding restaurant and the vegetarian selection is just as good as everything else.

[will47]

Sorry to resurrect a somewhat dead thread, but I figured it was good to get this on the board somewhere... I went there recently after reading lots of great reviews, and checking out the menus at Daniel and Cafe Boulud. I let them know that I wanted a vegan meal when I called for reservations, over 1 month before my visit, and they indicated that that wouldn't be a problem. I also asked about tasting menus, so I thought they were able to do a vegan tasting menu. However, when I got there, I was told that this wasn't the case. There were two off the menu items (a soup and a salad) that were Ok for me, and they were able to make an "entree" for me off-menu.

Only thing was, the entree was a cup of wild rice, and a cup with some brussels sprouts and carrots. Looked nice, and everything was well executed, but kind of boring, and a far cry from what I had been hoping for. The mushroom barley soup and salad were Ok, but really nothing to write home about. My omnivorous companions seemed pretty happy (if not blown away) with their meals.

It's possible that I set my expectations too high, and I'm sure that their non-vegan stuff is better (my dining companions said the mushroom ravioli were really good), but given the place's price and reputation, I was hoping for something a little more creative and innovative.

[gutsofsteel]

I think judging a restaurant on its ability to please a vegan, when it's not even a vegetarian restaurant, doesn't make a lot of sense.

[dietndesire]

To say the least.

[thousandrobots]

I've was vegan for 3 1/2 of the last 4 years, and I have to agree with Guts of Steel.

There is plenty of great vegan food in the city, but I think when you opt for fine dining at the non-veg restaurants, you have to be willing to roll with the punches if you want to eat vegan.

The vegetarian tasting menu I had at Daniel was one of the better meals I've had in my life, and I was impressed they could pull it off so well. But If I wanted to have a great vegan meal (rather than just focus on friends and overall experience), I'd go somewhere else that was cooking specifically to satisfy vegans looking for something "more creative and innovative." It would be nice if Daniel and Telepan and Le Bernardin :-) , etc., could all make great vegan meals, but I think it's asking a bit much.

Maybe try a place like Tabla, where their veg. stuff is close to being vegan already.

[will47]

No, but I chose it specifically because it was a place that was said to have good vegetarian options, and it seemed mostly like stuff which could easily be modified not to use eggs or dairy. When I contacted them initially, they indicated that it would be no problem accommodating me, as long as there was 72 hours of advance notice.

'But If I wanted to have a great vegan meal (rather than just focus on friends and overall experience), I'd go somewhere else that was cooking specifically to satisfy vegans looking for something "more creative and innovative."'

I have found, generally speaking, the opposite is true - good high-end places tend to make much better (and more interesting / innovative) vegan food than "vegan" restaurants. And I have been to many, many places where the chef rose to the challenge and put some time / thought into it. I have had some pretty good meals at vegetarian / vegan places like Counter in the past, and I like Hangawi quite a bit, but in this case, I was hoping for something that would satisfy both me and my girlfriend / parents. Obviously I can't fault them for not doing something more interesting, but given the stuff I had read, and given the amount of notice they had, I was expecting a little more.

Heard good things about Tabla too, but I don't really like high-end-meets-ethnic generally.

[gutsofsteel]

"it was a place that was said to have good vegetarian options, and it seemed mostly like stuff which could easily be modified not to use eggs or dairy. When I contacted them initially, they indicated that it would be no problem accommodating me,"

That's a big assumption. You really don't know what they're using in their vegetarian dishes - whether they're easily modified for a vegan or not. And they *did* accomodate you. I think it's really quite unreasonable to expect a restaurant to customize to your needs so specifically when it's something that the restaurant does not do. It's one thing to ask for a vegetarian meal, but it really is quite another to ask a restaurant to make a vegan meal.

Sorry you were disappointed but this is really not a basis for judging a restaurant.

[will47]

Look - I'm not coming here to whine about it or say that they had a responsibility to do something more interesting. I'm just posting about it in case someone else is looking for the same thing. I'm not judging the restaurant as a whole or saying it's a bad place - like I said, everything was well executed, and the rest of my party said that their food was good-to-excellent.

That said, I do think a place that specializes in vegetable-focused (if not vegetarian) food to the point where it's 1/4 of their menu should be able to manage to do *something* more interesting than some steamed or boiled vegetables and some wild rice as an "entree", no matter how well-executed. And given that they don't even have a vegetarian tasting menu, they should have mentioned that to me when I inquired about the tasting menu, since it requires the participation of the whole table.

If they had said in the first place "we can make something for you, but it's not what we specialize in" in the first place (and I've had plenty of restaurants say that), I would have found a different place and everyone would have been happy. I feel like people posting here think I'm expecting every restaurant to accommodate my dietary preferences, which is not the case... I know it's a pain in the butt, and that's why I call ahead months in advance to make sure that the restaurant is happy to come up with something for me.

[gutsofsteel]

Why should they have to tell you they don't specialize in vegan cooking? Isn't that obvious? They *did* accomodate your dietary preferences. You simply weren't satisfied with *how* they accomodated you. Next time go to a place which *does* specialize in creating vegan menus - Telepan doesn't do it and they were nice enough to accomodate your needs.

I had dinner there in the autumn and we were quite pleased with our meal, and yes there were wonderful vegetables throughout.

[kobetobiko]

I think Cafe Boulud is better for your case. Telepan has some vegetarian options but still not that many, and to be honest I don't find their vegetarian dishes to be that exciting. Cafe Boulud definitely has given more thoughts into the vegetarian dishes that me who personally I don't like vegetables that much enjoyed their vegetarian offerings.

Have you checked out Gramercy Tavern? Although their "vegetable tasting menu" is not purely vegetarian, they can alter it into a true vegetarian tasting menu for you if you request it (and preferrably during reservation).

[gutsofsteel]

I would urge you to consider Eleven Madison Park. I was there not long ago with a vegetarian (the other 3 people at the table were omnivores) and they accomodated her beautifully - in fact there were a couple of courses she got which made the omnivores at the table jealous.