Best Places to Eat In Boston: Vegetarian Food Guide

Disclosure: Advertising and affiliate services, including Amazon Associates, help the cost of running my blog. Clicking ads or making purchases through affiliate links may, at no additional cost to you, earn me a small commission. I appreciate your support.

Finding some of the best places to eat in Boston doesn’t have to be tough if you know where to look. And you might be surprised at how easy it is to find good vegetarian friendly food in a city that seems to be all about seafood.

New England clam chowder and lobster rolls dominate most menus. So I wondered what the heck was I going to eat. Turns out, I did not have to worry. Check out some of my finds around Boston for some amazing food.

My top 9 best places to eat in Boston for vegetarians

I’ve been to Boston a few times now. Each visit for a few days. I don’t claim to be an expert, and I am more than sure there are dozens more places with great vegetarian food in the city. But for now I’m going to tell you about some of the ones I found in good ol’ Beantown. Places I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Boloco burritos

On my first trip to Boston I was staying at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel. There are tons of restaurants around, but on my first night there I was tired and didn’t want to go far. I was still recovering from the red-eye flight, working on 3 hours sleep. Being social wasn’t an option. I wanted something to bring back to my hotel that wasn’t a damned Subway sandwich. Enter Boloco. I’d passed it earlier in the day while walking around.

It’s basically a build your own burrito place, which let’s face it, is pretty magical in itself. As a vegetarian, anything “build your own” makes you breath a sigh of relief. But they even had full menu options that were veggie which made it even more appealing. It was a hot day so I went with The Summer burrito. Mango salsa gave it a fresh taste when combined with the melted cheese, cilantro-lime rice, beans and the added fajita vegetables. It was so good I went back later in the week for lunch and got the Cajun. Roasted corn salsa replaced the mango and a creole sour cream gave it an extra kick. I preferred the Summer burrito though.

Solas Irish Pub

When I last stayed in Boston I had a few nights at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel. This place was only a couple of minutes away, located in the Lenox Hotel on Boylston Street. And you can’t really go wrong with a pub when you’re a vegetarian.

Now I don’t know what it is about Boston but I’ve never seen so many places do soft pretzels as an appetizer. These were amazing, we couldn’t stop eating them, along with the delicious IPA cheese sauce that came with them.

It was a bit of an appies kind of night so we also got the grilled cauliflower and the crispy Brussels sprouts.

The cauliflower came with a hummus, chickpeas and pesto, while the sprouts had Parmesan and a citrus aioli. With various other vegetarian options I’d definitely go back here.

Bukowski Tavern

My friend found this place online and was lured in with the picture of a meatball sub. Turns out it was a veggie meatball sub, so she then figured she’d be able to get me on board. Now I’m not a big “fake meat” fan, but I was willing to give this place a go.

We get there and it looks like a total dive bar. Kind of a don’t-touch-anything bar. What have we let ourselves in for? But we were here, so why not?!

Best decision ever. The beer list was long, they had half sized beers so you can try more kinds. The staff were friendly, and it had a really cool vibe.

I decided to give the vegetarian meatball sandwich a try. They used eggplant to make the “meatballs” and served them stuffed in a bun with marinara sauce and oodles of cheese. There are plenty of ever-changing menu items, and lots of veggie options.

With the sandwiches you choose your side, so naturally I went with mashed potato, the best food in the world. If you tell me you’re wrong we can’t be friends. Eat here! That is all.

Quincy Market

Imagine your favorite food. Now imagine your second favorite food. Then picture your favorite dessert. At Quincy Market you can probably get them all in one sitting. That’s what I did. Try a little bit of everything.

If you’ve ever been to Seattle’s Pike Place Market or Vancouver’s Granville Island, it’s like that. But without all the arts and crafts distracting you from the real reason you came. Food!

This is one of the best places to eat in Boston because of all the choices. They have most foods that you can think of. Indian food, Mexican food, pizza, Italian bakeries, soups, Greek food and everything in between.

Like a kid in a candy store I had some decisions to make. Lord help me if I chose poorly. I don’t think that’s possible, but here’s some of the food I tried:

El Paso Enchiladas

Always a sucker for Mexican food, I immediately gravitated towards this place. I got the jalapeno and cheese empanada. Not bad for less than $5. Filled with more jalapenos than cream cheese, it had a kick. But it was delicious. Could have done with a little more cheese was the only thing.

North End Bakery

They had pizza and calzones as well as some oh-so-tempting desserts, but what caught my eye was the arancini. I love arancini, breaded deep fried balls of risotto rice usually stuffed with cheese and other things. I went for the spinach and cheese one. They served it with a decent helping of marinara for less than $5. The cheese oozed out of the middle as I sliced into it. Burn your mouth off good food for sure.

Boston Chowda Co.

OK so I know I started this whole thing talking about how I needed to find something other than chowder in Boston. But come on, you have to try it. And it just so happens this place has a mean chowder as well as other soups. More than one of them vegetarian.

While my friend went for the regular clam chowder, I opted for its veggie cousin, the corn chowder. The small size was just enough for me as it was super rich and creamy. Served with some little oyster crackers (no oysters were harmed in the making of them), I was all but licking the bowl clean.

Now let’s leave Quincy Market behind and check out some other places in the city

Antico Forno

When I first visited Boston, I stumbled upon this restaurant in the middle of Boston’s North End, surrounded by lots of other Italian restaurants. I have told anyone who listens that the food was fantastic and I would certainly rank it as possibly one of the best meals of my life.

So when I went back to Boston recently and told my friend we had to go here I started to worry that I’d built it up more in my head. Turns out she agreed with me so I can safely say this is a phenomenal restaurant. I didn’t even mind the half hour wait on a busy summer evening. I’d wait all night for that food.

We started with some delicious freshly cooked and warm focaccia bread served with olive oil. Despite how incredibly busy the place was, the food came out quickly. I had the lasagna primavera, baked to perfection with just a little bit of breading on top, and served on a to-die-for tomato sauce.

I cannot wait to go back here again. The staff are lovely and the food is out of this world. Definitely one of the best places to eat in Boston.

Mike’s Pastry

Mike’s is an institution. An institution with a permanent ridiculous line. The first time someone told me to go to Mike’s I took one look at that line and straight up noped that. As it turns out, on my day trip to Harvard I discovered a second location of Mike’s. Sans line.

The cannoli gods were looking down on me today. Heading into Mike’s it’s easy to see why the North End location always has a line. There’s way too much choice to make a quick decision.

I started off with a red velvet cupcake. Not exactly typical Italian bakery fare, but if you’d been there you would have chosen the same way. The cake was deliciously soft and fluffy. The frosting was good, but I ate it straight from the fridge so should have left it a bit. I prefer a softer frosting. I was just impatient.

Then the cannolis. So many kinds. My friend got the pecan caramel which looked as good as it sounded. Unfortunately they only had one left so we’re no longer talking. Joking! I opted for the hazelnut flavor. Winning decision if I do say so myself.

Russell House Tavern

While around the Harvard area we decided to grab a proper bite to eat. As in not just pastries for lunch.

Wandering the streets around the university we stumbled across the Russell House Tavern which had a lovely little courtyard, all brick and pretty hanging lights. The perfect place for a quick lunch.

The menu was really good and catered well to vegetarians. They had some amazing beers on tap, and some interesting sounding cocktails. Fruit Loops vodka cocktail anyone?

After feeling like I’d eaten nothing but bread and cheese for the last few days I went with the token vegetarian option…the salad. But salads can be fun and interesting, they don’t have to just be limp lettuce and a couple slices of cucumber in a bowl.

This one was refreshingly delicious with mixed greens, macerated apricots, hazelnuts and goat cheese with a light fruity vinaigrette. Just the thing to make me feel good about visiting Mike’s.

Bova’s Bakery

Heading back to the North End of Boston, it’s time for another bakery. Now most people will be lined up at Mike’s pastry. Not us though, we’ve already been to Harvard and skipped the line. No, we’re gonna check out Bova’s.

On the corner of Salem Street and Prince Street, it could be easy to pass this little shop. There’s nothing particularly attention grabbing about this family bakery. In fact the first time I went there I stumbled across it after deciding the line up at Mike’s was too crazy. I’m so glad I did.

They have some amazing pastries and cannoli. You can’t go wrong with a classic cannoli or a lobster tail pastry filled with cream. Then there are dozens of types of cookies so you can create your own box of goodies.

Try the raspberry rugala cookies half dipped in chocolate. They’re so good. Did I mention they’re open 24 hours? So there’s no excuse for not visiting and stocking up for your journey home, or in celebration of any day ending in Y.

The ultimate vegetarian snack

And if you’ve made it all the way around Boston eating all this delicious food, you definitely deserve a sit down. And what place than with a cold beer at Cheers. Spoiler alert: everyone does not know your name. But they’re still a friendly bunch. Cheers is next to the Boston Common.

We worked our way through a few beers there but this blueberry one was delicious. The Wachusett Blueberry Ale was more wheat beer than ale, but the nice touch was the handful of blueberries they served in it. It really helped me convince myself that if there was fruit in it then it was healthy.

Fun finding the best places to eat in Boston

Finding good places to eat is no hardship. It’s a challenge I always like to take on. Boston surprised me how many good places I found, and I didn’t even get to try all the restaurants I saw.

I tend not to often visit fully vegetarian and vegan restaurants unless I’m traveling on my own. The reason is that I’m usually traveling with someone who isn’t vegetarian, so I want to find somewhere that caters to both of us.

The Italian neighborhood, the North End, is definitely one of my favorite areas. It has some of the best places to eat in Boston, the best bakeries and for sure the best Italian restaurant.

For a city known for its seafood and the meat and potatoes kind of vibe, the vegetarian choices are pretty good. I can’t wait to go back again and try the other places I didn’t get to visit.

If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Where are some of the best places to eat in Boston you’ve found?