Zebb's

Zebb's is located in Mattydale just off of Rt. 81 in the Kmart plaza. Zebb's is a great little burger joint that just happens to make a pretty good homemade veggie burger. While they do not have much else for vegetarians (except for the typical salads or fried food options like mozzarella sticks) the veggie burger is worth the visit. All of Zebb's burgers are served with fresh french fries (and yes I mean fresh, there are sacks of potatoes piled up near the open kitchen just waiting to be julienned.) Zebb's also has something a little unique, a toppings bar. It appears to be a salad bar at first glance, but a closer look reveals a number of toppings for your burger. There is everything from the standard lettuce and tomato to salsas, hot sauces and hot form the cooker barbecue sauce (which I highly recommend). Zebb's also makes homemade cookies. The cookie counter is located right next to the door, making it nearly impossible to escape with out buying one. But I say go for it, their cookies are delicious. The last time I went to Zebb's the cookie flavors for the day were double chocolate chunk, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate chip.

Zebb's is pretty inexpensive. The veggie burger is around 6 bucks and the cookies are less than a dollar a piece. They also have a pretty good happy hour with half price appetizers that runs Monday through Friday until 10pm in the bar area.

Roji Tea Lounge

Although this place is not technically a restaurant, it's a great place, and it's very veg friendly. Roji is located near Armory Square, by the corner of Salina Street and Washington Street. The tea lounge is owned and run by a very sweet Japanese woman. The lounge has a very comfortable and warm feeling despite the fact that all the walls are brick. You have your choice of seating: American furniture (couches and tables) or more Asian (sitting on the floor with your shoes off at a very low table). They serve a wide variety of high quality leaf teas including white, green, black, red, oolong, rooibos, herbal, floral and many combinations of these. The hot teas are served in small Asian inspired tea pots that steep the tea right inside. They provide you with an extra pot of hot water so you can have as many cups as you would like. They also serve bubble tea. If you have never tried bubble tea I recommend going to Roji just to experience that. Bubble tea gets it's name from the small fruit flavored balls of tapioca that rest at the bottom of the glass. The bubble tea is served with an extra wide straw in order for the tapioca bubbles to fit through it. Bubble tea is considered a dessert tea, as it is usually sweet and served cold. Bubble tea can be served with or with out milk (soy or dairy) and comes in a variety of flavors like strawberry, melon, lychee, jasmine green tea and more.

In addition to the wonderful atmosphere and beverages, Roji serves an assortment of homemade snacks. You can satisfy your sweet tooth with cookies made with tea (peach, green, or earl grey), green tea cake, ice cream, chocolate mousse, or their cookie of the day which can vary. If you prefer to snack on something less sweet they serve hot rice with seaweed wrap. It looks a lot like sushi, only warm and minus the fish. Oh, yeah, and all the snacks are vegan and delicious.

As an added bonus, Roji sells the majority of their tea in leaf form. So if you find a tea you particularly like, you can take some home to brew yourself.

Roji is open fairly late, until 12 or 2am depending on the night and they open around 3pm. This really is a wonderful cozy little place and it really won't break the bank. I spent about 8 dollars for an order of green tea cookies, jasmine green bubble tea, a sample bag of white tea and the tip.

Copper Top Tavern

I just visited Copper Top Tavern for the first time. I was wonderfully surprised by the number of vegetarian dishes on the menu. This place also gets extra kudos for actually marking which dishes are vegetarian right on the menu! They also mark which items are hot with a dragon. They seem to specialize in pizza, since out of the 3 pages worth of food, one entire page was pizza. They also have appetizers, sandwiches, pastas, and traditional dishes on the standard menu. Along with the standard menu they give you a separate two sided menu with specials on it. They have an entire page just dedicated to beer on the standard menu and a "table tent" as it's called in the business, with wines and mixed beverages on it. They bring you another separate menu with all of the desserts after you have finished your meal too. So, my point is, this place has a ton of food, there is definitely something to please everyone.



Copper Top is moderately priced. Its more expensive than Nothing but Noodles, but less expensive then say, Olive Garden. I had a thin crust pizza that was 8.99 and a fresh brewed ice tea that was 2.39 (with free refills). The pizza was pretty good, and when it was delivered the waiter asked if I wanted anything to dip it in. I took that opportunity to ask for Frank's and blue cheese, both of which they had, and neither of which was an extra charge. Every time you order a pizza you get a stamp on this card they give you. After buying 9 pizzas number ten is free. I'm sure it will be awhile before I get to the ten pizza mark, but it's a nice gesture. And speaking of nice gestures, the service was wonderful. Everyone was really nice and super efficient. They had several vegetarian pasta dishes, pizzas, salads and a portabella mushrom sandwich. For those of you that are dating/married/or have friends that are non-vegetarian, this seems like a great place to go. The friend I was with got a bowl of their homemade chicken noodle soup and CTF (Copper Top Favorite) melt. Not only did she really enjoy her food, but the waiter that brought our food out, and the manager that asked how everything was were "Oooohing" over the sandwich. So it must be good.

I could not find a web page for this place, which I found odd since they are supposedly owned by the company that owns Tully's. At any rate I put the link to google maps instead.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=copper+top+tavern+syracuse&fb=1&split=1&view=text&latlng=10425266966927389486

Applebee's

There isn't much I can say about this place other than, don't go. There is literally one item on the menu that is vegetarian. Its a pizza located under the appetizer section. It has spinach and bruchetta mix on it (which there's is loaded with onions so I passed on it). Even the Spinach and Artichoke dip has meat in it. You can order a salad without the meat, but I always have a huge issue with paying 3 or 4 dollars more than I should for a pile of lettuce. The only good thing were the drinks from the bar that my party was ordering. We were all sharing, and there wasn't one I tried that I didn't like. So unless you are only going for cocktails, I'd recommend bypassing this place.

Nothing but Noodles

I love this place. I have been there three times in the past two weeks. I am 100% addicted to it already. I don't think a restaurant could have more vegetarian options without being a vegetarian restaurant. There are so many vegetarian dishes that it is next to impossible to decide what to eat. Nothing but Noodles is set up similarly to Moe's. You walk up to the counter, order and pay. Then you get your own drink and silverware, and pick out a table (there is a fireplace in the middle of the restaurant too!). The employees will then bring over any appetizers and entrees that you ordered.


The entree portion of the menu is divided into genres of food. There are Italian, Asian, American, and specialty dishes. There are also soups, salads, appetizers, kids entrees and desserts. All of the sauces are vegetarian. The only things that aren't vegetarian are the ones that very obviously aren't (i.e. spaghetti and meatballs).

All this greatness does not come with a large price tag either! All three of the items I tried were $6.99. Not only are the entrees inexpensive, but there was enough food that I ended up having a take-out box, all three times! Oh yeah, and N.B.N. serves wine and beer (this is actually the part of their menu that is WAY over priced...unless of course you don't mind paying almost $5 for a Labatt).

So there were way too many vegetarian dishes for me to list them all here, however I put a link to the menu below. They have several items on the menu that are marked as "HOT". They aren't kidding around. I ordered the Spicy Japanese Noodles and had a really hard time finishing them. Even the next day when I warmed up the left overs I could hardly take the heat. I wish it hadn't been so delicious so I could have put down the damn fork. I also tried the Sesame Noodles and the Basil Pesto with farfalle. The Sesame Noodles were great. I ordered it without mushrooms and substituted broccoli for an additional 33 cents. It was absolutely worth it since they gave me what appeared to be a pound of broccoli. The Basil Pesto was hands down the best dish out of the three. It was actually a basil cream sauce. It was the most flavorful and rich pesto I have ever had. I didn't realize that is came with mushrooms, and I didn't even mind (i hate mushrooms almost as much as I hate onions and that's really saying something). I did eat around the larger chunks of mushrooms, but the small pieces tasted like the pesto, so I ate them. One of the 3 times I went my Mom was with me. She ordered the Southwest Chipotle Pasta and a side salad. The pasta was delicious. They use the same cream base as the Basil Pesto dish, but add tomato sauce and chipotle instead of pesto. She had the side salad with Pear and walnuts, it was excellent. It made me wish I had ordered some. So on to dessert. While I didn't order dessert myself they looked incredible, and they aren't too pricey. The table next to us ordered the chocolate cake. It is so big that two people shared one slice. They also have something else that no other restaurant can say they have. Cotton candy. Two of the three times I went I ordered cotton candy after I was done eating. You can get it to go or served on a plate, piled so high that if placed between you and whomever you were eating with, you wouldn't be able to see them. Oh yeah, and it's only a buck.

So go check this place out. Its worth it, believe me. Or don't, but you will definitely be missing out.

Nothing but Noodles
Erie Blvd., Dewitt, NY
(Located in the plaza with Best Buy, Old Navy, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.)

http://www.nothingbutnoodles.com/