Green-plate Specials

My husband and I eat a lot of Indian when we go out. And Thai, and Mexican. Both vegetarians for 15 years, we favor cuisines that offer plenty of meatless options. We also usually avoid high-end restaurants with well-known chefs, where there's typically only one vegetarian entree on the menu, if that - and how disappointing when it's a $20 plate of uninspired pasta primavera.

But more and more of those restaurants are vying for our attention, most notably by offering fixed-price multicourse vegetarian dinners. They usually feature dishes that don't appear on the regular menu, they can often be made egg- and dairy-free, and they change from night to night. Prices range from $25 to $75 for three to seven courses and often include extras like an amuse-bouche, a pre-dessert sorbet, and post-dessert candies and petits fours. A light lunch that day is advised.

The innovations coming out of kitchens right now will erase anyone's idea that vegetarianism is limiting or boring - and may even tempt steak lovers. Here are seven of my favorites.

BEST OVERALL

RADIUS

At the start of our meal at chef and co-owner Michael Schlow's Financial District restaurant, our waiter explained that our four-course dinner would be made at the kitchen's whim. And what whims - the first course alone surprised us with four different dishes on one rectangular plate. Each offering, described by the servers with great care as they arrived, tasted better than the previous. We were wowed by the goat cheese and artichoke tian, the microgreens salad with tomatoes and red onions, and the tiny, delicate gnocchi. But for pure novelty, the "shooters" were our favorites: skinny, elegant glasses filled with chilled pea soup for the first course and hot chai among our desserts.

PRICE PER PERSON: $60
NUMBER OF COURSES: 4
CUISINE: New French
VIBE: Urban chic

8 High Street, Boston, 617-426-1234, radiusrestaurant.com

AUJOURD'HUI

To our right, an anniversary was being celebrated. To our left, a birthday. Many people make a trip to the elegant restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel for special occasions. But the fixed-price vegetarian dinner, and the views of the Public Garden, are worth coming for even if you don't have a date to mark. The menu details the first through third courses coming out of chef de cuisine Jerome Legras's kitchen. Our artfully presented first course featured three imaginative dishes, including asparagus flan. The filling main-course lasagna, made with ultrathin pasta, was loaded with ordinary vegetables like carrots and peppers that were elevated by sublime seasoning. After dessert (which we got to pick), we thought we couldn't eat any more - but then the pastries-and-chocolates tray arrived. We cleaned its two tiers and promised to eat light the following day.

PRICE PER PERSON: $60
NUMBER OF COURSES: 4
CUISINE: New French
VIBE: Posh

Four Seasons Hotel Boston, 200 Boylston Street, Boston, 617-351-2037, www.fourseasons.com/boston/dining.html

TEN TABLES

Only 10 small tables fit into this inviting, candlelit Jamaica Plain restaurant, which offers perhaps the cheapest vegetarian tasting menu around (served every night except Wednesday). The cost is low, but the quality of the rustic fare is high. The kitchen, led by chef David Punch, sends out courses one through three, and we weren't told in advance what they'd be; at the end of the meal, we selected desserts from the menu. Capers, golden raisins, and pine nuts dotted the arugula salad, while decadent croutons (oil-soaked, soft in the center and crisp on the outside) topped the sauteed shaved asparagus with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Olive oil made the main course of handmade fettuccine glisten; peas, mushrooms, and tomatoes were mixed into the pasta.

PRICE PER PERSON: $25
NUMBER OF COURSES: 4
CUISINE: New American and New French
VIBE: Friends' dinner party

597 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, 617-524-8810, tentables.net

BEST SPLURGE

L'ESPALIER

One of the city's most expensive and extensive vegetarian fixed-price menus is found at chef and proprietor Frank McClelland's formal restaurant in an 1880s Back Bay town house. It's also one of the tastiest, and the filling dinner lasts about three hours. Our waiter took obvious joy in detailing the chef's creations for the evening, noting the ingredients that came from local purveyors or even the restaurant's rooftop garden. He offered the option to deviate from the chef's recommendations or to make our meal vegan, warning that the kitchen likes to use butter and cheese, but we declined. For the first four courses - a soup, a salad, a lasagna, a risotto - different crisp-fresh vegetables, not sauces or accompaniments, took center stage. The fifth course featured six cheeses, meticulously described by our waiter and served with breads and garnishes like honeyed pine nuts. We barely had room for the sorbet and dessert.

PRICE PER PERSON: $75
NUMBER OF COURSES: 7
CUISINE: New French
VIBE: High society

30 Gloucester Street, Boston, 617-262-3023, lespalier.com

CRAIGIE STREET BISTROT

The hearty rolls and mini-baguette arrived at our table in a wire basket lined with a kitchen towel, letting us know that pretense would be kept to a minimum. Chef and owner Tony Maws's basement-level restaurant near Harvard Square promotes fresh, often organic ingredients; new menus are created each day based on the choicest selections his vendors can offer. A menu told us what our first two courses would be. Our starter - a slow-cooked egg sitting atop vegetable stew that was decorated with edible flowers - looked fancy and homey at the same time. We took our waiter's advice and broke the yolks first, to dip bread in (great advice). For the second course, we were served early spring vegetables on a bed of nutty Camargue red rice. This was then spiked by a green garlic broth poured from a pitcher into our bowls. Dessert was our choice and came with a glass of sweet wine, a sophisticated way to end the evening.

PRICE PER PERSON: $53 (price varies according to the menu)
NUMBER OF COURSES: 3
CUISINE: French bistro
VIBE: Classic but casual

5 Craigie Circle, Cambridge, 617-497-5511, craigiestreetbistrot.com

JULIEN RESTAURANT

It took two of us three hours to finish the beautifully presented, inventive five-course meal created by executive chef Mark Sapienza. Fortunately, we were sharing a comfortable curved couch with needlepoint pillows to prop up our elbows. This hotel restaurant on Post Office Square offers a separate vegetarian menu, but only if you ask for it, and we could select from two offerings per course. For the main course, grilled, herb-marinated king oyster mushrooms were perfectly paired with young leeks and hearty new potato stew. For the cheese course, a waiter wheeled a three-tiered cart to our table and offered a choice of five cheeses, plus bread and fruit and nut garnishes like cherries in kirschwasser - a dramatic touch.

PRICE PER PERSON: $65
NUMBER OF COURSES: 5
CUISINE: French-Mediterranean
VIBE: Refined elegance

Langham Hotel Boston, 250 Franklin Street, Boston, 617-956-8751, langhamhotels.com (closed Sundays and Mondays)

BEST VALUE

OLEANA

Lovers of olive oil and greens will find much to satisfy them here - emphasis on much. The servings are generous; still, we couldn't help but run pieces of bread across our plates to pick up the remnants. The kitchen improvises the fixed-price menu each night at chef and owner Ana Sortun's restaurant near Inman Square, and, unlike anywhere else we tried, each diner in our party was presented with a different dish at all but one of the courses; there was much passing back and forth of plates. The first course included warm olives with summer savory and sesame seeds, carrot puree with Egyptian spices, mild Armenian bean and walnut pate, and pureed feta cheese with sweet and hot peppers. Later offerings ranged from grilled asparagus with Parmesan custard to spinach pie served with a cool avocado slice to spicy thin noodles and chickpeas served with green chard and orange aioli.

PRICE PER PERSON: $40
NUMBER OF COURSES: 6
CUISINE: Mediterranean
VIBE: Upscale ethnic

134 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, 617-661-0505, oleanarestaurant.com

Eat Shoots and Leaves
New to vegetarian dining? Here's how to thrive.

* Seek out chefs who promote locally grown food, as they're more apt to be creative with vegetables.
* Boston and the suburbs have a handful of all-vegetarian or vegan restaurants; go to the Boston Vegetarian Society's website at bostonveg.org for a list. (These are typically casual establishments.)
* Look for cuisines, including Chinese, Ethiopian, and Greek, that always have plenty of vegetarian options on the menu.
* When in doubt, call ahead and ask how flexible the kitchen is.

Favorite Plates

Some top vegetarian options for those nights when you don't want seven courses.

Wild mushroom Wellington

$24 at Hamersley's Bistro, 553 Tremont Street, Boston, 617-423-2700, hamersleysbistro.com

The highlight at the South End French bistro - which on occasion offers a vegetarian fixed-price menu - is the golden pastry enveloping portobellos, spinach, and goat cheese. The dish comes with a tiny pitcher of Madeira sauce.

Garden veggie burger

$7.95 at Watch City Brewing Company, 256 Moody Street, Waltham, 781-647-4000, watchcitybrew.com

Many spots serve good veggie burgers. What sets this brew pub's patty apart is the variety of available sauces: Cajun, buffalo, barbecue, and honey mustard.

Roasted garlic polenta, artichokes, tomatoes, and olives

$14.75 at Sabur Restaurant, 212 Holland Street, Somerville, 617-776-7890, saburrestaurant.com

Black olives dot this generously sized dish of creamy polenta and vegetables, one of four delicious vegetarian entrees at the stylish Mediterranean restaurant in Teele Square.

Falafel sandwich

$4.95 at Shawarma King, 1383 Beacon Street, Brookline, 617-731-6035

At this cash-only eatery, incredibly fresh chickpea patties - fluffy inside, crunchy outside - get tucked into pitas with tahini sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, and house-made pickles.

Organic tofu citronelle

$14.50 at The Elephant Walk, 900 Beacon Street, Boston, 617-247-1500, and locations in Cambridge and Waltham, elephantwalk.com

Roasted ground peanuts lend an earthiness to tofu, peas, scallions, and red peppers in lemongrass sauce. The French-Cambodian restaurant has many vegetarian offerings.

Mysore masalaa dosa

$7.95 at Masalaa Boston, 786 Boston Road, Billerica, 978-667-3443 (closed Mondays)

It's difficult to choose a favorite at this all-vegetarian Indian restaurant, but the mysore masalaa dosa, a crispy crepe stuffed with spicy potatoes, peas, and onions, is as flavorful as it is filling.

Susanne Althoff is an assistant editor at the Globe Magazine. E-mail her at althoff@globe.com.