As a vegetarian, going out to eat with my friends, I never want to be an inconvenience, I never want people to have to go to a certain restaurant or make their choices based on what I want to eat.

Luckily enough for me, I live in Worcester, MA, which is filled with a multitude of incredible restaurants.

For those of you in Worcester or about to head back and looking for vegetarian options, here are a few of the places I have found with seriously good options:

1. Belmont Vegetarian

Everything here is vegan but you wouldn’t guess it. The food is really good, prepared fresh daily and inspired by Jamaican and American dishes, including soy pepper steak, soy curry chicken, soy BBQ chicken and macaroni and cheese!

2. Birchtree Bread

Birchtree not only makes really good bread, but also works hard to use local ingredients to come up with hearty, unique food. They host farmer’s markets in their parking lot every week and include breakfast and lunch options such as coriander raisin toast, seeded levain toast, a vegetarian sandwich and a good selection of vegetarian soups and salads.

3. Flying Rhino

The Flying Rhino is a cool place to go and get a drink on Shrewsbury Street on a sunny afternoon with an incredibly diverse menu, including spicy hummus, wild mushroom flatbread, soooo many good salads, a rice bowl, and a southwestern veggie burger.

4. Basil n’ Spice

Thai is a favorite of mine, and Basil n’ Spice has become one of my favorites. They use really fresh ingredients and it will be hard for you to find Thai food this good anywhere else. My favorites include the spicy tofu eggplant, vegetarian curry, and spicy basil tofu, but they can make pretty much anything on the menu vegetarian if you ask!

5. B. Good

Yes, this is a chain. But it’s fast and available and has plenty of healthy options, from grain bowls, to salads, to veggie burgers, to smoothies if you’re ever in a pinch and need something fast.

6. The Fix

Yeah, the Fix is a burger bar. But like I said, I never want to limit my friends because I’m picky. They make a really good veggie burger that you can get with any of their toppings or their specials, they have plenty of salads, and you can even replace your fries with veggie fries.

7. Volturno

Volturno is a pizza place and pizza is always good, as a fact. There are plenty of veggie pizza options with a classic margharita or a more interesting funghi. Plus you can ask them to take the meat off anything. There’s also a killer arugula salad and a really good roasted beets appetizer.

8. NU Café

NU Café is a great and relaxed place to hang out. They use a lot of local produce and have come up with a delicious and healthy menu with smoothies and juices, great breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos and bowls, and powerful salads and grain bowls.

9. Bollywood Grill

Bollywood Grill is a close, good Indian food place with plenty of vegetarian options to try, such as vegetable samosas, channa masala, bhinhi masala and much, much more.

10. Mezcal

Mezcal is a fun place that mixes Mexican plates with a Southwestern influence, and to go with their excellent margaritas, there’s plenty of unique guacamole options, vegetarian quesadillas, burritos, and tacos as well as some good salads.

11. Corner Grille

Another pizza place! But pizza is always good, this is a fact. Corner Grille makes huge flatbread pizza’s with plenty of vegetable options such as the veggaholic pie, the greek pie. There are also wraps, salads, soups, sweets and delicious juices and lemonades.