Vegetarian Dining in España

Being a vegetarian can be quite challenging in this part of Spain when trying to eat out. There are very few places where there is a wide choice of vegetarian or vegan food. I generally avoid British owned bars and restaurants as I don’t feel the need to have ‘British food’. There is one exception to this and when I say I’m a vegetarian, well I’m more pescetarian as I will eat fish.

Sometimes on a Friday, not that often we go to Laguna in the Puerto Ray area to have the classic Fish & Chips. In my opinion it’s the best around, they really have the edge against when it comes to competitors. Its really strange as when I lived in Wales I wasn’t that fussed about Fish & Chips, but here strangely it reminds me of home.

Over the last week we have had some of our Welsh and Yorkshire friends visit us here in Almería. Its always a great tonic to see friends you have known for over 20 years. Two of our friends travelled by car and the other had to fly as the original boat that they were due to travel on had been cancelled due to bad weather that was forecast.

Our friends that travelled by car arrived in Bilboa and travelled through Spain stopping off at Zaragoza and Valencia. They told us of their experience of finding vegetarian / vegan restaurants in all the places had stayed. In many places they had a few to choose from. This was lovely to hear as it seems that the more cosmopolitan areas of Spain seem to understand what a vegetarian / vegan diet means. I am told that many young Spaniards are embracing a vegetarian / vegan diet. This can only help in the future with what choices we have in all restaurants. Almería sees a lot of domestic holiday makers both coastal and inland. Many Spaniards from Madrid have country homes in Almería. As country homes move down the generations maybe that as well will bring about change to the food attitudes we have in this area.

Locally in Cuevas del Almanzora there is hotel and wellbeing centre called El Palacete. Within they a restaurant called ‘The Happy Herbivore’. For some reason, to my shame in the years that I have lived here I have not paid a visit. Possibly due to having to plan ahead for it as you need to give menu choices prior to your meal and it operates published dates rather than each day of the week or weekend. By coincidence the restaurant was open whilst our friends were visiting. All of us are vegetarian so thought it would be great if we could get in a visit.

We visited the Happy Herbivore on the Friday night, we had lovey vegetarian food and lovely Spanish wine. The hosts of the restaurant were very hospitable and passionate about what they do. They have a lovely set up, they are very friendly and invited us to look around the public areas of they building, including the roof terrace, the views from which was lovely at dusk.

The Happy Herbivore is a real gem for vegetarian and vegan people living or visiting Almería. I will certainly be a regular customer of theirs from now on. Its lovely to have a restaurant close by that we can eat what we like off the menu, and not be made to feel we are putting out others because of our dietary requirements. We have never had an issue in eating in any restaurants providing there is something we can eat, even if its just patatas bravas. Some friends are very conscious of ensuring there is something for us to eat when booking restaurants, others have made it clear it is our fault if there is nothing on the menu for us to eat and have excluded us from events on this basis.