Iran for vegetarians/vegans

[steven]

Please post your tips for vegetarian/vegan food and restaurants in Iran below!

We summarize all information on the Silk Road food page.

[panse]

Teheran:

Zamin Vegan Restaurant

and

Iranian Artists Veggie Restaurant

Both offer brilliant food for good prices. Fully recommended. The owner of Zamin wrote some of the traditional dishes in their vegan option in Farsi on a piece of paper. So we are able to enjoy the traditional food on our journey through Iran.

[laghubhara]

It's not easy eating vegetarian in Iran. The only consistent option I found was to go to Fastfood restaurants, they have pizza and always a vegetarian one (sometimes called sabzi). However, this is not like any sort of pizza I've ever eaten before and requires a lot of ketchup to be digestible.

There are some restaurant options on happy cow, I really liked Grandma's Table in Esfahan.

[rfoltz]

Vegetarianism is becoming increasingly popular in Iran. Tell people you are "giyah-khor" or simply "vezheterian". This article lists 10 vegetarian restaurants in Tehran:
https://mag.fidilio.com/ده-رستوران-گیاهی-در-تهران/

It is in Persian, but you can print it out and take it with you to Iran and ask someone there to read it for you.

Ananda has a site in English: http://anandaveg.com/?lang=en

Some vege restaurants have their own sites:

Giahitarin (in Persian): http://giahitarin.com/restaurants/رستور ... -در-تهران/
Zamin (vegan, in Persian): http://www.zaminvegan.ir.
House of Artists (worth visiting also for its exhibitions and garden): iaveg.com/fa/
Darakht-e Banyan (in Persian): http://www.banyantreeveg.com

As for fast-food, apart from pizza (ask for sabzijot) there are many places that offer felafel sandwiches. There are soup stands as well and some of the popular soups are vegetarian. Ash-e reshteh is the most famous, and is filling and delicious.

When in Esfahan have it in the courtyard of the Abbasi hotel on Thursday evenings where it is a specialty -- but don't arrive too late as they may run out.

In Tehran there is an excellent soup seller (take-out only) near the entrance to the Tajirish bazaar facing the Emamzadeh Saleh, as well as a sit-down place on the north side of the square not far away near the pedestrian overpass.

If you are invited to dinner at an Iranian home they will likely offer you one or more kinds of stew, dishes that are either not available in restaurants or not very good because they are difficult and time-consuming to make. These include fesanjan (walnut and pomegranate), badamjan (eggplant), gheymeh (lentils), and ghormeh sabzi (chopped greens with kidney beans).

All are delicious without meat; simply ask your host to set aside a portion for you during preparation before adding the meat.

[jafari3113]

There is no worry for vegetarian to find foods. There are some restaurants that you can find them. Specially I could find in Varzaneh, Isfahan.

[Lovetheworld]

When we were there in 2011, when my girlfriend asked for "no meat" you could still get a sausage or chicken, because that was not meat according to them

I am sure it improved, especially in the cities, but just to show what kind of stuff you can experience.