Top 5 for vegetarians

16 St Barnabas Street, SW1 (020-7730 5550). Mon-Sat

£125

Alexis Gauthier is a gifted chef who, not before time, is achieving greater prominence. His cooking at this rather staid-looking restaurant has always paid tribute to the beauty of vegetables. The spring vegetable menu includes such temptations as purple wild asparagus with caramelised spearmint, poached quail's eggs and lemon zest; light and creamy morel risotto; English lovage and wild roquette cannelloni, and rolled rhubarb jelly with milky rice. And then for naughtiness after so much virtue there is dark chocolate soufflé. Service is gracious, giving veg their due.

This quirky Rajasthani restaurant is marking National Vegetarian Week with a special set meal of each day. Mango Madness, Playful Pumpkin, Cheeky Chickpeas, Crazy Coconut and Lucky Lentil give you the flavour of the celebration with the ingredient in question being the inspiration for dishes which appear in the lunchtime buffet and as part of a thali. Whoever thought going vegetarian could be boring, the menu asks in a rhetorical sort of a way. The Marwari people, whose cuisine is featured, are not Atkins fans. Breads are important.

Soups, salads, sandwiches and pasta assemblies are all sensibly conceived with an eye to what flatters what where ingredients are concerned. Omelettes are also on offer. Healthy smoothies and freshly pressed juices arethe obvious wise accompaniment but coffee is notably good. Avoid exiting via the Aveda shop if you're unwilling to spend even more money.

covered courtyard at the back bravely flourishes in its shadow. Dishes are delectable. Consider spring stew of peas, broad beans and artichokes with chilli polenta fritters; falafel with aubergine harissa casserole and lemon tahini sauce; Manchego cheese with Catalan quince jelly and organic oatcakes. There is also a good drinks list with organic Grüner Veltliner (currently very fashionable) at £14.95 and organic Rioja Crianza at £20. Then finish with organic vieux Calvados.

If you wanted a vegetarian evening meal in the Sixties, Manna was your only option. Started with the freeloving, free-living optimism of that period, Manna has lived on, with new owners taking over 10 years ago. Recipes from around the world inform the menus and cooking has become sophisticated. Main courses might backpack from Vietnam

(pho soup) to the American South

(organic carpetbag tofu steak stuffed with oyster mushrooms). Desserts are as rewarding as baked rhubarb on a hazelnut meringue with pomegranate cream suggests.

Prices estimate the cost of a meal for two with wine