Vegan Ease

1. Cava

Clearly labeled - check

Options - check: I've never had the same bowl twice at Cava. 

Yummy - check  

2. Olive Garden

Clearly labeled - on a downloadable menu but not when you order

Options - only one sauce, the marinara, and add-on, the broccoli, but the pasta styles vary; however, you can get 2 bread sticks and the minestrone soup with the pasta as part of the Create Your Own Pasta deal, which can add up to multiple meals.

3. Indian Restaurants

Indian food is very vegetarian friendly. Keyword-vegetarian. Taaza labels their vegan items with a V, but there are items like the gobi manchurian, which the waiters say is vegan, and items labeled V with "cream" in the description. Furthermore, their menu is not online, making it hard to research and plan ahead. Nawab has dedicated vegetarian sections with descriptions on their menu, online and in-person, but without a full-list of ingredients, it's hard to know which dishes are cooked with butter. The waiters are knowledgeable and can tell you, but you have to take the initiative. Sudha's Kitchen is exclusively vegetarian, but you also have to ask or be familiar with the food to know what's vegan.   

4. Exclusively Vegan Restaurants

When I first moved to Roanoke, there were 3 exclusively vegan restaurants: Honestly Vegan, Screaming Vegan, and Sir Vegaani. Unfortunately, they have all closed down because everyone hates vegans, and now only food trucks and pop-ups with inconsistent schedules exist: Queen's Vegan and Green Leaf Kitchen. For this reason, they are not ranked #1 on this list.  

5. bloom Restaurant & Wine Bar

bloom was ranked Platinum in The Roanoker's Dining awards for Best Vegetarian and Best Vegan Menu, but I have not tried it because I don't want to go to a restaurant not knowing what I'm going to get.