Table 14: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Table 14 has no vegetarian entree on its printed menu, so if you’re eating meat-free here, you’re building a full meal out of small plates, soups, and salads instead of picking a single main course. It’s a Southern-inspired fine dining restaurant in downtown Ludington, Michigan, run by a chef who spent his career cooking in South Carolina before returning home, and the kitchen is set up for buttermilk fried chicken, shrimp and grits, and duck, not plant-based mains.

What’s vegetarian and vegan at Table 14

The Roasted Beet and Tomato Salad, also marked gluten-free on the menu, is the most clearly vegetarian dish on offer. The Gourmet House Salad and Classic Caesar Salad round out the salad list, and from the small plates section, Pimento Cheese Dip, Brie & Chutney, and Fried Green Tomatoes are also meatless. None of these are labeled “vegetarian” on the menu itself, they just happen to leave out meat and seafood by nature of their ingredients. Every one of them leans on dairy in some form, cheese in the pimento dip, brie itself, parmesan in the Caesar, cream in the beet salad’s dressing, so there’s no dish here confirmed vegan as written. The rest of the menu runs through Bay of Fundy Salmon, halibut, filet mignon, and Southern specialties like Charleston Shrimp & Grits and Savannah Sweet Tea Duck, none of which work for a vegetarian diner.

How to order

Treat two or three small plates as your entree instead of hunting for one dish that does it all, since none exists. A Roasted Beet and Tomato Salad plus an order of Fried Green Tomatoes and a side of Pimento Cheese Dip gets you a full, varied plate, even if it costs more than a typical entree elsewhere. Table 14 takes reservations and reviewers say it fills up fast on weekends, so call ahead at 231-843-6555 if you want to ask whether the kitchen will build you a larger vegetarian plate or turn a side into a main course. Staff at a small, chef-driven restaurant like this one are usually happy to accommodate if you ask before you sit down.

What to watch out for

You’ll likely pay entree-range prices, dishes here run $23 to $54, for what amounts to a starter-sized vegetarian plate, since nothing on the vegetarian-friendly list is actually built as a main course. Every option identified here contains dairy, so vegans have almost nothing confirmed to order without asking for substitutions the kitchen may or may not be set up to make. This is also a kitchen built around seafood, duck fat, and fried chicken, so if cross-contact with animal products matters to you, say so clearly when you order rather than assuming a salad was prepared in isolation.

Is Table 14 worth it?

If you care more about a well-reviewed Southern fine dining experience, backed by a 4.6 rating on TripAdvisor from 161 reviews and a ranking of 4th out of 57 restaurants in Ludington, than about menu breadth, Table 14 is worth a visit for a special occasion even as a vegetarian. If what you actually want is a real vegetarian entree you don’t have to assemble yourself, this isn’t the place, and strict vegans should look elsewhere entirely.