Vegz: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Vegz sits in a basement on 18th Street in Adams Morgan, and every single thing on the menu is vegetarian. No meat, no fish, not even a “chicken-style” fake-out to hedge its bets. Chef Swarn Singh runs a South Indian kitchen built around dosas, and if you’ve never had a proper one, this is where you learn what you’ve been missing.

Start with the Masala Dosa if it’s your first visit. It’s a foot-long rice-and-lentil crepe folded around spiced potato, crisp at the edges and soft in the middle, served with sambar and two or three chutneys for dipping. Want something bolder? The Mysore Masala Dosa adds a garlicky red chutney spread inside before it’s folded, and it has more heat than the plain version. Vegz also runs a Taco Dosa, which is exactly what it sounds like: the same crepe, stuffed and folded like a taco shell. It shouldn’t work. It does.

The rest of the menu earns its keep too. Chili Paneer and Gobi Manchurian cover the Indo-Chinese crowd, both fried and tossed in a sauce that’s sweet, sour and a little sharp. On the curry side, Palak Paneer, Shahi Paneer and Paneer Tikka Masala are all built on the same cubed cheese, so if you’re avoiding dairy, skip that whole column and look for the “(V)” mark instead. Vegz labels every vegan dish with a “(V)” and every gluten-free one with “(G.F),” sometimes both on the same line, which makes ordering fast even if you’ve never eaten here before. Dal Makhani and Tadka Dal are both marked vegan and both worth ordering as a side to scoop up with the Idli or Vada.

Because nothing in the kitchen touches meat, cross-contamination isn’t a live concern here the way it is at a place that cooks paneer next to a grill. That’s the real advantage of a fully vegetarian restaurant over a place that just offers a vegetarian section: you’re not asking a server to double check with the line cook. Everything on the menu is already the safe order.

Before the dosa arrives, work through the chaat section. Papdi Chat and Samosa Chaat both layer crisp fried dough under yogurt, tamarind and a spiced chickpea mix, the kind of dish that’s sweet, sour and crunchy all in the same bite. Aloo Tikky, a fried potato patty, and Puri Bhaji, puffed fried bread with a potato curry, round out a table if you’re ordering to share rather than each getting a dosa to yourself.

Vegz keeps Jain options on the menu too, a detail that tells you the kitchen is used to strict dietary requests and doesn’t treat them as a hassle. If you’re vegetarian and tired of scanning a mixed menu for the two safe items, this solves that problem entirely. Order the dosa, get the extra chutney, and don’t feel like you settled for the vegetarian option. You didn’t. Everyone here did.

The restaurant takes online orders through its own site, so pickup doesn’t require a third-party app if you’d rather order direct. Hours run 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. on weekdays, and straight through 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.