Uruguay, like Argentina, is an enthusiastic meat-eating nation. Vegetarian options aren't widespread. You have to seek them out. But it's far from a nightmare.
We stayed in an apartment for part of our stay and then in a hostel. When cooking for ourselves, we went to one of many fruit and vegetable stalls, bought our produce and cooked it. All fairly simple. But if you don't have cooking facilities and want to eat out, it becomes more challenging.
Aside from ordering a cheese-less pizza with vegetables (which are actually quite tasty) or a vegetable pasta or some faina (thick, sponge-like bread made from chick pea flour - but be sure to check they don't use animal fat), there are two restaurants we found that can meet your needs.
The best we discovered was Bambu (San Jose 1290), situated in the wonderful old town and not far from the Plaza Independencia. Like many of the vegetarian buffets in Buenos Aires, this one is also Chinese-owned. But we thought Bambu was better than any of the buffets we tried across the river that separates Uruguay from Argentina (special thanks to www.veganbackpacker.com for the recommendation).
Bambu offers a good vegan selection. The food is light and healthy. The salads are fresh. The place is clean. The staff are friendly and there is considerable seating on two floors. It was nice to see the boss and her husband chipping in, too, and making some of the pastries.
Bambu didn't charge for Zenchai (even though he consumed a healthy amount) and we bought two fresh juices (which were excellent) on our lunch visit. Our bill came to $440 (about $22 US). That was good value, considering we barely ate again for the rest of the day. There is also a shop offering plenty of Asian-type food items, but beware that many of the snack bars are filled with glucose syrup and sugar.
We had also tried La Vegetariana (Rivera 2054-Río Negro 1311-Av. Brasil), but had a completely different experience. We asked about vegan options and were told only that it was 'lacto ovo vegetarian' even though we could see a fresh salad bar, which was clearly vegan.
We stayed for lunch nonetheless and worked it out for ourselves. They served fried rice, vegetable soups and boiled and fried vegetables as well as salads. We didn't think it compared favourably with Bambu. They charged half price for Zenchai. Our meal (without drinks) came to about the same as we paid at Bambu.
By the way, you may want to check out the street market on Pedro Berro (in Pocitos) every Friday. It has dozens of stalls selling a variety of fruits and vegetables although the choice wasn't as wide as it is this time of year in Buenos Aires.
Be careful, though, because in Montevideo we found that the vendors prefer to handle and pick the fruit themselves. Sometimes you wind up with some over-ripe and perished pieces. But we had some nice pineapple, peaches, nectarines, oranges, grapefruits and cherries. Most, if not all, of it was homegrown, which is a major bonus.
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