It's Antwerp, it turns out, that is ideal by night. A Flemish avant-garde fashion capital that is home to a melting pot of different communities, restaurants in Antwerp have incorporated veggie dishes into their usual menus and are comfortable adapting to the needs of their vegetarian clients. You'll even find several with separate wholly vegetarian menus.

What's more, because Antwerp is home to a large Indian community, some restaurants have become adept at preparing Jain-approved meals, catering to followers of Jainism, who are not only vegetarian but also refrain from eating root vegetables, like onions, potatoes and garlic.

An ideal place to celebrate any special occasion is French- Italian Restaurant La Cigale d'Argent, located in the heart of Antwerp's diamond district. This charming, elegant restaurant has a classic warm French touch and features a complete vegetarian menu (including Jain options) for both warm and cold starters, soups and pizzas and pastas.

A testimony to monsieur Jean Jacque's hospitality, one of the dishes has been named after a regular who asked him to whip up a special risotto, which has now become part of the veggie menu.

The puff pastry with morel mushrooms is an excellent starter, as is the misto pasta comprising four veggie pastas if you feel like a bit of variety. An eggless tiramisu is available for vegans craving desert, and, when you finally call it a night, you'll have a complimentary Limoncello served with your bill.

La Cigale also does large parties in its banquet hall upstairs that can cater to up to 100 guests.

For a cosy, chic atmosphere, try Le John in Antwerp's Zuid district. This romantic minimalist outfit is all about dim lighting and 1950s furniture. Inside a renovated house, the kitchen and dining area are downstairs, and the homey lounge bar is upstairs, as is a separate dining room, where up to 10 can have a party in complete privacy.

The menu at Le John is limited, but the few vegetarian options are exquisite, as is the eclectic wine list. An exceptionally friendly staff has always been extremely accommodating when it comes to preparing vegetarian food that is not on the menu.

The Jerusalem artichoke soup sprinkled with chanterelle mushrooms makes for a delicious starter. Once when I was craving some greens, I asked for a simple salad, and the chef tossed up the most divine warm concoction made with fresh seasonal vegetables topped with a distinctively piquant dressing. In the main course, the menu offers an asparagus risotto as well as pasta dishes. It's a bit on the expensive side, but Le John is the entire package.

A rather understated name for the amazing veggie world cuisine on its menu is Faites Simple, again located just a few minutes away from Antwerp's Central Station. Though the food is fantastic, many come for the restaurant's fantastical, almost haunted-like atmosphere of tall candelabras and strangely shaped lamps.

The restaurant has a wide array of veggie dishes, ranging
Faites Simple: go for the food, linger for the atmosphere
from Thai curries to couscous and pasta, and their Japanese miso soups have a nice gastronomic twist to them. Ask for the tortilla wrap starter with tofu, goats cheese and sun-dried tomatoes or their steamed artichoke with melted cream cheese.

Faites Simple adheres to Donderdag Veggiedag (Thursday Veggie Day, which Ghent launched last year) and serves a veggie dagschotel, or daily special, for lunch on Thursdays. They also offer creative vegetarian cooking lessons. Finding a Chinese restaurant where the "vegetarian" food and sauces don't smell fishy or are cooked in chicken stock is a notorious challenge for vegetarians. But you can put your concerns aside at Ho Chan House, which has one of the most extensive vegetarian menus in the city, including dim sum.

Ho Chan House has at least five kinds of vegetarian dim sum at any given time, as well as starters and soups. Here you don't just get the normal veggie spring rolls but selections like steamed rice rolls with veggies or a crispy tofu or onion pancakes and Chinese samosas.

The options for the main course are equally extensive, with the sizzling tofu in black bean sauce being one of my favourites. Don't be surprised if your server asks if you're Jain or non-Jain when you say that you're vegetarian. Finally, you can go both kosher and veggie at the Moroccan-influenced Lamalo, located in the diamond district.

This is one of Antwerp's few good restaurants open on Sunday. Lamalo has an extensive wine list and, while its menu offers different vegetarian falafels and grilled platters, the mezze of Mediterranean salads and sauces served with clay oven- cooked laffa bread is the highlight - appetising enough to make for an entire meal.

Finally, no Antwerp restaurant write-up would be complete without mentioning Pazzo, including, fortunately, a veggie one. In the trendy Eilandje district, Pazzo is a must visit for anyone looking for an excellent combination of atmosphere, food and wine. They specialise in Italian- Japanese fusion and has an exceptional truffle menu, all of which they adapt as vegetarian.

Highly recommended is their signature lasagne, a vegetarian fantasy with intricately set layers of wafer-thin herbed vegetables and cheese, sans any traditional lasagne sheets, topped by a tomato sauce with a strong hint of ginger. This three-story renovated granary also has a beautiful first floor wine bar featuring more than 170 varieties, making it the perfect place for relaxed night out.

GETTING THERE
La Cigale d'Argent
Appelmanstraat 17 03.225.23.24, www.lacigaledargent.be

Le John
Kasteelpleinstraat 25 03.289.92.25, www.lejohn.be

Faites Simple (pictured)
Quellinstraat 30 03.232.64.67, www.faitessimple.be

Ho Chan House
Breydelstraat 27 03.232.77.69, www.hochanhouse.com

Lamalo
Appelmanstraat 21 03.213.22.00, www.lamalo.com

Pazzo
Oudeleeuwerui 12 03.232.86.82, www.pazzo.be