For a town that has a good number of vegetarians, Boston has surprisingly few vegetarian restaurants. Luckily, some of our favorite restaurants have veggie options that make even the most devoted carnivore think twice about their order. Chief among them is Mediterreanean- and Arabic-influenced Oleana’s six-course vegetarian tasting menu. Bostonist has tried it out several times, and it is never exactly the same twice—it varies from night to night with what’s fresh and best, and what else has been ordered at your table—and it has never disappointed.

When Bostonist visited to the Cambridge-based restaurant recently, the vegetarian tasting menu began with bread and two spreads: a spicy carrot puree and whipped feta with sweet and hot peppers. We found the zesty, velvety feta particularly addictive; happily, chef Ana Sortun provides the recipe here. Next up was a savory bread salad with cauliflower, tomato, and white beans—homey and comforting as you please. This was followed by perfectly cooked green beans with pistachio served atop a lemony greek yogurt-based dressing; alongside was a perfect circle of aged goat cheese topped with meltingly soft, sweet figs. Number four was grape-leaves stuffed with rice and topped with a light tomato sauce.

The last savory dish was our favorite: Ricotta and bread dumplings with a porcini and red-wine sauce. The dessert, a mini chocolate tarte with chocolate ice cream, was great, but we just had to order the restaurant’s famous Baked Alaska, too. At $42, the vegetarian tasting menu is really just for splurging, but considering the quality and amount of food served (enough for you and for your jealous meat-eating friends to sample), we think it’s money well spent.

And, by the way, it's worth checking out Oleana’s patio before it closes for the long, long winter—it’s equipped with heat lamps (and blankets if you ask).

Image from Oleana's official website. Post contributed by Lisa Scanlon.