Shah's Guide to SoCal Restaurants 

1.  A Dong (Loma Linda) - This restaurant is one of our favorites. The $6.95 lunch special is hard to beat, complete with a small cup of soup, rice, salad and a entrée selection of your choice. Our vegetarian favorite is spicy noodles so try it!
2. Buca Di Beppo (Claremont) - I love fun Italian restaurants, and this is one of our favorites. Get ready for huge portions, tons of pictures of Old world Italy and lots of GARLIC!!! Pretty much all of their dishes have a whopping dose of garlic in them. Our favorite is the Eggplant parmigiana and the Macaroni. And they have some great Italian bread!
3. Papa Christo's (Los Angeles) - This is Greek food at it's best. This is a simple place that doubles as a popular Mediterranean supermarket. Pretty much all of the food on the menu (Spanakopita, grape leaves, tzatziki) is good. The saganaki, which is supposed to be a flaming cheese, isn't too hot, mostly because it doesn't come flaming!!
4. Rahel's Market (Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles) - this is one of the many Ethiopian restaurants we have tried in Little Ethiopia. If you haven't tried Ethiopian food you are missing out--excellent flavors, fun eating style and awesome Injera bread! Nyala is probably the nicest looking restaurant on the strip, but this place has the best vegetarian food. In fact, the owner told me she has the only vegetarian Ethiopian restaurant in the entire USA! Anyway, our favorite was the Shiro and Mesir Wat.
5. Surati Farsan (Artesia, Los Angeles) - we love Indian food, and this is our pick for "fast food" type Indian food in the Little India area of Cerritoes/Artesia in Los Angeles. The snack food here is excellent (bhel puri, sev puri, etc). It reminds me of Dimple's in Edison.
6. Tangra bistro (Artesia, Los Angeles) -- this is an Indian-Chinese restaurant in Cerritoes and it's awesome! The owner/chef grew up in Calcutta, India and on the last page of the menu are Chinese dishes that I've really only found in India. The Vegetarian manchurian is soooo good. The place is really nice too! *ADDENDUM - this place closed down in 2006 *
7. Jammin' Bread (Riverside) - this is one of my favorite lunch spots. They make gourmet vegetarian sandwhiches with awesome dill sauce and delicious breads.
8. Las Campanas (Riverside) - this place is in the Mission Inn. They actually have very little on the menu for vegetarians, but the chef will make you a bean chimichanga that is awesome!! We love the outdoor seating and the nice environment of the mission Inn
9. Bombay Restaurant (Ontario) - this is probably the most authentic Indian restaurant in the Inland Empire, and believe me, we have gone to most of them so we should know. All the vegetarian dishes are excellent--malai kofta, paneer masala, bartha, and the naan is fresh.
10. BJ's Brewery (Loma Linda) - this is another fun place. It's a chain that just opened up in Loma Linda. Their deep dishes pizzas are great. The best time to go is Happy Hour in the bar--all the mini pizzas are half price and the appetizers are $2.00 off, so you could stuff yourself without spending more than $10 per person!!!
11. Le Basil (Redlands) - this is a Vietnamese and pan asian fusion place that's also great. Our favorite dishes are spicy noodles (as always!), panang curry and yellow curry.
12. Sevilla (Riverside) - I didn't ever expect a Spanish place to have anything for vegetarians but it turns out that this place has everything to fill you up. For starters, their bread and aioli will fill you up before you even order. But our favorite tapas are pisto manchego, batatas a la brava. The vegetarian paella is awesome.
13. Spago (Beverly Hills) - in our quest to see movie stars, we travelled to Wolfgang Puck's star studded Spago, but didn't run into anyone famous. However, the beautiful restaurant has a number of great vegetarian dishes--mostly pastas and pizzas, but after having tried their pizza I realized why he is a famous cook and would recommend the place.
14. Armando's (Palm Desert) - this is great authentic Mexican food in the heart of El Paseo "The Rodeo Drive of the Desert." The sopapillas must be good because they had already run out on the Saturday we ate there :(. [Update 3/31/07 - Rima asked the "do you use lard?" question and the answer is yes for EVERYTHING, so sadly this place is off the list for vegetarians :(]
15. Farm Artisan Foods (Redlands) - this is definitely my favorite place in Redlands. The food is quite flavorful and you feel like your best friend's mother just made some gourmet food. I especially like the pea and carrot pastry - call ahead to make sure they have it
16. India Cook (Irvine) - this is the sister restaurant of India House in Cerritoes and is hands down the best Punjabi food in the southern california region. Of course, that means lots of butter, lots of cream, and a planned 3 hour siesta after your meal, but hey....that's Indian food, right?
17. Garlic Jo's (Newport Beach) - I'm still discovering the plethora of "garlic" restaurants around here, but definitely stop by this japanese-american-garlic fusion restaurant with lively entertainment. Try the Italian eggplant, garlic fried rice and of course.....garlic bread!
18. The Bazaar (Beverly Hills) - Jose Andres restaurant is exceptional and sooo many vegetarian tapas. It's one of the few Spanish restaurants that provides a variety for vegetarians.
19. Mom's kitchen - you won't find this in Zagat's, nor in the Yellow pages....it's my mother's homemade recipes and they blow away all of the above.