Tofu can be frightening the first time you try it, especially if your gateway block is silky-soft and slathered in soy sauce. Break the beans instead with White Dog's $17 stir-fried version, served alongside crunchy garden vegetables, soba noodles, toasted peanuts, basil, mint and cilantro.

Horizons doesn't fuck around with its upscale take on vegetarian cuisine. Especially in the case of the $17 Pacific Rim grilled tofu, a dish that elevates those strange white cubes through a kochujang glaze and succulent ginger lime butter. Soy bonus points are awarded for a stellar presentation and stick-to-your-ribs sides (mashed potatoes pureed with edamame and ponzu broccolini).

This $6.25 chef's special slow-cooks soy beans according to "Grandmom's recipe." It's served warm alongside tomato and basil toast—bubbling with, what else, melted soy cheese—and a standard issue side salad.

Picky herbivores have been raving about Su Xing House for ages, and with good reason—the menu is overflowing with soy-based options that think outside the wok. The Golden Rings plate ($9.95) combines crispy tofu skin, mashed potatoes and crisp carrots in a tomato and chili sauce.

If you can get past the liquored-up Penn kids and bump-a-bump music, you'll see that this frat-tastic chain offers more than the standard Mexi fare vegheads have grown to loathe. The portabello fajitas ($10), for example, mock the likeness of steak on a sizzling platter of fixins and adobo-marinated tofu, without that whole dead-animal guilt complex.