Vegan Tour of L.A.

Hi everyone! I am Godzyfan and I would like to thank Vegan In Salem for letting me take over her blog this week to tell you about how I ate my way through L.A.! It was amazing to see vegan restaurants on nearly every corner and even in places that weren’t vegan, most had at least one or more vegan options.

My first stop off the plane was the legendary Pink’s! A hotdog joint you ask? Yes and they even had a vegan hotdog there called the Baja veggie dog! It was topped with their own homemade guacamole, fresh tomatoes and onions. Even the non-vegans loved it!

For dinner, one of the locals took me to his favorite vegan place, Native Foods Cafe. We started off with chicken fingers (best I’ve had anywhere!) and sweet potato taquitos – fantastic! 

My entree was the special of the day, the bacon cheeseburger with fries. It was good and I loved the bacon especially but the burger part was more like shaved “turkey” rather than a burger and was a little too sloppy for me. My friends got the meatball pizza and a tofu curry and vegetable dish and since we were all trying each other meals, I can tell you those were both delish! My favorite part was dessert – a peanut butter parfait! Take that DQ! 

Another discovery by my local friends (who are omnis but happen to love vegan food) was Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Restaurant. This was quite a treat as I have never had Ethiopian food before and it was quite an experience since you eat it with your hands! First, they bring you water to wash your hands. Then they bring you a giant pancake-like thing (it was more like a pancake than bread but not sweet) and it is covered with several globs of food! There were dishes made of lentils, chickpeas, potatoes & corn, green beans, kale all on top of the pancake. Then they give you a basket of smaller pancakes and you tear a piece off and use it to pinch the food on the large pancake! Every single dish on there was wonderful! 

Lunch one afternoon was at California Vegan, a Thai place that looked like it used to be a diner. The first thing I needed to order was Thai iced tea! I’m always sad I can’t order it in a regular Thai place because it’s made with milk and most places don’t have soy. I got a lunch special of the orange chicken which came with miso soup, a spring roll, and brown rice. The orange chicken was truly amazing and my friend wished he had ordered it! The spring roll was not the best but I didn’t care after having the orange chicken!! I wanted to order their tiramisu for dessert but they were out, sadly. Still, a great meal! 

We decided on Thai again for dinner at a rock n’roll restaurant called Toi! The inside was decorated with vinyl records and movie posters and was very happening since Joe Jonas was sitting at the table next to us! This was not an all-vegan restaurant but had many vegan options. I ordered a dish with eggplant, pumpkin, tofu and mushrooms with brown rice that was more like black rice! It was very good and a fun environment. (That is not me in the photo by the way.)

Sunday morning is a day for brunch so we headed to a vegan place that I read about called Flore. This was certainly my favorite meal of the entire trip as I had chicken and waffles!! I remember on a previous trip to L.A. that they were all about chicken and waffles out there, which I used to think was a strange combo. But I can tell you from experience that it was simply AMAZING! It was probably the best fake chicken I have ever had and it was served with a great homemade gravy, next to a banana waffle and a side of tempeh bacon. I also indulged in a chocolate croissant! My friend ordered the sausage biscuits and gravy which, if possible, was slightly better than my dish! I give this place 5 stars! 

My last all-vegan excursion was to a place called Sage that we heard about because the place next door to Flore posted their menu! I ordered the mac n’ cheese and a side of potato salad. While I liked but the mac n’ cheese, it was covered in caramelized onions which I don’t remember seeing in the description and I am not a big fan of onions. (Oddly enough, I did like them on the Pink’s hotdog!) My friends ordered the Caribbean jerky burger which was great and a falafel and quinoa dish that was fantastic! We ended with an amazing dessert of the brownie sundae with ice cream from Kind Kreme which is a part of Sage. The flavors we chose were chocolate caramel and salted caramel latte and they were to die for! 

On the way to the airport, we stopped at Hamburger Mary’s for dinner (I guess the omnis couldn’t take it anymore lol!) but lo and behold, they had a vegan burger for me! I also had a hard-core vegan waiter who proceeded to tell me what was and wasn’t vegan on their menu so that was helpful! I also had a delicious mojito! I didn’t take any pics here as my camera was packed away in my bag but the place was a funky gay bar and I would love to go there on karaoke night!

Thanks for checking out my vegan adventures in L.A. and I highly recommend it to visiting vegans. There were SO many places I didn’t get to that I need to go back! Thanks again to VeganInSalem, and please follow me on Twitter @godzyfan if you want to hear more of my chatter!