Vegan Los Angeles (Day One)

Gratuitous LA Scenery Shot

I am really lucky.

I get to travel to some very cool places for work. While I am there, I believe it is my duty to check out as many cool places as humanly possible. Naturally, for a chubby guy, this means eat at as many places as I can.

During my last trip to Los Angeles I made sure to visit some of LA’s finest vegan eateries. Much like New York City, Los Angeles is a vegan wonderland. LA is one of the only places I have been where you can drive around and see vegan eateries literally anywhere. Most cities you have to go to the “special” part of town to find an all vegan restaurant; you know the part of town that is just a little bit run down and everyone rides a bike.

Since I ate at a fair amount of places in LA, I am splitting it and all of its vegan loveliness into two posts:

Real Food Daily (RFD)

I was joined by the lovely, incredible, sweet, amazing, and just all around awesome Bess from I Dream of Greenie for my first trip to Real Food Daily. Bess gave me lots of wonderful recommendations for my vegan tour of LA and this was definitely one of them. RFD had a solid menu with plenty of really fun and eclectic choices. We started off with the “Not-chos” that were covered in melted cashew cheese and guacamole. Really doesn't get much better than that.

I had the “Burger with the works,” which included avocado, tempeh bacon, melted cashew cheese. This burger was about as big as my head and I almost had a hard time finishing it. Alas, that burger was no match for me. It was, by far, one of the best veggie burgers I have ever had. It came with a lovely vegan Caesar salad too; a perfect accessory to a great burger.  

Finished it off with some mint chip ice cream and a heaping topping of “I can’t wait to go back.”

Madeleine Bistro

Well not really. But, Bess brought me a donut from Madeleine Bistro and it was incredible. It was one of those pastries that just gets better with each bite. It just melted in your mouth. I want more. Now…

One more after the jump...

Hugo’s Restaurant

Do you ever just want to smack yourself for not listening to people? Well, I do. Bess recommended one thing at this restaurant and I got something else. I made the wrong choice. Doh!

I had the roasted pineapple, coconut pancakes. This is one of those things that sounds unreal good, but just missed the boat for me. The presentation was great but I was just not a fan of the flavor. It just seemed a little off. * sigh*

On the bright side, I did see (read: stared at) Johnny Knoxville who happened to be dining at Hugo’s as well. I am such a celebrity dork.

More of LA coming soon…

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