From freshly chopped salads to farmers’ market vegetables and fruits, restaurants in LA offer a variety of healthy menu options for vegans, vegetarians, the gluten-free, and even carnivores. Here are the best ones,
Kreation Organic Juicery
Kreation Organic Juicery is an all-organic, all-healthy juicery and ‘kafé’ that believes increasing access to organic, raw, plant-based nutrition is a critical component to improving the health of the community. Kreation purchases all of its organic produce from local farms. Its goal is to keep patrons informed about what they’re consuming, where it comes from, why certain ingredients are selected and how they can impact your life. Popular items include Marjan’s Favorite premium juice, the Beautify syringe shot, the Amazon Açai bowl, Berryatric and Greentastic smoothies, and the organic chicken kebab platter with corn, hummus, and yoghurt.
Kye's
Kye’s menu centers around the KyeRito: a naturally gluten-free, handheld food that features organic, local, grass-fed, free-range, wild-caught, nutrient-dense ingredients offered in chef-driven eclectic flavors that satisfy. Popular items include the Macro, Nori burger, chicken bacon pesto, and bulgogi. Kye’s strives to be inclusive and real about food: ‘It has to taste good and make you feel good, too!’
Locali
Locali offers healthy and organic soups, salads, sandwiches, smoothies, and snacks along with pantry staples, wine and beer, health and beauty items, and grab ‘n’ go foods. The produce and ingredients are local and organic whenever, while the menu items place an emphasis on vegan and gluten-free options. Popular dishes include sandwiches like the Badass Breakfast Sandwich, the vegetarian Reuben, and the Turkey Franklin Phenomenon; smoothies like the Elvis; and quinoa salad bowls like the Krazy Kale and Deconstructed BLT made with tempeh bacon. Locali brings consumers thoughtful, sustainable foods and eco-friendly lifestyle products.
M Café is a modern, chef-driven, macrobiotic cafe with three locations in LA: Melrose, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood. Its dishes, pastries and drinks contain no refined sugars, eggs, dairy, red meat or poultry. The soy is organic and non-GMO, and sushi is from the highest grade fish. M Café works with several local farms and caters to those with dietary restrictions. Popular dishes include seitan banh-mi, kimchi fried rice and barley, and the Macro Burger paired with homemade sweet potato fries.
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Madcapra is a 100% farm-to-table, fresh and organic, modern take on the falafel shop, where vegetables take center stage in every sandwich and salad. Helmed by chefs Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson — innovators in vegetable-forward cuisine, local foods, and Middle Eastern influence — the falafel is made from organic, locally sourced chickpeas from Koda Farms. The first chef-driven falafel shop in Los Angeles, located in DTLA’s Grand Central Market, makes its ingredients on-site — bread and hot sauces included.
Mendocino Farms
Restaurant, Vegan
Photo credit: Mendicino Farms
Mendocino Farms is a chef-driven, farm-to-table restaurant with several locations in Los Angeles. It partners with many local farms (Drake Family Farms, Scarborough Farms), as well as other food artisans (Drago Bakery, Coldwater Canyon Provisions). Mendocino Farms takes pride in accommodating guests; there’s an entire menu section entitled ‘Vegan For All.’ Most of the soups and deli sides are also vegan-friendly. Popular items include the Save Drake Farm’s Salad, the Kurobuta Pork Belly Banh Mi, and the ‘Not So Fried’ Chicken.
Picnic LA
Picnic LA is located in Downtown Culver City, CA and offers fine dining cuisine in a fast-casual setting. Industry veterans Brad Zions, Eliot Silver, and Noah Ellis provide an upscale menu featuring California’s best vegetables, meat, and seafood. The highest quality produce at the peak of seasonality is featured in key dishes such as green lentil du puys, farro & roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted parsnip and arugula salad, grass-fed beef meatballs, and much more.
Rawvolution is California’s oldest raw vegan restaurant and was voted LA’s Most Sustainable Restaurant in 2014 and 2015 by Sustainable Business Council of LA. It serves raw creations, cold-pressed juices, smoothies, vegan cheesecakes, and raw chocolates for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rawvolution also offers a sprouted quinoa and lentil veggie bowl, as well as vegan, sustainable wine and beer, as well as kombucha on draft. Popular items include the Nachos Grande with homemade raw purple corn chips, the kale chips, the coconut bacon burger, and the hot chocolate.
SunCafé
SunCafé‘s take on rustic world cuisine is designed to be tasty while still delivering optimum nutrition. SunCafé uses the freshest organic, GMO-free ingredients and makes dishes from scratch. It strives to create dishes to satisfy even the most hardcore foodie. Popular items include the BBQ cauliflower, kale colossus salad, mac and cheese, and award-winning sweet kale smoothie.
Tender Greens
Tender Greens believes in food that is high-quality, sustainably raised, and kind to the environment. Produce is sourced locally from partners like Point Loma Farms, Shoemaker Farms, Weiser Family Farms, Green City Farms, Alegria Farms, Devil’s Gulch, and Fallon Ranch, while the chicken is pasture-raised, vegetarian-fed, and sourced from Mary’s Chicken and Jidori. The meat and poultry is antibiotic and hormone-free, and the seafood is sourced from the most responsible fisheries to protect the health of the species and waterways. Popular items include the Backyard Steak Big Salad, the Herb Brushed the Albacore Hot Plate, and the falafel Sandwich.
True Food Kitchen
Cocktail Bar, Restaurant, Vegan, Mediterranean
True Food Kitchen's Inside Out Quinoa Burger. Photo credit: David Fox
True Food Kitchen is inspired by the principles of Dr Andrew Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet — a blueprint for a lifetime of optimal nutrition. Offering a wide selection of vegan, vegetarian, organic and gluten-free options, along with dishes for Paleo or Mediterranean diets, True Food Kitchen provides delicious food that is also good for you. True Food Kitchen serves original, surprising and satisfying fare using fresh, raw ingredients. In addition to responsibly sourced proteins like grass-fed beef, sustainably raised fish, and select produce, True Food Kitchen uses several nutritionally dense ingredients. True Food Kitchen is the realization of creative visionary and Fox Restaurant Concepts founder, Sam Fox.
Veggie Grill
Veggie Grill views vegetables as rockstars. It serves veggie-centric food with bold flavors to veggie-positive people in a fast-casual space. The menu items are free of meat, dairy, eggs, and other animal products, and they contain no antibiotics or hormones. The tofu and tempeh are made from organic, non-GMO soybeans and fermented rice culture, which are naturally gluten-friendly, while the Chickin’ veggie protein is made from high quality organic or non-GMO soybeans, wheat, and peas. Fan favorites include buffalo wings, Sonoran bowl, quinoa power salad, Santa Fe crispy Chickin’ sandwich, and buffalo bomber.
A Los Angeles native, Jarone Ashkenazi has grown up loving everything in this town and hasn’t left! He enjoys exploring the city, from restaurants (he has been vegan since January 2013) to art exhibits to museums to new bars. If he is not participating in a sports activity, going on a hike or at the beach, you can usually find him hanging with friends, going to a concert, or binge watching something on Netflix.
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