9 Of The Best Vegan Mac & Cheese Dishes In Los Angeles

Two guys go on a vegan mac & cheese tour.

1. Mac ‘N Cashew from Mohawk Bend

Stop one of our five and a half hour tour was Mohawk Bend. Mohawk's simple cashew-based mac & cheese dish is available only on their Happy Hour and Late Night Munchies. It's served in a small cast iron skillet and lightly covered with breadcrumbs.

At Mohawk's sister establishment, The Pub at Golden Road, you can also get baked mac &cheese served in pretzel bun.

Mohawk Bend is in Echo Park at 2141 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026

2. Spicy Avocado Mac & Cheese Bowl from Sage Vegan Bistro

Like everything on Sage's menu, the spicy avocado mac & cheese is amazing. The cheese is gooey and the fresh broccoli and kale are winners. Red pepper flakes give it the titular spiciness. The above photo is half of the entrée on a small plate. The dish gets bonus points for being allergen friendly by being both gluten and nut-free.

Sage also has a mac & cheese ball on the menu that you can order as an appetizer or get in the flavor-packed Bowl of Soul. And Sage's Culver City location also has a mac & cheese pizza! (Pizzanista in Downtown also has a vegan mac & cheese pizza but it's available on Sunday nights only.)

Sage has three locations in Los Angeles, this is the Echo Park location at 1700 West Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026

3. Chili Mac Bowl from Doomie's Home Cookin'

In a city where "vegan" is often synonymous with "healthy" Doomie's stands out from the crowd with their comfort food fare. At Doomie's the mac and cheese isn't topped with bread crumbs, but rather Ritz crackers. That's really all you need to know to decide if Doomie's is for you.

Doomie's has five mac & cheese bowls, ranging the Chili Mac (described as "Hamburger Helper and Mac" on the menu) to a Chicken Pesto Bowl. Our server said the Chili Mac was best retained the cheesiness of the bowls so we went with that and the basic Mac' N Cheese Bowl.

Doomie's is in Hollywood at 1253 Vine Street #9, Los Angeles, CA 90038

4. Mac-n-Cheese from Veggie Grill

If you want a quick, cheap hit of mac & cheese, friendly and bright Veggie Grill is the place for you. At $4.95 it's the cheapest mac & cheese in the city. It's not surprising then that it's also the most basic. Veggie Grill's mac & cheese is a good option if you just want a side of mac & cheese with your veggie burger or if you're gluten-free (just pass on the bread crumbs), but it's not likely to convince a skeptic that vegan cheese is the next big thing.

Veggie Grill has 29 locations across California, Oregon, and Washington. We went to the Hollywood location at 6374 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028

5. I Am Bountiful from Café Gratitude

Bountiful is a good description of Café Gratitude's hearty mac & cheese. The menu describes it as "gluten-free quinoa shells, braised cauliflower, capers, black olives, curly kale, cashew cream, tomato reduction, gluten-free garlic breadcrumbs, gremolata, black pepper." The veggies, especially the capers and olives give the dish a ton of flavor but also distract from the cheesiness. There's also a lot of cauliflower mixed in with the pasta. Overall while this as the least traditional mac & cheese meals it still completely satisfied and was one of our favorites.

Café Gratitude has three locations in Los Angeles. We were at the Larchmont location at 639 N Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90004

6. Vegan Mac & Cheese from Hugo's Restaurant

Let's be up front: the color of Hugo's mac & cheese was the least appealing and the dim-lighting in the nice restaurant didn't help make the above look more appealing. Don't trust the photo, the meal itself was unique and delicious. The dish is a "house-made fusilli with garlic, sliced mushrooms and sweat peas in a creamy cashew and sunflower seed cheese sauce. Topped with crispy onions." It's available as an appetizer or an entrée.

Hugo's has three locations in Los Angeles. We were at the Hollywood location at 8401 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069

7. Alfredo Mac & Cheese from SunCafe

The Alfredo mac & cheese was a chef's special, described as a "cauliflower cashew Alfredo sauce over gluten-free pasta, chunks of garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and charred broccolini," all in a cast iron skillet. It's delicious, creamy, and the charred broccolini was the stand out.

SunCafe was the only restaurant featured we hadn't been to before. We will be back, perhaps to get the regular mac & cheese that's on the standard menu.

SunCafe is in Studio City at 10820 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604

8. Macaroni & Cheese from Little Pine

Our last stop of the night was Little Pine. Little Pine aka "Moby's Restaurant" is the newest restaurant featured on this list and it's come on strong. I don't know what's in the house-made cheese sauce or how they made the toasted breadcrumbs so delicious, but this dish was very bold and flavorful. It's got a sharpness that probably touched the closest to cow's milk cheese.

We got the dish to go because the restaurant was closing by the time we go there.

Little Pine in Silver Lake at 2870 Rowena Ave, Silver Lake, CA 90039

9. Mac’n Cheese from Stuff I Eat

Stuff I Eat is most notable for being a vegan oasis in Inglewood. The staff were very friendly, and the simple "large side" of mac, seen above, was only $7.

Because it's far from the other places we went to so it required a separate trip (it's a convenient stop to or from LAX) outside of our eight-stop one night vegan mac & cheese tour.

Stuff I Eat is in Inglewood at 114 North Market St, Inglewood, CA 90301