15 Best Vegan Restaurants To Try In Los Angeles
From Monty's Good Burger to Café Gratitude.
1. Monty's Good Burger
🌱Location: 1533 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Known as the vegan answer to LA's popular In-N-Out, Monty's Good Burger serves up classic burgers, fries, and milkshakes that'll rival anything you've ever loved before. This is a must-try if you're only going to try a couple of places on this list! A fun fact is that the restaurant, which opened in 2018, is named after a dog named Monty, whose face is now a part of the brand's logo.
Monty's serves the Impossible burger as their standard burger patty and also offers a chicken sandwich option as well. Their burgers come in double patties and single options. Someone who loves french fries like me was quick to notice that a huge chunk of the menu is dedicated to sauced-up french fries and tots — as well as their special sauces. The tots and fries can be made in "dog pile" and "maxed out" options, which rival the "animal style" fries at In-N-Out. They also have a selection of milkshakes, floats, and seasonal drinks like the Pumpkin Spice Shake currently being served.
2. Gracias Madre
🌱Location: 8905 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Gracias Madre is one of my all-time favorites in Los Angeles. This West Hollywood hot spot serves up vegan Mexican fare that's some of the best I've ever had. While I'd argue that there isn't a bad thing on the menu, their bowls have extreme devotees (shoutout to the Uno, my favorite of the bunch). Their soy chorizo is one for the books and their cashew nacho cheese is unmatched. Gracias Madre's happy hour is not to be missed because not only are the drinks next-level but they also offer smaller and single versions of some of their full meals at this hour.
Beyond the food, their stellar drink menu is another reason to visit. Gracias Madre was one of the first in Los Angeles to offer cannabis cocktails. Their alcoholic slushie is perfect for the "young at heart crowd" and their Negroni is one for the books. Lately, they are focusing on an extensive list of agave, if that's your thing, too!
Did I mention this place is very cute? Their indoor seating features high ceilings and billowing live trees while the outside is filled with lights, canopies, and more live trees. I've seen lots of celebrities who shall remain nameless at the restaurant so if celeb-spotting is your thing, there's almost always a chance. And sometimes if you sit in the front bar area of the restaurant, you can look out the window and see celebs parading in front of the paparazzi outside of Craig's across the street.
3. Sage Bistro
🌱Location: 1700 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
If you're not sure what you want to eat, Sage Bistro's expansive menu is sure to offer up something that you'd like to eat. Sage is a longtime staple in LA that offers delicious vegan food, vegan ice cream, and even vegan beers in their own brewery. It's also a place that attracts many non-vegans happily, which is always a good sign in my opinion. The Echo Park location is right next to the lake and offers outdoor dining as well as an expansive indoor option. They have an entire brewery at this location that serves a wide array of vegan beers and some of the most interesting kombucha flavors I've tried in my time.
But let's talk more about the raved-about food. It's everything. From soups and salads to wings and burgers, it really has something for everyone. I've never felt so decadent as the first time we ordered the 3-Wing Platter, which comes in a gigantic tray that's filled with one-third buffalo cauliflower, one-third sweet and sour, and one-third barbecue sauce. (The cauliflower wings are not to be missed.) Their soft-baked pretzels are the bomb and their mac and cheese is something to write home about. I also have to shout out their bowls and A+ vegan pizza. Also, they take their farm-to-table seriously and serve food from the organic Sow a Heart Farm in Fillmore, so it always tastes fresh. And if you're lucky sometimes, you'll make it there for brunch, when you can have their Crispy Potato Flautas and Cornbread Jalapeño Pancakes.
4. Crossroads Kitchen
🌱Location: 8284 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046
From chef Tal Ronnen, Crossroads Kichen is a high-end, sleek, and chic vegan restaurant in Hollywood offering a range of tapas-style small plates and truly delicious desserts. Despite their having a lot of smaller-portion foods, don't fret because they also have things like pizzas and pastas that will fill you up. The menu here changes seasonally so it's rare to come here and have the same thing twice. (That is, unless you eat here often.) No matter when you come though, you'll find thoughtful and flavorful foods that will delight your taste buds.
If you're looking for a more "fine dining" vegan experience, this is the place to go. The lighting is always spot-on and the vibe is classy and romantic. It's also a good spot for celebrity sightings if you're into that kind of thing. Longtime vegan Travis Barker is seen there often (and recently took Kourtney Kardashian out for a date there) as he's an investor in the restaurant. But even if you could care less about celebrity vegans, this should be one of your first stops when you come to LA.
5. Doomie's Home Cookin'
🌱Location: 1253 Vine Street #9, Los Angeles, CA 90038
I first tried Doomie's Home Cookin' after my friend Brian recommended it as something he'd heard was good and that happened to be close to our office. I had no idea what I was walking into when I showed up and ended up absolutely wowed. If you're looking for first-rate comfort food, I couldn't suggest this more. Their burgers and fries are absolutely top-tier and the cheese sauce that you can get on top of your fries is so delicious. In fact, they offer all sorts of "Fun Time Fries" from garlic fries to pesto fries...to even bacon cheese fries. If you're a fryhead (like me!), I really recommend trying these.
Doomie's is also known for having some next-level fried chicken because it has a layer of "skin" that's pretty lifelike — maybe too much so for my comfort! And I've found this to be true for most of their meat-like offerings: They're super realistic! They have a Philly Cheesesteak with "wiz" cheese and a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich that look almost too realistic to eat — almost.
6. Little Pine
🌱 Location: 2870 Rowena Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039
Ah, Little Pine: There's so much to love here! Founded by musician and activist Moby in 2015, this restaurant has a real cozy vibe and great eats. Indoors, there's a classic and casual dining experience with walls filled with pine trees (I love a good tie-in to a name). Outdoors, there's a beautiful backyard with faux grass and string lights that's grown even more in the past year or so. It's a beautiful setting for a date, a celebration, or just a casual night out.
The menu is filled with comforting foods like Truffle Mac and Cheese, Panko-Crusted Piccata, and fancy pasta dishes like Farfalle Puttanesca and a sweet potato Gnocchi. However, I have always been very impressed with their soup specials, flatbreads, and their rotating array of roasted vegetables — whether it be their roasted carrots, cashew Brussels sprouts, or "kettle veggies."
7. Pura Vita
🌱 Location: 8274 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046
Hollywood's Pura Vita offers up totally vegan Italian food without substituting taste, ingredients, or anything else you're looking for. "Pasta" can often be one of the only things a vegan can order on the menu and it's often missing some of the best ingredients (like cheese!). Pura Vita has figured out how to do vegan cheese well from their Parmesan cheese alternative to their cashew cream. They even make a carbonara pasta using avocado as the "egg." They make some of the best pasta dishes I've ever had in my life. They also serve great gluten-free options.
Beyond pasta, they offer a variety of other Italian dishes as well. They serve paninis, a variety of antipasti like bruschetta and pasta fagoli, and offer classic salads like caprese, Caesar, and a tri colore. The vibes in this restaurant are immaculate and make a great setting for a date or fancy dinner. Oh, and they have bragging rights as the first organic Italian 100% plant-based vegan in the country!
8. Plant Food and Wine
🌱Location: 1009 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
I'm a huge fan of chef Matthew Kenney's restaurants so I'll warn you in advance that my review of his masterpiece of a restaurant Plant Food and Wine will be a glowing one. This indoor and outdoor eatery in Venice is probably the most picture-perfect restaurant in the area — if not the state. The inside is expansive, with multiple rooms that each have their own vibe. And if you walk past there into the backyard, you'll find a beautiful garden with tables placed around it. It's been the background of many a movie and TV show, and you'll absolutely see why.
Turning to the menu, the food served at this restaurant (and all of Matthew Kenney's, really) has immaculate presentation of food you can order. They're always arriving to your table with a smattering of flowers or herbs that look like they were just picked. The menu offers seasonal offerings but tends to keep some staples on the menu like Cacio E Pepe, Baked Raclette, and an incredible raw vegan lasagna with layers of zucchini, pesto, tomatoes, and cashew cheese. Perfect for a date night, Plant Food and Wine also has a great range of vegan wines — just like the name suggests!
9. Au Lac
🌱Location: 710 W 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Au Lac is an Asian-owned vegan restaurant that fuses its dishes with Vietnamese flavors. This menu is not to be missed, from the Chinoise Salad and their take on claypot fish to their many varieties of vegan pho! In fact, one of the most impressive aspects of Au Lac is their creative ingredients that aren't always seen in American vegan recipes. Take their "Octopus," for example: It's made with tenderized shiitake mushrooms and is then battered with tapioca flour and topped with a tamari-sesame glaze.
Their menu makes sure to point out what's available, gluten-free, nut-free, and which of the items are raw or, as they put it, "living foods." The Downtown LA location is fancy enough for a date night with a grand piano in the mix indoors and bar-style seating outside. Open for nearly 25 years, this vegan staple is well worth the trip.
10. Stuff I Eat
🌱 Location: 114 North Market Street, Inglewood, CA 90302
Inglewood's Stuff I Eat serves incredibly delicious vegan soul food from Chef Babette Davis. This Black-owned cozy café is cheerful and sun-filled and has bright, vibrant art on the walls. You can't go wrong with their Soul Food Platter — mac and cheese, potato salad, tofu, kale greens, coleslaw, and your choice of BBQ jackfruit or tofu.
The entire menu is excellent, so you really can't miss here. But if you're like me and want to try a variety of options at once, I recommend getting the platter — or a main with a variety of sides. Fan favorites include the vegan potato salad, tasty kale greens, and awesome tempeh. Don't sleep on their dessert offerings, either!
11. Café Gratitude
🌱Location: 639 N Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90004
The restaurant that I've been to the most personally on this list has to be Café Gratitude. Their Hollywood location has a brightly lit and bustling indoor dining area and a perfect outside deck. As a vegan looking for breakfast in that area, it's one of the only places that opens up at 8 a.m. Not that the time is the only reason to try it, though: Their breakfast is out of this world. (I dream of their breakfast potatoes and herbal tonics often.)
One thing that makes this café different is their company ethos and focus on (yep, you guessed it) gratitude. Each day, there's a new question that your server will ask you at the table meant to make the customer reflect. And in a bid for self-love and self-empowering statements, their menu has items like the "I Am Blessed" (a butternut squash bolognese), "I Am Magical" (a black bean burger), and "I Am Extraordinary" (a BLTA made with coconut bacon). Don't let the names fool you — the food is GOOD. I also suggest checking out their baked goods and line of juices and tonics — the adaptogenic blend of herbs in the "I Am Immortal" tonic makes me feel like my brain is supercharged.
12. Cruzer Pizza
🌱 Location: 5051 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
If you're looking for an all-vegan pizza joint, look no further than Cruzer Pizza. They can make you a simple vegan pie if that's what you're after, but their absolutely creative 'zas are simply where it's at. The Phillysteak Pizza features strips of vegan steak, the Hawaiian Pizza features pineapple and vegan ham, and the Buffalo Chicken Pizza has the perfect blend of hot sauce, cheese, and a side of ranch to dip it all into.
But surprise! Cruzer's menu offers so much more just pizza: It offers calzones, hearty salads, and appetizers like breadsticks, potato skins, and drumsticks. Great pizza in an authentic atmosphere...what more can you ask for? Oh, right: they deliver!
13. Azla
🌱 Location: 4309 Leimert Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Azla Ethiopian Eatery is an incredible vegan restaurant that serves Ethiopian food from a mother-daughter team. When Azla moved back to the United States from Ethiopia nearly a decade ago, her daughter, Nes, was inspired to start a restaurant that served their favorite dishes using local organic produce.
Their menu includes misir, shiro, yatakilt, gomen, and kik wot (aka stew). Come for the fresh injera, and stay for the surprise hit of the drink menu: the golden milk made with cardamom, ginger, and oat milk. They also offer a variety of drinks and sides, and everything on their menu happens to be gluten-free, too.
14. Real Food Daily
🌱Location: 414 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Real Food Daily has been a trusted friend to Los Angeles vegans for years, and for good reason. Affectionately abbreviated RFD, they have a really large menu with a huge assortment of home-style food, from nachos to tacos to macaroni and cheese. The casual and inviting dining atmosphere makes it a great place to meet up with friends.
In terms of the vegan treats you can try at this place, they have a ton of creative vegan options you won't find otherwise, like a vegan Reuben made with tempeh and horseradish cashew cheese, a tuna melt made with almonds and chipotle aioli, a spicy ramen bowl in a mild or spicy miso broth, and a breakfast calzone complete with tempeh bacon, smoked cashew mozzarella, and tater tots. They also offer milkshakes, smoothies, and juices to go.
15. Sugar Taco
🌱Location: 7257 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046
Sugar Taco is a newer offering in the LA vegan scene! As their name suggests, they specialize in a variety of really tasty tacos and other Mexican fare. They offer nachos, quesadillas, burritos, bowls, and tacos with a variety of vegan toppings. Those include carnitas made from jackfruit, chicken made from soy beans, and carne asada and al pastor both made with seitan.
They have a kids menu, a dog menu, and also offer sweets like conchas, churro donuts, and even snow cones. Their drink game is impressive, too: they offer margaritas, palomas, micheladas, and augas frescas in lime, hibiscus, and horchata flavors. Between the options and the cute design of the restaurant, what's there to wait for?