Best Healthy Restaurants in LA (Vegan Options)

LA offers no shortage of healthy vegan restaurants and food options, from juice shops to upscale dining, and here I will show you some of my personal favorites to check out the next time you are in the city.

Fully Vegan:

1. Real Food Daily

Real Food Daily has an expansive menu, ranging from buddha bowls to burgers to tacos. My go to order is the Build Your Basic Bowl, in which you can choose from a variety of plant-based proteins like tofu, tempeh, veggie burger, and beans, vegetables like roasted mushrooms, garlicky greens, and pressed salad, complex carbohydrates like brown rice and roasted sweet potatoes, and sauces.

2. Cafe Gratitude

Cafe Gratitude is one of the most well-known plant based restaurants in LA with several different locations across California, where different menu items are all given self-affirming names such as I Am Thriving and I Am Extraordinary. My favorites include the I am Whole (macrobiotic bowl), I am Hearty (tofu scramble), I am Content (quiche), I am Vivid (acai bowl), I am Adoring (raw tiramisu), and I am Cool (healthy mint chocolate chip shake).

3. Gracias Madre

Gracias Madre is a plant based Mexican restaurant with a great ambience and outdoor patio that makes for a great brunch or special occasion spot. While traditional Mexican food tends to be quite heavy with all the dairy and meat, this restaurant offers many healthier plant based twists on your favorites.

4. SunCafe

SunCafe offers a large seasonal menu of nutritious plant-based dishes including raw dishes and comfort food options such as lasagna and nachos. My go to dish is the tempeh vegetable stir fry that comes with black rice, and they also have amazing raw cheesecakes!

5. Jewel

Jewel is a plant based restaurant in Silverlake with a Japanese twist. I definitely recommend getting the Jewel Plate, which comes with roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, garlicky greens, turmeric tofu, turmeric tofu, black beans, avocado, sauerkraut, amaranth-pumpkin seed crunch, and miso ginger dressing.

6. Taco Vega

is a casual vegan Mexican restaurant featuring tacos, burritos, salads, and bowls. My favorite is the O.G. Burrito, which comes with Okinawa sweet potato, Spanish rice, black beans, pickled red onion, and chipotle tahini crema.

7. Green Table Cafe

Green Table Cafe is an Italian inspired cafe selling salads, sandwiches, smoothies/smoothie bowls, fresh juices, desserts, and more. They even have a special pasta night on Wednesdays. My favorites here are the thick and creamy smoothie bowls and their yogurt parfait made with house made almond yogurt!

8. LOVE Organic Cafe

LOVE has amazing vegan Thai food and sushi! My favorites include the Pad See Ew and Love-Pillar roll with marinated mushrooms and avocado.

9. M Cafe

M Cafe is a Japanese macrobiotic cafe, essentially serving wholesome plant based food with the exception of some seafood. This cafe offers some of the cleanest food you can find in LA, many of the dishes being quite simple bur nourishing and pure. My favorites include the Macro Grain salad and Teriyaki and Macro bowls with added tofu/tempeh.

Fast Casual:

10. Kye’s

Kye’s is a casual Asian inspired healthy grab and go spot in Santa Monica offering “Kyeritos” (sushi burritos) and bowls. My personal favorites are the Den Miso bowl with tempeh and the Kitchari bowl.

11. Alfalfa

Alfalfa in Santa Monica has amazing, filling salads with very generous portions with lots of fresh, interesting toppings such as dates, roasted Brussels sprouts, Buffalo cauliflower, and quinoa chickpea bites. You can choose to build your own salad or choose from fixed menu items.

Smoothie Shops:

12. Backyard Bowls

The smoothies and acai bowls at Backyard Bowls are thick and creamy, and my favorites include the Power Bowl, Warrior Bowl, Blueberry Fields smoothie, and Green Almond smoothie. In addition to smoothies, they also have oatmeal, avocado toast, almond butter toast, yogurt bowls, and a savory grain bowl.

13. Sunlife Organics

Sunlife Organics is a trendy smoothie shop with several locations across LA. While on the pricier side, they offer some more unique ingredients such as young Thai coconut meat, a variety of superfood powders, coconut whip, and raw cashew butter.

14. Kreation

Kreation is a chain juicery with locations throughout LA with high quality juices, smoothies, smoothie bowls, lattes, and grab and go snacks/meals. Some locations even have done in hot food options for breakfast or lunch. My favorites include the Amazon bowl (classic acai bowl) and Zen bowl (mint smoothie bowl).

Upscale:

15. Gjelina

Gjelina is a trendy restaurant in Venice serving modern Californian cuisine. All of their seasonal farm-to-table vegetable sides are amazing, and they also have some of the best neopolitan style pizza in LA, which you can get without cheese for a vegan version.

16. Avra

Avra is an upscale Greek restaurant in Beverly Hills with an amazing ambience and beautiful interior. While they don’t have any vegan mains, I love all of their vegetable appetizers and sides, especially the gigantes(giant Lima beans in a tomato sauce), fasolakia(Greek green beans in a tomato sauce), spanakorizo (spinach and rice), and sautéed spinach.

Grocery:

17. Erewhon

Erewhon is a super trendy grocery store in LA known for selling very expensive health food items. While it is indeed pricy, they have a great hot food bar, premade foods like salads and wraps, tonic bar with made to order juices, smoothies, cold pressed juice/smoothie aisle, acai bowls, and lattes, sushi station, hot soup station, and harder to find health food gems. I personally love to get their roasted Japanese sweet potato wedges, Maca bomb smoothie, and their flavored raw almond milks.

Other Restaurants:

18. Malibu Farm

Malibu Farm restaurant and cafe are farm to table restaurants focused on fresh, seasonal ingredients. They are located on the Malibu Pier and are great places to eat at if you want to visit Malibu and soak in the sun. My favorites are the tofu scramble, tofu coconut curry, and vegan chop salad.

19. True Food Kitchen

True Food Kitchen is a health-driven, chain restaurant with locations all throughout the country. I find this restaurant to be very popular even with non vegans or non healthy eaters because they offer a variety of flavorful options for a range of different diets. Their menu changes seasonally, but my favorite is the teriyaki quinoa bowl.

20. Great White

Great White is an Australian inspired cafe with one location on Venice Beach and another on Larchmont. This is a great brunch spot or place to meet up with friends because of the great ambience. My favorites include the seasonal vegan grain bowl and the very instagrammable blue smoothie bowl.

Jinny's Food