When I was in Southern California recently, I was able to meet up with a friend at one of my favorite vegan chains, Native Foods. I’ve written about Native Foods before on my blog, and I’ve been able to visit a few of their locations in Southern California and in the Chicago area. My friend, Jenny, and I gathered at their Santa Monica location for sandwiches before a play.
Jenny has a nut allergy, and so before she arrived I grabbed one of their allergen specific menus from the counter, in addition to their standard menus for both of us. (Their restaurants are of the order-at-the-counter variety, but there are so many items to choose between, it’s nice to mull over your options.)
In the special allergen specific menu, they have it sectioned into various allergies (i.e. nut-free, soy-free, wheat and gluten-free). It lists if the meals are already allergen-free as typically served or what modifications need to be made to make them allergen-free. (These menus are all available online as well. See the above links.)
Jenny is allergic to nuts, but her allergy to coconut is less pronounced. So she was able to order the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger, which is made with Daiya, but does contain coconut. (Obviously menu items and preparations change, and so I highly encourage you to check with the staff during your visit if you have an allergy.)
In addition to the non-dairy cheese, the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger is made with thinly sliced seitan, caramelized onions, and Native bacon on a bun with barbecue sauce, ranch dressing, and crunchy, fresh vegetables. It is then pierced with a toothpick bearing several battered dill pickle chips and served with sweet potato fries. I managed to hold my composure enough to not reach across the table and grab a bite for myself, but Jenny did laugh when I took a picture of her plate, saying it reminded her of a certain Vegan Test she’d seen online.
The Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger is my favorite item on their menu, but I opted to try something new – the Bistro Steak Sandwich with house made tofu bleu cheese. This is another seitan-based sandwich, this time topped with crisp shallots, oven roasted tomatoes, and arugula. If you’re inclined to believe that the messier a sandwich is the better it will be, you will love this one. With the tangy, salty tofu cheese and savory seitan, it was an umami-packed wallop of flavors. I ordered it with a side of steamed kale.
It was announced recently that over the next five years, Native Foods will be opening 200 more locations across the country, which is just terrific news. Native Foods has the kind of food that has the power to really alter ideas of vegan food being stodgy, bland, or boring. With things like fried pickle chips as a sandwich topping, much of their menu is certainly comfort food. However, I think fare like this can be far more accessible to people who would be initially hesitant to try something like a raw or macrobiotic restaurant. Plus, their food is just crazy delicious, and so there’s that…
For more mouthwatering pictures from Native Foods, check out these posts from Kristy, Sarah, and Debbie, who broke the bad news that the Bistro Steak Sandwich is off the menu for the time being in place of a jackfruit barbecue sandwich.
One restaurant high on my must-do list when I traveled to Los Angeles recently was 
The supreme is topped with marinara, their SunChorizo, tomatoes, marinated bell peppers and onions, and drizzled in a creamy cashew cheese. It’s then peppered with strips of fresh basil. The pizza is absolutely popping with flavor and varying textures. The crisp raw crust adds a mild crunch, and since it’s full of nuts and seeds, it’s surprisingly filling. (A version on flatbread is available for a cooked option.) I was only able to finish about half, and I saved the rest for a late afternoon snack. The pizza comes with a variety of side options, and I opted for a massaged kale salad. (The Mexican pizza is also fabulous if you’re looking for something with a Southwestern flair.)
The next time that I went back I had my sights set on their Sweet Kale Shake. When I moved away from the area, one of my first courses of action was to 
Along with the shake, I had the taste bud popping Lettuce Leaf Tacos, which are similar to my own 
Finally, I went back one final time on the last evening before we headed out of a town. Gathering with a large group, we started with the Sun Nachos. The Sun Nachos can be prepared raw with thin-sliced jicama chips or with baked corn chips. We opted for a combination of both to satisfy the variety of taste preferences at our table. The nachos are absolutely piled with nacho cheese, cashew cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, olives, jalapenos, and green onions. A mish mash of so many full-bodied flavors, everyone at the table kept going back for “one last taste.”
For my meal, I ordered the Kale Colossus, one of my favorite items on their menu. It comes in two sizes, one personal and one for groups. The salad shown here is the personal size, people. It was huge! It worked out well, because I was able to have the other half of it the next day on the airplane. This massaged kale salad is loaded with everything you could ever imagine in a salad – mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, pico de gallo, three different dressings, raisins, bananas, and more of their SunChorizo. With so many different flavors it doesn’t seem like it would work together, but it makes each bite a surprise for the mouth.
Too full for more, we were won over by the temptation of dessert and decided to split one slice of cheesecake between all of us at the table. The cheesecake that won us over was the chocolate chip cookie dough. The slice was beautifully plated and had a dense, creamy texture. The dominant flavor of the cheesecake was coconut, presumably because it’s made with coconut oil. I enjoy coconut in small amounts, but it was stronger in flavor than I’d prefer, making it easy to stop after just a couple of bites.
