Green Leaves

*Post by Angela.

Moving to LA from DC, one of the things that struck me the most is the overwhelming number of establishments entirely devoted to those with stricter diets, whether they be vegan, vegetarian, kosher, gluten-free, raw food eaters...Not that it usually impacts us.* While we respect other people's choices/allergies, normally we steer clear of restaurants and dishes catering to the restrictive eater crowd. Nevertheless, a few weekends ago, we found ourselves at Green Leaves, a vegan eatery in Los Feliz (there is also a location closer to us in West Hollywood) with a friend who has recently decided to refrain from meat. Surprisingly, the food was really satisfying and tasty, and was pretty cheap, to boot.   

Somewhere along the way, Rock and Roll seems to have become the theme of choice for the restaurant, as guitars adorn every wall of the interior. I mean, when you boil it down, Rock and Roll and Vegan Food are practically one and the same... 

Mark dithered for a bit over the menu, and finally settled on the pineapple fried rice - wild rice stir fried in curry powder with pineapple, cashew nuts, tofu, onion, peas, carrots, tomato, and cilantro (below). Not only was the dish really hearty without being heavy, but it was very flavorful as well. Mark really liked the sweetness the pineapple lent to the dish, and I loved the use of wild rice.

We split an order of spring rolls, filled with soy chicken and fresh vegetables (below). Generally anything deep fried tastes very similar - might as well have been real chicken for all we knew. Still, normally deep fried = tasty, and this was no exception.

I ordered the gravy noodle, wide rice noodles with broccoli, tofu, and sautéed in a thick brown sauce (below). Again, the absence of animal byproducts made no (negative) impact at all - while it wasn't a life-changing dish, I found this vegan dish almost as tasty and filling as any version of Lad Nar at traditional Thai restaurants.

I used to think that becoming a vegan would be a great way to lose weight - you'd have nothing to eat! Green Leaves proved me wrong - I could happily and easily make myself fat eating here more often.

*Apparently, there has been some kerfluffle in the past over whether or not Green Leaves is actually 100% vegan. You can read about it here and here. While, as stated above, it doesn't really impact us, and didn't change our opinion of the food, I wanted to note that if you truly are a committed vegan, you may want to do your own research on the establishment.

Comments

[Yogi]

thanks a lot for your superior jobs