Feeling Grateful for Cafe Gratitude in Los Angeles

I’ve heard a lot about Cafe Gratitude over the years. A truly feel-good place, these 100 percent organic vegan restaurants specialize in truly gourmet vegan cuisine and empowering its communities to feel the love. And seeing that I like feeling good and eating healthy stuff that tastes good, I knew I had to hit it up when I was recently in LA. (They have quite a few Cali locations—and they just opened one in my hometown!)
I kind of expected the place to be a little rustic; a little granola, if you will. But nope. It was kinda swanky.

And I had excellent company to experience the place with: the one and only FBG Tish and our bud and social-marketer genius Laura who runs Social Media Spotlight just down the street (lucky!). Tish was clearly excited to be there.

We began by ordering “I Am Comforted,” garnet yams baked with rosemary and served with nacho cheese. (Remember, it’s vegan, so the “nacho cheese” is actually made of cashews!)

Now, one of the things I love about Cafe Gratitude—besides how freakin’ AMAZING those yams were—is that all of their dishes are named as affirmations. So, although you feel kind of silly ordering, they do kind of make you smile. And the little note on the plate when you’re done eating them? Um, SO cute.

Up next, for my main course, I ordered (rather happily) I Am Whole. A gorgeous macrobiotic bowl with sea vegetables, stewed adzuki beans, raw kale, butternut squash, house-made red cabbage kim chee (You know my sauerkraut obsession? Well, it has expanded to kim chee!) and sea whip and black sesame seed gomasio with quinoa. It was beautiful and filling. But not in a heavy way. In like an I-feel-really-awesome way. Or an I-feel-whole way. Yes, really!

I paired this with the I Am Succulent juice—which was probably the most fun to order. (Side note: The staff was amazingly awesome. And the guy who delivered our food and told me that, yes, “I am succulent”? Well, he wasn’t too hard on the eyes.) The juice was a mix of grapefruit, celery and apple juice topped with fresh mint. So refreshing.

I’m not sure how we resisted getting dessert, but we did. (Probably because I stuffed myself with that entire bowl of sea veggies! Who knew roughage from the sea could be so dang filling?)
Vegan or not, Cafe Gratitude gets my two Fit Bottomed thumbs up, way up. Delicious, healthy and just a damn cool place to be, the whole restaurant feels like love!
Ever been to a Cafe Gratitude? In Los Angeles or somewhere else? What’s your favorite “I Am” dish to order and enjoy? —Jenn