• veggie grill: holiday take-out

    4
    September 2nd, 2008quarrygirlLA restaurants, veggie grill

    as i’m sure you know, yesterday was a holiday. it was labor day here in the u.s., and even though it’s kind of a bullshit holiday when people like to actually go out (rather than sit home with their families worshipping god or whatever), most of my favorite vegan restaurants decided to close for the day. lame! so imagine how stoked i was when i phoned the veggie grill and found out they were open! we decided to grab a few beers in nearby redondo beach, and hit up the veggie grill for some take-out on the way back home. for a quick, vegan holiday meal when everywhere else was shut, this was a pretty tasty find.

    chop-chop chef: chopped romaine, tempeh, veggie-steak, chillin' chickin, green onion, roasted corn salsa with a chipotle ranch dressing. $9.95

    chop-chop chef: chopped romaine, tempeh, veggie-steak, chillin' chickin, green onion, roasted corn salsa with a chipotle ranch dressing. $9.95

    we also got the v-burger (which i didn’t bother snapping because you’ve already seen it here) and started off with an order of steamin’ kale.

    steamin' kale: organic kale with ginger-miso dressing and roasted sesame seeds. $3.95

    steamin' kale: organic kale with ginger-miso dressing and roasted sesame seeds. $3.95

    as i’ve said before, the veggie grill is full of hidden charges. adding mushroom or avocado to a burger is an extra $1.50. getting salad instead of slaw as a side is an extra $1.95. if you want FRIES with your burger, that’s an extra $2.25! it’s all pretty ridiculous. by the time we shelled out the extra 2 bucks to swap out the slaw for salad, our entire order cost $26.85 before tip.

    $26.85…that’s kind of a lot. it’s right up there with m café, yet the veggie grill doesn’t deliver anywhere near the same quality of food. don’t get me wrong, my lunch was absolutely delicious…but was it really worth almost $30? i mean, the salad was full of crunchy white lettuce bones, nothing like the soft and dark leafy greens that fill the bowls over at m café.

    that being said, the salad was packed full of tasty protein. the tempeh was definitely my favorite. the veggie-steak and chillin’ chickin were good too—they tasted almost exactly like morningstar farms starter strips, which i’m a fan of. i didn’t eat the side of chipotle ranch, instead i used some awesome and healthy dressing that my dad brought me when he visited over the weekend. it went perfectly with the salad, the green onions and sesame really complimented each other. the BEST thing about the salad, though, was it came (as all veggie grill salads do) infused with a hearty scoop of quinoa. i love quinoa, and i don’t think you can really go wrong adding it to anything. i don’t know why anyone eats rice anymore, when they could eat those little white blobs of protein instead.

    in the end, the veggie grill salad really hit the spot. not to mention the delicious kale and its amazing miso dressing. i am so glad they were open on labor day. if only they weren’t so damn expensive. oh well, being a vegan and saving the world isn’t cheap…but it sure is worth it.

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4 responses to “veggie grill: holiday take-out” RSS icon

  • I still haven’t made it to Veggie Grill, but that salad (minus the onions, of course!) and kale look great! Oh, and to answer a question you posted in a comment a while back, yes, being an onion-hater is not easy when you’re vegan. You think you have a hard time because bell peppers are everywhere…well, onions are EVERYWHERE. There are a lot of things I can’t order because onions are an inextricable part of the dish, so that sucks, but oh well. I’ve been this way my whole life and I’m used to it, so it’s not quite as bad as it seems. 🙂

  • I’m a big fan of their Tempeh Sandwiches (the island) also, their cheese cake and carrot cake are the bomb! They serve beer and wine there, too! They are looking to open a new location on the West Side, maybe Santa Monica?

  • OMG.
    My husband and I absolutely LOVE Veggie Grill.
    We try to go once a week.
    But sadly, we haven’t been in 3 weeks.
    Life got in the way.

    You should try the wings next time you go.
    Just make sure to ask for the sauce on the side.

    We’ve tried tons of stuff and loved some more than others.
    But you are right, they are pretty darn expensive.

  • It’s the morning after the pre-opening gala at Veggie Grill at the Sunset 5 complex in West LA. Our table consisted of 1 Vegan, 1 Vegetarian, 1 Flexitarian, 1 Closet Carnivore. We were blissed out by the All Hail Kale salad w tempeh, and BBQ Chipotle VeggieSteak. (think chunky Sloppy Joe on steroids.) We lamented the lack of a “bucket” sized portion of Steamin’ Kale, with creamy ginger-miso dressing; it was luscious. I’m not going to mention the Sweetheart Sweet Potato Fries. I’m not. I will not contribute to the addiction problem of today’s youth. I may look like I’m listening to you, but Sweetheart Fries are dancing in my head.


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