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fine vegan food at cru in silverlake
16June 15th, 2010cru, LA restaurantsas far as i’m concerned, cru vegetarian restaurant serves up some of the best food in los angeles.
the small, comfy silverlake eatery focuses mainly on raw cuisine, but also has a delicious selection of cooked entrees as well. their creative, healthy dishes aim to please…and i’ve never been disappointed with a meal from cru yet. cru doesn’t use any meat, dairy, or eggs….in fact, the only animal product at the restaurant is honey. my only complaint is, i wish they’d quit using SO much honey.
this is actually a pretty well-timed post, because when i ate a lot of the food i’m blogging about today, the menu items containing honey weren’t even clearly marked. then they started specifying the items with honey on the restaurant menu but not the online menu, and now, FINALLY the online menu is up to date with honey labels as well. so vegans: be careful, and just read everything twice before ordering.
now, onto the FOOD!…
all the appetizers at cru are raw but not many of them are vegan, and as far as i’m concerned you cannot go wrong with the bruschetta rustica. this mouth-watering dish comes with three small but fully loaded squares of sunflower seed bread, topped with tomato basil and herbed cashew cheese. taste-wise, this starter is absolutely divine. while i do admit that it’s a bit expensive at over $2.50 per slice, it the crazy flavor and mouth feel make it worth it. i’d order this bruschetta again, without a doubt.
bruschetta rustica: sunflower seed bread with a chopped tomato basil spread and herbed cashew cheese. $8
another excellent starter at cru, is the plate of spring rolls…
spring rolls (don't order the dipping sauce, it contains honey!) $8
now i know that the dipping sauce that comes with the rolls contains honey, so vegans should definitely get it without that. the rolls are great on their own though, and i can honestly say that when we ordered these, we ate them without the sauce because it was a little too sweet for our taste. the rolls themselves are beautiful and delicate creations made of finely shredded vegetables rolled in paper-thin sheets of cucumber. so tasty, so refreshing, and marvelously presented.
but that’s enough about the starters…let’s discuss some of cru’s fantastic entrees, starting with the lasagna portobello. this is by far my favorite dish at cru, and one of my favorite dishes period…anywhere, ever.
lasagna portobello: layers of marinated mushrooms, asparagus, tomato, fresh herbs, cashew cheese, and pesto; side salad. $12
instead of noodles, this raw lasagna uses thin cucumber sheets as dividers between the layers of soft marinated mushrooms and thick cashew cheese. it’s stacked with fresh vegetables, nutty pesto, and a topped with a tasty yellow sauce that can’t be beat. not to mention a fresh and light well-dressed salad.
another of our favorite raw cru entrees is the shiitake mushroom ravioli…
shiitake mushroom ravioli: stuffed with herbed cashew cheese; chickpea miso cream sauce and arugula salad. $15
this plate comes covered in adorable raw mushroom raviolis, all stuffed with herbed cashew cheese and covered in chickpea miso cream. again, the flavor combinations are both surprising and delicious, and all the ingredients are top notch.
aspargaus portobello crepe: sauteed mushrooms and asparagus in a gluten-free, vegan crepe; lemony raw vegan hollandaise; side salad. $12
as for the cooked entrees, on a recent visit to cru i had the asparagus portobello crepe. it was definitely tasty, but unfortunately was covered in a red pepper sauce which was particularly off-putting to me because i hate bell peppers. i ate a little bit of the crepe, and scraped out the remaining vegetables inside, which were quite delicious. if you liked bell peppers, you’d probably love this thing….because i thought it was all great, except for the sauce.
lastly, the desserts at cru are not to be missed. sadly, almost all of them contain honey, and are not vegan, but there still are two really good ones you gotta try.
chocolate truffle cake sweetened with agave. $8
the chocolate truffle cake and ice cream are both amazing…just be sure that you have someone to share them with because they are rich, rich, RICH. the truffle cake is so thick and dense, a fork will barely cut into it. it’s so damn good though, and will keep you full for days after eating it. i always order it when i’m at cru. it’s a shame that all the other dessert menu items contain honey…maybe at some point in the future they will have more sweet vegan offerings!
be sure to check out cru, if you haven’t already. they are open for lunch and dinner, and serve both raw and cooked food that does not disappoint. the space is pretty small, so you may wanna get there early to avoid the crowd. oh, the restaurant is also BYOB, so come with a nice bottle of vegan wine. 🙂
cru
Tags: raw, silverlake
1521 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
tel: (323) 667-1551
lunch daily 11am-4pm
dinner nightly 5:30pm-10pm
15 responses to “fine vegan food at cru in silverlake” 
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this place is fuckin’ good. it’s come a long way since i first went there and it was 100% raw. crispy polenta cakes!
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Gauri Radha June 15th, 2010 at 08:48
Forgot to add: I’m glad they are marking which items contain honey on their menu now. I’ve never been to this restaurant but I would be trying to order non-honey dishes if I stopped by for lunch or whatever.
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helkimchee June 15th, 2010 at 09:13
this is one of my favorite restaurants in LA. friendly staff, chill environment, delicious food! the lasagna and ravioli entrees are incredible.
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I like Cru and I appreciate that they are located in a location that has crazy high rent, but some of their dishes are just sooo overpriced. I recently had a small dish of plain quinoa, some squash chunks, and a handful of pickled greens and it was $13.
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Vegan June 15th, 2010 at 10:49
If you order a dish that comes with a dipping sauce on the side which is made with honey then how is this vegan even if you do not eat the honey? The restaurant still is using the honey for your serving and it will end up down the drain since you did not use it. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just tell the waiter(ess) not to even bother bringing the dipping sauce? Therefore saving a poor bee from extiction.
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quarrygirl June 15th, 2010 at 10:50
@vegan: i totally agree with you. in order to make the dish vegan, you would need to order it without the dipping sauce.
i didn’t, because i was unaware that it contained honey at the time.
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veganinla June 15th, 2010 at 10:51
YAY! Thanks for the update. A few years ago they were using honey and the servers didn’t seem clear which items were vegan. Then they posted a note on the door that only certain salad dressings had honey. That was easy to work around. I’d heard they’d gone back to using honey and wasn’t sure what was safe to order. I guess it’s time for a visit since things are clearly marked.
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WishinginCT June 15th, 2010 at 12:01
It is so hard to find vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurants in Connecticut! I wish restaurants here would offer a bigger vegan selection than just salads, or plain pasta with plain tomato sauce. Someone needs to start a movement here in CT!
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I have eaten at Cru several times in the last couple of months… I cannot get enough of it!! My favorite dishes are the wraps and the bruschetta. I have to say that I didn’t really like the pizza, but everything else I’ve tasted has been delish. And I have yet to try any of their desserts for some crazy reason, so I will have to get a piece of that chocolate cake the next time I go.
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Alison June 15th, 2010 at 19:57
Cru if you are reading this, I just want to say please keep using honey! (sorry quarrygirl)
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I got a gift certificate for Cru on Restaurants.com – now I just need a date to go with me!
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Ugh, never going back there again. Service was horrendous. The waiter smelled like he hadn’t showered in centuries, and I had to wait about half an hour to even get a water. The food was disappointing, too. I used a Restaurant.com certificate, and would have been pissed if I had paid full price for that awful experience. I’ve had similar experiences there before, and this time it wasn’t even crowded! It was early in the evening, mid-week. The time before that, we had to wait so long we gave up and went to Pure Luck. Screw Cru.
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have not been there since the place opened. but they didnt have all that new looking stuff. that aspargaus portobello crepe looks food boner worthy.
i’m definately going to have to give them one more chance…. -
That chocolate truffle cake looks so good… wish I had a piece now. Love your blog!!
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[…] i just received this email from the executive chef of cru (one of our favorite raw restaurants in town) regarding their stance on honey. it looks like the restaurant is going to quickly become even more […]
brittany June 15th, 2010 at 08:39