• something for everyone at follow your heart

    27
    January 4th, 2011quarrygirlfollow your heart, LA restaurants

    i really do love follow your heart. the all vegetarian cafe and market has been around since 1970 and offers some of the best food and hardest to find groceries in los angeles. my biggest complaint about follow your heart is that it’s located too far away from my house, so i don’t get to go there enough!

    the cafe can be uncomfortably busy on weekends (i understand why, it’s because the food is so good!), but on weekdays it’s much more pleasant. i checked it out recently on a monday morning at around 11am with my mom, and we had almost the entire place to ourselves…

    Black Bean Soup

    my mom had been anxious to try the follow your heart vegan reuben, because as an omnivore, “normal” reubens are her favorite sandwich. because the follow your heart version is FREAKING ENORMOUS, i suggested she get it as part of “the love plate,” a combo option that lets you choose any half sandwich with any soup and a drink. mom got the black bean soup to start with and let me try some. it was delicious and hearty, more like a chili than a soup. perfect for this weird weather we’ve been having.

    The Love Plate: A Tradition at Follow Your Heart® Since 1971. Any Half Sandwich, a Cup of Soup, and Your Choice of Coffee, Hot or Cold Tea, Soda or Small Juice. $9.50

    next up, the vegan reuben. the moment of truth. my mom thought there was a mistake when this thing arrived at the table…there’s no way a HALF sandwich could be so huge! the picture doesn’t really do it justice, but trust me, half of this sandwich is enough to fill you up. a massive pile of thinly sliced wheat meat, cottage style tofu (instead of cheese), sauerkraut, mustard, vegenaise and thousand island dressing on oversized rye bread. SO DAMN GOOD.

    the reuben comes with a few different cheese options…you can get dairy cheese (OBVIOUSLY i’m never gonna choose that!), follow your heart mozzarella, or cottage style tofu. trust me and go with the cottage tofu, it’s tops! and it adds a whole new texture to the sandwich that’s just awesome. we here in LA take our vegan reubens very seriously, and i can confidently say that follow your heart’s is one of the best in town.

    the love plate lived up to it’s name, and my mom loved it. in the future, however, i’m gonna stick to ordering the reuben on it’s own. i know the love plate comes with soup and all, but for just $1.25 more, you can get TWICE the sandwich you can see pictured above. the normal reuben at follow your heart is just $10.75, which is such a good deal for a sandwich that could feed like 3 people.

    Organic Steamed Vegetable Plate: A Daily Selection of Organically Grown Vegetables Steamed to Order. Served over Organic Brown or Basmati Rice, with Melted Cheese or Mushroom Sauce. $10.95

    for my meal, i rocked the healthy option and went with the organic steamed vegetable plate. this thing was insanely big as well, and came with more vegetables and rice than i could eat for under 11 bucks. the vegan version of the plate comes with a vat of mushroom gravy that’s nothing short of amazing. seriously, it was all just so well prepared and the gravy was delicious. i’d recommend this to anybody who’s in the mood to eat clean.

    follow your heart gets an A+ in my book, because they offer everything from super gluttonous fare to the healthy stuff. they’ve got massive sandwiches, giant burritos, breakfast plates, and shakes…as well as light wraps, baked potatoes, salads, and oil-free soups. pretty much anyone on any diet can eat there…and almost everything can be made vegan! if you haven’t checked out follow your heart yet, do yourself a favor and get over there. it really is one of the best places in LA. take my advice, and go during off-hours. you can get a nice table or a comfy seat at the bar and take your time enjoying your meal.

    Follow Your Heart
    21825 Sherman Way
    Canoga Park, CA 91303
    (818) 348-3240

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27 responses to “something for everyone at follow your heart” RSS icon

  • Wow, the black bean soup and vegetable plate look fabulous! My partner and I used to enjoy going to Follow Your Heart back in ’79, when we lived in Canoga Park. He wasn’t a vegetarian then, but liked the restaurant anyway. How could anyone NOT like it?! : )

  • Friday night pizza special at FYH is Epic…everyone should try that at least once. That’s usually the only time I DON’T order a reuben!!! 🙂

  • I eat at FYH at least once a week….the benefit of working five minutes from there.

    I highly suggest you try the vegan dinner specials they have on the chalk board. They can be nothing short of “Food of the Gods”

    Also, on your way out you should grab a piece of their vegan brownies. IMHO, the best vegan brownie on the planet.

  • I’ve been going here since I was 7…almost 14 years! I must say that the employees are all braindead. They should learn the differences between vegan and non-vegan butter & sour cream. And stop telling people their buns are vegan (the buns still have honey).

  • I once bet a friend who had never been there that he couldn’t finish the reuben in one sitting. I totally won.

  • Their baked potatoes are by far the best thing ever, especially the one with the mushrooms.

  • It would be great if FYH bought out Erewhon so we’d have a location

  • Gauri Radha गौरी राधा

    Must go back to this place soon!!

  • Love FYH! My favorite is their ‘meatball’ sub. We do the love plate thing too. Or we just order one entree and share it (as you said they are HUGE sandwiches), then both have soup.

    If you aren’t eating clean their chocolate raspberry cake is DELICIOUS! Not vegan but good for vegetarians. SO GOOD!

  • I finally got to try Follow Your Heart for the first time when my mom and dad were visiting after Thanksgiving. I got the vegan Reuben and my mom got the steamed vegetable plate. I think my dad got something that wasn’t vegan. The sandwich was huge but I finished it off, and all the carrots, and some of my mom’s vegetables– I must have been hungry that night. That mushroom gravy is really good with the vegetables too!

  • it’s been on my to-eat list since i moved to l.a. 5 years ago!!! i will go when i run out of my jar of vegenaise as an excuse 🙂

  • Stopped by for the first time around two weeks ago and it’s totally worth it!! I love seeing aisles and aisles of vegan food and knowing everyone around me is vegan too. Thanks quarrygirl for the heads up on the reuben. I’ll make sure to order that on the next trip over there!

  • The chocolate raspberry cake, and all the desserts at FYH are vegan (unless you add dairy whipped cream or ice cream).

  • i hate traveling to the valley so much that i still haven’t been here after 11 years of veg/vegan in los angeles. last week i seriously had a dream that i was having a meal in the restaurant. it’s a sign to get my ass over there!

  • $10.95 for steamed veggies? wtf?! and no discount??

    i heart follow your heart.. except for their benedict, that shit is gross

  • I work five minutes away so I’m there frequently for lunch.

    The reuben is great, so is the braised tofu wrap, and the friday night pizzas are amazing.

    My pet peeve about the servers is when you order, you are asked, “Is dairy cheese ok?” as if dairy should be the default option and vegan cheese is the fringe option. I’d rather that a vegetarian restaurant offer the vegan cheese as the default; I’d feel safer eating there.

    Don’t get the new paninis. They’re greasy and gross. And Evy’s Favorite dinner is definitely not my favorite dinner.

  • What’s interesting is that the default choice is the cheese that is NOT the product that they make and was known as being the best vegan cheese on the market (until recently). You’d think they would push that instead of whatever generic stuff they get from their supplier. But I suppose the real cheese is cheaper and they make more money every time someone picks it.

  • Gauri Radha गौरी राधा

    Last time I went there I had some sort of vegan cake slice that was very very good, with frosting and sprinkles and everything.
    [Though I am easily impressed–decent frosting on a vegan pastry totally makes my day.]

  • I’ve tried all those (and more!) at FYH! So delicious!

    Follow Your Heart gets extra major bonus points in my book for having a distributer in Hong Kong. Vegenaise and cheese (cheddar AND monterrey!) for me!!!!

  • There’s a vegan reuben I didn’t know about? This needs to be added to the Ultimate Vegan Cage Match, STAT.

  • You didn’t know about the FYH reuben? That’s the classic original vegan reuben! It’s really not AS good as Vegan Reuben 2.0 that you see at two or three places nowadays, but it really does still hold its own.

    PS – I recommend going with the cottage-style tofu instead of the FYH cheese. Believe it or not, it makes the sandwich almost twice its already-massive size.

  • I know! I hang my head in vegan shame…FYH is not close to me and there are so many vegan options nearby that it takes a lot to get me someplace that involves LA traffic. I’m a very lazy girl.

  • that’s what i said! get the cottage style tofu cheese ALWAYS. i have heard of people getting both cheeses at the same time before, but that sounds kinda gross to me.

  • The last time I had the FYH Reuben, I ordered it with the vegan cheese and massive amounts of thousand island. It was pretty damn good.

  • I always get mine with the vegan cheese, then load it with deli mustard and Brother Bru-Bru’s 😀

  • If you want to die, go to heaven and come back again –order the “original” FYH burger which is no longer on the menu. All the chefs know how to make it but some remember it better than others. It’s right up there with the Reuben and that fabulous Greek salad with the lemon dressing. double yum! There is NO place like Follow Your Heart! Yes, the service is hit and miss but the food, the food……….irreplaceable.
    Oh, and the store is really great, from food to clothes to fabulous jewelry. And I’m not affiliated; I’m just a huge fan who has dropped plenty of money there over the years. Can’t imagine a world without FYH.

  • Gauri Radha गौरी राधा

    Tried their vegan waffles w/ fresh fruit the other day. A good, quick, inexpensive breakfast. I wish I lived closer so I could order them more often!!:-)


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