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more vegan mex from hugo’s restaurant
38January 19th, 2010hugo's restaurant, LA restaurantslast week i raved about the corn cake napoleon special at hugo’s restaurant, and this week i’m back to rave about another one: the vegan tofu rancheros!
Tofu Rancheros: Tofu atop corn tortillas, roasted tomato Chipotle sauce, sliced avocado, vegan mozzarella cheese and fresh cilantro. Served with smashed pinto beans and Spanish rice. $11.75
hugo’s restaurant has two locations (one in weho and one in studio city), it is seriously one of the best vegan-friendly eateries in town. every month they have a whole menu full of amazing specials, most of which can be prepared animal-free. today i ordered one of the breakfast specials, the tofu rancheros, which came with thick slabs of tofu, savory chipotle sauce, sliced avocado, tortillas, rice and beans. i love mexican-inspired breakfasts, and seriously this is one of the best ones i’ve ever had. i am going to have to get over to hugo’s again and order this before the month is over. so damn good. if you like big messy plates of food full of delicious sauce and protein, you will love this thing. i mean, LOOK—they even got the follow your heart cheese to melt!
Vegan Soy Chorizo and Vegetable Quesadilla: vegan mozzarella cheese with a blend of vegetables, soy chorizo, sauteed peppers, onions and potato grilled in a flour tortilla. Served with Pico de Gallo and guacamole. $6.75
in other hugo’s restaurant/mexican food news, they also offer an amazing quesadilla on the starters menu that isn’t a special, so you can get it year round. my dad orders this every time he goes to hugo’s, without fail, so it has to be pretty good. at under 7 bucks, it’s a really great deal and definitely big enough to eat as a meal. as always, when ordering at hugo’s be sure to specify that you want your food made vegan, because a lot of these dishes are not by default.
what’s better than warm mexican food on a cold rainy day? not much!
hugo’s restaurant
8401 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 654-3993and
12851 Riverside Drive
Tags: mexican food, the valley, weho
Studio City, CA 91607
(818) 761-8985
38 responses to “more vegan mex from hugo’s restaurant” 
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Is that really Follow Your Heart? Are you sure they didn’t put real cheese on it? That looks way too melted.
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This looks amazing. Does anyone know if Flacos in Berkeley are still in operation. That was some of the best vegan Mexican food I’ve enjoyed. There are some pictures here from way back during my last visit: http://preview.tinyurl.com/y94l2wp
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Oops… I could have looked at their website myself. Flacos FTW: http://www.flacos.com/menu.html
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I tried the corn napoleons and they were every bit as good as your description. I think the best stuff at Hugos is always the specials, and I always miss them when they’re gone.
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miss anthrope January 19th, 2010 at 17:24
@jeff, oh it was definitely follow your heart. yeah, they some how got it to melt, but i could still tell by the taste!
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I’m gonna have to try that quesadilla. Went to Hugo’s over the weekend and ran up a big bill. But there were leftovers.
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I had this the other day too, it was ok. I ordered it vegan and they brought it to me with real cheese (and it looked just like your photo). I had to send it back and they remade it with FYH, which looked more like the usual not very melted FYH usually does. Just sayin’.
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miss anthrope January 19th, 2010 at 19:13
@foodeater: yeah, they did such a good job melting it, i admit it looks very real!
however, it peeled right off in a big clump (like follow your heart does), and it tasted meh (like follow your heart does).
this was vegan cheese for sure! it had that FYH chemical taste. too bad they don’t use daiya.
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Steven January 19th, 2010 at 19:20
I was just going to say before I read these comments, why on earth does Hugo’s not use Daiya?
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They must have some special method of melting FYH that they only use when they know Quarrygirl is in the house because I’ve never seen them melt it like that, ever. I wish I would have kept my photo as the FYH was only slightly melted and in strands like it usually is, like this:
http://www.toliveandeatinla.com/fyh/not_melted.jpgThe mozzarella version they brought first looked just like your picture.
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miss anthrope January 19th, 2010 at 19:35
@foodeater, yeah i have had it like that from hugo’s as well. not sure why it melted this time, but it was definitely hard and not stretchy. it peeled right off the tofu in one piece, not like real cheese.
whatever they did to it, the meet market does the same thing. it melts and then just lays there in a puddle.
i know real cheese when i taste it, and this was definitely FYH! if it were real cheese i’d have thought, “why does this taste so good?!”
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I know FHY can melt, I’ve just never seen Hugo’s do it properly and I eat there frequently. Oh well.
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elliot January 19th, 2010 at 19:37
Hugo’s always does an amazing with the Follow Your Heart Cheese whenever I’m there. Maybe they think I am Quarrygirl! 🙂
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i’m pretty sure QG knows the difference between FYH and real cheese.
FYH looks just like that when it’s actually melted. maybe someone at hugo’s finally figured it out.
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monsoon January 19th, 2010 at 19:53
they just took extra time to mix and melt the FYH before they put it on the food. 20 seconds in a microwave and it will pour out just fine. it won’t stretch though and just breaks apart whenyou eat it.
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Got the Tofu Rancheros last Saturday and it was so yummy! However, mine came with no avocado or cilantro 🙁
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ValleyWhore January 19th, 2010 at 22:18
Ha! Foodeater is trying to police the vegan police. It will never end.
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Jesus, who are these idiots questioning you? That looks really good and I can’t wait to try it.
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crystal January 20th, 2010 at 00:03
foodeater is just jealous that nobody reads her blog anymore. she kinda lost her way and now just posts recipes to try and get people to buy books from her amazon store. real sad.
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@foodeater not as funny as you are and a lot less anonymous bring it on
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Wow, this thread has gotten crazy. I hope I can shed some light on it. I’m Jeff, the original commenter at the very top who said the cheese looked real.
Well after reading this post, I went to Hugo’s today for this special for dinner. They didn’t have it available but I did get the mole with vegan cheese and it looked excactly like QG’s picture. It was very melted-looking, but it was obviously vegan cheese.
I think it’s funny people are saying it isn’t vegan.
ONce a doubter, now a believer,
Jeff -
guatam January 20th, 2010 at 00:34
IF I could raise the tone here please? I think that cheese, vegan or not, looks disgusting. Please, can we all agree on that?
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Who is Foodeater? And Hugo’s is great, but Hugo’s tacos is pretty awful.
That cheese looks fake.
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Jeff, I didn’t say it isn’t vegan, I guestioned if they made a mistake and served the wrong cheese based on how it looks as they had just done it to me earlier. For what it’s worth this is what the vegan cheese on the mole usually looks like:
http://www.toliveandeatinla.com/fyh/mole1.jpg
http://www.toliveandeatinla.com/fyh/mole2.jpg -
I am from NYC and am in LA for work. I checked out VegBlogs from the plane, and came across your site. Fortunately for me, I am staying in West Hollywood. So I just went to Hugo’s for breakfast. On your recommendation I ordered the Tofu Rancheros (with a fruit and vegetable smoothie). It was as good as you said. Excellent. I plan to go back a few more times before I leave LA on Friday. Many thanks,
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miss anthrope January 20th, 2010 at 15:50
hey, i love you all and appreciate your enthusiasm… but can we PLEASE keep the comments related to the food, and skip the personal attacks? this is a food blog, people! btw i could totally go for some tofu rancheros right now. mmm.
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Steve B January 20th, 2010 at 18:33
I frequent the West Hollywood Hugo’s, and that looks like the vegan cheese to me. The real cheese is a slightly different color. It’s pretty obvious. Sometimes the vegan cheese isn’t quite that melted, but most of the time it is.
Thanks for the review, I rarely order from the specials menu.
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FYH goes bad really quickly. Does Daiya cheese last longer? Anyone know??
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Daiya cheese totally lasts longer. The container I bought from Whole Foods has a Sell By date that’s a good two weeks after the day I purchased it.
I agree, FYH cheese is slimy and grows mold way too quickly. Daiya is mostly flour, and is dry like real cheese.
Jeff January 19th, 2010 at 16:38