• November 21st, 2008quarrygirlcru, LA restaurants

    UPDATE 6/15/10: since reading this post, i have found that many of cru’s menu items are not vegan because they contain honey (including the deep green salad). please check out cru’s menu online to see which items are safe to eat.

    cru is a vegan, mostly raw restaurant that i’ve been wanting to check out for quite some time. my little hipster omnivore friends go on and on about it at the office, and recently it got quite a glowing review on to live and eat in la. so last weekend, i finally decided to go check out cru for myself and see what everyone was raving about. oh, and i found out: simple, fresh, organic fare that’s bursting with tons of flavor.

    deep green salad: marinated kale with avocado, tomatoes, sprouts and sunflower seeds in a chili lime dressing. $10

    deep green salad: marinated kale with avocado, tomatoes, sprouts and sunflower seeds in a chili lime dressing. $10

    i went to cru, like everywhere else, with my husband…and he opted for the deep green salad. it was a mix of delicious kale, vegetables and seeds all tossed in a light and refreshing dressing. i would say this salad was pretty much perfect. not sure how they do it at cru, but they really concentrate on packing tons of flavor into each dish. most salads, even the tasty ones, are pretty boring and nondescript…the deep green salad at cru though, had a life of its own. when i tried it, i was tasting flavors i never knew existed.

    i decided to get something off the cooked menu. i know, i know…lame of me, but i wasn’t in the mood for raw! i can’t find exactly what i ordered on the online menu, but it was an amazing mix of sauteed spinach, onion, squash, sauerkraut and mixed greens atop a bed of steaming quinoa. it was INSANE.

    awesome cooked entree.

    awesome cooked entree.

    like the salad, the cooked bowl was just going crazy with deliciousness. i was bombarded with so many new and exciting tastes, i seriously can’t wait to go back to cru and see what else they have to offer. the quinoa wasn’t the least bit boring either, they cooked it with something that gave it an incredible silky texture that soaked up all the vegetables’ flavors.

    we also split a glass of freshly made juice that was pretty invigorating.

    spinach cucumber apple ginger juice. $6

    spinach cucumber apple ginger juice. $6

    it was a rather strange flavor combo, but it ended up being divine. light and made with fresh ingredients, the juice had a distinct ginger flavor that was tasty, but didn’t overpower the fruits and vegetables.

    after two scrumptious and ostensibly healthy meals, we decided to splurge and split a piece of cru’s famous raw chocolate truffle cake.

    chocolate truffle cake. $8

    chocolate truffle cake. $8

    dude, this truffle cake was crazy. it didn’t taste or feel like you’d expect from looking at it. when it arrived at our table, i shoved my fork in it to grab a bite, and the fork just got stuck. breaking off each piece was kind of a chore. this isn’t your normal cake, think of it like a huge, thick, firm piece of pure chocolate. that being said, it soooo good. even my husband held his own and ate up half of the cake, and he usually can’t compete with my sweet tooth.

    man, oh man, that cake was so rich! i loved it, but i highly doubt i will be able to justify ordering it again any time soon. i can only take that decadence once every so often.

    on top of having insanely yummy food, cru was also quite pleasant and comfortable. i’d read on yelp that the place was absolutely tiny, so we decided to go for lunch (which they only offer on friday and saturday), in order to miss the dinner crowd. when we were there, the place was nearly empty. i would definitely recommend hitting them up during their lunch hours if you wanna bypass the craziness. plus, i’m pretty sure they give you a discount at lunch time. our meal seemed really cheap compared to the prices on the menu. maybe they just thought we were awesome, though…that wouldn’t surprise me.

    so go get some cru. raw, cooked, drinks, desserts, it’s all off the chain.

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  • July 13th, 2008quarrygirlhealth, LA restaurants, newsroom

    so before you go on reading about how much i loved my breakfast at this place, you should probably know about the very low “C” grade it received after a recent health inspection. a reader wrote in to quarrygirl.com with a link from TMZ, of all places.

    the gossip rag reports:

    We got hold of the inspection report. Among other things, the city found mold inside the ice machine. Glasses on the bar had gnats that went in for a landing. Some of the shelves were dirty. The waiters’ counter had paint chipping off. And restaurant workers were placing cut watermelon in the sink.

    As for the fridge — problems with potatoes, feta cheese and the meat drawers.

    that’s fucking gross. let’s hope they get their act together and pull that grade up stat. i think they are actually closed right now for “renovations”, attempting to fix the problem. in the meantime, i suggest you check out the interim cafe in santa monica…which was started by the same peeps, who i don’t believe still have anything to do with the robertson newsroom location.

    that’s it. thought you should know. below is our original post, as published on june 25th. vegans, be careful out there.
    Read the rest of this entry »

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