UPDATE: hummus king in thee valley has closed down, but they are offering catering and free delivery until they hopefully re-open in silverlake!

ever since we posted brittany’s glowing review of hummus king, an all vegetarian restaurant in valley village, we have been dying to go there. we finally made the trip this weekend, and i can safely say that it’s one of my new favorite spots.

the menu at hummus king is large, inexpensive, and almost entirely vegan (i think the only animal products at the restaurant are eggs as a topping). they’ve got several platters, salads, and sandwiches filled with your choice of homemade falafel, spiced vegan shwarama, and SEVEN different kinds of hummus to choose from. the second we walked in, a friendly fellow behind the counter started whipping out spoons filled with hummus, offering us a chance to try each flavor. they were all super tasty; i knew immediately that we were in for an awesome meal.

falafel platter: small hummus plate, eight falafel balls, two sides, two pitta breads, and a fountain drink. $9.95

we decided to share the falafel platter, which isn’t a platter at all, but rather several small plates of food. this would probably be enough to feed 2 people, or one VERY hungry person. our platter came with 8 falafel balls (a mix of normal and fire flavor), a side of salad, a side of shwarama, a side jalapeno hummus, 2 pieces of pita bread, and fountain drink.

lemme start by saying the falafel was FANTASTIC! some of the best i’ve ever had. super fluffy in the middle and crispy on the outside, yet not burnt to a crisp. it wasn’t overly oily, and it was perfectly seasoned. i highly recommend doing what we did and asking them to throw some “fire balls” (spicy falafel) into the mix, because those were even better than the normal falafel.

the side of shwarama that came with the falafel platter was huge, i couldn’t believe it was just a side when they brought it to our table. one bite of this stuff and i was in love—thinly sliced and super meaty, it was all mixed up with fantastic mediterranean spices and little bits of grilled onions. i’m definitely gonna work this shwarama into my order every time i go to hummus king.

the salad was very nice as well, light and refreshing with crispy cubes of cucumber, plump tomatoes, and shredded cabbage. it went great stuffed on top of the falafel in the warm pita bread.

the last component of the falafel platter, the small side of hummus, was probably my favorite thing on the table. there were so many flavors to choose from, but we went with jalapeno and were not disappointed. this was some of the creamiest, most flavorful hummus i’ve ever tasted and it was finished off with a chunky scoop of chickpeas and some spiced oil. TO DIE FOR. i honestly wanted to pick up the plate and face palm it.

the falafel platter was so good, i would highly recommend it! i mean just look at the four pictures above—all that food for under 10 bucks! and you can’t even see the pita bread!

vegetarian shwarama sandwich: pita bread with choice of hummus, filled with mediterranean spiced shwarama, chopped vegetable salad, green tahini and mango sauce. $6.95

oh, but that’s not all my friends. not knowing how epic the falafel platter would be, we also got a shwarama sandwich to share. this was a very generous portion of the same tasty fake meat described above, shoved into a soft pita picket with salad, hummus, and green tahini. i would order this hefty hand held meal again any time, it was wonderful! it was all the deliciousness of the shwarama, salad, and hummus i described above neatly tucked together in an easy to eat sandwich. if i were at hummus king on my own for lunch, this would be my go to meal. it’s the right size for one person without having any leftovers.

our first experience at hummus king was phenomenal, and just thinking about it makes me want to drive over there right now. the place is pretty basic on the inside (as you can see in the picture above), but the food is out of this world. plus, the service is friendly, the prices are low, and you can sample pretty much anything you want before you order. oh, and it’s kosher!

get over to the valley and show this vegetarian business some support! you will thank me later.

hummus king
12422 burbank blvd
valley village, ca 91607
818-509-7999
sunday – friday 10:30am-4:00pm

click here and here for the menu.

hey everyone, quarrygirl here. this is very exciting news. not only is there now a place to get vegan pizza delivered in north hollywood…but it’s cheap, authentic, take-out pizza as well. not fancy, specialty pizza like you find at most places in LA with vegan offerings. anyways, the following post is by field reporter brittany (of sick of lettuce). we’ve gone ahead and set her up with her very own qg username (check out the top of the post to see who it was written by), so after this i am gonna stop introducing her entries. enjoy!

large pizza with vegan cheese, garlic, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and mushrooms. $13.69

a couple days ago i got an email from QG alerting me to lenzini’s pizza in north hollywood, and the fact that they recently started offering vegan pizza. WHAAAT? i was a bit skeptical that a random pizza place in noho was offering vegan pizza, so i double-checked ahead of time and found that 1) they use daiya cheese and 2) the dough is vegan as well. SCORE! i, of course, immediately sprang in to action (by immediately i mean a day later) and walked down to lenzini’s for lunch with some of my co-workers.

after a short stroll we arrived at lenzini’s and started picking out toppings. no faux meats on the topping menu, but there are a ton of yummy vegetable offerings. we decided to go with garlic, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and mushrooms on half – we had a mushroom hater in the group.

this pizza was delicious! the crust was light and airy, the sauce was great, there was tons of melty daiya, and the toppings were generous & fresh. we ended up getting a large and it cost $13.69 – i was expecting it to be more but they have a lot of specials posted. i was honestly a little confused by all the signage they have going on inside the shop and i don’t know which special we ended up getting, but i’m not complaining because i’m used to paying at LEAST $20 for a large vegan pizza, usually more.

we chose to dine in because we were hungry and didn’t want to walk back to our office and delay our eating time any longer, but lenzini’s is probably more of a take-out place. there are a few tables, though, if you are impatient like we were.

our pizza disappeared faster than it arrived (which was pretty quickly) and everyone left feeling pretty satisfied. even the omni in our group enjoyed the vegan cheese! i am a little afraid of how dangerously close this place is to my office, though, and have the feeling that there will be EVEN MORE pizza consumption in my future.

lenzini’s pizza
5044 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood CA 91601
Phone order :818-506-0200 Fax:818-506-7997

Sunday-Thursday 11am – 10:30pm
Friday and Saturday 11am – midnight

yeah, yeah, yeah…so i have already raved about sandwiches from north hollywood’s hy-mart deli on a couple of occasions, but that isn’t gonna stop me from doing it again.

i still can’t choose a favorite menu item, because every sandwich/wrap/creation i order from hy-mart is absolutely wonderful. here we have the shahkloot special (be sure to specify vegan, no cheese!):

shahkloot special (no cheese!): tabouleh, greek olives, cucumber, avocado, hummus, falafel, herbs and all the veggies. $6.95

at under 7 bucks, this is the perfect cheap and satisfying meal. but don’t take my word for it…go to the valley and see for yourselves.

check out this post for hy-mart’s vegetarian menu (which is pretty much all veganizable)!

hy-mart deli
4762 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood, CA 91602
(818) 506-7264
Mon-Fri. 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Sat. 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sun. 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

PS: hy-mart may not be open today, i dunno. i heard it was a bank holiday or something.

over the past couple weeks, i have been heading out to the valley to lunch it up at north hollywood’s hoppin’ little take-out and delivery restaurant, healthyca. the place is just a tiny hole in the wall on lankershim with short weekday only hours, but it has loads of vegan options with several salads, sandwiches and hot plates to choose from. i’ve tried a few things off the menu at healthyca, and so far the way i feel about the food there is, i either love it or i hate it…or i think it’s okay.

vegan feast: tofu trio (teriyaki, tomato and ginger olive) on a bed of red cabbage. $9.95

let’s start with the dish i absolutely loved…the vegan feast. it was the first thing i ever tried at healthyca, and i was so blown away by it that i was ready to call this place my new favorite restaurant. a vegan feast it is indeed with a hearty portion of well marinated tofu, and your choice of two sides. to make things super easy, all the sides at healthyca are vegan except for the potato salad. i ordered this with red mashed potatoes and grilled white asparagus, and dude…it was all phenomenal.

i am such a lame foodie that this was my first time ever eating white asparagus, but i think it’s safe to say that i will now be a fan for life.

the best thing about this feast, though, was the mound of thick grilled tofu chunks, soaked in a most exquisite and flavorful sauce. it was super tomatoey and oily, and went great with all the cilantro and purple cabbage. there was also so much of it, i ended up stuffing myself and still taking a bunch of food home.

now for the dish i hated: the veggie delight.

veggie delight: vegan macrobiotic tofu-grain patty with pesto sauce. $9.95

the veggie delight sounds well and good from the menu description, a vegan macrobiotic tofu-grain patty served with pesto sauce with your choice of two sides. it’s the same price as the vegan feast, so i was a bit disappointed and underwhelmed when it showed up looking so small. instead of a massive pile of tofu, this hot plate comes with two thin patties that without much texture or flavoring. i was expecting them to be much more hearty made of grains and tofu like a good veggie burger, but these limp things just tasted like mashed up garden vegetables. to be fair, the sides of quinoa and asparagus i got with them were awesome, and the tofu pesto sauce was decent, but the patties were just blech.

lastly the dish that i thought was okay: the healthyca sausage (be sure to say “NO MAYO”!)

healthyca sausage: homemade vegan sausage on sesame roll with tomato, lettuce, grilled onion, tofu pesto and red pepper sauces. $9.25

to be fair, this dish didn’t belong to me….it was ordered by my lunch partner brittany from sickoflettuce.com. i did get to taste it though, so i figure i’m allowed to have an opinion on it. at $9.25, this thing really was a good deal. the sandwich was huge, and it came with a healthy-sized side of your choice (she chose quinoa). it actually arrived at our table looking a lot bigger than the veggie delight, which cost 70cents more. hmph. while it was really attractively priced and the portion was large, i thought the sandwich was just alright. it advertised itself as a vegan sausage, it was more like the same vegetable patty i had in the veggie delight! there was nothing mock-meaty about it. brittany seemed to think it was decent, but i definitely didn’t hear her raving about it or anything.

so there you go, a quick little run down of some of the vegan offerings at healthyca. while i thought the veggie delight was gross, and the healthyca sausage was nothing to write home about, i can’t stress enough that the vegan feast was fucking amazing! i know i will be back soon to eat that again. for all you peeps who work in the valley or are jobless, this is a great place for a weekday lunch. for everyone else, unfortunately healthyca is closed evenings and weekends. oh well.

for more pix and reviews of healthyca, you should check out this category on foodeater’s blog toliveandeatinla.com. i think she has eaten practically everything vegan there is to try on the menu! so check it.

healthyca
4724 lankershim blvd
noho, ca 91602
monday-friday
11am-6pm

i know, i know, i’ve written about this place before, but i just can’t get enough of the hy-mart deli! the modest little sandwich shop in the valley continues to make most scrumptious wraps i’ve ever eaten. plus, the family who owns it and works the counter are sweet, friendly, and most importantly knowledgeable about veganism. if i lived in the north hollywood, i’d be grabbing food from hy-mart everyday.

bennito's burrito: falafel with hummus, olives, cucumber, tahini sauce and all the other vegetables. $6.95

my latest feast from hy-mart was bennito’s burrito. the wrap in its original form is vegetarian, but the cool dude making it was more than happy to veganize it, giving me hummus instead of yogurt. it was filled right up with soft and spongey falafel, loads of avocado, and fresh chopped vegetables. i can’t even tell ya how tasty it was.

i think i am gonna make it a mission to try every vegetarian wrap on hy-mart’s menu (veganized, of course). looks like i have my work cut out for me! yum yum yum.

vegetarian menu, all can be made vegan.