Okay, so we’ve already posted about the best vegan and best vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles, but sometimes we vegans HAVE to eat in omnivorous restaurants. That’s a part of life. What’s interesting, though, is when we find meat-serving restaurants that we WANT to eat in. That’s a whole different story, and LA has a few outstanding omnivorous establishments that go out of their way to cater to vegans. Here are our favorites.

M Cafe

While the “M” in M Cafe probably stands for Macrobiotic, I believe it actually stands for Mmmmmmmm, which is pretty much what I murmur with every bite of this amazing food. With a totally vegan menu except for fish, M Cafe has a chic urban appeal, backed up with an A-list of ingredients (and clientele) all layered over an efficient kitchen and fair pricing, considering how great the food is. While the last year or two M Cafe’s items have been prepared by kitchen staff rather than chefs, their menu items are still some of the best in town.

Vegan Benedict at M Cafe

The Big Macro is arguably LA’s best vegan burger. The broccolini pepporochini is without a doubt LA’s premier broccolini, and the Vegan Benedict is constantly voted one of the “best” breakfast items on any local menu. There are plenty of vegan options at all times of the day, and the rotating menu constantly keeps one coming back for more. The deserts are out of this world, along with the very best vegan tiramisu known to humanity. Check it out!!

Purgatory Pizza

It’s probably inaccurate to credit Purgatory Pizza with single-handedly introducing incredible vegan pizza to LA, but we’re going to anyway. The insatiable team, formerly headed by Chef Ricky, that painstakingly worked to veganize an entire product line and food preparation process has gone from strength to strength. Purgatory was not only the first pizza place to embrace Teese (the ground-breaking alternative to Follow Your Heart Cheese), but is also the first to stock Gardein and Field Roast as toppings, and one of the first to serve Daiya (the best vegan cheese at time of posting) in SoCal.

Vegan Chicken Pestop Pizza with Gardein and Daiya at Purgatory Pizza.

To get your Purgatory Pizza kicks (if you’re not in the delivery area), show up with a bottle of cheap wine and/or a six-pack of beer, then order your pizza to dine in. Feeling like a cross between an 80s suburban pizza joint and some kind of modern art experiment, Purgatory has a great, brightly-lit atmosphere and friendly staff to keep you entertained while you swallow slice after slice of LA’s best vegan pizza.

Hugo’s Restaurant

With two locations (one in West Hollywood, the other in Studio City), and a full-on meat-oriented menu, one might be surprised to find that the Hugo’s chefs have created some seriously innovative vegan cuisine. Not only do they have loads of options, but they have menu with several clearly marked animal-free alternatives, as well as dishes that can be optionally veganized. If you can get past the trendy atmosphere, long waits and constant celebrity sightings (I’ve watched the staff at the WeHo location fawn over Gabriel Byrne and Jeff Goldblum within the past few weeks) you’re in for a vegan treat.

Tikka Masala Veggie Patties at Hugo's Restaurant

Although I’ve long been a fan of the tofu scramble, I also love the Very Green Casserole (one of the best vegan burgers I’ve ever tasted atop stewed vegetables and sauce in a pot) as well as the salads, tikka masala veggie patties, stir-frys and wraps. Make sure you specify “VEGAN” clearly when you order, while the restaurant is extremely vegan-friendly, there may be butter hiding in unsuspecting dishes.

Toi

Sadly, the Toi chain has contracted from two locations to just one, on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. Thankfully the sacrificial lamb of this two-outlet chain was the Santa Monica outlet on Wilshire and not the ultimate rock and roll dining location sandwiched between Guitar Center and clothing stores most mortals are too… well… mortal to shop in. Toi has a loud, brash atmosphere with a class-based seating system (some tables suck ass, others are amazing — you ride the wind and luck of the draw depending your arrival time).

Vegan Pad Thai at Toi

Get the vegan pad thai with grilled tofu for a real treat, or the Saigon spring rolls…and make sure you request the hot sauces to dollop liberally over your food. The portions are huge, the kitchen respects us vegans, and most things on the menu can be made vegan — substitute chicken for tofu, oyster sauce for vegan oyster sauce, and you’ll get a superb meal. Take your omni friends there, and chillax the fuck out listening to rock ‘n’ roll on the speakers. Step into the parking lot at the back and you can smell weed in the air. Need we say more.

Mama’s Hot Tamales

OK, I’ll admit, MacArthur Park (just West of Downtown LA) has a shady reputation. Lotsa crime, lotsa drugs, lotsa pigeons, lotsa bodegas and lotsa REAL, AUTHENTIC Mexican restaurants. How glad are we vegans, then, that one of the most popular, Mama’s Hot Tamales, has a full-on vegan menu, complete with Daiya cheese, vegan sauces and all the trimmings. Did you hear that? Authentic Mexican food AND Daiya Cheese!!!! That is reason enough to make any top 5 list, as far as we’re concerned.

Vegan Daiya Cheese Enchiladas at Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe

At Mama’s you can enjoy all the greasy, cheesy filling Mexican food that omnivores love to death, but prepared under the supervision of Mama herself: the real deal, a Mexican señora who could not be more understanding of what a vegan is, what we need and how to prepare the food for us.

Honorable mentions: Green Peas, XIV, Zpizza, Cafe Muse, Interim Cafe, Mani’s Bakery

i bet you’ve never had a vegan deep dish chicago-style pizza. this one was awesome, made with cheezly and teese from chicago soy dairy. next time i will throw some daiya in as well.

one of chef ricky's specials from purgatory pizza

los angeles vegans, drop whatever you have planned tonight and head over to purgatory pizza.

tonight is the famous chef ricky’s last night on the job, and it may be your last chance ever to eat one of his amazing pizzas. if you don’t know who chef ricky is, well he is the best vegan pizza maker in los angeles and he is moving to seattle.

while purgatory pizza will continue to be awesome even after ricky is gone, it will never be quite the same without him.

GO TO PURGATORY TONIGHT. and if you are feeling brave, just ask for a chef ricky special and let him get creative with your pie. you won’t be sorry.

to see some of the incredible pizzas that chef ricky has made in the past, check out this post or this post.

chef ricky at purgatory pizza

purgatory pizza
1426 e 1st street
los angeles ca 90033
323-262-5310
open 6pm to 11pm

daiya vegan cheese pizza with gardein crumbles

a couple nights ago i got together with some friends and had a good old-fashioned vegan pizza throw down. the los angeles vegan pizza scene has kind of exploded lately, since daiya vegan cheese has become available at purgatory pizza, cruzer, whole foods and zpizza—so i went for quite a while without making pizza at home.

luckily now, daiya vegan shreds are available not just on take out pizza, but for to-go purchase by weight at nearly every whole foods in the los angeles area. no more ordering online and paying outrageous shipping fees—now you can take a stroll to the nearest whole foods and buy as many containers of daiya as you can carry. i suggest you follow my lead, round up some friends, and throw your own pizza party.

we made several pizzas, although some of them were devoured before i could photograph them. in addition to covering the pies with daiya, we also topped them with products from one of our favorite fake meat providers, gardein. if you haven’t had gardein yet, you really need to find out what you are missing. they have the BEST mock chicken product around, as well as mock pulled pork, mock beef, and other mock meats. you can find their stuff at whole foods, trader joes, fresh and easy, and even sometimes at ralphs. for more info, check out their website.

on the pizza pictured above, we used gardein’s meatless crumbles which were insanely delicious. they were soft and flavorful and tasted so much like what i remember ground beef tasting like…but without the weird animal texture. my favorite pizza of the night, however, was the one pictured below: white sauce, sauteed mushrooms, garlic, gardein chik’n strips and daiya vegan cheese. this thing was freaking incredible. the white sauce was filled with herbs, oil & seasoning, and was the perfect compliment to the meaty chik’n strips.

white vegan pizza with daiya cheese and gardein chick'n strips

these chik’n slices are definitely one of my favorite gardein products—i have had omnivores tell me they taste way better than real chicken. they are moist and full of flavor, but not overly dry like gross real meat. seriously, a bite of these mixed up with melted daiya and oily sauce is nothing short of heavenly.

as you can tell, the pizza shindig was a huge success thanks to all the amazing toppings, and also to the excellent pizza chef studiodrome who spent a lot of time in the kitchen making these things.

so what are you waiting for? everything you need to make the pizza of your dreams is available at nearby supermarkets. to think a year ago in los angeles, there were basically no vegan pizza options—and now we can make incredible vegan pizzas AT HOME with cheese and meat that taste like the real thing…it’s pretty damn amazing.

check your local whole foods for daiya vegan cheese, and check gardein’s website for where you can find their products.

oh, and if you feel lazy and want a gardein daiya pizza made for you, head on over to purgatory pizza. i’m pretty sure they are the only place that carries both these products right now. and they make the best pesto pizza with gardein chik’n that i’ve ever had.

one of the best pizzas i've ever had.

i’m sure you’ve heard by now that zpizza, an awesome organic chain with locations all over the country, is offering vegan pizza with daiya cheese. they have a few locations in los angeles, and many throughout southern california. while most of the zpizzas in socal are already offering vegan cheese, every location across the united states should have daiya within the next couple months. if you haven’t stopped by and tried one of their vegan pies yet, well i don’t know what the hell you’re waiting for.

i have been going to zpizza for ages, and until last night i always ordered the same thing: a build-your-own pizza with tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic. recently, on their facebook page, zpizza took the time to create a list of all their vegan-friendly pizzas and which substitutions need to be made to veganize them, as well as a list of which sauces and toppings are vegan. i was shocked by how many items off the “zpizza creations” menu were easily made vegan, and i was inspired to try something new.

i went with the tuscan, which is easily veganized by omitting the feta and ordering it with daiya cheese instead of mozzarella.

tuscan pizza (veganized): homemade roasted garlic sauce, daiya cheese, cremini, shiitake and button mushrooms, caramelized onions, truffle oil and thyme.

the vegan tuscan pizza came with a delicious mix of cremini, shiitake and button mushrooms as well as caramelized onions, truffle oil and thyme—all atop melty daiya cheese and homemade roasted garlic sauce. now i was already a huge fan of zpizza, and i can tell you this pizza blew my mind. i can’t believe a pizza chain could make something that tastes so unique and high-quality, and be VEGAN at the same time. i have heard people rave about the roasted garlic sauce, and they were absolutely right—no description could possibly do it justice. and the amazing sauce mixed in with truffle oil, sweet onions, and a variety of mushrooms was an absolutely heavenly combination. i cannot believe that i have been going to zpizza for so long and missing out on this bliss.

another thing to note about this pizza is how perfectly distributed and melted the daiya was. they’ve gotten even better with the vegan cheese since my first vegan pie at zpizza a few weeks ago. with vegan cheese this good available, there is absolutely no excuse to be a vegetarian.

really guys, i can’t speak highly enough of this thing. go to your nearest zpizza and get yourself a vegan tuscan pizza ASAP. oh and for a limited time, you can fill out this survey to $5 off your purchase at zpizza. i suggest you take advantage of this, as money off pizza is never a bad thing.

in los angeles, daiya vegan pizza is available at both the west hollywood, burbank and larcmont zpizza locations. if you are going to any of the other zpizzas, i would call and check to be sure they have vegan cheese.

truly amazing vegan pizza from a national chain. oh my friends, i never thought i’d see the day.

gardein chicken sandwich: gardein chicken breast marinated w/ rosemary garlic & lemon juice, baby spinach, fresh tomato, cucumber, daiya cheese and vegenaise. $6.99

while the westside has lots of perks like money, beaches and prius-driving environmentalists, one thing it has been lacking for quite some time is quality vegan-friendly restaurants….especially in culver city. sure, for a while they’ve had m cafe, tender greens and akasha…but there hasn’t been a place to get a huge, cheap, satisfying vegan meal…until now. green peas casual food is a new cafe that opened in late june and offers loads of vegan options including sandwiches, salads, quesadillas, and even pizzas.

we checked out green peas recently and were quite impressed with the quality of food, low prices, and friendly staff. the first thing we ordered was the gardein chicken sandwich, a thick ciabatta roll topped with gardein chicken breast, melty daiya cheese and fresh vegetables. the sandwich originally came with bell peppers, and when we asked for them to be left off, the dude at the counter suggested we replace them with any other vegetable. see that? nice, helpful service? most places will just omit ingredients without offering to replace them.

the sandwich itself was huge and awesome. it came with a large side salad of dark leafy greens, and was absolutely packed with vegetables, gardein and daiya. i couldn’t believe this thing was only $6.99. at most vegan places, a sandwich this good with a side would be around $11-$12. what a score!

we also ordered the vegan pizza which came piled with grilled vegetables and daiya cheese. even though the menu at green peas describes it as soy cheese, rest assured, this stuff was definitely daiya. again, we got this without bell peppers and opted for sundried tomatoes instead. now you can’t really tell by the picture, but this pizza was massvie…enough for 2 people and only $7.99. i love that so many places are serving daiya now, we are truly spoiled in los angeles when it comes to vegan pizza.

vegetable pizza: grilled carrots, grilled zucchini, grilled eggplant, grilled red onions and daiya cheese. $7.99

the vibe at green peas is upscale casual. everything is super clean and well-presented, but you order at the counter and seat yourself. the food comes out rapidly, i’d we went from ordering to eating in less than ten minutes.

so westside vegans, head over to green peas as soon as you can. fill up on gardein packed sandwiches, daiya covered pizzas, quesadillas, salads and tofu scrambles. everything on the menu is under ten bucks, the portions are huge, and the food is fucking delicious. definitely one of my new faves.

green peas
4437 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
(310) 397-9815
6am-10pm

basu’s homestyle masala at whole foods, available from TODAY at Santa Monica and Fairfax outlet

One of my earliest memories was helping my grandmother prepare Indian food in her kitchen. I recall the brightly colored spices and the wonderful aroma while the pots bubbled away, and became hooked on the food of that nation at a very young age. Years later, I asked her for the recipe of her potato and pea vindaloo as she gave me a bewildered look and said “Well, there isn’t really a recipe. You take the ingredients, combine and cook them in the way you were shown, and hope for the best!”. You see, my grandmother lived the first 30 years of he life in India, and was taught to cook Indian food by many families in their kitchens and around their stoves.

As an ex-pat Englishman living in Los Angeles, I’ve always missed the taste of real Indian food. West Coast Indian cuisine rarely has the depth of authenticity and complexity of flavors that Indian and British people love so much. I think it’s because there are fewer resident Indian families to share their techniques, and even fewer Indian restaurants of quality. I had even taken to creating my own curry recipe as a facsimile of what I was used to back home.

Imagine, then, my interest when we received an invitation to a tasting at Whole Foods for a new range of vegan Indian home-style food. For sure, Whole Foods is creeping up on the vegan community in SoCal. From their early adoption of Daiya vegan cheese to an entirely new range of vegan Indian food, Whole Foods is rapidly becoming a one-stop-shop not only in the grocery department (like it always has been), but increasingly in the Prepared Foods section. Yeah, you can get a kick-ass vegan pizza and now some amazing vegan Indian food on your way home from work and at reasonable prices!

Indian food is a combination of several things, the most important of which is the base “Masala” (meaning sauce and spices), in which one cooks the vegetables and proteins. Then there’s the carbohydrate portion, usually rice and/or bread. The key to tasty Indian food is in the Masala, which for Whole Foods is provided by Basu’s Home-style, a small family-run business headed by Basu Ghosh and his son Robin. Basu hails from Calcutta in Bengal, one of the regions of India that has the most incredible traditional food. Bengali cuisine is the intersection of aromatic spices and sweet flavors. It’s not uncommon to find raisins and even pineapples in a Bengali dish, all bathed in a glorious masala, served over rice.

I’m delighted to let you know that Basu’s Homestyle has not only brought some amazing masalas to Southern California, but has delivered a kick-ass selection of them to Whole Foods, allowing the wizard chefs of Prepared Foods to create some amazing dishes.

clockwise: basil vindaloo with peas and mushrooms, tofu apple masala, vegan curried beef with basil vindaloo, channa dal, peanut masala with roasted red potatoes.

Our tasting was a smorgasbord of contrasting tastes that came together in a way rarely experienced this side of West Bengal (or East London, take your pick). From the Basil Vindaloo through the Peanut Masala with Roasted Red Potatoes, we were spell-bound with the flavors. Whole Foods even invented a “Vegan Curried Beef with Basil Vindaloo” – Indian flavors paired perfectly with Gardein, raisins and apples using Basu’s masalas.

vegan curried beef with basil vindaloo using gardein beef strips and basu's masala

Also, I’m really impressed with the way Basu’s and the chefs at Whole Foods have taken traditional, family-style masalas and combined them with non-traditional ingredients like tofu, Gardein and apples. Truly an amazing and interesting way to create tasty vegan Indian food.

We were pleased to meet with Basu and Robin during the tasting, and hear their stories about how Basu and his family members from India perfected the masalas in his kitchen at home! They made multiple batches, tested them and modified the formula so that the sauces could be made commercially in large orders yet still have a home-style taste. They then repeated the process to “veganize” the two masalas that had non-vegan ingredients.

robin ghosh (left) and his father basu, owners of Basu's Homestyle

About the best vegan pizza is now available in Whole Foods, and I can 100% assure you that the best Indian food in Los Angeles is now also available at your local Whole Foods for sale by the pound. Fill up that container, I promise you won’t be sorry! Whole Foods told us that the West Hollywood outlet (Santa Monica and Fairfax) is rolling out he program TODAY, and the other stores will get with the program at various stages throughout this week. If in doubt, call ahead.

Oh, and talking of pizza, Basu’s masala and chutneys are available on some specialty vegan pizzas as well. Yeah, a “basil vindaloo sauce with daiya cheese, zucchini, carrot, and fresh basil” pizza is available (think that through — what an amazing and innovative idea!)…

vegan indian pizza: vindaloo basil masala, daiya cheese, zucchini, basil and carrot.

as well as a “channa dal with fresh cucumber, red onion, tamarind chutney” pizza. We’re talking perfect Indian flavors, mixed with stuff we vegans love on top of a delicious pizza.

Basu’s mission statement says it all: “If you could visit our home in India, this is the food you would be served.”, and my grandmother was right: there is no recipe for Indian food. The only good Indian food is prepared by the family, and for the family.

Let’s show Whole Foods and Basu’s how much we love vegan Indian food.

vegan pizza: daiya cheese, roasted garlic, fresh basil, tomatoes, red onions.

los angeles vegans, drop what you are doing and get over to purgatory pizza ASAP. purgatory is known to serve arguably best pizza in town covered with daiya cheese, and in just a few weeks their talented chef ricky is moving to seattle! while he’s trained the other employees to cook his recipes, the place just won’t be the same without him and you should definitely get over there before he’s gone.

we have been fans of ricky for so long, that now when we go in we just ask him to whip up a “chef special,” which means any recipe he can come up with on the spot. our most recent visit to purgatory yielded some of the best pizzas i’ve ever tasted. the first one, pictured above, came with huge chunks of roasted garlic, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil and red onion. the garlic and onion combo was delicious, and even though the chunks of garlic were huge, they weren’t overpowering.

ricky’s next creation was even more adventurous—a chicken taco pizza covered in daiya cheddar cheese, gardein chicken slices, black olives, jalapenos,tomato and red onion.

vegan chicken taco pizza: daiya cheddar cheese, gardein chicken, jalapenos, black olives, tomatoes, red onions.

this pizza was so fucking good, i can’t even describe it. it really did taste like a chicken taco converted into a pizza. i wanted to eat it up with a side of salsa and vegan sour cream. i usually don’t like cheddar on pizza, but this worked surprisingly well and gave it a much more mexican taste. the jalapenos made it extra spicy, and as always, the gardein tasted amazing.

other recent chef ricky specials have included a greek pizza topped with kalamata olives…

vegan pizza: daiya cheese, kalamata olives, fresh basil and tomatoes.

and a vegan cheesesteak pizza with gardein beef strips, carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms. (so unbelievably good!)

vegan cheesesteak pizza: gardein steak strips, carmelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, oregano.

i mean, just look at these crazy pizzas. i guarantee that you can’t find pizza this tasty or inventive ANYWHERE else. while ricky is leaving behind his recipes, and purgatory will still continue serving up some of the best vegan pizza around, he is taking with him the magic that goes into making pies like these on the spot. i am pretty sure ricky leaves in around 3 weeks, and he works on fridays and weekends. be brave, and go ask for one of his special pizzas. you really won’t regret it.

and if you want to see even more delicious ricky creations that will help convince you to get your ass to purgatory, check out this older post.

if you haven’t tried purgatory pizza yet, you really are missing out. they are the only pizzeria in town offering daiya cheese AND high quality meats like field roast and gardein. i never ever thought vegan pizza could taste this good.

purgatory pizza
1326 east 1st street
los angeles, ca 90033
323 262 5310
open everyday 6pm – 11pm

we are gonna miss you chef ricky, but thanks for leaving behind the recipes for the best vegan pizza ever.

zpizza with vegan daiya cheese

it’s finally happened. zpizza, a national pizza chain, has decided to get rid of their casein-laden soy cheese and roll out pies covered in daiya, making vegan pizza available to the masses. from LA, to manhattan…from santa clarita to montana, zillions of vegans across the united states will be able to dig into that familiar box of home-delivered goodness. zpizza has started serving vegan pizza at their west hollywood outlet, and over the next several weeks should be selling it in all 68 locations throughout the country.

in case you were wondering, daiya is a vegan cheese that has been taking los angeles (and the rest of the country) by storm. it stretches and melts almost exactly like real cheese, and it doesn’t contain soy. it has even gotten the attention of whole foods, who have started using it on pizzas in their prepared foods section. …and zpizza is a national chain serving up organic and healthy style pizza that tastes like authentic delivery. they have been serving a non-vegan soy cheese as a healthy alternative to regular dairy, but are swiftly replacing it. yes!

since hearing about zpizza’s plan to offer daiya, we have been regularly tracking their status (almost daily if you can believe it!). we didn’t expect it to hit LA so soon, but today we called the west hollywood location and found out they had “the new vegan cheese” in stock. we headed over and skeptically asked to see the new cheese. they brought a large bag from behind the counter of daiya italian shreds, and we were in business. we specified NOT to use any of the old non-vegan soy cheese on our pizza, and they assured us that they would be using the vegan cheese from now on. for safety though, even at the weho zpizza, you should confirm that what you are getting on your pizza is indeed daiya.

make sure you get a receipt that says you are vegan, y'all!

large pizza with daiya cheese, mushroom, tomato, and chopped garlic. $19.48

after eating this for dinner, i can tell you that the marriage of zpizza and daiya is a fucking beautiful thing. zpizza has a 650 degree oven that melts the cheese like none other. the crust and sauce at zpizza have always been a favorite of mine, and the toppings are as fresh as they come. the fact that a national chain is offering vegan pizza this good is absolutely mind-blowing. it’s fast, it’s convenient, it’s consistent, and it’s VEGAN. seriously, i never thought i’d see the day!

after flipping out and doing a happy dance over my vegan pizza, i called the other local zpizza locations to see if they had the goods as well. larchmont village, burbank, woodland hills, and santa clarita are still serving non-vegan soy cheese for now…although most of the locations assured me that they would have the new vegan cheese next week. zpizza claims that all of their locations will be serving a 100% vegan option within the next 6-8 weeks. until then, head over to the weho location and ask them for some vegan pizza. you won’t be sorry.

zpizza
8869 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 360-1414

here at quarrygirl.com, we do our best to scour the los angeles restaurant scene and report back on all the vegan pizza that’s available. recently, one of our secret operatives was relocated to las vegas for a couple months, and within the first 4 hours of his arrival, he sent us evidence of vegan pizza in the desert.

it turns out the massive vegan-friendly whole foods on la vegas blvd is serving up vegan pizza in their prepared food section. and like a handful of whole foods stores in southern california, the vegas location is now using stretchy, melty daiya vegan cheese to cover their pies. if ronald’s donuts wasn’t enough, it looks like there is another amazing cruelty-free option in sin city. seriously, if you haven’t had daiya yet, you need to try it and see what all the fuss is about.

12 inch vegan pizza with daiya, tomato, basil and fresh garlic. $8.99

of course our operative ordered the vegan pizza and sent us his findings, as well as all the awesome photos throughout this post. here is some of the vital information we gathered from his report.

– the girl making pizza was super nice and friendly.
– operative questioned the employee about the brand of cheese. she said it was new and went to get the box. she returned to the counter with a “big ass box” of daiya cheese.
– vegas whole foods offers a large pizza, as well as 12″ and 8″ versions
– operative was told the large pizza “would take about 30-35 minutes because they had to clean the oven because of not having over spill from normal pizzas infect the vegan pizza” but the 8 or 12 inch are quicker because “they put it on a pizza pan and they don’t have to clean the oven because the pizza cooks on the pan.”
– operative ordered the 12″ which cost $8.99.
– toppings ordered were daiya, tomato, basil and fresh garlic. the cloves of garlic were so huge, they looked like pearl onions, but were not over powering on any level.
– the vegan pizza is available on white or wheat crust. operative chose wheat. “delicious.”
– the pizza crust was more than satisfactory, operative could not tell that the pizza was cooked on a pan, described it as “super crispy, yet chewy in the middle, not to thin not to thick.”
– PBR tall boys are $1.99 at whole foods, and go great with pizza.

vegan pizza and PBR tall boy ($1.99)

so next time you find yourself in vegas, be sure to get off the strip for some high-quality vegan pizza. this whole does a great job at making tasty pizzas, as well as putting time and care into cleaning/separating vegan cooking utensils. and of course, most importantly, they have daiya cheese! special thanks to our secret operative for sending us these great pictures and info. hopefully he will find many more tasty things during his stay in las vegas.

whole foods
6689 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89119-3215
(702) 589-7711‎

very vegan: crimini mushrooms, roasted garlic, tomato sauce and soy cheese. $16.99

there’s been a lot of vegan-friendly places popping up around los angeles lately, and one of the most recent is the “organic” and self-proclaimed “eco-friendly” pizza fusion in santa monica. the green pizzeria offers both vegan and gluten-free crust options (although the two are mutually exclusive), along with vegan cheese supplied by follow your heart. while an environmentally-conscious pizza place with clearly marked vegan options is undeniably a major score, i can’t help but wonder what it would have felt like had pizza fusion arrived on the scene a year ago.

lemme take you back. in july of 2008 we were just coming off the fact that zpizza’s soy cheese was not vegan. the only place to get a huge vegan take-out pie was at damiano mr. pizza pizza on fairfax. although it wasn’t ideal, we lived with damiano for 6 more months until something magical happened—purgatory pizza in boyle heights announced that they would be rolling out their popular nyc style pizzas with vegan cheese. but not just that follow your heart stuff, no, purgatory were first to offer the best vegan cheese available stateside at the time, teese cheese from chicago soy dairy. and it’s on that day—february 1, 2009—that vegan pizza in LA was forever changed. companies started to realize that vegans wanted pizza more than anything, and we didn’t just want this old, un-melted follow your heart crap. the next pizzeria to have satisfactory vegan offerings was lucifer’s pizza in los feliz. they first offered a falsely advertised non-vegan soy cheese, but after coming under some fire, they changed their tune and started serving up huge thin and crispy pies with teese as well.

then along came daiya…i’m sure you have heard all about it by now. daiya is a stretchy, tasty, melty vegan product that behaves almost exactly like real cheese. i’d go as far as to call it game changing. it hit the blogosphere first, then showed up at the online vegan store pangea available for personal order. just when it was beginning to make a major splash nearing the end of may, one LA pizza place got their hands on daiya and completely raised the bar. cruzer pizza, with locations in los feliz and glendale, started using the new stretchy cheese, along with an arsenal of fake meats and pasta dishes.

in less than 2 months, vegan pizza in LA went from hard to find to readily available. within a short period of time, purgatory also adopted daiya cheese and even several local whole foods began selling daiya covered pizzas at a very low price. wow. it used to be bloody impossible to get animal-free pizza in los angeles, and then all of a sudden amazing, stretchy, revolutionary vegan cheese was available as close as the nearest whole foods. epic.

oh, and then came pizza fusion. a chain started in 2006, pizza fusion is an eatery dedicated to being fashionably green. they deliver pizzas in hybrid prius vehicles, boast that all their ingredients are organic, and have token vegan menu items including a pizza covered in follow your heart cheese, as well as a gluten-free brownie.

let’s start with the vegan pizza. i can’t even tell you how stoked i would have been about this pie in july of 2008. a decent pizzeria with cruelty-free options was basically unheard of back then. i would have eaten at pizza fusion everyday! but one year later, what with the introduction of vegan new york pizza with teese, and now with this amazing daiya cheese product…i find it kinda difficult to get stoked on a thin crust organic pizza with follow your heart, aka vegan cheese 1.0.

sorry dudes, pizza fusion is decent, don’t get me wrong. if i were in sanmo i would probably hit up this place frequently, i just feel that LA has much better options now. i’m so stoked that this is a chain serving vegan pizza, but until they step up the quality of the sauce, crust, and vegan cheese…why not just go to your local daiya-serving whole foods location, which is bound to be way cheaper than pizza fusion. oh and on a side note, the staff were also pretty unknowledgeable about the vegan-ness of the food. it took us about 10 minutes of back and forth with the waiter to determine whether or not the crust was vegan…and we found out the gluten-free crust is not, but the normal crust is. gah, it was too much confusion for me to handle!

although it wasn’t as good as the stuff we get at purgatory, cruzer, or even whole foods, our pizza from pizza fusion was definitely edible…which is more than i can say for the brownie. with a hungry stomach, i ordered the vegan and gluten-free treat that the menu describes as “delicious”. i hate to say it, but i took one bite of pizza fusion’s brownie and didn’t even want to bring it home. marginally tasty, it reminded me of diet food. perhaps i am just too spoiled with so many talented vegan bakers living in los angeles, but this stuff just tasted like a gym snack.

fresh homemade vegan brownie. $4.99

so pizza fusion, is it worth your time? maybe. however my opinion is that it’s too little too late. if they wanted to show up on the los angeles scene with an all vegan, organic, follow your heart cheese option, maybe they should have arrived before i was spoiled with cruzer, purgatory, teese, and daiya.

to put it as nicely as possible: if i was a new vegan, pizza fusion might impress the fuck out of me. but now, i simply know better.

you should still go and check pizza fusion out…because, they have vegan stuff, eco-friendly containers, and prius cars. they also have tons of literature boasing about free-range meat. i hate to see places preaching about the environment while at the same time bragging that they ‘humanely’ murder animals. this place could be serving everything in styrofoam containers, and it would be doing a better service to the planet than selling animal flesh. they just don’t get it. ah well.

so santa monica residents, this is a great place to visit when you can’t make it further east to cruzer, purgatory, or….when whole foods is closed.

pizza fusion
2901 Ocean Park Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90405-2919
(310) 581-2901

what’s better than a happy hour with $3 beers and $5 martinis? a happy hour with all that, plus a vegan menu, that’s what! desert rose, the upscale bar/restaurant in los feliz has introduced a separate animal-free menu with everything from bar snacks to pasta & sandwiches…and even cruzer pizzas with daiya cheese. they’ve even veganized the drinks at the bar, adding organic martinis and cocktails sweetened with agave.

finally a bar in los angeles with a full separate vegan menu, i can’t tell you how excited i am. check out the new menu and all the food they are offering here. i am making it my mission to try it all, and so far i’m doing pretty well. these are the things i’ve tasted so far…

Garlic “Cheese” Fries $7

the vegan garlic cheese fries at desert rose are absolutely phenomenal. perfectly cooked, they come topped with melted daiya cheese. these fries make for a great bar snack, and taste just like the cheesy garlic fries i remember eating as a vegetarian.

i can also highly recommend the portabello and cheese panini, epic sandwich success!

Portobello Mushroom & “Cheese” Panini with choice of French Fries, Sweet Potato Fries, Mixed Green Salad or Fresh Fruit $14

it also comes with melted daiya cheese and a thick fresh slab of tasty marinated portobello. the bread they serve it on is exceptional, crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, and packed with flavor. i had to double check that it was vegan, it tasted so damn good.

they also whip up a mean house made hummus that comes topped with a kalamata olive and drizzled with olive oil. i know hummus sounds pretty standard, but desert rose does it right. thick, just the right amount of oil, and a really rich flavor.

Housemade Hummus with Pita Bread $5

the sweet potato fries are also top notch and the serving portion is pretty huge. for you vegans who love sweet potato fries, i can tell you that these are some of the best in town.

Sweet Potato Fries $5

they have salads as well, including a garbanzo and edamame salad topped with crispy tofu. i only had a few bites of this thing because it was full of bell peppers (which i hate), and other than the red demons it was pretty damn good…especially the fried tofu on top.

Garbanzo & Edamame Salad with Mixed Greens, Tomatoes & Crispy Tofu with a Sherry-Walnut Vinaigrette $6/$9

while the portobello panini is definitely my favorite at desert rose, the falafel sandwich is awesome as well. huge, soft green falafel balls all rolled up in soft pita with with fresh vegetables and creamylicious tahini.

Falafel Sandwich with choice of French Fries, Sweet Potato Fries, Mixed Green Salad or Fresh Fruit $7

when i was at desert rose, the chef offered to make me a sandwich that wasn’t on the menu, a mediterranean vegetable wrap with melted daiya cheese. oh my, it was delicious. i think you could add melted daiya to anything and it would drastically improve it, because it took this vegetable wrap from damn good to fucking incredible. even though it’s not on the menu, i’m sure if you ask for it, they would be happy to whip this up for you.

Vegetable Wrap with Daiya Cheese

and in addition to all the mouth-watering food pictured above, desert rose also offers 7 different vegan pizzas topped with daiya cheese from cruzer next door. now you can enjoy a delicious cruzer pie with a bottle of wine in a scenic setting.

if you haven’t been to desert rose already, you should get over there stat. it’s a great bar in its own right, and now they have added a bunch of vegan options that are available all day (not just during happy hour). there’s really nowhere like it in los angeles. this is definitely my new spot for drinking and eating good food.

desert rose
1700 Hillhurst Ave
Los Feliz, CA 90027
(323) 666-1166

oh, and one more thing: desert rose’s vegan menu is all thanks to farm sanctuary’s vegan outreach program. i could not be more grateful.

recently i brought you the news that cruzer pizza in los feliz was offering pizzas topped with daiya cheese. now just a couple weeks later, i am happy to say they have not just expanded their menu and added many vegan pasta options, but they are also now serving up all their daiya cheese and fake meat creations at both the los feliz location and the glendale outlet. i hit up cruzer in glendale last week to try out their new vegan stuff, and i can tell ya that daiya is just as good (if not better) in pasta than it is on pizza.

vegan chicken parmigiana. $9.99

i’ve never had real chicken parmigiana, so i can’t really compare, but cruzer’s version of the italian classic was a bed of fat spaghetti noodles in a thick sauce, topped with soy chicken and covered in daiya cheese. they really piled on the cheddar and mozzarella daiya, and stuck it all in the oven so it melted up right nice.

for ten bucks, the portion was huge. it’s definitely enough to share and even then have some left over. it was really great tasting daiya in a pasta…all scrambled in with the soy meat and noodles, you seriously wouldn’t ever notice that this is ‘fake’ cheese.

vegan meat spaghetti. $9.99

we also tried out the vegan meat spaghetti, which was the same noodles as in the chicken parmigiana, but mixed up with soy ground meat and covered in cheese. again, the daiya was awesome; perfectly melty, stretchy and flavorful. this tasted just like an old school meaty cheesy pasta dish you get an italian restaurant…i’ve never tasted anything like it since becoming vegan.

cruzer also has other vegan pastas that i haven’t tried yet, including lasagna and eggplant parmigiana. my only advice is to call ahead if there is something specific you want, because when i was there they didn’t have the lasagna. oh well, i can’t wait to go back and try it.

vegan pasta menu at cruzer pizza

of course in addition to pasta, both cruzer locations are offering up good ‘ole daiya vegan pizza as well. i tried out the thin crust from the glendale restaurant with tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and vegan sausage. definitely some of the best vegan pizza around.

large daiya cheese pizza with mushrooms, tomato, garlic and vegan sausage. $20.99

by now you all probably know how i feel about daiya, but just to remind you, this stuff is amazing on pizza. it melts, stretches, and feels just like real cheese. cruzer also mixes the cheddar and mozzarella together to give it more flavor, and it makes for an absolutely delicious pie.

just to be clear, cruzer is take-out pizza place, so while there are a few stools to eat at inside, it wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. do what i did, call for your pizza and pasta in advance, take it home and relax with a good movie and a bottle of wine, if that’s how you roll.

rumor is, cruzer is gonna keep adding more vegan stuff to the menu. i hope that’s true, because everything i have tried there has been excellent. go check it out if you haven’t already, now you have a cruzer in the valley AND los feliz to choose from.

cruzer pizza
1200 N Pacific Ave
Glendale, CA 91202
(818) 500-1289

and

cruzer pizza
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-0600

if you read this blog, you probably know that we’ve given lucifer’s pizza in los feliz a hard time in the past for advertising a vegan cheese option that wasn’t really vegan at all because it contained casein, a milk protein. well forget all about that now, because lucifer’s is now offers a 100% vegan cheese alternative. that’s right, the pizzeria has changed its ways and now offers one of our favorite vegan cheeses, teese from chicago soy dairy.

large pizza with mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic and teese vegan cheese.

i picked up a pie from lucifer’s last night, and was pretty impressed. i got a large pizza with teese cheese, topped with mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic, which came to around $21…not bad for a huge vegan pie. lucifer’s also lets you choose your chili rating on a scale from ‘zero’ to ‘blazing’. i went with ‘medium’ and it was just perfect for me.

lucifer’s did a great job at distributing and melting the teese. it was evenly spread all over the pizza, and there wasn’t too much. i was a little skeptical at first after having previous cheese drama at lucifer’s, but after one bite of this thing, i could tell it was the soy cheese that i know and love.

the sauce on lucifer’s pizza was really damn good, and i love that you can customize it depending on how spicy you want it to be. the crust was super thin and ny-style and while i thought it was great, my husband wasn’t a fan. he thought it was a tad doughy and undercooked. oh well, can’t agree on everything! another great thing about lucifer’s, is they also offer a gluten-free crust option. that doesn’t mean anything to me, but it means a lot to vegans with allergies who have been craving a decent pizza.

so let’s all go show lucifer’s some support, they should be rewarded for changing their ways. they took a bad situation and turned it around, resulting in some damn tasty vegan pizza. after all, another vegan pizza option in los angeles is never a bad thing.

lucifer’s pizza
1958 Hillhurst Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 906-8603

vegan pizza lovers in los angeles, i have some AMAZING news for you. for the first time ever on the west coast, a local pizzeria is offering daiya as a vegan alternative to cheese on their pizzas. if you aren’t familiar with daiya, it’s a completely revolutionary product that melts AND stretches just like real cheese, i’ve tried it before and was completely blown away by how much it tasted like the real thing. starting today, at cruzer pizza in los feliz, you can order any pie with daiya cheese, and have a the pizza experience that you’ve been missing since turning vegan. you have gotta go try it asap, because i don’t see how dairy-free cheese this good could stay in supply very long.

i hit up cruzer pizza recently to sample their goods with fellow vegan blogger brittany from sick of lettuce. the two of us are known pizza addicts and huge cheese mourners, and both of us were blown away by what cruzer had to offer. in addition to melty-stretchy vegan cheese, cruzer is also serving up meat analogs such as pepperoni, canadian bacon, and sausage.

we tried out the wild mushroom pizza with sausage….

cruzer vegan sausage and mushroom pizza with fresh basil and daiya cheese

the margherita pizza with yellow & red tomatoes…

cruzer vegan margherita pizza with red and yellow tomatoes and daiya cheese

and the hawaiian pizza with bacon, pineapple and olives…

cruzer vegan hawaiian pizza with canadian bacon, pineapple, olives and daiya cheese

all of the pizzas were insanely delicious, and cruzer did a great job with the toppings. the vegetables were fresh, the mock meats were perfectly cooked & seasoned, but of course the real star was the oh-so-melty daiya cheese. it did stuff that i haven’t seen cheese do on a pizza since i was a vegetarian:

it stretched when we pulled the slices apart…

it even melted and fell off the pizza as we picked the slices up, but still managed to stay attached…

seriously, i’m not lying when i say this cheese changes everything. it gives a true pizza experience like i never dreamed possible. and how lucky are we to live so near to the very first place on the west coast to have daiya in stock?! dude! this fucking rules!

i also found out that the reason cruzer even started carrying vegan cheese is because of this outreach program called veg for life, a farm sanctuary campaign, that’s dedicated to getting more vegan options in restaurants. apparently they have been working with cruzer to develop these amazing, daiya covered pizzas, and will soon be adding even more vegan menu items including but not limited to spaghetti and “meat” balls, lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and calzones. i seriously can’t wait to see what they come up with. oh and it gets better…veg for life also convinced cruzer to remove veal from their menu entirely. out with the veal, in with the vegan! if you get your hands on one of the old menus, don’t be alarmed, the veal is no longer available.

i urge you to get over to cruzer and get this pizza the minute you get a chance. vegans everywhere are talking about daiya, and it’s barely available yet—almost no restaurants carry it and it sells out very quickly online. this stuff is in pretty high demand, so you should probably call cruzer before heading over, to make sure they still have daiya in stock. also, please note: cruzer pizza is pick up/take out and delivery- they only have a limited amount of seating for about 3-4 people.

here is a copy of the new vegan menu cruzer is offering, although the bbq chicken is not yet available:

cruzer pizza's vegan menu (click to enlarge_

seriously, let’s get out there and show this place support for offering such a wonderful vegan cheese alternative. they seem pretty open to adding more and more vegan options if this stuff does well, so let’s make sure IT DOES.

Cruzer Pizza
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-0600