friends and readers, i’ve found a vegan paradise in altadena and it’s very aptly named oh happy days. the tiny hole in the wall establishment acts as both a vegetarian market and an entirely vegan cafe, and offers up incredible food at unbeatable prices, not to mention friendly service. it’s a bit of a hippie hang out and the fare is super healthy (no fake cheese here!), so it may not be everybody’s cuppa tea…all i know is, it’s now one of my favorite restaurants and i can’t wait to go back.

the "yummie yam"

i was first alerted to oh happy days on twitter of all places (if you have any vegan tips, @reply me!) when i saw a tweet that called it “the best vegan restaurant in LA” and mentioned that they had soul food for $6 per plate. we wasted no time and headed over on saturday for lunch and were absolutely blown away by the awesomeness. the super small market is easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for—we almost walked right by it!

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if you are craving simple, light, nutritious vegan food, the natural cafe is where it’s at. the small restaurant has 9 locations throughout california (santa barbara, moorpark, and simi valley just to name a few)—we recently hit up the westlake village establishment for lunch and were surprisingly pleased with our meal.

veggie stuffed spud: baked potato topped with steamed vegetables, and tahini-ginger sauce. $7.95

although the natural cafe serves meat, they have a large vegetarian menu (most of which can be made vegan). we were feeling like a pretty basic meal, so we went with the veggie stuffed spud and “mr. natural”.

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i absolutely love little health food stores with vegan-friendly restaurants attached to them, and i think mother’s market may be the best one yet. the grocery mart has an impressive 6 locations in the orange county area, each one with an adjoining cafe that boasts a large almost entirely vegetarian menu (they serve real tuna for some strange reason).

gingered greens with tempeh: strips of sauteed tempeh with spinach and swiss chard in a light ginger-cilantro sauce. served over organic brown rice or udon noodles. $8.50

we hit up the huntington beach location recently, and i must say we were quite impressed with the quality and value of the food…

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