Craving a good vegetarian meal? Having trouble getting family or friends to join you for a meal? In Orange County, California, you can “have your cake and eat it too”! While I may not be a total vegan (a girl should have a good BBQ rib sometimes), I prefer to eat a vegetarian meal most of the time. The problem is that my family and friends think that this type of cooking is not something they want to share with me! They think of soy-based foods as meant for me and me alone.
Fortunately, I have found great restaurants in our wonderful Southern California home that try very hard to cater to all comers. So carnivores take a seat, even you will find something tasty in these fun places!
Mother’s Market and Cafe-Mother’s has a wonderful vegan menu, but since they are also a complete organic and healthy food market, the cafe also serves fish and chicken dishes. At least it was on the menu I went to in Laguna Hills, which is one of the smaller units. Mother’s has several locations throughout the county.
Rutabegorz-This restaurant has a warm place in my heart. Before growing to the 3 locations it has today, it only had one in Fullerton. Granted, this was in the 70s and I was just a young college student, but I was into healthy eating even then! The reason I love Rutabegorz is that the atmosphere is relaxed, the baked goods are made on the premises (low fat, low sugar, and tasty too!), the menu is eclectic, and my husband doesn’t care for the tuna dishes. and salads. When I went there “a long time ago,” my college dance partners and I could feel good eating the whole wheat bagel with avocado, tomatoes, and tofu. Wish they still had it on the menu! In addition to Fullerton, they also have one in Orange and Tustin.
Zinc’s Café and Market-Laguna Beach. Great breakfasts. Excellent baked goods. Salads are wonderful. Some very interesting lunch options. The menu is always changing, but the coffee is gourmet and it smells wonderful.
Native Foods – The new kid in town, if you will. Located in Costa Mesa, it is becoming a wonderful destination for vegans. Semi-Casual Upscale Menu – They have a few fake meat dishes which, from what a couple of diners said, if someone had ordered their meals without telling them what kind of restaurant this is, they would never have guessed they weren’t eating. “the real thing”.
Veggie and Tea House – This is exactly what it says on the tin, mainly a tea house serving vegetarian dishes. While this place is lovely and the food is pretty good, in all honesty this is probably the least likely of all the recommended places that could do well with the meat-eating crowd.
Other suggestions? Most Asian restaurants are pretty vegan/vegetarian! Jade Palace in Aliso Viejo will substitute tofu for any meat in any of their dishes.
So cheer up veggie lovers, we can go out to eat with our fellow carnivores and we can all enjoy!
