Discover the Best Healthy Food Restaurants in Los Angeles: Ultimate Guide & Reviews

Los Angeles, a city known for its vibrant culture and diverse culinary scene, is also a haven for health-conscious individuals. Finding nutritious and delicious food is easy with the abundance of healthy restaurants. This article delves into some of the best healthy restaurants in Los Angeles, offering a comprehensive guide to help you navigate the city's healthy dining options.

Why Choose Healthy Restaurants?

In a city where health and wellness are highly valued, it's no surprise that healthy restaurants thrive. These establishments offer meals that cater to various dietary needs and preferences, ensuring you can maintain a balanced and nutritious diet while enjoying delicious food. Whether you're following a specific diet plan, have dietary restrictions, or simply want to make healthier choices, Los Angeles has a restaurant to meet your needs.

Top Healthy Restaurants in Los Angeles

Los Angeles boasts a wide array of healthy restaurants, each with its unique offerings and ambiance. Here's a detailed look at some of the most popular and highly-rated options:

Plant-Based Mexican Cuisine at Gracias Madre

Located in West Hollywood, Gracias Madre is a plant-based Mexican restaurant that offers a unique and flavorful dining experience. This restaurant, brought to you by the same team behind Cafe Gratitude, is renowned for its organic and health-focused approach to traditional Mexican dishes.

Highlights:

Plant-Based Menu: Everything on the menu is entirely plant-based, making it a perfect choice for vegans and vegetarians.
Organic Ingredients: Much of the produce comes directly from their own Be Love farm in Northern California, ensuring the highest quality and freshness.
Popular Dishes: Quesadillas de calabaza (butternut squash filling in homemade organic corn tortillas), crab cake (made with hearts of palm, not crab), Bowl Uno, Bowl Tres, and El Plato are among the favorites.

Cafe Gratitude: A Vegan Paradise

Cafe Gratitude, also with multiple locations, is another excellent choice for plant-based dining. This restaurant is 100% plant-based and organic, offering a diverse menu that caters to various tastes.

Highlights:

Plant-Based and Organic: All dishes are made with 100% plant-based and organic ingredients.
Engaging Atmosphere: The restaurant is known for its engaging atmosphere, often featuring a "question of the day" to spark conversation and reflection.
Popular Dishes: The Great Cardini salad, Mediterranean bowl, vegan Caesar, and the Real Food Meal are highly recommended.

High-End Vegan Creations at an Unnamed Restaurant

This unnamed restaurant offers a fancy and stylish dining experience with a 100% plant-based menu. The ambiance is romantic, featuring white tablecloths, candlelight, mirrors, chandeliers, and wingback chairs.

Highlights:

Inventive Plant-Based Menu: The menu features high-end, inventive plant-based creations.
Small Plates: Ordering a variety of small plates to share is a great way to experience the diverse flavors.
Kippy's Ice Cream: Don't miss Kippy’s ice cream for dessert, which offers coconut milk ice cream sweetened with dates and topped with superfood toppings.

Juice Bars: Moon Juice and Beaming

For those looking for a quick and healthy boost, Los Angeles offers several exceptional juice bars. Moon Juice and Beaming are among the most popular.

Moon Juice:

Known for its aesthetically pleasing presentation and well-thought-out menu.
Offers a variety of juices and snacks made with high-quality ingredients.

Beaming:

Features a delicious rainbow of juice offerings.
Provides a variety of healthy options for a quick and nutritious meal.

Olivia Restaurant: Vegetarian with an L.A. Flair

Located in Koreatown, Olivia Restaurant is a charming spot perfect for a romantic date night. It offers a vegetarian menu of small bites, pastas, and pizzas with an L.A. flair.

Highlights:

Vegetarian Menu: Focuses on vegetarian dishes with a local twist.
Vegan Options: A good portion of their menu is also vegan or dairy-free.
Unique Dishes: Features dishes like jackfruit barbacoa fusilli pasta and pizza with kimchi.

Plant Food + Wine: Rooftop Dining

Plant Food + Wine, relocated to the rooftop of Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, offers a shaded outdoor dining area where you can enjoy a plant-based menu.

Highlights:

Plant-Based Menu: Signature dishes include avocado tikka served with potato flatbread.
Brunch Options: The cornmeal waffle served with fried maitake mushrooms is a unique take on the classic.
Scenic Location: Offers a lovely rooftop dining experience.

Borit Gogae: Healthy Korean Cuisine

Borit Gogae showcases the healthy side of Korean cuisine with its barley rice set that comes with a spread of vegetable-forward banchan.

Read also: Healthy Eating on the Run

Highlights:

Vegetable-Forward: Features a variety of banchan, from bean sprouts to shimeji mushrooms.
DIY Bibimbap: Mix everything with the barley rice for a DIY bibimbap experience.
Comforting Soup: The meal also includes a comforting and creamy perilla seed chicken soup.

Ubuntu: West African Vegan Cuisine

Ubuntu offers a unique dining experience with its plant-based twists on dishes from West Africa.

Highlights:

Vegan West African Cuisine: Features dishes like fonio grits served with oyster mushrooms or charred okra salad with a bright passion fruit vinaigrette.
Colorful Ambiance: Located on Melrose, this restaurant provides a vibrant and unique atmosphere.

Everytable: Affordable and Accessible

Everytable aims to make healthy food affordable and accessible by offering ready-to-eat meals with pricing adjusted according to each neighborhood.

Highlights:

Affordable Meals: Focuses on providing healthy options at accessible prices.
Wide-Ranging Menu: Offers a variety of dishes, from vegan tofu larb with rice noodles to curry chicken.
Multiple Locations: Conveniently located in multiple storefronts around Los Angeles.

Tulsi Indian Eatery: Plant-Based Indian Cuisine

Tulsi Indian Eatery offers a modern take on Indian cuisine with a completely plant-based menu.

Highlights:

Plant-Based Indian Cuisine: Uses vegan alternatives for dishes that normally use meat, such as "chick’n" tikka masala.
Regional Specialties: Serves healthy regional specialties like spinach curry in ginger and mustard leaves and vegetarian biryani.
Cooling Beverages: Offers a cooling yogurt lassi to complement the meal.

Alfalfa: Salad-Focused

Alfalfa, which started as a farmers market stand, offers a variety of tasty salad choices, breakfast burritos, and gluten-free donuts.

Highlights:

Salad Variety: Offers tasty salad choices and the option to build your own bowl.
Breakfast Options: Serves breakfast burritos and gluten-free donuts.
Fresh Ingredients: Focuses on using fresh, high-quality ingredients.

Mother Tongue: Global Comfort Food

Located in a members-only luxury fitness club, Mother Tongue serves up a global menu of reinvented comfort foods using nutritious ingredients.

Read also: Mobile Dining Revolution

Highlights:

Global Menu: Features a global menu of reinvented comfort foods.
Nutritious Ingredients: Uses nutritious ingredients that don’t taste overly healthy.
Dietary Labels: Each dish is labeled to indicate whether it is plant-based, keto-friendly, anti-inflammatory, or good for cognitive functions.

Botanica: Healthful Cooking

Botanica in Silver Lake is known for its healthful and nourishing cooking with a vegetable-heavy menu.

Highlights:

Vegetable-Heavy: Focuses on vegetable-centric dishes.
Seasonal Dishes: Features dishes like Japanese sweet potatoes and squash with chrysanthemum yuzu pesto.
Natural Wines: Serves natural wines and cocktails featuring farmers market products.

Honey Hi: Community-Focused

Honey Hi prepares food using mostly organic produce purchased at local farmer’s markets and steers clear from refined sugars and additives.

Highlights:

Organic Produce: Uses mostly organic produce from local farmer’s markets.
Nutritious Bowls: Offers nutritious sweet potato hash bowls and salads.
Healthy Indulgences: Serves healthy twists on indulgent dishes like gluten-free brioche French toast.

Bonjuk: Korean Rice Porridge

Bonjuk specializes in Korean rice porridge that is perfect for a comforting and healthy meal.

Highlights:

Rice Porridge Variety: Offers almost a dozen porridge options, from vegetable to mushroom and oyster.
Nutritional Benefits: Each porridge is listed on the menu along with its nutritional benefits.
Sweet Porridge Desserts: Includes sweet porridge desserts such as pine nut porridge.

True Food Kitchen: Balanced Approach

True Food Kitchen focuses on health with a menu that emphasizes balance and making small changes towards better alternatives.

Highlights:

Balanced Menu: Offers a balanced approach to healthy eating.
Menu Favorites: Includes the grass fed burger with a flaxseed bun, hearty salads, and flavorful grain bowls.
Integrative Medicine: Founded by a doctor of integrative medicine.

Sumac Cuisine: Mediterranean Diet

Sumac Cuisine in Hollywood offers healthy Mediterranean dishes prepared the way a family would at home.

Highlights:

Mediterranean Cuisine: Features dishes like fattoush salad, hummus, and falafel.
Lesser-Known Items: Offers lesser-known items like moudardara prepared with organic lentils and rice.
Family Recipes: Prepares food using traditional family recipes.

Ganchic: Healthy Kimbap

Ganchic puts a healthy twist on kimbap by using quinoa instead of rice and making fillings and sauces without refined sugar.

Highlights:

Healthy Twist on Kimbap: Uses quinoa instead of rice.
No Refined Sugar: Fillings and sauces are made without refined sugar.
Takeout and Delivery: Available for takeout and delivery only.

Destroyer: Avant-Garde Cafe

Destroyer serves inventive dishes made with the freshest ingredients, offering a unique and healthy cafe experience.

Highlights:

Inventive Dishes: Features dishes that feel like they are coming from an upscale restaurant.
Fresh Ingredients: Made with the freshest ingredients.
Vegetable-Forward: Offers a lot of healthy, vegetable-forward dishes.

Shojin: Vegan and Gluten-Free Japanese

Shojin focuses on macrobiotic diet and prepares their food with organic and all natural ingredients, offering vegan and gluten-free options.

Highlights:

Vegan and Gluten-Free: Offers vegan sushi and dishes made with organic ingredients.
Macrobiotic Diet: Focuses on macrobiotic principles.
Brown Rice Sushi: Perfect for those looking for gluten-free food.

Kismet: Middle Eastern Cuisine

Kismet features inventive and beautifully-presented Middle Eastern dishes inspired by local, seasonal produce.

Highlights:

Middle Eastern Cuisine: Offers a variety of Middle Eastern dishes.
Seasonal Produce: Inspired by local, seasonal produce.
Plant-Forward Dishes: Features plenty of plant-forward dishes like sweet potato toasted hazelnuts and Moroccan spiced carrots.

Âu Lạc: Vietnamese Vegan

Âu Lạc offers Vietnamese-influenced vegan food, including plant-based pho and lemongrass "fish," as well as raw food items and cold-pressed juices.

Highlights:

Vietnamese Vegan: Serves vegan versions of Vietnamese dishes.
Raw Food Options: Includes a number of raw food items.
Preventative Medicine: The owner promotes a healthy plant-based diet as a part of preventative medicine.

Crossroads Kitchen: Upscale Vegan

Crossroads Kitchen stands out for its upscale, fine dining vegan cuisine, offering inventive dishes like artichoke oysters made with oyster mushrooms.

Highlights:

Upscale Vegan Cuisine: Offers a fine dining experience with vegan dishes.
Inventive Dishes: Features inventive dishes like artichoke oysters and a vegan cheese plate.
Tasting Menu: Offers a seven-course tasting menu.

Zhengyalov Hatz: Vegan Flatbread

Zhengyalov Hatz only serves vegan flatbread made with 15 finely minced herbs, sunflower oil, and salt.

Highlights:

Vegan Flatbread: Specializes in a single vegan flatbread dish.
Fresh Herbs: Made with 15 finely minced herbs.
Simple and Delicious: Sounds simple but tastes delicious, fresh, and vibrant.

Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine: Vegan Ethiopian

Rahel offers a completely plant-based menu with flavorful vegan dishes from Little Ethiopia.

Highlights:

Vegan Ethiopian Cuisine: Offers a variety of vegan Ethiopian dishes.
Combo Platters: The combo platter is the best way to experience Rahel, with multiple items served with injera.
Gluten-Free: Everything is served with injera, the Ethiopian sour flatbread made with teff flour, which is naturally gluten-free.

Aunt Yvette’s Ethiopian Vegan Combo

Aunt Yvette’s Ethiopian vegan combo consists of a table-sized sheet of injera topped with superfoods, including tofu tibs, kale braised with garlic, and berbere-stained red lentils.

Highlights:

Nutrient-Rich: Features a variety of superfoods.
Vegan Ethiopian: Offers a completely plant-based menu.
Flavorful Dishes: Includes tender tofu tibs and kale braised with garlic.

Fountain Grains & Greens

Fountain Grains & Greens offers a convenient way to get a vegetable fix with its grain bowls and salads made with local produce and meats.

Highlights:

Local Produce: Uses local produce and meats.
Grain Bowls and Salads: Offers a compact menu of grain bowls and salads.
Takeout-Focused: A great option for a fast vegetable fix.

Pita ‘Bu

Pita ‘Bu offers a healthy pescatarian meal off the PCH in Malibu, with mezze like tahini and baba ganoush, and fish kabobs.

Highlights:

Pescatarian Options: Features healthy pescatarian dishes.
Ocean View: Offers an ocean view in Malibu.
Mezze Plates: Serves mezze like tahini and baba ganoush.

Coni’Seafood

Coni’Seafood offers simple and flavorful Mexican seafood dishes, like aguachiles and marlin paté tostadas, without heavy frying.

Highlights:

Simple Seafood Dishes: Features dishes with just three or four ingredients.
Refreshing Flavors: Offers light, refreshing, and flavorful options.
Whole Snook: The whole snook marinated in signature salty sauce is a must-try.

Hugo’s

Hugo’s has been serving “whole food” meals since the ‘70s, offering unfussy dishes like pan-seared salmon, turkey meatloaf, and veggie patty casseroles.

Highlights:

Whole Food Meals: Has been serving healthy meals for decades.
Unfussy Dishes: Offers unfussy dishes with a health bent.
Gluten-Free Options: A great option for those who are gluten-free.

Mizlala

Mizlala makes vegetables taste incredibly interesting, serving plates of chicken shawarma and lamb-beef keftas with vegetable sides like smoked paprika brussel sprouts and lemony broccoli.

Highlights:

Interesting Vegetables: Makes vegetables taste incredibly interesting.
Israeli Cuisine: Offers casual Israeli dishes.
Multiple Locations: Has three locations across town.

Kismet Rotisserie

Kismet Rotisserie sells quarter, half, and whole birds with crispy skin, along with vegetable-forward sides like tahini-roasted squash and carrot slaw.

Highlights:

Rotisserie Chicken: Offers delicious rotisserie chicken with crispy skin.
Vegetable Sides: Features vegetable-forward sides that put any fancy salad bar to shame.
Convenient: A convenient option for a quick and healthy meal.

Highly Likely

Highly Likely offers non-fried items like shiitake-dashi porridge and little gem salad with yuzu vinaigrette, along with coffee and natural wine.

Highlights:

Non-Fried Options: Features exciting non-fried items.
Pleasant Atmosphere: Offers a pleasant, open-air spot in West Adams.
Coffee and Wine: Serves great coffee and natural wine.

Simply Wholesome

Simply Wholesome offers a mix of vegetarian and meat dishes, plus a drinks menu with 50+ smoothies, along with Jamaican patties.

Highlights:

Variety of Options: Offers a mix of vegetarian and meat dishes.
Smoothie Menu: Features a drinks menu with over 50 smoothies.
Jamaican Patties: Jamaican patties are a must-try.

Surawon

Surawon’s soondubu features tofu made from organic, non-GMO soybeans, offering a healthy and flavorful Korean stew.

Highlights:

Organic Tofu: Makes tofu from organic, non-GMO soybeans.
Korean Stew: Offers a tofu-packed, spicy seafood stew.
Fresh Ingredients: Tastes noticeably fresh and worth the upgrade.

Gjelina

Gjelina offers fire-kissed veggies and lamb sausage pizza, with seasonal stand-outs like blistered zucchini in turmeric sauce and Japanese sweet potato with jalapeño yogurt.

Highlights:

Fire-Kissed Veggies: Features fire-kissed vegetables.
Seasonal Menu: The menu changes with the seasons.
Group Dining: Great for dining with a group.

Options Studio City

Options Studio City serves hearty, plant-based dishes like nachos with vegan chorizo, a spicy buffalo "chicken" sandwich, and lighter options like quinoa salads.

Highlights:

Plant-Based Dishes: Offers hearty, plant-based dishes.
Lighter Options: Includes lighter options like quinoa salads.
All-Day Spot: A casual all-day spot with something for everyone.

Tel Aviv Fish Grill

Tel Aviv Fish Grill offers a seafood spread with grilled and fried fish, like branzino slathered in harissa, for a Mediterranean diet-friendly meal.

Highlights:

Seafood Spread: Offers a variety of grilled and fried fish.
Mediterranean Diet: A great spot for those following a Mediterranean diet.
Casual Atmosphere: Features a casual Israeli restaurant atmosphere.

Tips for Choosing a Healthy Restaurant

When selecting a healthy restaurant in Los Angeles, consider the following tips:

Read Reviews: Look for restaurants with positive reviews regarding their healthy options and quality of ingredients.
Check the Menu: Review the menu online to ensure it aligns with your dietary preferences and needs.
Ask Questions: Don't hesitate to ask the staff about ingredients, preparation methods, and potential allergens.
Consider Dietary Needs: Choose restaurants that cater to specific dietary needs, such as vegan, gluten-free, or paleo.
Look for Organic and Local Ingredients: Restaurants that prioritize organic and local ingredients often offer healthier and more sustainable options.

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