Real Food

A couple of weeks ago we went to lunch with someone who was a vegan. Since we didn't really know any vegan places, we went along with her suggestion: Real Food Daily in Santa Monica. They serve purely vegan (and of course, organic) food, but with a lot more choices and innovation than most other places.
Of course, you can still go with one of your salads or vegetable sandwiches. They have an amazing portabella mushroom sandwich with hemp bread! Give it a try!

After that we've come back, and the place is always packed. The bad thing is that they don't take reservations, so you end up waiting for quite a while for it. Usually they will send you to the spiritual bookstore right next door and will come get you there when your table is ready.

The special for March was this vegetarian lasagna, which was absolutely delicious (I didn't really catch what was in it, sorry ... next time).
Also to note is the Better with Cheddar nachos for appetizer. They used melted cashew cheddar cheese and tofu sour cream and this was really really good.

Someone got one of the specials which consisted of noodles in peanut sauce topped with some tempeh (for those who don't know, tempeh is made of soy beans- kinda like soy bean cake). I didn't get to try this, but they seemed to really like it.
We ordered the chocolate pudding for dessert. Of course, dairy free and gluten free. And it was amazing. It tasted very rich and chocolatey.
I'm glad someone suggested this place. I would never have tried it otherwise since I don't really venture into vegan eateries, being a red meat lover myself. This place serves really good food though, and it sure comes real handy when you have to take someone vegan/vegetarian out to dinner and need to pick a place :)

Real Food Daily
514 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401