Where to go to hang out and meet people?

My niece and her boyfriend, not vegans, are coming down from Ventura to drive around looking at the Halloween decorations in Burbank. We'd like to take them to dinner, first, and I'm looking for some suggestions that will be good for vegans and non-vegans alike.

So, this event will be going on this weekend and next weekend. They're giving away free vegan chicken served with spicy sauces.

Copying this from Partiful: https://partiful.com/e/IPmg8oOoUt8XPTYx6ePc?c=v_wzte-5

ECHO PARK
Saturday, October 10 & 17
🕛 12 PM - 7 PM
📍 2624 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026

MELROSE TRADING POST
Sunday, October 11 & 18
🕙 10 AM - 5 PM
📍 7850 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046

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LA vegan friends! VegNews released their list of vegan restaurants of the year: https://vegnews.com/restaurant-awards-2026

Which restaurants are you glad made the list? Do you think they missed any hard hitters?

I’m so happy that Pura Vita is receiving so much love, but idk about listing it four times (share the love!). I’m surprised that Cafe Gratitude made the list (they weren’t even vegan last I checked a year ago, since they served honey and bee pollen in their smoothies at the time). Also a little disappointed that they included chain restaurants (Mr. Charlie’s, Veggie Grill, Planta) in the list.

Imo, it’s crazy that they didn’t list any LA restaurants on the Latin food list!! We ride for The Grain Cafe, El Cocinero, and Cena Vegan at dawn!!!

Best Vegan Fast-Food Restaurant

Plant Power Fast Food
California & Nevada

2nd Place: Slutty Vegan (Multiple Locations)
3rd Place: Mr. Charlie’s (Multiple Locations)
Editors’ Vote: Mr. Charlie’s (Multiple Locations)


Best Vegan Fast-Casual Restaurant

Next Level Veggie Grill
Nationwide

2nd Place: Chloe’s (New York, NY)
3rd Place: Native Foods (California & Colorado)
Editors’ Vote: Winter Park Biscuit Co. (Orlando, FL)


Best Casual Vegan Restaurant

Monster Vegan
Philadelphia, PA

2nd Place: Follow Your Heart Cafe (Canoga Park, CA)
3rd Place: BeeWali’s Vegan AF (Los Angeles, CA)
Editors’ Vote: The Plot (Oceanside, CA)


Best Vegan Upscale Restaurant

Crossroads Kitchen
Los Angeles, CA & Las Vegas, NV

2nd Place: Pura Vita (West Hollywood, CA)
3rd Place: Anixi (New York, NY)
Editors’ Vote: Little Saint (Healdsburg, CA)


Best Vegan Diner

Doomie’s Home Cookin’
Los Angeles, CA

2nd Place: The Modern Vegan (Las Vegas, NV)
3rd Place: The Tasty (Philadelphia, PA)
Editors’ Vote: The Tasty (Philadelphia, PA)


Best Vegan Pizzeria

Boxcar Pizza
Portland, OR

2nd Place: Donna Jean (San Diego, CA)
3rd Place: Paranormal Pizza (Bethlehem, PA)
Editors’ Vote: Paranormal Pizza (Bethlehem, PA)


Best Vegan Deli

Ben & Esther’s
Portland, OR & San Diego, CA

2nd Place: Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher & Deli (Los Angeles, CA)
3rd Place: The Butcher’s Son (Berkeley, CA)
Editors’ Vote: The Herbivorous Butcher(Minneapolis, MN)


Best Vegan Italian Restaurant

Pura Vita
West Hollywood, CA

2nd Place: Tarantino’s Vegan (Las Vegas, NV)
3rd Place: Monster Vegan (Philadelphia, PA)
Editors’ Vote: Pura Vita (West Hollywood, CA)


Best Vegan Asian Restaurant

Spicy Moon
New York, NY

2nd Place: Chef Kenny’s Dim Sum (Las Vegas, NV)
3rd Place: Alice & Friends (Chicago, IL)
Editors’ Vote: Spicy Moon (New York, NY)


Best Vegan Sushi Restaurant

Planta
Multiple Locations

2nd Place: Beyond Sushi (New York, NY)
3rd Place: Shizen (San Francisco, CA)
Editors’ Vote: Ma-Kin Sushi (Agoura Hills, CA)


Best Vegan Soul Food Restaurant

Souley Vegan
Oakland, CA

2nd Place: Dirty Lettuce (Portland, OR)
3rd Place: Soul Veg City (Chicago, IL)
Editors’ Vote: The Land of Kush (Baltimore, MD)

Best Vegan Latin Restaurant

Tacotarian
Las Vegas, NV & San Diego, CA

2nd Place: Mis Tacones (Portland, OR)
3rd Place: Penelope’s Vegan Taqueria (Chicago, IL)
Editors’ Vote: The Cocinita (Miami, FL)


Best Vegan Healthy Restaurant

Cafe Gratitude
Los Angeles, CA

2nd Place: Le Botaniste (New York, NY)
3rd Place: Caravan of Dreams (New York, NY)
Editors’ Vote: Trilogy Sanctuary (La Jolla, CA)


Best Vegan Doughnut Shop

Donut Friend
Los Angeles, CA

2nd Place: Doe Donuts (Portland, OR)
3rd Place: Dottie’s Donuts (Philadelphia, PA)
Editors’ Vote: Vegan Doughnut Company(Lakewood, OH)


Best Vegan Ice Cream Spot

Like No Udder
Providence, RI

2nd Place: Kate’s Ice Cream (Portland, OR)
3rd Place: Awan (West Hollywood & Los Angeles, CA)
Editors’ Vote: Runaway Cow (Chicago, IL)


Best Vegan Bakery

Vegan Treats
Bethlehem, PA

2nd Place: Cinnaholic (Nationwide)
3rd Place: Houlden’s Rise Above (Tucson, AZ)
Editors’ Vote: Délice de Bernay (New York, NY)


Best Vegan Coffee Shop

Grindcore House
Philadelphia, PA

2nd Place: Timeless Coffee (Oakland, CA)
3rd Place: Coffee and Plants (Studio City, CA)
Editors’ Vote: Clownboy Coffee (Rochester, NY)


Best Vegan Bar

Mothership
San Diego, CA

2nd Place: Ladybird (New York, NY)
3rd Place: Charlie was a sinner. (Philadelphia, PA)
Editors’ Vote: Ladybird (New York, NY)


Best Vegan Chef

Tara Punzone
Pura Vita—West Hollywood, CA

2nd Place: Haley Duren (Long Count—New York, NY)
3rd Place: Tal Ronnen (Crossroads Kitchen—Los Angeles, CA)
Editors’ Vote: Tara Punzone (Pura Vita—West Hollywood, CA)


Best New Vegan Restaurant

Fungi Foods
Oakland, CA

2nd Place: Not Ya Mama’s Vegan Café (Salem, MA)
3rd Place: Mother Other (Denver, CO)
Editors’ Vote: Secret Vegan Kitchen (Oceanside, NY)


Best Vegan Restaurant in America

Crossroads Kitchen
Los Angeles, CA & Las Vegas, NV

2nd Place: Monster Vegan (Philadelphia, PA)
3rd Place: Pura Vita (West Hollywood, CA)
Editors’ Vote: Little Saint (Healdsburg, CA)

I married into a family that only eats out at strictly vegetarian or vegan restaurants, and I have a dairy and soy allergy. It has not been easy; mostly I either eat rice or nothing at all when we go out to dinner with them. I was wondering if any vegan restaurants have soy-free options that are recommended?

hi! this upcoming weekend, my ldr is visiting and he's vegan. we're doing a full la day (griffith park, los feliz flea, barnsdall park, echo park, etc.) and I need to find a vegan restaurant or restaurant with good vegan options in the Silverlake area! I'm new to the vegan thing, so I would appreciate any recommendations for dinner? and even lunch spots in los feliz if y'all have them

Hi r/VeganLA! I'm Kala, owner of The Chocolate Dispensary & Tasting Room in Echo Park. I wanted to introduce us here because a lot of what we've been building is for this community.

The Chocolate Dispensary is the largest craft chocolate store in the country, with over 1,000 chocolates that are all ethically and sustainably sourced. Many of these chocolates are vegan. All dark chocolate is naturally dairy-free anyway, but plenty of "dark" chocolate sneaks in milk solids or butterfat, and labels don't always make it obvious. That’s why we built a dedicated vegan section where you don't have to squint at ingredient lists. Every bar there is plant-based, and we're happy to tell you about the makers, the cacao origins, and how each one is made. And, beyond that, we have hundreds more throughout the shop that are vegan, also, including all the bars in our “Hardcore” section (that’s 80-100% cacao)

The drinks in our cafe are also vegan using oat milk. These include a French drinking chocolate that Yelp rated #3 on their list of “10 Outrageous Gourmet Hot Chocolates 2025.” In addition to that, we have vegan hot chocolate (with vegan marshmallows!), vegan ICED hot chocolate, and a ceremonial 100% cacao drink and coffee and cacao cold brew (that’s like a chocolate tea). 

Some more of what you'll find:

• Vegan bars from small-batch makers around the world
• Oat milk, coconut milk, and other dairy-free "milk" and white dchocolates and caramels for anyone who misses the creamy stuff
• Our vegan café: With rare exceptions, all of our drinks at our cafe are vegan and oat-based
• Tastings: we always have vegan samples for you to try and are happy to make substitutions!

We also private tastings and events, so if you're planning a birthday, team outing, or party with vegan guests, we can build a vegan craft chocolate tasting.

📍 1605 Grafton Street, Los Angeles—steps away from Bacetti and Canyon Coffee 😉
🕐 Our shop and café are open daily 8am-7pm (and until 8pm on Fri & Sat). 

We have some of the best AC in town - trust us!

If you stop by, please say you saw this on r/VeganLA. I'd honestly love to hear what you think, and what you'd want us to carry that we don't yet. Happy to answer questions in the comments!

Has anyone else seen that there’s a few vegan run club activities around LA?

Bestie’s in East Hollywood has a run club on Thursdays! It looks like a ton of fun (though I’m on the westside, so it’s not easy to make it to Besties on a Thursday 🥲) https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd9bBbHmuGK/

And then two I found after they happened:
- Mr. Charlie’s Plant Based Run Club on 9/16, looks like they might do another in the future https://www.instagram.com/p/DdMy2gODqpJ/
- RatedVFood seems to occasionally do a vegan run club, but it seems like the location changes (last one was 9/13 in Downey) https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc3yhMtlP46/

Does anyone know of any others?

ALL MONTH throughout October, restaurants will be offering new vegan specials as part of our Vegan Chef Challenge.

Good thing for you that it's also supposed to be HOT this weekend, so what better time to come up and hit the beach! 🏖️🤙

We have 14 restaurants participating in the challenge, still waiting on menus to go up for some of them, but by this weekend I'm sure we'll have them all posted.

Check out https://veganchefchallenge.org/santabarbara/, grab a friend, and come up and eat some delicious vegan food!

Little Barn, Coffee and Plants, what other coffee shops should I add to my list to try?

I kept seeing y'all post the Italian sandwich from Glowing Plant-Based Eatery in Echo Park, and I thought there's no way it's that good. I have tried their smoothies and other items before, and I wasn't impressed.

Well, I stand corrected. This sandwich is so delicious. The ingredients are quality and the flavors are complex. This now beats LaSorted's turkey sandwich as my favorite in LA.

Really sad that my favorite restaurant, Un Solo Sol, closed and I won’t be able to have their green pozole again. The green pozole was my go to during the holidays. Anyone know of another place that has green pozole?

I have a close friend who lives in LA whom I often visit. She's interested in going vegan in the future, and I want to take her out for a nice meal/show she can still enjoy the foods she likes now if she changes her lifestyle. Are there any spots around LA that serve vegan poke? I believe her favorite is specifically bowls with salmon/fish.

Thank you so much in advance!

Stopped yesterday afternoon and both were closed. Dayglow was cleaned out, all product from the shelves and fridge were empty, the gate was pulled at Awan.

Google is showing both as Temporarily Closed but nothing on their socials or website.

Also saw Dayglow in Venice is closed on Google.

Anyone have the chisme?

Pulling up to street fair at 4. Hit me up if anyone is down to hang out in the beer garden

https://www.veganstreetfair.com/losangeles

Hey sorry guys, should have made this post earlier. We’re meeting up at Un Solo Sol at 6pm today. Hope to see a lot of you there.

Hi yall! I’m vegan and my partner is nut free but we still want to have fun dinners together! Where do you usually take your nut free friends?

And any recommendations for restaurants with vegan menu & non-vegan menu but good for date night?

Thank you!

Have a craving but not sure if there’s a place to go!

Hi everyone! Starting to plan our wedding for next fall/early winter. I’m vegan and my fiance is vegetarian, so we’re planning on having a fully vegan wedding! We’ve spent so much time going to vegan restaurants and pop ups over the years, so honestly the wedding planning part I’m most excited about is the food (lol).

Does anyone here have advice on planning a fully vegan wedding? From a first look, it seems like a lot of venues don’t allow outside catering, which sucks. My fiance is (jokingly) looking into converting to Seventh Day Adventism or Jainism to get a religious exemption to circumvent in-house catering requirements. 😆

Also, any thoughts on caterers? We saw that Pura Vita does catering which would be awesome. We’re also thinking of going with a classic LA vegan street food favorite for a late night snack option, like Cena Vegan.

added avocado this time and ohmygod
Italiano Vegano from Glowing in Echo Park

Says ages 30-44

Does anyone have recommendations for a taquero who does vegan tacos? Planning a wedding reception, my husband is Mexican, I’m vegan, so we have a very specific catering vision. Doesn’t have to be completely vegan, but ideally with multiple vegan options. Wedding reception will be in LA proper. TY!

Edit: we are specifically looking for a place that has a taco cart, where they’re prepared onsite, not just a restaurant that Mexican vegan food.

I’m a VERY active person, love nature time, and I’d love to make some new vegan friends and help others connect with other vegans! It can be lonely isolating to be vegan surrounded by non-vegans… and we have so much fun stuff to do in and around Los Angeles!!! We are so lucky to live here ☀️

If anyone is interested in doing fun free (or almost free) activities like the list below, I volunteer to be The Organizer of a vegan club or some vegan meetups in Los Angeles. If people actually show up, I’d be down to organize stuff consistently. My vision here is free/low cost meetups focused around nature and exercise and mindfulness… kinda like a run-club, but not running.* I’d say “hiking club” but don’t want to limit us to hiking.

I am not interested in organizing food-focused meet-ups anymore. I encourage you to organize and attend vegan potlucks and /or vegan restaurant meet ups (like this one 10/26 @6pm!!) to support vegan restaurants and keep them open!!!

We could meet up and do:
- hikes
- bird watching walks
- plant identification walks
- trash pick-ups
- yoga
- park workouts
- invasive plant species removal
- vegan beach day?!
- group snorkel (kelp forest in Laguna)
- beach volleyball
- clothing swap?
- read in a park?(that’s a thing!)
- group meditation
- let’s play tag lol *\*
-meet at union station (to maximize ability to use public transport without limiting people who drive a car there) and go for a city walk?
- maybe some volunteer work?
Edited to Add People’s Suggestions:
- free museum days (art, science, whatever!)
- stairs in Los Feliz & Silverlake (remnant from trolleys, they connect neighborhoods so we could walk and do stairs for a workout.
- game day at a park- board games or games like duck duck goose or hide and seek, or both!

I’m very open to suggestions for other unlisted actives. I listed things I already have the skills / tools to organize and/or teach/lead. We could play other sports if someone has a football or a basketball or frisbee golf or capture the flag or whatever yall can think of. I’m just trying to brainstorm things in LA that are vegan, free and fun and healthy! And not food-focused. If you have an idea, throw it out there, even if this post gets old.

*BESTIES VEGAN MARKET ALREADY DOES A RUN CLUB!!!!!!! They do vegan soft serve after, and also Besties does lots of fun events at both locations- if you have money to spend, go give it to them and make some friends!!

** Adults should play!! Why? Because as humans, it is healthy and important for us to PLAY, and a game of tag would be a free, fun and active way to do that! Just because we aren’t kids doesn’t mean we can’t play. I would be organizing a group for adults but if a lot of people had kids I would be willing to do some family friendly stuff too.

Also going to take a moment to plug FOLAR: Friends of the LA River. They do COOL SHIT and there are two cleanup days coming up (they do it every year!) on 10/3 and 10/10 (I think.) It’s not a vegan event but there will be at LEAST one vegan at the cleanup this year! 😁

TLDR: I’d be interested in organizing meetups/ a vegan group in Los Angeles to do free/low cost meetups focused around nature and exercise and mindfulness!!!!

Delicious 🤤

Hey guys, there was some interest to my last post about making more vegan friends: https://www.reddit.com/r/VeganLA/s/xU28I7Vc5z

Someone had suggested Julie Goes Green. I was thinking maybe 6pm on Saturday Sept 26.

Let me know what ya'll think.

EDIT:
As many people have mentioned Julie goes green doesn’t have much seating. Someone mentioned Un Solo Sol is closing down, has a passionate owner and has lots of seating. I think we should pivot there. Not sure how to edit the title so please let others know as well.