Gracias Madre

You know a restaurant is great when you do crowdsourcing for top vegan restaurants in LA and San Francisco, and Gracias Madre makes the top of the list - in both!
This past Monday night, to cap off a relaxing Labor Day weekend, I had the opportunity to see what the hype was all about.

For one, the West Hollywood location felt SO LA.  I was expecting a Mexican restaurant. Warm colors, Mexican art, refried beans and guacamole in traditional serving pieces.  Instead, I wound up at a chic, indoor-outdoor sleek white restaurant, with top-shelf bars boasting interesting tequilas and a fabulously creative drink menu, and a robust food menu that made decision making quite challenging.
To make it easier for an enthusiastic vegan like me, with vegan friendly company, there was a $40 per person tasting menu.  Between 2 of us, that gave us an opportunity to try pretty much everything that menu offered.  To say we left stuffed (after sampling the Mexican wedding cookie with chocolate coconut ice cream topped with crushed pecans and chocolate sauce) is an understatement.
The menu began with individual portions of guacamole and escabeche - pickled veggies (including super hot jalapenos) and crispy, perfectly salted tortilla chips.
The second course allowed for 2 options per person, so we tried 4 different items: the gordita: a potato-masa cake with salsa verde, avocado and cashew cream, a quesadilla filled with butternut squash, onion and cashew nacho cheese, fried cauliflower tossed with cashew nacho cheese and lemon, and a vegan caesar salad.
Yup.  Creative, tasty and satisfying.  Then we had more.
For the third course we enjoyed sope con mango: a potato-masa cake with guacamole, cashew crema and pickled cabbage, a sauteed squash tamal with poblano pepper, onions and pico de gallo, one jackfruit and one crispy potato chorizo taco, and a sweet potato flauta with caramelized onion, guacamole ad cashew nacho cheese.
There is a reason this was everyone's recommendation.  You could have rolled me home when the meal ended! Everything was just delicious. If you have the opportunity to get yourself there, you will love it. And keep an eye on the crowd. You never know what celebrity might be dining at the next table...I definitely felt like a Trendy Vegan!