Los Angeles · United States
Healthy restaurants in Los Angeles: healthy places to eat in LA.
Written by Gillian McKeith
Los Angeles has the produce, the growing season and the appetite, and that combination is why I so often find the best plant cooking in America out here rather than on the East Coast. It also produces more wellness branding than anywhere I have visited, so read this page as my filter on the healthy restaurants in Los Angeles worth your evening.
Take it neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Silver Lake and Los Feliz give you Botanica, which does vegetable-led breakfast and lunch with California sourcing that actually shows on the plate, and Kismet, where Middle Eastern vegetables are the main event rather than the side.
West Hollywood and the Melrose stretch cover the smarter end. Crossroads Kitchen is the fine-dining vegan room proving plants can carry a proper dinner, Pura Vita on Santa Monica Boulevard does vegan Italian with handmade pasta and no excuses, and Real Food Daily on La Cienega has been feeding this city whole food since 1993. Café Gratitude on Larchmont keeps the all-organic plant-based cafe line honest.
Downtown and the Valley are worth the drive. Shojin in Little Tokyo is vegan Japanese with real technique, and Sun Cafe on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City does raw and cooked vegan food generously, so nobody leaves hungry. In Koreatown, Monty's Good Burger is fast food made from plants without pretending to be health food.
The practical answers people ask me for: a healthy breakfast in LA means Botanica, Café Gratitude or Sun Cafe. Healthy fine dining means Crossroads Kitchen, Shojin or Kismet, and those are the tables to book ahead. Monty's Good Burger is the cheapest decent meal on the page, and most of these kitchens mark gluten-free clearly, which matters more than a menu full of promises.
I am not remotely impressed by a wellness logo on a window. Show me the farm, the market, the fruit and vegetables at their peak, and then I will book a table. Nobody on this page has paid to be recommended.
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9 restaurants in Los Angeles
Open in full directoryShowing 9 of 9 restaurants in Los Angeles
Botanica
$$Los Angeles, United States
Silver Lake's market-driven all-day restaurant, where vegetables run the menu.
Best for: Breakfast or lunch in Silver Lake when you want to taste the vegetables rather than the dressing.
Café Gratitude
$$Los Angeles, United States
Organic plant-based cooking and the affirmations on the menu people still tease it for.
Best for: An all-organic, plant-based meal when you need clean food and no surprises.
Crossroads Kitchen
$$$Los Angeles, United States
Tal Ronnen's Melrose dining room, fully vegan Mediterranean cooking that reads like a serious omnivore menu.
Best for: A grown-up vegan dinner where the cooking, not the virtue, does the talking.
Kismet
$$$Los Angeles, United States
Californian-Middle Eastern cooking where the vegetable dishes are the ones people talk about.
Best for: Middle Eastern vegetables cooked with enough care to be the main event.
Monty's Good Burger
$Los Angeles, United States
The Impossible smashburger that made LA queue.
Best for: Fast plant-based burgers when you want the comfort without the meat.
Pura Vita
$$Los Angeles, United States
Organic vegan Italian and a natural wine list, in West Hollywood.
Best for: Vegan Italian that does not ask you to forgive the pasta.
Real Food Daily.
Los Angeles
Real Food Daily
$$Los Angeles, United States
One of LA's original organic vegan kitchens, going since 1993.
Best for: Wholefood staples that have kept Angelenos fed for three decades.
Shojin
$$$Los Angeles, United States
Macrobiotic Japanese cooking and vegan sushi in Little Tokyo.
Best for: Sushi and Japanese small plates with no fish and no compromise.
Sun Cafe
$$Los Angeles, United States
Studio City's organic vegan kitchen, strong on raw and gluten-free plates.
Best for: Raw and cooked vegan dishes big enough that nobody leaves hungry.
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Eating well in Los Angeles: your questions
- What are the best healthy restaurants in Los Angeles?
- Botanica in Silver Lake for vegetable-led brunch and lunch, Crossroads Kitchen on Melrose for a proper vegan dinner, Kismet in Los Feliz for Middle Eastern vegetables, and Real Food Daily for wholefood that has been reliable since 1993. Those four cover most of what people are really asking me.
- Where can I get a healthy breakfast in LA?
- Botanica on Silver Lake Boulevard is my first answer, because the vegetables arrive tasting of something. Café Gratitude on Larchmont is all organic and plant-based, and Sun Cafe on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City does a generous raw and cooked breakfast if you are in the Valley.
- What is the best healthy fine dining in Los Angeles?
- Crossroads Kitchen on Melrose. Tal Ronnen cooks plants with the technique most kitchens reserve for meat, and the room feels like a real restaurant rather than a wellness seminar. Shojin in Little Tokyo and Kismet in Los Feliz are the other two tables I would dress for.
- How much do these LA restaurants cost?
- Monty's Good Burger in Koreatown is the cheapest way to eat properly on this page. Botanica, Café Gratitude, Pura Vita, Real Food Daily and Sun Cafe sit in the middle. Crossroads Kitchen, Shojin and Kismet are the pricier rooms, and they earn it on the cooking rather than the lighting.
- Do I need a reservation?
- Book Crossroads Kitchen, Kismet and Shojin, particularly at the weekend. Botanica, Pura Vita, Real Food Daily and Sun Cafe are easier, though a reservation saves you standing on a pavement in the heat. Monty's Good Burger is a counter, so simply turn up.
- Which healthy restaurants in LA have gluten-free options?
- Botanica, Café Gratitude, Kismet, Pura Vita, Real Food Daily, Shojin and Sun Cafe all mark gluten-free clearly and handle it without drama. Say it at the door anyway, because a busy kitchen cannot read your mind.
- Where can I eat vegan Italian in Los Angeles?
- Pura Vita in West Hollywood. Handmade pasta, cashew cheeses and a fully vegan Italian menu that does not apologise.
- Which are fully vegan and which are not?
- Fully vegan: Café Gratitude, Crossroads Kitchen, Monty's Good Burger, Pura Vita, Real Food Daily, Shojin and Sun Cafe. Botanica and Kismet are plant-forward kitchens with fish and meat on the menu, and both treat vegetables as the reason you came in rather than an afterthought.
- Is there healthy food in LA for a meat eater?
- Plenty. Botanica and Kismet will feed a mixed table without anybody negotiating, and Crossroads Kitchen converts sceptics over dinner more often than any argument I could make. Monty's Good Burger does the same job at lunch for a few dollars.
- Do I need to be vegan to use this LA guide?
- No. This guide is plant-forward, not plant-only. Some of these kitchens are fully vegan, others simply treat vegetables as the reason you came in. Meat eaters are welcome and will find plenty to order.
- Can a Los Angeles restaurant pay to be listed?
- It cannot. I choose every entry on sourcing, freshness and what actually reaches the plate. Money has never bought a line in this guide and it never will.
Every Los Angeles restaurant in the Gillian McKeith Restaurant Guide
Every Los Angeles kitchen in the guide, with my notes on each.
- Botanica
- Café Gratitude
- Crossroads Kitchen
- Kismet
- Monty's Good Burger
- Pura Vita
- Real Food Daily
- Shojin
- Sun Cafe
Eating a particular way in Los Angeles
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About the author
Written by Gillian McKeith
I'm Gillian McKeith: television presenter, creator of the global hit show You Are What You Eat, writer, nutritionist, and the editor behind this guide. Every Los Angeles entry here is chosen and written by me. I judge kitchens on the things that actually matter: real ingredients, honest sourcing, vegetables cooked with care, and food you feel better for eating.
Nothing on this page is a paid placement. Restaurants cannot buy a recommendation, and any listing marked as sponsored is labelled as such. If a kitchen slips, it comes out of the guide.
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