Long before my days of blogging, I lived in the Bay Area. Lucky me, right?
Since blogging, I’ve been taste-testing my way through the bay. Here’s a collection of my favorite restaurants (some with review posts) in Northern California:
San Francisco
- Alive (v) * – raw heaven
- The PLANT Cafe Organic * – outstanding veggie burger
- Cha-Ya (v)
- Ponzu
- Blue Barn * – get the falafel!
- Millennium (v) *
- Maggie Mudd (v) – vegan ice cream
- Cafe Gratitude (v)
- Greens Restaurant
- Kokkari
- Herbivore (v)
- Atlas Cafe
- Panhandle Pizza – nutritional yeast topping
- Patxi’s Chicago Pizza – daiya pizza
- Gracias Madre (v)
- Fraiche Yogurt – soy fro yo
- Ferry Building Farmer’s Market
East Bay
- Faz – Danville (this was our rehearsal dinner location)
- The Bridges – San Ramon
- Va De Vi – Walnut Creek
- Tomatina – Walnut Creek (visit #2)
- Tender Greens – Walnut Creek
- Sasa – Walnut Creek
- 1515 Restaurant & Lounge – Walnut Creek
- Kane Sushi – Lafayette
- Casa Gourmet – Lafayette
- Chow – Lafayette
- Patxi’s Chicago Pizza – Lafayette
- Amarin Thai Cuisine – Lafayette
- Swad Indian Cuisine – Lafayette
- Squirrels Coffee Shop – Lafayette
- Millie’s Kitchen – Lafayette
- Metro Lafayette – Lafayette
- La Boulange – Lafayette
- Rising Loafer – Lafayette
- Jack’s – Pleasant Hill
- Mua – Oakland
Central Coast/South Bay
- Amarin Thai Cuisine – Monterey, CA
- Sprout Cafe * – Palo Alto
- Gordon Biersch – Palo Alto
- Patxi’s Chicago Pizza – Palo Alto
- Loving Hut (v) – Palo Alto
- Calafia – Palo Alto
- Fraiche Yogurt – Palo Alto
Northern CA
(v) = exclusively vegetarian/vegan
(*) = hippie fave
Hi Elise,
I’ll be in San Francisco and LA in a couple of weeks (doing a road trip with my boyfriend from Denver to LA 🙂 ). I went through a couple of your restaurant reviews, but find it all a bit overwhelming at the moment. I wondered, if you could pick your top 3 in LA and/or SF (or surrounding areas), what would it be? I would love to wow my meat-eating BF with an amazing veggie, maybe even vegan meal, and if that’s not gonna happen in California I don’t know where it should..
Thank you!!
Anna
SF…Blue Barn and The Plant Cafe are casual and not entirely vegetarian, but they have vegan options that will blow your mind. They are in great areas too (Plant Cafe has a couple locations). Those will wow both you and your BF for sure.
I’ll email you to get more info for LA.
I grew up in Moraga, right by Lafayette so Im familiar with a lot of the restraunts! Love your site!
-Emily
Hi, I found your site thru a friend who like me is an arbonne consultant ~ she was thrilled to see our yummy vanilla shake mix on your site. I read thru here a bit (love it) and am curious what small town you speak of that you feel most would better know Berkeley? I live in Alamo and have a hunch this may be it? Any~hoo, I will be checking back. . . my husband & I just thoroughly enjoyed the movie “Forks over Knives” and feel better than ever, having given up meat & dairy just 2 short weeks ago! We have always been fairly healthy (clean) eaters so it has not been a drastic change but most certainly a fabulous one 🙂
Cheers to feeling gooood~!
hi tina. nope, not alamo, but close 🙂 if you’re still curious, check out the restaurant reviews in nor cal. the majority are from my home town…
Orinda
It’s enormous that you are getting thoughts from this article as well as
from our dialogue made at this place.