Pure Luck

Pure Luck is a vegan restaurant located on the hip strip of Heliotrope, across from the Bike Kitchen and Scoops Gelato. Serving a mixed menu with Mexican and Asian touches, the kitchen's claim to fame is their use of jackfruit as a meat substitute.

Visits: 5

Andrew Says: This should be my favorite restaurant. I love vegan food, and this spot is in bicycle heaven, with L.A's best gelato across the street. This is my restaurant, dammit! But sadly, this is not my restaurant. First off (because it's the first thing you'll notice), the service is awful. Not rude, just slow. So slow that you will get tired of waiting for your food, and enter a grumpy state where you are no longer hungry, just eager to get on with your night. If you plan on eating here, give yourself at least an hour, if not longer.
The menu items that I like, I really like. The potato pal appetizer is a huge guilty pleasure. Deep-fried gnocci, sprinkled with black pepper and served with a tangy BBQ-ish dipping sauce. I also enjoyed the BBQ sandwich, with jackfruit replacing pork. Even though the sandwich wasn't hot, and the sauce was nothing to get excited about, it was tasty and sloppy in the way a BBQ sandwich should be.
When things go wrong, they go really wrong. The noodle bowl is a cold, sad excuse for an Asian dish, and always arrives with a good inch of water in the bottom. You may think about returning it, but the thought of another 3o minute wait will quell that impulse. On a recent visit they were out of the jackfruit (the reason I stopped in) as well as the homemade lemonade. The jackfruit I can understand, but out of lemonade? That means you're out of lemons, sugar or water, and those can be easily replenished, perhaps by the waitress idly sipping a coca-cola by the window?
Again, I want to like Pure Luck, I want something to click here, but I guess not all luck is the good kind.

Natalie says: Ugh. I want to like Pure Luck. I really do. But, as one reviewer on Yelp wrote, the only good thing about Pure Luck is its proximity to Scoops, the gelato restaurant across the street (which, by the way, has vegan gelato for those of you who prefer your frozen desserts that way). My first meal at Pure Luck was a flavorless tofu pesto sandwich. The pesto was bland, and the tofu was pan fried, but lacking any spices. My second meal was even worse: an "avocado" salad that was worse than anything I'd make for myself, and I would have been embarassed to serve it to anyone else. It had about four slices of avocado on it, pico de gallo, some bruised romaine leaves, some pumpkin seeds, and an unidentifiably flavored salad dressing drizzled on top. It sounds like a semi-boring salad, but wait! This salad was floating in water. I imagine that the cook forgot to dry off the lettuce before putting it on the plate, but it was hard to fish the pumpkin seeds out of the salad water and also maintain a healthy appetite. Good thing Scoops has such hefty servings of amazing gelato (black sesame cheesecake!!). The food was bad and the service was comparably bad. We waited much too long for our water, and an insane amount of time for our food (two cold salads). I did enjoy the deep-fried gnocchi, but I would bet a pound of jackfruit that the gnocchi is not homemade. The dipping sauce for the gnocchi is veganaise mixed with BBQ sauce, both of which come out of some sort of industrial size container. I would've prefered a garlic pesto dipping sauce, or some sort of fancy balsamic reduction, but those don't normally come in plastic bottles.

I don't know why people like Pure Luck, but this place gets lots of rave reviews from vegans and meat eaters alike. I would rather eat at any number of other vegan restaurants than Pure Luck (see Bulan below).

Overall: 2/5

Veg Friendly: As friendly as it gets.

Dog Friendly: There is no outdoor seating.

Cost: Lunch for two with lemonade, $25

Wurstkuche

Wurstküche is a restaurant in L.A's downtown arts district that specializes in sausages, frites and beer. And that's it. This hugely popular spot features a menu jammed with a wide variety of sausages, from the rattlesnake and rabbit to the vegetarian beer brat. They also have 24 beers on tap, and the dining area is a large room with communal tables, perfect for partying.

Visits: 1

Andrew Says: As a vegetarian, the idea of an all-sausage restaurant holds about as much appeal to me as an all-sausage party, but I heard there were some non-meat options, so I tagged along. Boy, am I glad that I did! There are a lot of faux hot dogs and sausages out there these days, but nothing like the beer brat I had at Wurstkuche. Tender and juicy inside, and packed with flavor, the first thing I wanted afterward was another one. The exterior of the brat wasn't too realistic, but veg technology hasn't mastered faux intestine yet. I paired the brat with some frites and chipotle aioli (one of eleven sauce options), and washed it all down with a spiced apple soda. A meal so seemingly simple, but built on so many flavorful details I can't wait to visit again.

Overall: 5/5

Veg Friendly: Sure, so long as you don't mind gazing into the display window packed with meat links. There are three veggie sausages on the menu, and all the dipping sauces appear vegetarian. I'm not sure if anything is vegan.

Dog Friendly: Of course, that's all they serve! HAHAHAHA, right folks? Right? But seriously, the 'patio' is just a narrow strip of tables on the sidewalk. You could bring your dog, but there are no waiters, so leave the pooch at home.

Cost: Sausages and fries for two, with two fancy-ass sodas: $25.00

Home

Home is a beautiful restaurant that flips the indoor to patio ratio around and is mostly outdoors, with small indoor rooms. The above picture doesn't really do it justice; visit their impressive website for better pictures of the outdoor seating area. It has wooden floors and tables, with birdhouse condiment caddies and heat lamps for the chilly evenings. The food is American with a few fancy flourishes.

Visits: 2

Andrew Says: There are a few jokes you can't help but make while eating at Home: "I'm going to start eating at Home a lot more now," "I'm just going to stay at Home tonight," and "When I eat at Home, I like to get my order wrong." Sadly, this last joke was on us when our multi-grain salad arrived with the red onions inside, not on the side, as requested. Not a big enough deal to send it back, but irritating since I explained it was allergy-related. The salad itself was tasty, although the menu made it sound more flavorful than it turned out to be. We shared the salad with a plate of the spinach and cheese ravioli, which were very rich and delicious, smothered in an Alfredo sauce.
The menu was an odd mix of intriguing creativity and incredibly cliched items. The appetizer menu, in particular, reads like every chain restaurant you've ever sat in, featuring dusty classics like Santa Fe Egg Rolls, Jalepeno Poppers, and Chicken Tenders. To be fair, I didn't try any of the appetizers, and perhaps the kitchen has their own wondrous way with them, but there was nothing in their description to entice me.
As a whole the restaurant's ambiance is so enjoyable and relaxing that I plan on returning, at least a few more times.

Overall: 4/5

Veg Friendly: There are some creative veggie options like a veggie 'meatloaf' and a tofu breakfast burrito, and plenty of salads.

Dog Friendly: Perhaps overly so, a table near us had three dogs that were out of control.

Cost: Dinner for two with water, $30

Intelligentsia

Intelligentsia is a coffee shop located at Silverlake Junction, specializing in high-end espresso and coffee drinks. They recently took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the barista championships.

Visits: 80+

Andrew Says: If you really, really care about coffee, this is the shop for you. The price will turn many people away, with a cup of coffee running you around $4 (no refill), but for coffee connoisseurs it's worth it.. They use the Clover brewing method for their 'drip', which in my opinion produces the best cup possible. Another turn-off may be the clientèle, which ranges from people talking loudly and chain-smoking to people talking loudly on their cell phone and chain-smoking. Intelligentsia is at hipster ground zero, so be prepared to wade through a sea of hungover failed musicians just to get to the counter. The shop does offer some very tasty baked goods, with surprisingly good donuts, and an almond croissant that seems to be 80% delicious butter.

Overall: 5/5


Veg Friendly: They do have soy (no charge for cold soy), but I doubt there is a vegan pastry in the case.

Dog Friendly: There are usually a few dogs outside, and they will let you bring your dog inside (Peaches loves it), but there are also a lot of birds around, so know your dog before you bring her.

Cost: Coffee and a pastry for one: $7

Mako

Mako is a teeny tiny Japanese restaurant, sequestered nearly in the lobby of a movie theater on Vermont that specializes in diner-style food. Blink twice and you might miss it, with its unassuming decor and tiny sign. Notorious for their 'C' rating from the health board they were recently bumped up to an 'A' (or discovered photoshop). The service ranges from curt and quick to completely silent, but you get what you pay for.

Visits: 6+

Andrew Says: The 'C' rating had kept me away from this spot for a few months, although the incredibly inexpensive menu teased me from the window. When they finally received an 'A' I gave it a shot, and have been hooked since! Pardon the fish pun, Natalie has corrected my English and it's not pronounced Make-o like the shark, but 'Mah-ko'. Now you know. The biggest draw of this place has to be the price. Don't get me wrong, every dish I've had is very tasty, but the price is simply unbeatable. Dinner for two is going to run you about $11 on average. That's basically half-priced eating in Los Angeles. You might imagine skimpy dishes, but your money goes a long way. For $4.95 you can get veggie tempura, with a little cabbage salad and a bowl of miso soup. For even less than that you can get Yakisoba noodles with the side salad, or fried rice. There's something that evokes gritty, Blade Runner visions of Los Angeles just hunching over the counter, watching the grill man do seven things at once and suddenly -poof- your food is there. As for the service, we once had a waiter that ran completely silent. A literal stealth waiter. He approached our table, gave us a little nod to commence ordering, brought our food in silence, and then the bill. It was odd, but it really wasn't as off-putting as you might think. Who needs cheap pleasantries when I can get a $3 plate of noodles?

Overall: 4/5

Veg Friendly: There are veggie options, including the Miso soup (I checked), tempura, yakisoba and fried rice.

Dog Friendly: There are two tables outside, but no water bowl. The staff would likely give you a bowl if you asked.

Cost: Dinner for two with tip: $12