If finding a place that has both raw food and cooked food has been difficult for you, then look no further than Leaf Cuisine in Culver City.  This mostly raw restaurant has some cooked food for non-raw-foodists to try.  They now have table service, which my vegan guy and I did not know about, so we ordered at their counter instead.

For an appetizer I got the Cashew Kreme Cheeze with corn chips.  I almost loved this dish.  I liked the corn chips and I liked the Kreme Cheeze, but I didn’t really like them together.  I would have preferred some plain chips.  I also would have preferred less herbs in the Kreme Cheeze.  I’m a huge fan of raw cheeses made with nuts and I felt that the abundance of herbs took away from wonderful flavor of the nuts.  The texture of the cheese was divine, though – smooth and creamy.

For an entree, I got the Vegan Victory Burger (cooked dish) prepared with a grilled veggie patty and topped with house made mayo, tomato, sprouts & romaine on a sprouted grain bun.  I also added vegan cheeze to my burger for an extra $0.99.  I loved this veggie patty, but I thought there was too much bun.  I wished the patty was thicker (because it was so good!).  It came with some sauerkraut and a side salad with a nice house made dressing.

My vegan guy got the Mushroom Rawsagna prepared with layers of rawcotta, squash noodles, spinach, portobellos and rawmesan.  It is also served with some sauerkraut and a side salad with house made dressing.  I had a bite and really liked it.  Normally raw Italian inspired dishes use a lot of zucchini in place of pasta (which I hate).  This dish had none of that.  The rawcotta layer was super thick and the texture was very creamy.   I’d definitely order this one again.

And finally for dessert, I got their frozen soft serve.  Let me first explain how excited I was when I heard Leaf Cuisine was offering soft serve.  It is so hard trying to find vegan soft serve – which one would think would be a common offering in this warm California climate.  Leaf Cuisine offers both vanilla and chocolate flavored raw soft serve.  I got half and half topped with their chocolate sauce.  I ordered it to be eaten on location, but they packed it to-go anyway.  Because it got smashed from the lid of the container, it just looks like one blob of melted ice cream.  I think I may have been too excited by this offering and raised my expectations too high.  The soft serve was a bit grainy – something I’ve tasted when eating other raw, vegan soft serves.  The flavor was nice, though, and the chocolate sauce was delicious.  It is still a very nice treat for someone following a raw or whole foods based diet.

Leaf Cuisine has a small parking lot and is located at:

11938 W. Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 397 0700

Hours of Operation
Mon – Fri 10 AM to 9 PM
Sat – Sun 11 AM to 9 PM