Golden Mean Cafe is a cozy all vegan restaurant in Santa Monica.  They have a variety of dishes including salads, sandwiches, International entrees, desserts, and even brunch on weekends.

For a recent lunch, my vegan guy went healthy and got a Cobb salad ($12.95): romaine hearts, tofu egg, breaded chicken, tomato, and cashew cheese in a creamy ranch dressing.  OK, well maybe ranch and breaded chicken isn’t exactly the epitome of health, but it sure was good.

Cobb Salad

I got the Chicken Parmigiana ($13.75): breaded chicken served with ancient grain pasta in a tomato sauce, topped with Daiya soy-free cheese and served with mixed green salad.  The salad was your basic side salad with a nice dressing.  The chicken parmigiana part was amazing.  The pasta was light on sauce, but not on flavor and the slice of chicken had just the right amount of crispy to it.  I want to eat this again right now.

Chicken Parmigiana

Gold Mean has a nice bakery case full of vegan desserts.  This little guy caught my eye: a gluten free chocolate, pumpkin brownie topped with chocolate ganache ($4.25).  Gluten free goodies tend to have a grainy texture – not this one.  It had a wonderful flavor that even my vegan guy (not a sweets person) couldn’t resist taking a few bites.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Brownie

Golden Mean is located at 1028 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401  310-393-6500