Awhile back, I had a Groupon to 118 Degrees.  It was a great deal.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, 118 Degrees is one of those reasons why I was turned off to raw cuisine.  118 Degrees was my second raw restaurant experience (after Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco – also not a very good experience).  It just didn’t grab me.  After two not so great experiences, I was not very interested in trying more raw cuisine.  Luckily, I found some raw food in LA that I liked and the best raw restaurant in Oklahoma City.  Be your own judge of the cuisine, but this is what I got.

For an appetizer, we ordered the Fried Avocado Mini Tostadas ($7): crispy buckwheat shells, spicy pepita cheese, chopped spinach, cilantro, corn, and fried avocado.  This appetizer is something I have had before and liked it.  However, on this trip, that crunchy coating on the avocados was lacking and brought the whole dish down.  On a good day, these actually are pretty good.  I can never really say anything bad about raw cheeses – I always like them, but I’m not a huge fan of dehydrated things resembling the bread (in this case: the tortilla).

My vegan guy got the Sweet Corn Tamales ($14): sweet corn masa with marinated portobello mushrooms – served warm with rojo salsa, guacamole, and napa slaw.  According to the restaurant, this one sells out fast and I can see why.  I enjoyed this much better than the raw stuff.  Besides being comforting and warm, it also had lots of flavor.

I had the Fusion Pasta ($16): sweet miso, squash noodles in a chipotle shiitake creme with shiitake mushrooms, avocado, and dulse flakes.  When I think “squash,” I mainly think of butternut squash.  I’m a fan of butternut squash, so I thought I would like this dish.  When it came to me, I saw it was mainly zucchini noodles.  I hate zucchini.  I had about two bites of this before packing it up and bringing it to someone else.

And for dessert we got the Apple Cobbler ($9).  I love baked apple cobbler, but am not so much a fan of dehydrated apple cobbler.  The creme topping was nice.

And the Raspberry Cheesecake ($9).  I love Earth Cafe’s raw cheesecake, but sadly, I did not like 118 Degrees’ cheesecake.  I think I liked the filling better than the crust, but all-in-all, I would never order this again.

If you are into raw cuisine (and even if you’re not), you may like 118 Degrees.  I encourage you to try it out yourself.
2981 Bristol Suite B5
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-754-0718

Monday – Saturday 9am – 10pm
Sundays 10am – 9pm
Brunch on Sunday 10am – 3pm