Before the holidays my mom asked me to take her downtown for some bargain shopping on Santee Alley. I did my homework ahead of time and researched our food options, and decided we’d try out Tierra Cafe, a “vegetarian cuisine, organic coffee and tea house”.
They’ve got a small space in a shared food court, but this thankfully wasn’t your usually cafeteria style fast food. They’ve got a full menu including breakfast (vegan french toast!), soups (vegan tortilla soup!), salads, Mexican entrees (vegan nachos!), sandwiches & wraps (portabella panini!), plenty of beverage specialties including their own freshly made herbal elixirs.
It was early for me so I opted for breakfast with their tofu scramble, which involves tofu, onion (no thanks), tomato and mushrooms, served with La Brea Bakery bread. It was pretty simple, yet tasty, warm and filling.
My mom, being an earlier riser than I, was already in lunch mode, so she ordered “The Salad” (they have other salads but that’s what this one is called). Mixed greens, shredded carrot, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, mushroom, red cabbage, tomato, tofu egg salad and hummus with lemon-tahini dressing, dill sauce, and that same yummy bread. I usually don’t photograph or post pictures of what other people are eating, but this salad was so pretty and tasty (you know I tried it) that I figured it was worth sharing.
Good stuff to be found here, if I worked or lived downtown I’d probably become a Tierra Cafe regular thanks to their quick, healthy and very vegan friendly food.
- Vegetarian Greek food in the Valley
- Anthony Bourdain LOVES vegetarian food!
- Delicious vegan breakfast at Real Food Daily
- Homegirl Cafe: Sandwiches not Jail!
- Raw food done right… SunPower Natural Cafe
Onions = no, thank you. I agree!
Thanks! I had forgotten about Tierra Cafe. Actually, I didn’t think it was there anymore. I’ll have to pay a visit. It’s always nice to have good vege options downtown.
Trina: I think it was sold not that long ago to the people who run it now, a nice Korean family. Some reviews on Yelp were saying it was a lot better before, but this was my first trip and we both really liked it.
Melisser: Good to know you’re on the right team ;)
That was my actually the earlier title of my post ["Good Riddance 2007"]!!!
anyways, hope you the same.
Oh, and did they have the Vegan Dark Chocolate Fountain working when you came here?
teenage glutster: What? A vegan chocolate fountain? No way! We definitely missed that…
I eat there virtually every day and had The Salad for lunch for about 6 months straight. As far as the Korean family who owns it, the don’t use quite the same quality ingredients, but overall it’s pretty similar. And I still swear by the Bean Burrito as being the best value in all of downtown.
Kevin: I’ll be sure to try the bean burrito next time I go!