March 18, 2008

Vegan-friendly Mexican food in Highland Park

Filed under: Cinnamon — FoodEater @ 8:29 pm

I had been hearing about the great vegetarian Mexican food being served at Cinnamon in Highland Park for a while now, so I figured it was high time to gather up some of my homegirls and go check it out for ourselves. I’d read some mixed reviews and none of us had been there before, so we really didn’t know what to expect. I’m so glad we took this adventure upon ourselves because the food was fantastic.

Vegetarian Mexican food at Cinnamon

For starters I had the “Jumping Shrimp Cocktail”, the shrimp of course was made of soy. Loved it. I’ve got a thing for the texture that this type of firm and chewy soy shrimp has, and there were both whole pieces and smaller chunks mixed in with the yummy cocktail sauce. It doesn’t taste fishy, or even really much like shrimp, but that’s probably a good thing. The sauce was both sweet & spicy, accented with lime & cilantro. You could tell it had just been made fresh.

You’ll notice in the background there that I also got a soymilk horchata, a traditional milk and cinnamon drink that one doesn’t often (ever?) find vegan. It was heavenly, and it took all I had to resist ordering another after finishing the first.

Vegetarian Mexican food at Cinnamon

For my main dish I had to try the vegetarian “Chicken Mole” as it’s one of their specialties. This came in the form of delicious little fake drumsticks that had been cooked in their incredible mole sauce. I must admit this was my first time ever tasting mole so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought this was outstanding. The flavor was slightly smoky but also rather sweet and heavy on the cinnamon. My friends tried it and mentioned that the cinnamon and sweetness was a bit overpowering, but I really liked it just as it was. The dish came served with rice and beans, both of which were very good, and pleasantly lard free.

The food was delicious all around. Even the salsa that came with the corn chips to start us off was lovely. The place was clean, the food came fast and the service was friendly. The one issue we did have was that our waiter (who I think is one of the owners) didn’t understand the difference between vegetarian and vegan. The menu and website state that they are “vegan-friendly”, however the menu doesn’t specify whether the meat and cheese substitutes are vegan or only vegetarian, and no one working there seemed to know, or understand the question. It was frustrating for us to try to explain what the difference was to him between vegan and vegetarian, he was unfamiliar with the words casein and whey. I feel that if you’ve got the word “vegan” printed on your menu, everyone who works there should know what it means, and should know about the basic ingredients in the food being served. Imagine going to a kosher restaurant but neither the wait staff or the cook knows for sure if the food had been prepared kosher or not. That said, waiter/owner man was very sweet and attempted to be accommodating, but the whole vegan vs. vegetarian thing is a matter that they’re going to have to iron out if they want the strict vegans to embrace them en masse.

That said, if you’re a vegetarian who’s willing to turn a blind eye to a little bit of mystery surrounding the nature of your soylent green once in a while, allow me to recommend a visit to Highland Park for some fine, traditional Mexican food at Cinnamon. For that matter, bring your meat eating friends with you as the food here is so good that anyone should be able to find something they’ll enjoy regardless of their dietary inclinations. Other menu items include vegetarian steak fajitas, soy chorizo with potatoes, flautas, tamales, carnitas… and I count 8 salads on the menu (including exotic delicacies like cactus and hearts of palm), breakfast and fresh squeezed juices… something for everyone. Go hungry, leave full and happy!

Related Posts:
  1. In praise of vegan mock-shrimp

28 Comments »

  1. “I feel that if you’ve got the word “vegan” printed on your menu, everyone who works there should know what it means, and should know about the basic ingredients in the food being served.” - Right on with that! I always end up asking servers questions that they should be able to answer, but they are clueless about. It makes it difficult for me to ever eat out, and cmon, if it’s a vegan restaurant - the waiters should know that shit. Hello!

    Comment by holly woodenflames — March 18, 2008 @ 11:27 pm

  2. I agree with you about the issue of servers understanding vegan/vegetarian, but I think there is an even larger underlying issue… many of the staff don’t speak much if any English at all. Last time we were there, a woman tried to educate us as to how to say ice in Spanish.
    On our first visit we had a female owner serving us. We explained that we were new to her restaurant, and were vegan. She advised us that the cheese they serve is NOT vegan. They used to use a vegan cheese but the costs became prohibitive.
    The jumping shrimp cocktail is excellent and worth going back for. But Lane wasn’t all that thrilled with the mole — too cinnamon-y, and I didn’t care for my cactus special either. So far we’ve had one hit and one miss. We’ll definitely give it another go, and hope it passes for us as the menu is so extensive and it’s exciting to have so many choices.

    Comment by Jane — March 18, 2008 @ 11:30 pm

  3. i always avoid shrimp & drumsticks at places… esp all the thai ‘vegan’ places.

    Comment by scott — March 19, 2008 @ 10:26 am

  4. holly woodenflames: Agrreed. In a perfect world it would be the same for any type of food, not just vegetarian and vegan places, but all restaurants. The people serving it and making it should know what’s in it… and better yet, where it came from.

    Comment by FoodEater — March 19, 2008 @ 10:17 pm

  5. Jane: It’s too bad when they skimp on stuff just because it’s cheaper. The reality is that they would be able to attract more customers probably willing to pay a little bit more too in order to get food that is truly vegan.

    Comment by FoodEater — March 19, 2008 @ 10:24 pm

  6. Scott: The shrimp at Vegan Plate in Studio City is fully vegan, as is their chicken (but they don’t have it in drumstick form there). At Vinh Loi Tofu in Reseda both the shrimp and drumsticks are also 100% vegan, and more than that, they are absolutely phenomenal.

    Comment by FoodEater — March 19, 2008 @ 10:28 pm

  7. I love your blog :-)

    Comment by Jordana — March 20, 2008 @ 8:00 am

  8. That’s too bad about the vegan vs. vegetarian thing. Though the food in the pictures looks fantastic! Yum!

    Comment by Wheeler — March 20, 2008 @ 12:55 pm

  9. Wheeler: Yeah, hopefully they will figure out it’s in their best interest to get that all sorted out. I think they’ve only been open a little more than a year so I’ll blame it on a learning curve. The best would be for people to always inquire about this when they go there… maybe with time they’ll get on the ball.

    BTW Wheeler, we contacted you guys a while back to organize an L.A. ice cream taste test but never heard back. Oh…. how much Los Angeles wants to love your ice cream!!!

    Comment by FoodEater — March 20, 2008 @ 1:12 pm

  10. I used to go there sometimes when I went to school in that ‘hood. I highly recommend the sopes! My usual meal when I ate there back in the day was sopes and fries. Their fries are just 7 or 8 big long super crispy potato wedges, delicious.

    Comment by Nicholas — March 20, 2008 @ 5:46 pm

  11. Nicholas: Yes! My friend had the sopes and we all loved ‘em!

    Comment by FoodEater — March 20, 2008 @ 6:39 pm

  12. that meal looks SO good! I’ve never tried soy shrimp, but that cocktail, with the crackers and everything makes me really wish I had a veg-friendly mexican restaurant around here!

    Comment by Liz² — March 22, 2008 @ 7:25 am

  13. Liz²: I truly feel that the inventor of soy shrimp deserves the Nobel peace prize. I wish you had a veg-friendly Mexican place near you too! Everyone should have access to such luxuries, especially since Mexican food lends itself so well to vegetarian food already.

    Comment by FoodEater — March 22, 2008 @ 12:11 pm

  14. ooo, horchata! i wanna have some - maybe i should make some myself… like, right now!

    Comment by stonielove — March 22, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

  15. I cannot wait to try this place, as my husband was born in Mexico and loves the traditional shrimp cocktails! Thank you for your amazing and thorough blogs and great pictures!

    Comment by WCG — March 26, 2008 @ 5:03 pm

  16. WCG: Thanks for the kind words! I’m sure you and your husband both will love this restaurant, the food was amazing and the fake shrimp was a real treat. Enjoy!

    Comment by FoodEater — March 27, 2008 @ 10:31 am

  17. I would NEVER put soy sauce in shrimp cocktail. Indeed, “soy sauce” is a concoction better left in china.

    Of course, I am a graduate of Peter Kump’s Culinary School in Brooklyn, NY, so I am better educated than most people.

    Louise,
    Clearwater, Florida

    Comment by chiffOnade — March 28, 2008 @ 7:07 am

  18. chiffOnade aka Louise: Somehow with all that education you missed the part about this being mock-shrimp made from soy, as in soy beans aka soya, not soy sauce. Soy sauce was not mentioned anywhere in this article. But what do I know, I’m just an uneducated moron like most people.

    Comment by FoodEater — March 28, 2008 @ 10:50 am

  19. Hello! My my what a Beautiful blog!!!
    I was just thinking.. perhaps it is where you live but horchata is traditionally made with rice and almond milk! I’ve never seen it made with animal milks! (but I have seen it with wine added! mmm!)

    Comment by Mo — March 29, 2008 @ 2:09 pm

  20. Mo: Thanks for stopping by! You’re right, horchata is made using different ingredients in different countries. The most common variety we get here in Los Angeles is the Mexican version, which I believe is rice based, but most of the time often also includes real milk. The almond version you describe sounds delicious too… as does the wine!

    Comment by FoodEater — March 29, 2008 @ 2:37 pm

  21. Just ate at Cinnamon for the first time today, and it was - seriously - like being the guinea pig customer on the first day of restaurant school. It took them half an hour to take our order. Plus, the busser came and wiped our table unnecessarily fifteen minutes in, dropping detritus from her pre-schmutzed wiping towel into our laps in the process. And nobody spoke English, which is an issue when you’re asking serious questions about the previously discussed inspecific menu.

    Plus - no joke - the server forgot our drinks and lied about it! We ordered juices and received our food without the juice. I asked the server if the juices had been made, and she said yes. Five minutes later we heard the juicer going in the back, and they arrived a couple of minutes later.

    The food was serviceable, but it was hard to enjoy when the service was so unbelievably crappy. I’m NOT hard to please, and I *live* to support a great vegan place…but this involved a little too much staring-across-the-table-apologetically-for-suggesting-the-joint for my tastes. Yikes.

    Comment by Annette O'Neil — March 29, 2008 @ 11:29 pm

  22. Annette O’Neil: What a drag! Sounds like you had a really awful time… that sucks! Apparently this place is really hit or miss, and it seems that the main problems stem from poor/inexperienced customer service and language issues. It’s really too bad because as mentioned in my article above, we thought the food was really great. Of course no amount of good food is worth sitting through terrible service for. I’m so sorry you had such a bad experience there.

    I’d like to see Cinnamon Restaurant get their act together and succeed… hopefully someone from there will eventually stumble upon this page and take in the positive along with the negative feedback as they read it… and make some improvements along those lines. in the meantime, better luck to you at your next meal!

    Comment by FoodEater — March 30, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

  23. FoodEater: Shyaw! I was, like, totally devastated. LOL Honestly, since I moved to downtown there have been several vegan introductions to my immediate neighborhood, and I was jumping all over myself looking forward to vegan carnitas. And ceviche. And toothsome tacos. And lots of assorted cheesy-melty-plus-ricey-beany goodness. Make no mistake, I’m going to try it again…perhaps on my own, at the bar, where I can supervise and have a steadier supply of the salsa, which I could happily take shots of for hours as I swab spice-tears from my eyes.

    Tee-riffic blog, BTW.

    Comment by Annette O'Neil — March 30, 2008 @ 10:26 pm

  24. Annette O’Neil: Yes, I think it’s worth the persistence. I thought the food rocked… they just need to work out some of the kinks. Because come on… mole? It all needs to work itself out.

    As for vegan carnitas, toothsome tacos and the like, have you been to Pure Luck yet? If not, you best be getting a move on! And thank you, your blog is groovy too.

    Comment by FoodEater — March 31, 2008 @ 11:06 pm

  25. So I tried Cinnamon with my boyfriend Saturday for brunch and overall was pretty happy! I played it safe and ordered the California Tofu which was GREAT! It had some kind of pesto sauce that really balanced everything perfectly. My boy ordered three enchiladas and was very happy with his too. We shared a Greek salad which somehow came after our entrees - so not much of it was eaten. I had an Almond Bliss shake that was my favorite thing by far. I could easily make it, but probably never will because I have a feeling that Almond Butter, bananas, soy protein, and soy milk aren’t anything I need combined together on a daily basis. But sooo goood. We did have to ask for the check several times before it ever came, but I was pretty happy with everything. I’d go back just to check out some more adventurous options on the menu - it’s rare that I get to eat much Mexican food! I wouldn’t have known about this place without your blog, by the by. Thanks!

    Comment by Allison — April 7, 2008 @ 9:42 am

  26. Allison: Thanks so much for the report! I’m so glad you got a chance to try Cinnamon and that you guys enjoyed it. That California tofu sounds great, as do the enchilades… apparently he liked them if he ate all three, right?! Oh and that Almond Bliss shake sounds divine too!

    Comment by FoodEater — April 7, 2008 @ 12:06 pm

  27. I had cinnamon today!!

    Service was great!!! Quick and super friendly. I had three carnitas tacos, lentil soup, and said what the heck send over the chicken mole too! It was all so damn good! Delicious! First time I have mole w cinnamon in it, that was pretty original I dug it!

    I hope this place stays open I wanna have my birthday there!

    Almost forget, my ruca (girl) had the breaded steak, I tried hers and……… Thee bomb!

    Comment by Art — April 21, 2008 @ 12:32 am

  28. Art: Thanks so much for the report back! I’m so pleased that you guys enjoyed your visit to Cinnamon as much as I did (and that you liked the cinnimony mole too). That breaded steak sounds awesome… I sure do miss real schnitzel! I might just have to try that on my next visit.

    Comment by FoodEater — April 22, 2008 @ 12:02 pm

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