Hello friends! It’s been a long and introspective one month plus since you last heard from me, the time away was much needed. I’d like to thank you all once again for your kind words and thoughts during what was a whopper of an ordeal for me… and I’m so glad you’ve stuck around because I’ve got a ton of food tales and photos to get you caught up on. I have a feeling that some of my groupies out there are at the edge of their seats in anticipation of some drool-worthy vegan food porn, so how about we just dispense with the niceties and get to the heart of the matter? In this particular case, the heart of the matter equals breakfast.
One of the upsides of personal calamities is that they tend to make me forget all about being on a diet… which brings me back to breakfast. This is one of the fabulous vegan tofu scrambles at Real Food Daily. I can’t remember the exact name and try as I might I cannot find their breakfast menu online anywhere, but whatever it’s called just know that it’s divine. From what I recall it involved avocado, tomatoes and spinach topped with their yummy cashew cheese sauce which comes in regular or jalepeno. I, being a devotee of spice chose the later. This came served with hemp bread, vegan butter and choice of fruit or hash browns (I already mentioned throwing diets and giving a shit about carbs to the wind, right?).
Here we have yet another scrumdidliumptious breakfast at Real Food Daily, which you might have figured it out by now is one of my favorite places for a delicious and comforting morning meal (not that I would turn down a visit for lunch or dinner either). This time around it was the omelet with avocado, spinach, spicy cashew cheese along with tempeh bacon. Their tempeh bacon is to die for… a perfect texture and smoky flavor that to someone like me who hasn’t eaten bacon in many years, tastes awfully baconish (in a good way). The omelet itself is a thing of beauty… far surpassing anything that would come from an egg. It was crispy on the outside with a well-cooked eggy feel on the inside… both chewy and flaky at the same time. I absolutely loved it and ate up every last crumb of the stuff. I had the hemp toast again but this time opted for fruit instead of potatoes.
As far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with breakfast at Real Food Daily. FYI, I’m talking about the West Hollywood location, I have not been to the one in Santa Monica yet. Despite the not cheap prices (come on, it’s all organic, kosher & rad) and regardless of the occasionally hard-to-find parking and often über-hipster/celebrity patrons, the food at this place truly is good: real, healthy and unpretentious. The next time you’re feeling like crap and are up and mobile before 3pm (on a Sunday… just found out this is the only day they do brunch), head on over there and set yourself up with a plate full of anything on their breakfast/brunch menu and you’re sure to leave feeling a lot more positive about the day ahead of you.
On that note, here’s to moving forward and feeling good. See you all soon with more gastronomic indulgences!
I adore the RFD jalapeno cheeze nachos! SO good.
I’ll have to get to LA & try the brunch.
WELCOME BACK!!! I’ve missed your posts!! Looking forward to more reviews :0)
Yay! I’m so happy that you’re up to being back! (And I’m sorry that I absolutely flaked out over the weekend. We’re in the midst of a crib-related crisis. But I’ll see you soon! And there will be food!)
wooooohoooOOOOooOOOo! welcome back! that first breakfast looks incredible! i used to live right next door to the RFD in weho, and i feel bad i didn’t go there more often. i only went to dinner there twice, and i just found it a little pricey and the seats were too small. plus, i got some enchilada thing that was kind of meh. anyways, those breakfasts look SO good, i will definitely give RFD another try. seriously, that food looks ridiculously tasty. yum.
awwww….the comfort of a good ‘ol american-ish breakfast :)
I’m glad your cool.
let’s go eat!
I’ve never been to RFD for breakfast but I am totalllllly gonna make a special trip this weekend after seeing those pics. Fyi, I went to the Santa Monica location for the first time recently and just from that one time, it seems to be exactly the same menu (http://yosoyblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-had-wonderful-saturday-last-weekend-i.html)
Sooooo glad you’re back!!!!
WELCOME BACK! I’ve missed reading your musings. :) Here’s the link for the RFD brunch menu: http://www.realfood.com/Brunch0907.pdf. I’ve only eaten brunch there once, back when they had the short-lived Beverly Hills location. It sounds like I’m due for another trip. Here’s hoping that the second half of 2008 involves not one single tragedy and holds many wonderful things.
question: RFD only serves brunch on sundays right? that’s it what it seemed like on their site. or can you show up any morning/early afternoon and get some of that amazing lookin’ food?
Nice to see you back! Looking forward to going to Real Food Daily one day.
GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK!!! I love the Omletes at RFD, and FOR SURE< They are NOTHING w/o cashew cheese and tempeh bacon!!! Don’t forget those add ons peeps!
first things first, it is so nice to have you back!
now onto the food…
ive always found that brunch at RFD always left me feeling let down. maybe its just the omelet, but its always on the dry side and usually on the salty side. i prefer FYH for breakfast, even though the drive out there is a bitch. or if money is no object, madellienes is THEEEE best place for brunch!
and if i may answer a question, RFD serves brunch on only sundays and correct me if im wrong, but i think its only at the la cienega location.
I think RFD started doing brunch in SM, too. At least I vaguely remember seeing a brunch menu there a few days ago.
Hey all! Thanks for the rousing welcome back and your fine comments! I’ll have to return later to reply to them all as I’m rushing out the door at the moment, but I wanted to address the question regarding breakfast/brunch at Real Food Daily.
I just called and here’s the official scoop:
The breakfast/brunch is only at the West Hollywood location, and is only on Sundays, from 10am to 3pm. Brunch will be coming to the Santa Monica spot in the near future, or so the nice lady on the phone tells me.
YAAAAAY!!! it is so fabulous to see you up and running again. especially when you reappear with a freaking unbelievable creamy carbolicious breakfast picture that makes me wonder why i would ever eat a salad again!!
I’m so glad you’re feeling better and back! Your returning post is just pure awesomeness. I’ll actually be in L.A. on Thursday and for 5 or so days after and am trying to decide which places I absolutely must drag my omni family to. And call me a bad vegan, but I have never ever tried cashew cheese sauce before but it looks like it’s to die for! The hemp toast sounds really tasty too. Yay for indulgent breakfasts!
I hope brunch is coming to Santa Monica, as you heard, but when I recently asked, they told me there were no current plans to expand it to SM. They were still settling in with opening the bakery annex, which I very much enjoy and they have even more desserts than before. And the full menu is available, too.
I love RFD. Everytime I go to LA I have to get the seitan steak with the golden gravy. its fuck’n great.
Great to have you back! And boy are you back, with incredibly delicious looking photos! I make do with the RFD cookbook, and it’s one of my favorites.
Well it looks like the big questions got answered along the way, so I’ll just say thank you all once again for your hearty welcome back.
You all are the greatest… so nice to know there’s a bunch of random people out there who appreciate fantastic food as much as I do :) Speaking of which, I’m still behind on all of my postings here so I will forgo the individual replies in hopes that you all know how freakin’ rad you are. Let’s eat indeed!
Speaking of which, teenage glutster… I haven’t forgotten you. We shall plan and consume soon!
The latest RFD email newsletter says that brunch is coming to Santa Monica! No date given, though.
Correction – It is “Sunday” brunch.
I’ve had the Weekender a few times, but always thought the tofu scramble that comes with is was too boring to enjoy. Just a gang of sauteed onions and a few tomatoes. Blech. It looked nothing like what you’ve pictured in the first photo…that scramble looks AMAZING. Plus, I’ve never seen that much cheese come on any dish there. Nice!
Eric: I was indeed amazing. Seems to be that RFD has a quality control issue… sometimes you’ll get a dish and it’s so great, another time you order the same thing and it looks totally different and doesn’t taste good at all. I guess I got lucky. I imagine that if this tofu scramble didn’t come with all the fixin’s it would indeed taste pretty bland. If I remember correctly adding the spinach and avocado to the dish was extra (and worth it), though the river of yummy cheese was included in the price.