I’m not a raw foodie but I do enjoy well prepared raw dishes when I’m in the right mood. I was in one of those moods when I remembered hearing about a raw, vegan place in West Hollywood and I was pretty sure I’d driven past it on Santa Monica Blvd. before, so I set out to find it. I remembered that it had something Goddess-y in it’s name.
I drove to where I remembered seeing it but instead of the raw place I was looking for, I had arrived at The Flowering Tree instead. Turns out the other place I’d been trying to find was called Taste of the Goddess, had been located farther up the street, and has been closed for quite some time.
Well here I was at a restaurant that looked decent and I was really hungry, so I checked out their menu. The Flowering Tree is not a raw restaurant or even a vegetarian restaurant but they have many vegetarian options, most of which already are or can be made vegan. Sounds good to me… let’s do this thing!
I went with the flame-grilled Lemon Herb Tempeh Burger which came with lettuce, tomato, dijon mustard and Veganaise. I also had them add the soy cheese for a bit extra. I think you can see why I called finding this place a tasty mistake because this was one damn fine vegan burger. It’s not really a burger patty, rather it’s a heaping pile of marinated tempeh chunks…and it was delicious. I don’t know if they make the tempeh there or if it’s a pre-packaged variety because the flavor was somewhat familiar to me, but either way, it’s good stuff. The burger was gigantic and the whole wheat bun was nicely toasted. It came with a choice of sides from which I picked the fruit, also a fresh and generous portion.
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