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.

I liked this lemony tempeh burger so much in fact that I went back to The Flowering Tree again, specifically for it. Second time around it was just as good, only I got it without the cheese and with their impressive side salad. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to trying something else from their menu, but even if this was the only thing they offered, I’d still be stoked. They also have a tofu burger, a homemade legume based burger, a bunch of different tofu and soyrizo dishes, as well as breakfast. The menu also mentions freshly baked vegan desserts, none of which I have yet to experience.

One other thing I did try was a side of their Quinoa Cakes, tasty patties of quinoa pan fried to a crisp. They’re nicely seasoned, soft on the inside and just slightly chewy on the outside. Loved them.

The green drink up at the top of this post was, if I’m remembering it correctly (the drinks are missing from their online menu), a lemonade and green tea slushie, and it was great. The green tea flavor was strong but not at all bitter. I really liked this and will try to recreate it at home as soon as I can find some nice green tea powder that’s not as ridiculously over-priced as it is at Whole Foods.

The space itself is more like a small, quite cafe than a full blown restaurant, but they class the joint up with white table cloths and friendly service by the cute guy who runs the front of house. I prefer to sit outside on the sidewalk at one of their two little tables around the corner, it’s a comfortable spot for some quality people watching… there’s never a dull moment in WeHo.

www.thefloweringtree.org
(warning: embarrassingly bad website, they are in dire need of an upgrade)