On the corner of Hipsterville and Echo Park is a gem of a restaurant! It’s there on Sunset Blvd. that you’ll find Sage Organic Bistro. I’ve been wanting – but too busy – to check out this place since it first opened back in March 2012, so when I saw a deal on Blackboard Eats for it, I jumped! I grabbed my friend and fellow major foodie Lynn and we made the trek all the way to the far east side.
There are many things I loved about this restaurant but appearance is definitely a standout. This is not your typical “hippy” vegan hole-in-the-wall, but instead a simple, clean-lined, modern, cafe. Crisp white walls and sleek tables welcome you to a decent size dining room. The specials are posted in chalk on the wall. The servers were nice, and prompt. And the place was laden with super cool looking people, many taking pictures of their food. And yes, there was even a celebrity spotting – not uncommon here in LA – but you won’t find a lot of pretensions here, just really good food!
The menu was very appetizing! After taking about 15 minutes to decide Lynn ordered the Soul Bowl and I the Chipotle Bowl.
When the bowls arrived, we were both shocked by the size! Huge portions are not something you usually get at a vegan restaurant, but we were both super hungry and welcomed the size! Here’s Lynn’s Soul Bowl (yes, that ball is a deep fried ball of vegan mac n’ cheese!):
And here is my Chipotle Bowl:
And the winner was: The Chipotle Bowl! The Soul Bowl had the mac n’ cheese ball, which was very yummy (and spicy), and dehydrated okra, which I had never had before and am now wondering why you would ever eat it any other way… was delish! But the deep fried jalapeno and nacho cheese sauce were stars in the Chipotle Bowl. Both of us only got through about half a bowl. But I enjoyed mine (again) for dinner.
Sage’s owners also own Kind Kreme (the vegan ice cream joint on Cahuenga, which I love!) so we knew there would be dessert involved in this lunch. We’ve both been to Kind Kreme many times so we passed on the ice cream and went for the heavenly-looking cake that was tempting us from the display case all through our meal. The divine dessert staring back was a raw-vegan espresso chocolate cheesecake. We’ll take it!
We are such goobers! I think we spent two minutes taking pictures of it before we ate it lol!
Holy cow it was delicious! Bursting with rich flavor this dessert was indeed, heaven!
I almost hate when I go to a restaurant and love what I ordered the first time because I’m then hesitant to try something new the next time I’m there… but this place has a very tempting menu…so I think I’ll tackle the burger section on my next visit!
The best news is that Sage is opening another location on the westside, but ’til then, my advice is to head east!
Happy Eating!
This one is topped with pesto, marinated mushrooms, tomato, olives, marinated onions and cashew cheese. You get a choice of sides with a lot of the entrees, but I recommend the kale salad.
For dessert, we tried the baklava trio.
