Review of Sage Organic Vegan Bistro in Echo Park, Ca
Leave a commentOctober 8, 2012 by Living Girl Living Foods
Sage is an all vegan restaurant in the area of Echo Park that has some raw vegan options as well as a KindKreme inside. The restaurant can be difficult to see at first, it is on the corner of Logan Street and looking at the door you can see the KindKreme raw vegan ice cream case.
There are a few items on the menu that are raw so I decided to check them out! I’d like to stress that these dishes are wonderful for those who are newish to raw vegan food. Since I have been eating this way for a while I found the food combining of both of the dishes I have tried here to be heavy on my stomach and it definitely took some extra time to digest everything.
I think it is important to respect that we are all on a different adventure in life. There are people out there who can handle a lot more fats, nuts, and oils than I can. It’s crucial to recognize that there is absolutely nothing the matter with this. Over time our bodies change, so all I can say is I am listening and paying attention to what mine likes, dislikes and any changes I see in the days after eating something. If you do not believe in this type of reflection, that’s perfectly fine with me.
Now back to the review 😀
The food at Sage tastes amazingly fresh and is made in house for sure! If you are like me and have a sensitive stomach I would try the Raw Bowl and only dip a few pieces of kale into the cashew dressing. The other dish I have tried is the Raw Tacos, these were insanely filling and had lots of great flavors going on, but my stomach instantly felt like a rock.
Here is an image of the Raw Tacos.
The “meat” here is a walnut cranberry mix that was probably pulsed together in a food processor. The texture and sweetness is lovely and adds a wonderful crunch, texture, and that meaty darkness to the dish that gives it a full body of color.
Now here comes the list of all of the ingredients, which you may see on your own how this becomes too much for some people’s guts.
There is; Harissa sauce (spicy), sun dried tomato cashew cheese (delicious but I think this is what really did me in cashews and I are not friends it’s like me and dairy terrible end product), guacamole (another fat, it wasn’t anything worth mentioning flavor wise), pineapple with chili rubbed jicama (I had mango slices on the side with chili on them plus the fries on top of the tacos are jicama with chili) and on their menu is says it comes with micro greens but mine was topped with sprouts (tasted like alfalfa), red onion, and pomegranate seeds.
I had two wedges of limes on the side; I squeezed one over the tacos and used the other one on my hands since it’s an ideal natural sanitizer! 🙂
This dish was $10.95, a great deal for the amount of food. I found it impossible to roll up the tacos in the romaine leaves. They were stuffed to the max, I ate some with a fork for a while until I ate enough to make it “wrap able.” One taco filled me up in no time, and for being a little peanut I can actually eat a lot 😛
I think this is a great dish for those who are curious about raw foods and are interested in trying it out. This is a fantastic twist on raw tacos, usually all raw restaurants have pizza, tacos, lasagna and zucchini noodles. However, I have never ever seen raw tacos done this way.
Out of the two dishes I have tried at Sage I prefer the Raw Bowl over the tacos. While I was eating the Raw Bowl I noticed the people on both sides of me ordering the same dish. I think it is safe to say that this is a crowd pleasure 😉
The Raw Bowl doesn’t look as pleasing but honestly it is delicious.
The Raw Bowl consists of marinated curly kale, sliced apples (Granny Smith when I was there and about 5 small slices that are not thin), pickled cabbage (I should have asked first but this is done with vinegar which always burns my tongue and sadly this stuff tasted good), avocado (sliced), raw dill cheese (yum) and cashew Alfredo sauce (this is the white sauce that I did not end up putting on top of my salad because I found it to be too heavy with the avocado and dill cheese). Not listed on the menu but were in my bowl were; cherry tomatoes, julienne carrots, cucumbers (I spreaded the dill cheese on these, yummy), and red onion (I kept these to the side they were way too thick to use for my liking).
This salad was $11.95 and totally worth it. I like the control I had over the flavor and dressings. I could take out the onions, eat the apples and cucumbers separately with the dill cheese like a mini appetizer and the Alfredo sauce was to the side so if I wanted occasionally I could dip a tomato or some kale into it. I can be rather difficult to please with sauces and am not that crazy about heavy foods because they make me feel heavy, sluggish and may be this sounds extreme but they affect my mood typically also. I usually find myself very irritable and slightly sad afterwards.
I am not sure if I did not receive the greatest service both times I was there because I went alone. But I noticed it doesn’t take long to get a server to place an order, it’s quick to get your food served to you and yet it takes a long time to get the check. No one asked me if my food was okay or if I needed another drink. It was not slammed in Sage either times but I still feel like I was slightly rushed out of there. Since the service wasn’t that great and I found some of the cutting of my food to be sloppy I give Sage 3 1/2 stars our of 5… I know it’s a weird rating haha. But there are three raw dishes on the menu, two of them are kale salads with very few difference, and the other dish is the raw tacos. There is a slight lack in creativity in the raw menu department 😉
The restaurant has a trendy, hip look to it with a chalk board with the soup of the day and any other specials. Over by their KindKreme area of the store there is also a chalk board with dessert specials and any deals being offered. Everything inside is very white, a trend I am noticing in a lot of new vegan restaurants in the Southern California area.
I walked to the restaurant, but it looks like there is only street parking available. It is a busy area with not too many parking spots and almost all of that area uses parking meters so bring your piggy jar of quarters ;)!
Sage is located at 1700 West Sunset Boulevard in L.A, California by Echo Park. Like I mentioned before it is on the corner of Logan Street, so keep your eyes peeled. The hours of operation are all over the place, please make sure you check their site before hopping over.
I hope this helps anyone out with planning their trip to Sage. Happy eating and thank you for dropping by! Much love and raw power 😉
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