Sage Plant Based Bistro - Echo Park

I've done a previous review on this restaurant over five years ago. Not much has changed, except the name dropped the words "Organic Vegan" for "Plant Based." Andrew introduced this to us initially and it is probably the first vegan restaurant I ever visited. With Andrew no longer living in LA, and our desire to try other restaurants, I hadn't been back. However, Sam just came for a short visit and I picked him up at LAX. I'm trying to eat better, as is Sam, so we took a detour to eat here. 

It looks pretty much the same, which I was happy about. It is rated no. 298 out of 8,686 restaurants in LA, based on 89 reviews, which puts it in the top 3.5% of all restaurants in LA, not bad. We ordered some things for us, then took some stuff home for us and Judy.

I got the BLTA, tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado on a croissant with garlic aoili and dijon mustard. The tempeh bacon was a little weird, it almost looked like seeds packed together in gelatin, but it tasted fine and I loved the croissant and aioli with it. It also came with roasted potatoes which were good, but a bit bland, but nothing that a little habanero hot sauce wouldn't cure.

We shared a Goatless Greek salad which had massaged kale, quinoa, carrots, cucumbers, spicy cabbage, tomatoes, onion, avocado, apple, kalamata olives, jalapeno agave sauce, raw dill cheese and cashew alfredo. It was a good salad, but looking back at the description I'm surprised by the number of ingredients - it didn't seem like it had that many. It was good, but not one to look forward to again. 

Sam got Flautas, which had sweet potato and butternut squash flautas topped with guacomole, pico de gallo and crema, with organic brown rice and black beans. I think it was okay, he was not overly thrilled with it. I did not get a picture of it. 

For Judy we ordered a Buffalo Cauliflower pizza to take him. The buffalo hot "wings" were large pieces of cauliflower, with pesto, mozzarella cheese ("Follow Your Heart" [trade marked] - I'm assuming fake cheese), arugula and ranch sauce on a pizza crust. It was very good, something I would get again. 

We took a donut to go which we ate in the car: nice sweet frosting and a very cakey body. I liked the frosting, the body was a little heavy for me. 

The P and B Chocolate Cake, which I did not photo, had nice moist cake and I enjoyed the peanut buttery frosting. It sat out for awhile, so the frosting was very runny. 

Overall, I wish we had an eatery near us with the variety of plant- based options that Sage has. They have made vegan cooking an art.