Eric and I were visiting his mom this weekend and decided to go out and pick up food. They are always very gracious and willing to stop at more than one place so I can get something vegan and satisfying. The great thing about their neighborhood is that there are so many vegan and vegan-friendly cafes in the Echo Park/Silverlake area. I think I’m going to try a different place each time we are in this situation.
FoodLab is a vegan-friendly restaurant, so it’s a great place to take non-vegans as well. It’s very cute, but small, like pretty much every Silverlake cafe.
I ordered the Vegan Sandwich, which is described as hummus, roasted veggies, and dried tomato with basil pesto on 5 grain bread. From what I could tell, the veggies included eggplant, mushrooms, squash, bell peppers, and zucchini. I am not a big fan of squash and I just don’t like zucchini, but the sandwich was still delicious. I loved that it was grilled on a panini press and the 5 grain bread was perfect. I only ate half, and Eric had the other half later that night and he liked it as well.
This photo was taken at Eric’s mom’s house. Their presentation is a lot prettier in FoodLab, but we got it to go.
The reason I could only eat half of the sandwich is because I also got 8 oz. of their cous cous salad which was basically cous cous and veggies. It was so fresh and delicious – the salad was my favorite part of a good meal.
There’s only one other vegan sandwich at FoodLab, the Garden Sandwich, which is described as hummus, avocado, watercress, tomato, cucumber, and carrot on 5 grain. There are also two vegan salads (see this menu, the vegan items are noted with a U). So it’s not a place with a huge amount of vegan options, but it’s tasty and a good place to take non-vegans. I also liked that their website states “we are proud to announce that our eat-ware, ranging from plates, cutlery, cups, and packaging are 80% environmentally friendly and biodegradable. It is extremely important to us to be a leader in keeping this planet clean and beautiful, and therefore have made every effort in finding items that are not only attractive but also harmless.”
A Vegan in Progress 