Current Favorites: 4 Allergen- Friendly Restaurants in LA

I’d mark Los Angeles as being one of the largest Vegan-friendly cities. From brunch, smoothie spots, bistros, bars, and cafes, LA has a lot to offer for vegan restaurants, and restaurants that offer vegan options. 

When I started my Low FODMAP Diet and started becoming more attentive to my sensitivities and allergens (though blood testing and intuitive eating). I started to become more aware of allergen-friendly options in restaurants, packaged foods, and even grocery stores. I’m going to be honest, finding vegan restaurants with soy-free, Low FODMAP friendly, vegan options started to become a little more challenging than I originally anticipated( even in such a vegan-friendly city like LA.

After some research, I found quite a few options and I think with proper research, this can be done anywhere. I thought it might be helpful to do a small foodie travel guide to navigating allergens, plant-based foods, and complex diets in the city of Angels. Here are my current favorites and top picks. 

Erewhon.  

Erehwon is a cafe and grocer with organic and biodynamic options. It has a fully loaded cafe with vegan, raw vegan, keto, paleo, and gluten-free options. I love their smoothie bar and they offer a lot of pre-made and made “ on the spot” food that fits my SIBO, IBS, and vegan food protocol. Alternatively, it is one of my favorite grocery stores in the city. So many great options for grocery shopping and cafe orders alike. 

Follow Your Heart. 

Follow Your Heart is a pretty great stop. I love their founder story, and really appreciate that this restaurant is one of the oldest vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles. ( who doesn’t love OG vegan hippies?!) Located In Woodland Hills ( and their sister baker Rising Hearts- also very allergen friendly) is a great stop in Culver City. They do offer soy-free options, which I love, although many of their products have soy. They recently added their SOS( salt, oil, sugar) free menu and love that they honor new research and implement this into there products. The recently started to offer a soy-free veganise, which also I highly appreciate. Check this out for some old school vibes and some really great American style food. This restaurant is vegetarian but all there meat and dairy is vegan-friendly. Just keep an eye out for some menu items that aren’t vegan!

Sage Vegan Bistro.

  My favorite! They have a few locations in culver city, Pasenda, and Echo Park. The offer bistro-style American cuisine. They label their menus with soy. nut, and gluten-free and offer many allergen-friendly options.  They are open to changing entrees for the allergies (just be aware, if you change the entree, you can’t send it back!) They have some amazing plates that are allergen-friendly, and again, everything is labeled.

Honey Hi.

This is not a vegan restaurant but Honey Hi offers many vegan options and all their produce is locally sourced. The founder suffered from illnesses of the gut and candida and the options on this menu highly reflect this. Located on Sunset in Echo Park. It’s a fun femme atmosphere and the food is delicious.

Checked Out These Spots? What was your favorite?!