My daughter and I found a restaurant about 10 minutes from where we live. It serves organic raw food. We were absolutely amazed with the food we ate. The flavors were marvelous. The restaurant we visited is called Cafe Gratitude. It’s on Larchmont just off Melrose in Los Angeles.
It was a wondrous experience. On their website, you can check the menu so you can see the names of the truly great items they serve. The waitress came to our table and she chatted with us before she took our orders. After taking our order, she said, “The question is, ‘what are you grateful for today’? Think about it while you are eating.” H-m-m-m, thought provoking to be challenged to think about what I was grateful for that day. My daughter and I discussed what we were grateful for not just that day, but every day.
I ordered a cup of “I am Thriving” soup, which was their hot soup for the day—a French lentil soup—and “I am Magical” which is a homemade veggie burger on an organic whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, avocado and spicy chipotle ketchup. I also ordered a cup of organic coffee named “I am Courageous.” A young man brought my coffee to the table and as he set it down he said, “You are courageous!” Another young man brought out my soup and he said, “You are thriving.” When the remainder of the food was served, the young man that brought it to the table said, “You are magical!” It was quite an experience, making me feel really grateful and thankful for all the abundance in my life. It was a very spiritual experience. If you want a heavenly experience, try Café Gratitude.
The following day my children and I went on a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park about a three hour drive east of Los Angeles. On our way out of LA, we stopped at a little restaurant to eat and it was another raw food restaurant. Again it was amazing how tasty everything was. It was Lifefood Organic , a small fast food type restaurant. It is located on Cahuenga between Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. We wanted a restaurant that we could get in and out quickly so that we could get on the road again.
When we left Joshua Tree National Park, we stopped at another organic restaurant in Palm Springs serving raw food items and it was out of this world too. It’s called the Palm Greens Cafe. It was late when we got into Palm Springs so my daughter found it on Google on her cell phone and my son called it from the car’s Bluetooth to find out if they were still open. It was 8: 50 pm and the employee who answered the phone said, “We close at 9:00 pm.” So my son said, “We’re on our way!” We arrived at Palm Greens Cafe at 8:59 pm. When my son reached the door, the waiter said, “Did you just call?” And, of course, my son said “Yes” and the waiter said “Come in we were waiting for you.” We weren’t turned away because it was closing, we were welcomed! This was awesome!
There were a few people finishing their meals and we were the only ones there after the other customers left. Again, the food was surprisingly wonderful. I started with soup–their “Chilled Avocado-Cucumber Soup“– and it was s-o-o-o-o-o-o-o delicious. I asked the waiter for the recipe and the cook told him the ingredients to give to me. When we arrived home, I typed up the recipe just so I wouldn’t lose it. I had their Vegan Black Bean Burger. It tasted so yummy. My son and daughter each had the Toasted Nori Seaweed Wrap. They raved about it. We were so glad that they let us come in as we enjoyed every bite. We found the waiters to be friendly and the atmosphere was laid back and comfortable. Check out their website too. There is a short video on how the restaurant was started. It’s a healthy restaurant option in Palm Springs and we highly recommend it.
We talked about how amazing the food was that we ate over the weekend so I’m looking for raw food recipes online that we can try and begin to incorporate into our meal planning. We already eat organic fruits and vegetables. Free range chicken and ground turkey and wild salmon are the only meats that we eat. We drink coconut milk, almond milk and hemp milk. We make smoothies with bananas and berries in the morning or as a snack in the evening.
We found that the raw food menu items in all of the organic restaurants were not any more expensive than any other restaurant. If you live in Los Angeles or Palm Springs or you are coming for a visit, I recommend these three restaurants for an adventure in holistic dining and a great alternative to other restaurants that don’t serve organic or raw food.
Do you live outside of Los Angeles? Does your community have an organic restaurant? Have you ever eaten any raw food recipes? If you haven’t, find an organic restaurant in your community and try some raw food items. You will be pleasantly surprised if you do. Eating raw food will energize your life! Here’s to better physical health through holistic eating!