• 5
• Serenely good vegan eats at ShangriLa

ShangriLa Vegan's newest location offers 100% vegan, organic, macrobiotic eats in a serenely comfortable setting in west Oakland's Temescal district. Menu changes daily and is available on their website. Our recent lunchtime dining experience was quite good, and will garner repeat business. Our full plates began with a well seasoned French lentil vegetable soup, followed by a mixed salad with basil lemon agave dressing, short grain brown rice, pinto beans with onion and garlic, collard greens with shiitake squash sauce, and sautéed cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and zucchini. I substituted the black-eyed peas listed on the day's simple plate for the pinto beans, since black-eyed peas are one of my favorite legumes. Since the simple plate is unseasoned, I used some of the available condiments to spice them up; garlic, black pepper & cayenne plus my own nutritional yeast blend that I carry in my purse (cause eating vegan means being prepared). The collards could have used a bit more de-stemming, and been steamed a tad longer. The shiitake squash sauce was a delectable grace note on the greens. Full disclosure, as a native Southerner, I'm a collard green connaisure, so... Overall, truly delicious especially the soup. We wanted to try the key lime and mango raw pies, yet they were out that day, so we opted for the strawberry and yes, it too was delicious. Knowledgeable friendly service, with ambiance enhanced by meditative music.