Savory vegan galette at Elf Cafe in Los Angeles
Kabobs w/Spicy Carrot Purée at Elf Cafe in Los Angeles
Rosemary white bean purée w/chili oil at Elf Cafe in Los Angeles

  • CLOSED: Elf Cafe
    (17)
    25

    Closed

  • White Vegetarian
Vegan-friendly
Lacto
American
Organic
Mediterranean
Delivery
Gourmet

Small and cozy vegetarian restaurant with a neighborhood feel. Vegan dishes are marked on the menu. BYOB. Limited seating, dine inside or out on the sidewalk. Parking on street. Confirmed closed, Dec 2020.

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17 Reviews

First Review by xtfrclqn

Avatar Cosmicvinyl

Cosmicvinyl

Points +39

Vegan
31 Oct 2020

Vegan

Best food best staff best restaurant in the world!

Avatar BrightonMD

BrightonMD

Points +1477

Vegan
01 Mar 2020

High-end Vegetarian Cuisine

This is a place to celebrate an event. The food is exceptional. While the menu is small, a good number of the plates are vegan or can be made vegan.

As an appetizer, the sauted Fries Oyster Mushroom and Market Vegetable Fritto Misto was exceptional with a firm meat-like texture. The Cilantro Hummus and Fava Bessar was a different take on Hummus and tasted delicious. My main meal was a mushroom-based homemade mushroom burger with a subtle mushroom flavor, something I have never tasted before.

This is an eclectic restaurant and pricey, but worth it for a birthday or another celebration.

Pros: Nice eclectic vibe, Great homemade food, Excellent service

Cons: Make reservations in advance, My kombucha was half a glass, like wine

Avatar JulienneSlice

JulienneSlice

Points +2094

Vegan
07 Jan 2020

Delicious & Creative

Elf Cafe is a local classic establishment that has been offering delicious and chef inspired veg dishes for numerous years and long before the latest wave of veg focused restaurants. The ambiance is warm and slightly energetic with a cozy intimate vibe and a menu full of thoughtful, creative and delicious food.
A few things to consider is their menu is vegetarian dominate with vegan options available and some other dishes may be converted completely vegan. Make sure to make a reservation ahead of time as seating is limited due to the restaurant being small.

Pros: Vegan options , Gourmet quality

Cons: On the expensive side

Avatar veganboy84

veganboy84

Points +93

Vegan
08 Oct 2019

Pricey but good

It's a really nice, small restaurant and the staff are very friendly and polite. The food is really tasty and high quality.
There was a mix-up with our order which meant that my girlfriend got her main meal before we'd finished our appetizer and around 30 minutes before my meal arrived. Other than, very good 👍

Pros: High quality food, Nice staff

Cons: Pricey

Avatar small_trees

small_trees

Points +472

Vegan
20 Jan 2019

One of the best meals I've ever eaten

I stopped by here on an invitation so I didn't know what to expect, but I have to say, I had just the best food here, perhaps one of the best meals I've eaten in years. The food is so delicately flavoured - there's a lot going on, but it's all perfectly balanced. We had a load of shared plates and everything was amazing, I think the most impressive thing was that at one point we had what was basically houmous and pitta, which I eat multiple times a week, and it blew me away. Always go here and always order the crunchy shitake mushrooms - that's a must.

Avatar barnyardbob

barnyardbob

Points +432

Vegan
04 Apr 2018

Best meal of my vacation

Relaxed environment, excellent food. I ordered skewered king oyster mushrooms with wild rice over a carrot puree and tons of fresh herbs. Delicious from top to bottom. My non-vegan wife ordered some labneh and a savory galette. Our server was a little aloof but not unfriendly.

Pros: Great food

Cons: Would have liked more vegan options

Avatar NSmoke

NSmoke

Points +130

Vegan
16 Jul 2017

The Most Filling, Delicious Mediterranean Food

I love this place so much. The plant based menu is incredible. The chef's always combine a complex and savory bunch of flavors, everyone is courteous and the restaurant itself is a beautiful place to go out to eat.

Pros: food, environment, service

King Oyster Mushroom Kabobs with Rice Pilaf and Carrot Purée at Elf Cafe in Los Angeles

Tahini and Fava Bean Bread Plate at Elf Cafe in Los Angeles

Avatar ArtVB

ArtVB

Points +336

Vegan
31 Jul 2016

Best tagine in LA

Outstanding vegan friendly restaurant. What I like the most of this small charming restaurant is that it's plant-based in its pure sense. No attempt to substitute meat-based dishes with tofu or fake meats. Its masterful recipes have to be meatless otherwise they would not be as good. Its menu is very well conceived, creative, everything that I had was absolutely tasty and very well served. I highly recommend sharing one entree with two people, otherwise, it would be too much food.

This small café is also in a cool neighborhood, easy to reach by public transportation and both the hostess and the servers are very friendly. The music is of very good taste. It would blend with a perfect evening. However, you should be careful about one aspect. Since this restaurant is small and extremely popular, it is definitely not the place for a spontaneous meal. You should reserve, otherwise, you'll face high chances of not getting seated.

Pros: Delicious food, Location, Environment

Avatar sglcklch

sglcklch

Points +3761

Vegan
10 Sep 2014

Nice to try

After having tried out all the top contenders in LA, this place was the next one down the list even though it’s not completely vegan and does use dairy/eggs. We stayed in Hollywood and had to make a special trip out to Echo Park just for dinner. Was it worth getting out of the way for? Not so much for vegans. If you aren’t, you might have a better experience.

There were many vegan options on the menu, but most of them were kind of boring and overpriced ($10 for avocado tahini puree with pita? $14 for kale salad? $13 for crudités?) Also, in case you don’t do dairy and hate mushrooms, you’re SOL because they seemed to take center stage on the menu. We ordered the buffalo oyster mushrooms for starter, the baked tart and the mushroom shish kabob for entrées. Everything was good, just a tad oversalted. The baked tart that everyone raved about was a little disappointing. Without cheese, it was dry and bland and could have used some kind of sauce. The vegetables tasted very fresh and shone through, which was probably the only one thing that I took away from this meal. Prices were, again, on the expensive end. From what I saw on the other tables, pasta and risotto came in massive portions. Get those for more bang for the buck if that’s your thing.

The décor was cute and rustic. Slightly dim, the atmosphere was set up for date nights. Service was friendly. The food was decent, but the value wasn’t quite right. This one is a 3.5 rounded up to a 4.

Pros: fresh & tasty food

Cons: pricey, uninteresting menu

Avatar pcarlson

pcarlson

Points +53

Vegetarian
01 Aug 2013

One of my favorite LA veg spots

Get here early or make a reservation (which they recently started taking).
BYOB, or if you forget there is a bottle shop nearby. It's a cozy little restaurant and hard to find. It sits right next to Mohawk Bend which the just the opposite in size and atmosphere. They make great tarts which you can order filled with just about anything.

Pros: Creative, delicious food, BYOB

Cons: Small, BYOB, Cash only

Avatar 4shoda

4shoda

Points +18

Vegan
25 Jan 2013

Closed?

Stopped by to eat on a Friday at noon. Dark inside and boxes piled up by the windows. Might be closed?

Avatar smoothlandon

smoothlandon

Points +151

Vegetarian
08 Jun 2012

meh

food is ok, but too pretentious for their own good...

Avatar Chia

Chia

Points +3631

Vegetarian
07 Jan 2012

Good Food

I had read about this place on happycow and stopped in for dinner once. Here's my Elf Cafe review.

It's easy to overlook Elf Cafe because there is no visible sign from the street, so my friends and I just looked for the number.

The restaurant is rather small but very cozy with interesting eclectic music playing in the background. Long lamps hang from the ceiling gave off a warm glow to the interior, and a candle shed light on each small table. There is also a counter where guests can sit.

At first glance, the menu seemed to consist of mainly dishes with cheese, but upon further examination, we were able find several vegan dishes. We ordered a handful and shared. And we enjoyed them all. Each dish was brought to our table nicely arranged and warm.

Personally, I liked the vegetable tagine (moroccan spiced vegetables over couscous) and the kale salad with citrus dressing. The roasted beet and braised fennel was quite delicious as well. Our party finished every bit of food and left very satisfied.

Overall, the food at Elf Cafe is certainly more creative and unique than many other veg restaurants in Los Angeles. I highly recommend it -- go early before the crowd gets there cuz it can get really busy.

Pros: friendly service, gourmet & organic, head chef onsite

Avatar gr8vegan

gr8vegan

Points +2357

Vegan
26 Feb 2009

Why haven't I gone here sooner?

Elf is like a dream come true. I instantly felt like I was transported to Paris upon walking through the door. Come with your own bottle of wine, good friends and relaxing conversation. Elf is an experience to enjoy. The Elf Salad is gigantic and can be split. The meals are works of art with plants as paint.

Pros: Atmosphere

Cons: Cash Only

Avatar VeggiePinkoKat

VeggiePinkoKat

Points +142

Vegan
17 Dec 2007

Good Food, Nice Staff

I went to Elf with my Mum as we are always excited to try new veg restaurants. We thought Elf was pretty good, the kale salad made me feel like superwoman, so much healthful goodness. I remember their dessert special (pear torte?) was good too. It is on the pricey side, but worth a try.

Pros: good food, healthy cuisine

Cons: expensive, small, limited parking

Avatar The Veggie Cook

The Veggie Cook

Points +1201

Vegetarian
07 Nov 2007

Pretty Good

The place is tiny, but it sure gets busy with lots of local hipsters. The food is pretty good, a mix of lacto-veg and a few vegan choices. Friendly servers. Prices are reasonable for the type of cuisine but not cheap.

Avatar xtfrclqn

xtfrclqn

Points +37

Vegetarian
31 Aug 2007

I like the vibe and the food

It was good to be prepared on the no-credit/debit card front & it can be a bit crowded, but the service and food are unfailingly lovely. I've been four or five times now, with different sets of friends, and everyone has enjoyed it. Dishes I enjoyed: avocado hummus, tomatoes and feta, th Elf salad (I think that's what it was caled), the red pepper tart, and more. It's wonderful to have another vegetarian restaurant that obviously cares a lot about food and the whole dining experience.

Pros: great savory tarts, friendly, sexy staff, chefs who care

Cons: a tad crowded, cash required, closed Sun-Tues I think

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