Heads up to Los Angeles vegans and visiting vegans: We can report with sound hearts + minds that the menu at Commissary—Roy Choi‘s much buzzed about recent venture in Korea Town’s Line Hotel—is indeed navigable for those seeking cruelty-free dining.
Katie + I lunched there recently with an old friend in from out of town and were met with both affable, knowledgable advice from our server and a bevy of vegan and vegan-izable options, all of which were delectable. Call it over-hyped if you like, but the food we had was both creative and extremely good.
Despite the restaurant being billed as “a greenhouse with a focus on fruits and vegetables”, past reports of Commissary just after opening struck us as slightly intimidating—icon-dependant menus with less-than-cooperative servers unwilling to break down exactly what a dish represented by a drawing of a piece of broccoli entailed, for instance.
We experienced nothing along those lines, though, with a seemingly expanded, more visitor-friendly menu and a server more than happy to tell us what was vegan or able to be made vegan. Lucky for us, that covered most of the vegetables and many sides, which is more than it sounds like given the restaurant’s very LA focus on small plates.
As the restaurant themselves put it:
“It’s not necessarily a vegetarian restaurant, just good food and drink based around plants as the foundation. It’s also an homage to all the people and families here in So Cal that work on farms to bring food to our tables. Set beside a shimmering pool, it’s got all the amenities of a private club but created for the public. Come sunbathe in carrot juice, mack on a salad, or grab some eggs and toast. Commissary is your own little oasis where you can feel right at home and chill.”
On our visit, we opted for the wood fire-roasted carrots, the dried fruit quinoa salad, a vegan green curry coconut dish, and tempura multi-colored cauliflower, all complimented by fresh juices that were paired with a sweet vinegar base (and are recommended to be further paired with gin for those looking to Snoop it up).
Though that more than filled us up, we’re excited to get back soon and try the rest of the dishes open to us. We’d encourage you to do the same.
