Right across the street from MooShoes LA sits the massive black monolith that is Diablo—self-described as an “urban taqueria”.
We’d never really thought much about the place in terms of vegan options until, the other week, vegan food photographer + blogger Tim Moore—better known as Vegan Fat Kid—came by the store for an event and mentioned that he was heading over to Diablo to partake in some vegan taco action. Tim earlier dubbed this month Tacotober and has since been celebrating by eating and documenting at least one vegan taco from Los Angeles area restaurants every day. You should really check it out on his Instagram feed. It’s insane how much this guy can eat.
Anyway, today we decided to finally check out this Diablo place, akin the long, treacherous journey across the street, and we were very pleasantly surprised—nice, slightly dungeons atmosphere; a lot of celebration of farm-to-table; great craft beer list; oddly intriguing Michelada popsicle and beer pairings; and not one, but two vegan-izeable tacos.
As they state on their site:
“Diablo is a chef-driven, New-American restaurant that uses the concept of the “taco” and platform of the “tortilla” to playfully present eclectic ingredients, contrasting textures and interesting flavors prepared in a not-so-traditional way. Diablo respects the seasons and supports local farmers, so our menu changes often.”
The first taco, which is listed currently as a seasonal one, is vegan as is, filled with crispy fried Brussels sprouts and a tasty Asian pear slaw (above, back); the second—my favorite—is filled with tempura deep fried hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, braised tomatoes, and fresh cilantro and is vegan sans the white miso aioli.
By all means, we encourage you to stop by and try the tacos—which are both great—and encourage more new vegan experimentation at this taqueria.
