Last weekend I went to Venice Beach with my sister for our annual Sisser vacation. We were there for 3 days, which was fantastic, but perhaps need one more day just to lay by the pool or beach. We went and ate dinner at Plant Food & Wine on Abbot Kinney in Venice, this is the main drag other than the beach front. My sister has been vegan since January so we did eat at a few vegan restaurants, of which, Plant Food & Wine was one. We had the most amazing sandwiches there, and the setting was wonderful. We ate in their little magical outdoor patio. We also walked along the beach and then took a Pedicab (which I have never ridden in) up to the Santa Monica Pier, ate some delicious fries at a burger joint and rode the roller coaster up there.
In the morning we ate at one of my favorites (and everyone’s) Gjelina for brunch. We were given the scoop that if we went before 10:45 we wouldn’t have to wait. We ate at their outdoor patio as well. I was told for dinner there is a 1-2 month wait, so this was perfect. Last time we were there we had pizza so breakfast would be something new to try and if we got in early enough we wouldn’t have to wait. We had breakfast about 9:30 am and no wait, and an amazing smoked trout scramble with a side of candied bacon. We then headed straight to Fryman Canyon, which we felt was like LA’s version of Greenlake. A 3.4 mile hike in the Hollywood hills. It was a really beautiful hike, and perfect for the weather. We felt immersed in LA culture, everyone was beautiful of course. Then we headed over to Gracias Madre for some vegan Mexican, where we again ate on a beautiful patio. The menu was crazy! I don’t drink, but their cocktail varieties were out of control, try some fungi anyone in your cocktail? I had the black bean burger, which was to die for.
After getting back we vegged out by the pool and went and grabbed some libations from Moon Juice, where you can get any number of crazy health concoction. I am not quite as juice obsessed as I used to be, but I do LOVE juice. I really love going to a juice bar. The next day I was feeling like I had the start of a cold, so of course I had to go get another! Actually that was the start of a week long cold, which is finally over now! We ended the night walking along the beach, watching the skateboarders at the skate park there, and just grabbing some dinner at Whole Foods. How LA of us. 🙂
Our final day we headed over to the boardwalk and had breakfast at the Sidewalk Cafe, which has a a giant open air dining area right next to the beach. It has a really standard breakfast which I also love, think greasy diner Denny’s breakfast. And we got to watch people walk by getting their stands setup. And that was it, we were off. It was a quick but really fun trip and of course you can see I am a little bit food and restaurant obsessed, but hopefully this can give you some tips & places to visit if you are there.