Glowing Plant-Based Eatery: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Glowing Eatery is a fully vegan café and market on Echo Park Avenue, on the line between Silver Lake and Echo Park. Every item on the menu is vegan, so you can order anything without asking a single question. The owners opened it in 2015, and they run it as both a counter-service kitchen and a shelf of vegan packaged goods.

What to order

Start with the sandwiches. On the Italiano Vegano ($16.50), you get Prime Roots vegan salami, vegan cheese, spinach, sundried tomato, red bell pepper, and olives on toasted ciabatta, with a basil aioli that contains nuts. For the Game Day BLT ($16.50), the cooks pair BeLeaf vegan bacon with Prime Roots vegan turkey and ham. Want something lighter? Get the Chickpea Tuna ($16.50), a chickpea salad with pickles, onion, and cucumber.

Breakfast is easy. On the Sunrise off Sunset ($16.50), you get tofu scramble, vegan bacon, and vegan cheese on crispy toast. The GF Sausage Egg ($15.95) comes with a Beyond Meat sausage patty and vegan Just Egg on gluten-free potato bread. The Black Beans and Rice Burrito costs $16.95, and the owners add avocado, vegan cheese, and spinach.

For a salad, you can get tofu scramble and vegan ham in the Cobb-o Verde ($17.95), or kale, vegan feta, walnuts, and chickpeas in the California Salad ($16.45). Mediterranean Avocado Toast runs $15.95. The Famous Acai Bowl is $14.95, and the Power Bowl is an $8 oatmeal bowl with peanut butter and pea protein.

Juice and smoothies

Drinks outnumber the food at Glowing. Fresh juices cost $10.95, with names like Greenergy (celery, cucumber, kale, bok choy, chard, parsley, and shilajit) and Liver Cleanse (apple, cucumber, carrot, beet, lemon, and milk thistle). Smoothies run $11.95 to $13.50, and you get more than 25 grams of protein in the Muladhara from almonds, hemp seeds, and vegan protein. For the wellness crowd, Glowing sells $7.95 tonics such as Throat and Flu and Green Healer. Glowing brews Woodcat and Big Papua coffee, with oat, almond, or hemp milk.

The kitchen

No animal products come through this kitchen, so cross-contamination is a non-issue for vegans. Allergens still matter. The basil aioli contains nuts, and the owners add a nut warning to each dish with the aioli. The donut is gluten free, and the GF Sausage Egg comes on gluten-free potato bread. But the cooks also slice regular ciabatta all day, so anyone with celiac disease should ask about prep first.

Practical notes

Expect to spend $15 to $18 on a meal and $11 on a drink. You can order online for pickup or delivery, and orders over $30 get free delivery when you order directly from the café. You earn one rewards point per dollar. When we checked the order page on November 9, Glowing closed at 6 pm that day.

Out front, the owners stock vegan bars, chips, and popcorn, so you can grab a MacroBar or a bag of Jamagel chips on the way out. The owners describe Glowing as woman-owned and Hispanic-owned, and they and their staff pick every product on those shelves.

Planning to pick up more than three donuts? The owners ask you to call (213) 537-0680 first. Order the Sunrise off Sunset and a Greenergy, and you have breakfast sorted for under $30.