Little Pine — Restaurant in Los Angeles

update Came here for brunch with my girl friend. We shared French toast and tofu scramble. It was GREAT! My friend is not vegan and has never had tofu scramble before. She enjoyed everything. The French toast is not too sweet at all. You can also order coconut whip on the top ($2) if you want. We went simple yet still very satisfying. The turmeric ginger latte was quite interesting. It doesn’t taste spicy or too bitter (sometimes turmeric powders makes drinks taste bitter if you add too much). Her hibiscus mimosa was a beautiful presentation. We certainly had a wonderful experience here. Love it.

Fantastic vegan restaurant. This has jumped up to one of my favorite vegan restaurant after my first visit. For a long time, my impression of Little pine was that's just a juice bar. It turned out after few years of business, they have become a full menu restaurant with weekend brunch! Hooray! Came here for some celebrations. Before we arrived, the GPS said we are close to it, so we looked for parking. There are some street parking in the alley. Well, don't get fooled by a sign has a simple tree icon with a flashing open arrow that leads you to a second-floor-entrance restaurant . (Look for my pictures) THAT IS NOT LITTLE PINE. You gotta keep walking for another block, and then you'll see the "actual" Little Pine. The ambience was fabulous and intimate. Lighting was kind of dark and the design was full of natural theme with a taste of industrial feature. Outdoor setting was kind of neat. They also provide blankets for customers who seat outside. The staffs are very professional and friendly. We ordered potato soup, raviolis, crusted piccata, and dessert was banana pie cream. Everything was so tasty and satisfying. The potato soup was served warmed with fried red onion. Right amount of spiciness just perfectly warmed up your stomach for the next dish. Raviolis were stuffed with spinach and artichoke. Walnut, cranberries on the top, and sage was mixed in the sauce. That really makes this dish flavorful. The piccata was very crunchy and tasted just like....fried pork! Yum. Dessert was relatively big portion. It's like banana mousse with whip cream. So smooth and so creamy. I seriously love everything here. Not to mention, part of their income also donate to help animals or any other charities. Isn't it nice? Knowing that while you're eating dinner, you're also doing something nice to the world. Love it! Will definitely come back and recommend...

RECOMMENDED DISH: the vegan macaroni and cheese is easily the best of its type I've had. The sauce is convincingly like a real dairy-based cheese sauce and has the quality of the grainy sharp cheddar you'd find in a baked mac and cheese casserole, and it's delicious on its own, with an appropriately creamy consistency. The gluten-free ridged macaroni pasta used in the dish was just a little softer than al-dente, but in this case it seemed to complement this dish perfectly. The grated "parmesan" that topped the dish was an additional complement to this flavorful, satisfying, comforting entree.

Honorable mentions: The crispy cauliflower, coated with a slightly bland but otherwise enjoyable garbanzo (chickpea) and semolina crust, was tasty with the included calabrian chili aioli. My only suggestion is that they make the individual chunks closer to bite-size. As currently served, it takes 2-3 bites to finish one of the chunks of cauliflower, and they're difficult to dip into the provided small sauce dipping cups.

I was slightly misled by the Little Pine burger. The patty as-pictured on their site looks hand-formed, and I assumed it would be a natural-looking veggie patty. What arrived instead was clearly a machine-molded patty (I suspect a Beyond Burger or similar). Not to say that I didn't enjoy the taste. I did. the other thing was that the patty had been grilled. I don't like the taste of grilling on veggie burgers, since 1) it's not going to convince me that the patty is meat-like, and 2) it leaves an odd taste in my mouth that is clearly NOT grilled meat. Also, I don't recall tasting beet pickles in the burger, as advertised. If they were present, they weren't there in the amount indicated in the menu photo. Otherwise, it was a tasty veggie burger.

Service overall was excellent even though we arrived right at lunch time and were by ourselves in the outdoor dining area for a significant period of time, aside from the fact that we attempted to order "Beagle Bites" for our dog and were told that they were out of them. However, a few minutes later, my girlfriend noticed that another party who brought a dog with them successfully ordered the same Beagle Bites we were earlier denied. Odd, but not a huge deal, as our dog would eat anything that fell off the dinner table and call it caviar. All in all, it's great vegan food in a nice spot for a pretty fair price. Recommended for health nuts, hipsters, and folks who like a bright...

As a long time patron of Little Pine, it disappoints me to say that my recent visit has genuinely been the worst dining experience I have ever had, an experience that I can only assume is the result of a new operations team and chef who are in over their head, as all of my previous visits have been phenomenal.

I ordered the Little Pine burger, one of my favorite menu items, and what arrived was a completely raw in the middle impossible patty in between a scorched bun. My boyfriend noted that his burger was overcooked but continued to eat it as we had driven 45 mins from the westside, and we were famished.

I notified my server, and they sent over a manager who offered to send out a new burger or a different item. I decided I would let them bring me a new burger but what arrived the second time was yet again another raw on the middle impossible patty--this time between two rock-hard ice-cold buns next to a plate of undercooked fries. When I notified the server again, they offered me a chicken sandwich which I politely turned down as at that point; I had lost any hope that their kitchen would be capable of producing an edible meal.

After being served two raw burgers, the extent of their apology was to remove my meal from the bill. I would have expected that after being exposed to potential food poisoning twice, they would have had the decency to comp the entire bill or at least our three glasses of wine. We spent $70, and I left hungry. I could have gone to Monty’s for half the price and had a better burger

The apathy displayed by the staff was insulting and has ensured that I will no longer be a patron of a place that was once one of my favorite restaurants in LA—which is a shame given the lack of fine dining vegan restaurants in Los Angeles.

I will continue to give my money to places like Crossroads and the several Matthew Kenney restaurants, where they put special care and attention into the quality of food and the dining experience.

I know in the past there has been criticism about Moby’s treatment of employees during the pandemic, but his passion for veganism ensured that the dining experience and food quality was reflective of his sentiment. I upsets me to see that his legacy and contribution to the vegan community is...