Cafe Gratitude

2400 Harrison St. (and 20th St.)
(415) 824-4652

Vegan in the Mission

Have you ever seen the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? If so, imagine the scene where Kate Hudson pretends she's vegetarian and they go to a vegan hippie place -- yeah, it's something like that. Located in the Mission (right next to Mission Cliffs - rock climbing place!), this restaurant is crawling with hippie free spirits and indie kids, and it's great. Everything is organic here - even the cloth napkins. Communal seating creates a very friendly environment, and they have a weird board game you can play at the table (the directions took too much effort to read so I didn't attempt to). The names of the dishes are also positive reinforcements like "I am vivacious," "I am abundant," etc. Good for your self-esteem, depending on what you eat haha.

My aunt and the lady sitting next to her =)

The food is very healthy - everything is organic and most of their dishes are "live" meaning not really cooked. Although my cousin, who is vegetarian, likes it, I thought it was pretty mediocre. My plate was pretty good - a sampler called "I am abundant" including almond hummus, olive stuff, cold coconut soup (spicy!), and stsuff like that. My sister had a "pizza," which is basically an almond-like biscuit with (soy-based?) "cheese," veggies, and misc other things on it. My other sister had a weird enchilada-style wrap with some pretty bland (but probably healthy) rice. My uncle had a stuffed avacado, but I didn't try it. Everything didn't taste very good, though it was probably very good for you. The sampler was probably the best out of what I tried, but except for the soup, I feel like all of it was pretty much snack food.

I AM ABUNDANT:

There's healthy food that can taste good, and unfortunately, this place isn't it =P