Cru

I love good food, I like food that is healthy but also good for you, unlike some raw vegan restaurants the food at CRU is very tasty we had the mezze platter and I got the shitake raviolis and my husband got the pizza. Honestly I ignored the warnings that the app was enough for 4 people and could only eat 2 of the 8 raviollis! My husband is still acclimating to being vegan and was not so keen on the «bread“on the pizza but said the raviolis were the best thing he has ever eating. Nice atmosphere, friendly staff horrible parking.

–CURRENTLY– CLOSED with the possibility of opening up again in the future. Their storefront sign, menus and website are still up and their voicemail is still working.
I believe they are fighting with the owners of the property about staying open. So, as of November 13^th, 2012, their furniture is still inside. There are also a bunch of papers taped on the front windows in caps-​lock that address the locksmiths not to add new locks to the house without the manager’s approval.
The paper also states that:
They (not knowing who ‘they’ are) suspect a possible sale of illegal equipment belonging to the property. If you have been involved in such a sale, please call such and such number.
It sounds like a future court battle.
It makes me wonder what could a raw vegan place sell that would constitute being illegal. My first thought would be something that processes something else that’s illegally raw and vegan. Maybe growing equipment for something green and could be smoked in a non-​medicinal way? :-)
Who knows. But it seems lame and I hope Cru wins this battle and opens again soon. Their raw vegan food is very good. Their caesar salad is my favorite and incredibly rich and tasty.

We came in here skeptical about having raw and vegan food, but an online offer convinced us to try.
In a word: awesome. I am a carnivore and this absolutely floored me. If eating a lasagne on a hot, humid day sounds unappealing – try their take on lasagne with vegan everything. It was a revelation.

Hubby and I went to Cru before a show at the Greek Theater.
Pros: Their bruschetta had a lot of flavor. Wish the crackers were crunchy instead of soft. My husband said they seemed like soggy bread. I had to concur, even though I liked the taste of them. I liked their lasagna, but the cashew cheese needed to be seasoned better. Also I think more marinara or sundried tomatoes would have given this dish more zing.
Cons: The ambiance here is quite lacking, as in none. The bare walls are just begging for some color. You feel like you are walking into a vacant apartment. Parking can also be hard to find, but that is Silverlake for ya.
I’d come back to try some more raw vegan dishes, just because I like to see how creative they can get with their dishes. That and I want to try the blueberry cheesecake with the walnut crust!

1) Pizza w/​shitake mushrooms– A bit salty and cous cous/​buckwheat texture on crust, but decent for raw pizza over a bed of arugula with lemon tang.
2) Bruschetta– Tasty like lasagna.
3) Lasagna– Layers of vegetable with a huge mound of arugula.
4) Kale Smoothie with fruits and cinammon– Yummy. though $ 8/​glass?!
Bottom Line– It’s pretty good for raw, but I’m still not sold on eating raw. There was just 1 hot entrée. Just came with a friend who is vegetarian who seemed to like her food. Kinda pricey, but healthy. This place is organic and gluten-​free too.

Best raw vegan restaurant I’ve ever dined at – and that includes places I’ve been to in San Francisco.
Came here with a friend who’s strictly vegan and we had:
Kale Salad ($ 8) — chopped kale tossed in a creamy, citrusy dressing with dried cranberries and candied walnuts.
Raviola Cruda ($ 16) — Half moon raw raviolis made out of thinly sliced turnip filled with mushrooms w pesto & tomato crème sauces filled with mushrooms and served with a lightly dressed mixed greens salad. DELISH!
Chocolate Truffle cake ($ 8) — same as what’s sold in the health food stores under the Cru label except that this was garnished with a sweet ruby red fanned strawberry and drizzled with chocolate sauce. A bit on the dense side, but what the hell, I really needed a chocolate fix that day.
Blueberry Cheesecake ($ 8) — luscious and moist «raw cheesecake» made out of pureed cashews and studded throughout with blueberries with nuts on the side. This dessert made up for the fact that they ran out of Banana mousse before 5pm that day.
Waitress was really nice and attentive. Love that it’s quiet.
The place is hard to find. Griffith Park Blvd. runs right off of Sunset Blvd. If you’re going north on Sunset Blvd., look for the 99 cents store on your left and then you’ll see this weird triangular patch of space on your right with some small storefronts including Cru.

Not impressed.
There’s an array of amazing restaurants in this neighborhood and Cru is just NOT memorable. The restaurant was crowded when we got there so I though maybe this place is better than I remembered (I’d come here a few years ago and remember having been thoroughly disappointed). But alas! It was crowded! Must be a good sign. Maybe things have changed.
We sat down and it was a while before our waitress came to take our order. She apologized for taking a long time, but that was nothing compared to how long we had to wait for our food to arrive. We were literally sitting there for an hour between the time we ordered our meal and the time it was placed on our table. My friend and I were ready to get up and leave. When the food finally arrived it was mediocre. The raw pizza was better than the lasagna. The lasagna was a dollop of aioli in between layers thinly cut cucumber slices and a spoonful of nut cheese. Lots of creamy and fatty consistency but no textures or refined flavors. Definitely not worth the wait nor was it worth the price.
I won’t be back here anytime soon.

I really, really wanted to like this place, but I don’t think I do.
First of all, parking is a bit tough in this area. We came on a Saturday afternoon just before dinner time and were lucky to snag a meter in the front.
My fiancé had the blood orange drink, which was just okay — not very flavorful. My maca smoothie was good, but $ 8.
When we were first seated, there was pet hair allll over my seat. The waitress took five minutes to come out and clean it upon my request. I found that overall, she was pretty unattentive, insincere, not helpful, and her bra straps were clearly showing which I didn’t find very professional. She didn’t even get the whole «serve entrees at the same time» convention and just tossed my fiancé’s dish and the appetizer while I waited another 10 minutes for my dish to «cook.»
Beyond that, the food was so disappointing. I am pretty familiar with the raw vegan genre and even make it myself sometimes. It can be very delicious, but this place just didn’t deliver. First of all, I wanted to try the mushroom risotto, and the waitress told us they didn’t have it until 5:30. Well, it was 4:30 at the time, and perhaps 15 minutes later, she swapped the menus out and was recommending it to another guy who just sat down. Ummm, considering this isn’t something that is cooked, I was irked that she didn’t at least see what she could do about it.
The ambience was strange. I couldn’t tell who was working and who was a patron. A guy with messy hair kept walking out of the kitchen to stare at the menu near our table.
We ordered the bruschetta, chorizo tostada, and pad thai. The bruschetta was limp and didn’t have enough tomatoes. The tostada was probably the best thing we had, since it had a nice spice and sour cream, but the base was soggy like the bruschetta. My pad thai kelp noodles lacked flavor and came with more chorizo nut crumble, which I didn’t find fitting at all. Normally, pad thai is flavorful and served with lots of shredded veggies — not the case here.
Dessert menu was really pitiful when we went — a couple of ice creams and truffles and no cakes whatsoever.
Normally, when I eat raw vegan food, I feel light and digest the food pretty quickly — but clearly, the overemphasis on soggy chopped-​up nuts and cashew cream was just too heavy and made me feel weighed down for almost a full 24 hours. I am disappointed because one of my favorite restaurants, Au Lac (Fountain Valley), does raw vegan soooooo much better without all the pretentious-​ness of Silver Lake.
Luckily, I had a web coupon, so I think I paid $ 40 in total vs. $ 60. Regardless, it was still expensive for what we got.

I’m a strong believer of «You are what you eat.» So I was excited when a $ 40 for $ 20 Google offers coupon for Cru appeared. I dragged my hesitant carnivorous bf along for a healthy vegan dinner and ordered a few dishes to share. We got:
Sweet pea coconut purée — I love pureed soups so I was eager to try this one. It had a nice subtle flavor and could taste both the sweet pea and coconut. Had to get used to the coldness of the soup though. The bowl was quite large, and there was plenty to share between 2 people.
Caesar salad — Very good. Good portion, lots of healthy greens including sprouts and avocado, drizzled with a vegan dressing. Came with a large flax cracker which added a slight spicy, almost chipotle flavor. It was very light and fresh, but filling. Surprisingly, the bf really liked this one!
Mushroom quinoa risotto — I love risotto, so I couldn’t pass this up. I believe this was vegan… but was so rich and thick, that I couldn’t believe there wasn’t any cheese or cream in it. This was my favorite dish of the night.
Kelp pad thai — An interesting take on pad thai, although if you’re expecting traditional pad thai, don’t because isn’t anything like it except for the peanuty sauce. This raw dish has kelp «noodles» which is crunchy in texture. The combination of the kelp noodles and the sauce was slightly strange to both of our palates. We only had a few bites and then it went in the to-​go box.
All in all, I think Cru has some creative and healthy alternatives, but the dishes can really be a hit or a miss. It was also on the expensive side, even with a coupon. For 2 mains and 2 smaller dishes, we paid around $ 35.

Never have I tasted such wonderful vegan food.
Filling, delectable, great ambiance, and awesome service.
My husband and I tried a couple if their juices (I had a kale, apple), a «nacho» appetizer, a chorizo wrap, and the pad thai. Not only did everything taste incredibly fresh, but it was truly tasty stuff.
I would recommend this restaurant to anyone interested in trying something different, and I can guarantee you I’ll be bringing my friends.

My favorite vegan restaurant. I love their soups! raw or cooked I’m never disappointed. I usually always get the raw coconut and pea soup yum. I highly recommend their pad thai, its so fresh and light. I also recommend their brushetta its so full of flavor and so fresh it a great start for an appetizer. Their special ravioli cruda is really good full of all kinds of flavor and carries a punch it will leave you wanting more. The only negative thing was i thought it was too drenched in sauce.
There specials always change so keep an eye on that. I also like their strawberry cheesecake yum: D

I apologise for the next essay.
I bought a Google offer for 50% off because this place sounded really interesting… but boy did I choose the wrong day to try it.
Saturday night, 7-​ish.
Hostess: none
Wait staff: couldn’t be found
This restaurant is SMALL. You walk in and it’s just tables. The waitress was in the kitchen, so we had no idea how to get a table. There weren’t any available anyway.
Friend got our names in and we were told we’d have to wait 45 minutes to an hour. We were there already, so I thought, why not wait.
And wait, we did.
Over 45 minutes after being seated, we were served some peas and «crackers». That’s when I started thinking. uh oh. This could be a huge mistake. Our drinks came out after the waitress realised she forgot them, and by then we were halfway done with the peas.
Overhead waitress telling her 2 chefs had called out so they were severely short staffed. They were cutting and prepping sauces on the fly. I could understand the wait then.
Finally, the bruschetta arrived. It looked nice. First bite was interesting. Then my tastebuds were happy.
Our kale salad and pizza follow and I was consistently impressed!
We couldn’t stop eating. We were so hungry that everything might’ve been tasting extra good at that point but at the same time I was like, this is RAW VEGAN FOOD!
Yum. I have to say. I was very pleasantly surprised by it all and amazed how full I felt after eating a bunch of veggies & nuts!
Waitress gave us chocolate gelato as a thank you for me not ripping off the restaurant and that was GOOD.
The waiting sucked. Especially for me. but the food was solid. Next time, I will call to make sure all staff are on hand.
I will gladly return and take anyone there that is skeptical about vegan food.

Most raw restaurants have very similar menus so it’s easy to compare restaurants across the board. Cru really did stand out in their flavors, attention to detail, and quality.
I was really, really full about halfway through my meal of all veggies and nuts and rawness! I was actually uncomfortably full when I destroyed my healthy dinner with beer. I was actually sluggish for a couple of hours after eating.
Service was great, super fast, no cooking of course. Filtered water to drink, no ice, tasted great.
We ordered the nachos, pizza, and lasagna. The nachos and pizza were both pretty substantial. The lasagna was good, strong flavors, but wasn’t the winner of the trio. The raw chocolate maca shake was the winner here!!! They make their own cashew milk.
The raw strawberry cheesecake was also yummy! Though it tasted a lot like pure coconut oil, but delicious. I don’t care.
Sidenote: I know raw is healthy, the flavors are uncompromised, but all the nuts are sooooo fatty. I want to feel like I had a super healthy meal but I think all the oils and nuts make it fattier than we think. But, as long as it tastes good and I’m full, I don’t care!

Cru is definitely one of the restaurants in LA that i hold very near and dear to my heart. It’s one of those places you gush to your closest girlfriends about and pinky promise that the next time we have something to celebrate, we’ll grab a bottle of wine and enjoy a leisurely 3 hour dinner at Cru with fresh, amazingly flavored food and the sweetest staff.
If you’re in the mood for some asian flavors, try the pad thai. you will NOT be disappointed. the kelp noodles might sound intimidating to those not of asian descent but once you try the slightly chewy noodles, crisp julienned vegetables swathed in the most velvety sweet and nutty peanut sauce, you’ll fall in love like i did.
i’ve also tried the chorizo wrap which was uh-​may-​zing. the pumpkin seed chorizo was spicy yet nutty and the garlic nut cheese really upped the ante in terms of flavors you’d never expect. i didnt get the vegan sour cream (white condiment phobia hits once again) and instead requested salsa. i wasn’t wow-​ed by the salsa but the flaxseed chips were interestingly good.
i always leave cru feeling so good. i guess it’s really true that what you put in your body really reflects on the outside.
oh, i love you cru. can’t wait to be back again.

day 8 of my raw cleanse, and needed another night off from not-​cooking– which seems more laborious than actually cooking– so with a bottle of red in tow, we found ourselves at Cru.
BYOB and no corkage fee– u f*cking rock.
bruschetta– MUST GET. i actually came back and got it to go for lunch the next day.
raw lasagna– pretty good, but would probably get something else (as suggested by our waitress, MARGOT who was an absolute GEM.)
raw pizza– total indulgence and absolutely worth it
«we be lovin the cruuuu-​uuuuu, lovin the cruuu – uuuuuuuuuu-​uuuuu… «
the weeknd ovoxo

I recently became a vegan for 6 months now and lost 30lbs. I eat all macrobiotic with minimal amounts of seafood… I eat 90% vegan. So Its hard to find good vegan food.
I LOVED THIS PLACE!
I had the Ginger Carrot (cooked) Soup Exquisite!
I also ordered the Ginger, spinach, apple juice (they are very generous with everything! I got literally a large large glass of juice! Almost a goblet!)
Then I ordered the raw bruschetta with all the fresh ingredients with kabocha sunflower seed flat bread, capers, basil, tomatoes, bell peppers… IT WAS TO DIE FOR!
Then I had the Vegan Lasagna! Zucchini, pesto, coconut cream, portobello mushrooms… THIS BLEW MY MIND.
I cant believe how raw foods can taste sooo amazing! BRILLIANT Atmosphere, service, and trendy as HELL!
They serve the water in thick glass tall bottles (very clever, I felt special). trendy, chic, delicious food, good prices… generous with the food!

Most recently, I have been eating Pescatarian and I thought, why not try a raw vegan restaurant?
This was an awesome experience! We were greeted by an awesome female server who had a very strong knowledge of the menu and Vegan cuisine. She even offered us some suggestions of shops to check out in the Silverlake area afterwards.
We shared nachos as an appetizer and I cannot believe how flavorful and delicious raw, vegan food can be. Do not get me wrong, regular nachos are wonderful, but I did not miss the meat or dairy, at all.
The nachos were made with fennel chips, guacamole, tomatoes, cilantro, and beans. We ate them in about 2 minutes.
Then, we ordered the zucchini spaghetti and the ravioli. Both were cold and raw, because there are no cooked items before dinner. We also shared the coconut milk blueberry cheesecake. All the items were to die for. Please keep an open mind when you read the menu and order, because if you are not used to these types of food you may be a little deterred.
I also ordered a drink — basil lemonade that tasted spot on to a mojito. It was tangy, but refreshing.
The ambiance was what I liked most — we sat next to the window and enjoyed the view of a park outside in the small quaint town of Silverlake. I will definitely be back!

A Carnivore, an Omnivore and a Vegetarian walk in to a Vegan restaurant… and all leave more or less satisfied! Ha! Tell me another one!
No, this actually happened. I was the Omnivore. And by Omnivore I mean that I really haven’t crossed paths with edible things that I won’t eat.
So we shared a large Caesar salad and a bruschetta appetizer. The spell check wants me to change «bruschetta» to «brunette» but that would make this a completely different review.
We all asked questions of the server. The carnivore among us pretty much grilled the server… in a good-​natured sort of way. I guess since there was no flesh around to grill, the server had to stand-​in.
The server was well informed and only had to consult the chef once on how things like the dressing, cheese, etc. were made with no dairy and also no soy… they seem to be soy free as well. GMO’s and such, you know.
Long story-short…the Omnivore and the Vegetarian would return, the Carnivore was pleasantly surprised at the flavors and textures but had to dash down the street to Burrito King for fish tacos immediately after the meal and probably won’t be back.
By the way, I had to commit to visiting a Brazilian place where they saunter around with swords loaded with hunks of roasted flesh in order to get the Carnivore to stay…

I am not a Vegan but this was the place of choice for dinner with 5 girls. It was my sister’s treat to her bridesmaids and maid of honor, everyone was watching what they were eating before the wedding so they figured you couldn’t go wrong with a vegan restaurant.
The waitress was very nice and made each dish sound delicious!
The food was GREAT! Very creative in how to make ravioli (jicima sliced and stuffed with cashew cheese) keep in mind its vegan so the pasta wasn’t really pasta and the cheese isn’t really cheese, great in substitution.
The desert was also delicious! I was amazed that everything was raw and no animal products were used.
I can’t say I would go back because I still enjoy REAL cheese and REAL bread but i would recommend this restaurant to anyone that is vegan!

Contrary to what you might think, this place isn’t all twigs and berries.
I came to Cru with my adventurous foodie friend who gave the initial recommendation. When I read that it was vegan, I gave a little rhythmic nod saying «alllright, letsdoowit». And then I read it was raw, to which I let out a stoic groan. I suppose I had the false pretense that raw was tasteless, and I figured if I wanted something raw, I’m fully capable of going to produce section too. Ignorant me.
The menu gives you a nice selection of various vegan, raw, gluten-​free options, but not exclusively. And I must say, being a pescatarian, it was quite nice to be ABLE to get anything I wanted on the menu! Giddiness aside, their selection is quite impressive.
We started off with the spring rolls, which were served with a sweet (ish) soy based sauce. Really nice. Crispy with a bunch of flavor. My friend asked for some spicy sauce (probably poking around for sriracha), but they didn’t carry anything like that. However, they were happy to pass over a shaker of cayenne pepper AND chop up a jalapeño pepper. Okay Cru, I’m feelin’ you.
I got the Sweet Potato Curry, and it was easily the best curry I’ve have in a long time. Sweet, smooth, and slightly spicy — and served with quinoa. Great portions, too.
She got the Asian Noodle Bowl. Hold the phone. This stuff was extraordinary. I think I had that «I like what I got, but I really wish I ordered what you got» look in my eye. It’s made with kelp noodles. Even after trying it, I still raise my eyebrows in bewilderment thinking about what that might be. Doesn’t matter, it was delicious.
There’s definitely other stuff I want to try on the menu, but I’ll have to wait around for another friend with a green tongue to do it.
Oh, as a side note, I was wondering why the h it’s called Cru. I came to conclusion it was probably for crudité, so I did a little wiki action:
The Latin word «crdus» simply means raw. Later, it was refined to «crdits», which means «undigested food»
I think I should have stopped at French.