Will be in Newport Beach/Laguna/LA for a few days, and want to take my now vegan daughter to dinner for her birthday. Looking for ideas. Thanks.
In LA: Crossroads on Melrose would be my suggestion. We also like Elf Cafe in Echo Park a lot. Cafe Gratitude is a bit cliche but another option.
Zinc Cafe, in Laguna Beach, is very good, but it’s only open until 6:00PM.
If you wanted to go high-end you can do vegetarian tasting menus at Melisse or N/naka. If you as companion wanted to go carnivore, I’m sure both would do a separate menu for each.
Ink. has lots of vegetarian dishes; some are my favorite on the menu. Don’t know about vegan.
I know this isn’t what you’re looking for (just a casual cafe), but for future reference (and for anyone who stumbles across this thread later), I think Mead’s in Orange is pretty great (and I’m a devout carnivore).
For future reference, and I highly recommend:
Seabirds Kitchen
Au Lac
I’ll probably follow up with more.