Did you know that the Gracias Madre (WeHo) is part of the super trendy gourmet vegan restaurant family, Café Gratitude!? The Café Gratitude Collection of restaurants include two Gracias Madres, one in the Mission District of San Francisco and the other in Los Angeles’ West Hollywood.

Generally I am not always fond of Mexican food restaurants, (they’re hard to compare with my own Mexican mother’s home-cooking), but I really have to say, being that this is a vegan restaurant I am impressed by the chef’s ingenuity.  Creating vegetarian or vegan meals (obviously without meat) seems to go against what most traditional Mexican meals are anchored by. Chef Chandra Gilbert created decadent unique dishes, such as sweet potato flautas and cauliflower tacos, which are just as tasty and filling as if it they were non-vegan/meat-centric plates. I can only imagine how much arduous planning and R&D there must have been. It can’t be easy to try and capture the spicy, flavorful taste of genuine Mexican food with the limitations of vegan ingredients.

The restaurant’s focus on fresh vegetables, like potatoes, beans, cabbage, corn, cactus, or other seasonal ingredients, brings us back to the true roots of Mexican cuisine. We have come to associate Mexican food in America as being heavy, cheesy, full of red meats, and all too greasy. Whereas, Gracias Madre’s fresh vegan cuisine brings back memories of actually having traditional Mexican food; that is if you were to have a home cooked meal in Mexico. I have visited the Gracias Madre location a few times now and as a carnivore myself but overall food lover, I didn’t miss the meats nor the dairy.

Food highlights: 4

Chips and salsa are a must! They definitely are “housemade” corn chips, light and crispy, and taste similar to the popular Havana Chips. As for the Gaucamole, it’s chunky and chilled perfectly to match the warm tortillas chips.

If you are looking for a sweat-inducing spicy salsa (which I really like), you’re not going to find one here. I did ask for their hottest salsa and I was brought a deep red salsa that was medium-hot a rich smoky flavor.

    My top pics:

1. The El Plato

(butternut squash, cashew nacho cheese, chorizo mushrooms, cilantro pesto, escabeche, rice, pico de gallo, black beans, housemade tortillas)

2. Flautas De Camote

(rolled tacos filled with sweet potatoes and caramelized onions, pico de gallo, guacamole, cashew nacho cheese, cilantro, black beans)

3. Tacos

(three corn tortillas topped with seared cauliflower, grilled calabaza verde, and mushrooms. topped with cashew crema, served with beans)

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Décor Highlights:
 5

With a mix of traditional and modern textures, I would describe the décor as Casually Elegant Mexican Casa. The traditional touches are seen through iron features, ceramic tiles, and long wood tables. The more upscale and modern features are visible through the clean lines of the open shelving bar, minimalistic décor, white and brick walls, and the on-trend ficus trees. I personally liked the traditional touches of the restaurants décor.

Paying homage to the traditional Madre of Mexican culture, the restaurant features a framed picture of the “Virgin of Guadalupe” on the wall (The San Francisco location features a huge mosaic on one full wall). There are plenty of long, raw wood communal tables on the patio for outdoor seating, which seems to also be on trend for many, even non-casual, restaurants these days. The latin lounge music with good smooth beats is a nice touch, playing throughout the patio/backyard area and the interior of the restaurant.

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Drinks:
 4

With their specialty cocktails you are guaranteed a drink that is imaginative and delicious. Since their specialty cocktails are a must, expect to pay approx. $10-20.  I was very interested in their “build your own old fashion” menu and forked out the $20.00 to try a cocktail. See the guide below. You choose a base spirit, a sweetener, and a housemade bitters. Since I have been a bit obsessed with the smoky flavor of Mezcal, I chose Mezcal as my base, and of course the spicy chili infused raw honey, with orange bitters. It was deliciously spicy! Next time I visit, I can’t wait to try a snowcone cocktail, they look so festive.

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Service: 3.5

This is a hard one to rate because out of the three times I have visited, the first 2 times the service was amazing (both on busy weekend evenings). The hostesses were welcoming and the waitresses were really on top of their game. However, on our second occasion the service was so good and, come to find out, a bit misleading. What I mean by misleading is that without asking, our waitress kept refilling our chips and guacamole without extra charge (apparently not the norm); whereas the third time I visited, the waiter was really hard to get a hold of. After asking for more chips and guacamole a first time, we had to keep asking because he would forget (on a “slow” Tuesday evening). Not wanting to leave with a bad taste in our mouths, I called the restaurant the next day and was told that each separate plate of chips and guacamole are a separate charge. (Darn!) But 2/3 of good service, I shall return!

CHEERS!

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