THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Erven

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Erven Restaurant Review:

Taking up residence in the space long known as Real Food Daily (24 years, to be exact), Erven eases the pain for plant-based foodies by elevating meatless meals to creative and unexpected heights. A number of options for carnivores were added to the menu in June 2017, but the menu is still heavy on vegan dishes. A to-go marketplace at the entrance offers breakfast items along with a changing selection of sandwiches (try the beer-battered tofu with celery slaw), salads, soups and desserts. Once you enter the main dining room -- anchored by an impossible-to-ignore oversized painting of Mick Jagger kissing Mahatma Gandhi -- get ready to experience vegetables prepared in ways you may have never considered. Chef Nick Erven (who partnered with chef Eric Greenspan, Jim Hustead and James Moon) presents a new American menu that veers from mock-meat mainstays (bye-bye, seitan!) and makes imaginative use of grains, pastas and fresh produce from the Santa Monica Farmers Market. You might think the garlic-chickpea fritters (made with activated charcoal) are small dark-chocolate bricks until you bite into one and get hit with a flavor bomb that's both savory and sweet, crispy and moist. Spicy roasted carrots go beyond the sphere of ordinary when topped with coconut ice, creating a mix of texture and temperature in every bite. Mains might range from a Thai style burrito to a fried chicken sandwich to salmon with chorizo, corn chowder, basil dumplings and smoky tomato. For dessert, try the fennel cake, a sweet and herbaceous crumble topped with a touch of iced pecan milk and dried strawberries. Not to be ignored, the wine list curated by general manager Hardeep Birdi offers an impressive number of organic and biodynamic selections organized according to flavor profile -- Nutty, Spice, Wood, Fruit -- rather than the standard red, white, sparkling. Adding to the overall experience is the friendly and knowledgeable staff who are more than happy to provide their recommendations for food and drinks.