Food

4 of the Best Veggie Burgers in Los Angeles

So many veggie burgers available today are built with industrial meat substitutes that it’s hard to tell them all apart. The most delicious are still made with actual vegetables, and this is what makes them shine, giving them character, eccentricities and deep flavor. When a veggie burger is good, it’s a marvel of texture, often deepened with the umami of mushrooms, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, miso or kombu. Here are a few favorites in and around Los Angeles right now.

Burgerlords

A recent addition to the menu at Burgerlords, in collaboration with the artist collective Brain Dead.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times
The nostalgic interior of Burgerlords in Highland Park.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times

There are two patty options at this excellent vegan burger spot — an umami-rich vegetable patty made from barley and nuts, crisp with panko, and a more fast-food-like one made from TVP (textured vegetable protein), for those with nut and soy allergies or simply a taste for (housemade) imitation meat.

110 North Avenue 56, Los Angeles, burgerlords.com

Seabirds Kitchen

At Seabirds Kitchen in Long Beach, a vegan burger made from beets and mushrooms.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times
The vegan restaurant has two burgers on the menu, both built with a house-made patty.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times

Both of the veggie burgers on the menu at this vegan cafe in Long Beach are delicious, made with a thick, wonderfully textured vegetable patty made from beets, tofu and mushrooms. The Beets Me burger focuses on the patty, while the barbecue burger comes more generously sauced, with a tangle of battered and fried pickled onions.

975 East Fourth Street, Long Beach, Calif.; 562-317-5545, seabirdskitchen.com

Stuff I Eat

Babette Davis put a vegan burger on the menu at Stuff I Eat after receiving requests from diners.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times

Babette Davis runs an old-school vegan restaurant in Inglewood with a nostalgic, hippie-leaning veggie burger. The patty is part housemade nut loaf, part wild rice, generously seasoned and stuffed into a sprouted bun with griddled red onion and mushrooms.

114 North Market Street, Inglewood, Calif.; 310-671-0115; stuffieat.com

Spoke Bicycle Cafe

The thick veggie burger at Spoke Bicycle Cafe comes with a little slab of tempeh bacon.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times
The cafe is on the edge of the Los Angeles River, along a popular bike path.Credit…Miles Fortune for The New York Times

This colorful bicycle shop and bar on the Los Angeles River in Frogtown isn’t vegan, but the housemade veggie burger is a charmer all the same. Smoky, substantial, tinted with beets, it comes on a toasted bun with a little slab of tempeh bacon and a side of waffle fries.

3050 North Coolidge Avenue, Los Angeles; 323-684-1130; spokebicyclecafe.com

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