Let me be clear, all restaurants are fantastic places with lots of food in them. It’s just that some are better than others.

Yesterday I headed west to Venice Beach. My destination: Café Gratitude on Ross Avenue. It was my pal’s birthday and birthdays usually mean good eats. Did I mention that this particular friend is a vegetarian? Yup, I’m very happy for her.

(Note to reader: I’ve stopped making jokes about vegetarians. It’s called Lent. As I understand it, if you give up something really fun for 40 days, you get a ham when it’s all over. I’ll keep you posted. You also have to eat fish on Fridays. No problem there.)

I arrived a few minutes late and the ordering was already underway. I heard the girls say, “I’ll have an I am Grace, but let’s start out with an I am Dazzling and an I am Connected.” What!? My finely tuned instincts had me darting for the door but, truth be told, I was also kinda curious to find out what connectedness tasted like.

The menu for Café G, as Angelinos refer to it, is 100% organic and plant-based. Translation: it’s vegan and VERY “LA”. Each drink and dish on the menu is an “I am (insert ego stroking adjective).” If that’s not awkward enough, there’s also a “question of the day” that the server asks each table if they’d like to hear. For some reason, our table went for it. The question was: “Where can you practice compassion in your life?” Immediately I thought of Robert, my rubber chicken chew toy whose right foot I’d managed to rip off earlier that morning. What a buzz kill. I thought a better question of the day might have been, “Would you like to grapple with existential conundrums at some later date and just eat lunch?” To which I would’ve replied, “Yes, please”.

I ended up ordering the “I am Humble” because it was the least annoying title and I like Indian food. Think: red lentil dal, spinach, roasted garnet yams, spicy mint chutney, sweet tamarind sauce, chopped scallions, sprouted probiotic brown rice, quinoa or a combination of both if you’d like. To wash it all down I selected the “I am Strong” smoothie (partly for the same reason mentioned above but also) because I have an affinity for bananas.

The service at Café G was top notch. I got a free pat, my own stainless steal water bowl and no dirty looks when I polished off everyone’s left overs. For a moment I even thought, maybe vegan food isn’t so bad after all.

The dishes are colorful and hearty, filling you up with only enough room for dessert. Someone ordered me an “I am Irresistible”. Really? Why thank you kindly! While the birthday girl got an “I am Surrendering” which translates into a vegan gluten-free brownie with vanilla coconut cashew milk ice cream, chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. If only I wasn’t allergic to chocolate!

Stay hungry my friends”¦