Elf Café
2135 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-484-6829
A few block west on Sunset Blvd. from Sage Organic Vegan, and right next door to Mohawk Bend, is Elf Cafe, a vegetarian/ vegan restaurant. One thing both have in common is that they are home to douchebag hipsters! I went to Elf about three years ago came away underwhelmed with the food, and a bad taste for their service.
Elf is a very small restaurant with very limited hours, they open at 6pm Mon-Sat. They aren't open on Sundays or for lunch! The restaurant covers two buildings, but they are both small. But, driving on busy Sunset Blvd, it is hard to see their sign, since it is covered by overgrown trees and it's not lit! Look for Mohawk Bend and it is right next door.
You enter Elf there is a bar and the kitchen, and a few tables. Walk into the other room and more tables along with restrooms in the back. It's a dimly lit room with dark paint, making for a very morbid atmosphere!
I ate the meal at a nearby stand, that had very good lighting. The lighting in the restaurant would make for terrible pictures. Plus being around douchebag hipsters isn't my idea of fun.
This was a good dish, full of flavor and very well cooked. But, hardly worth the $20 price tag! There were 3 king oyster mushroom, well cooked, good flavor. 3 small purple potatoes-good. A couple grape tomatoes. The house harissa was well balanced and flavorful. The tzatzki was fine. The wild rice pilaf was cooked well. The quality of the food nor the portion size is worth the price.
Service, this time was good. The server greeted me and was friendly. She told me the order would take about 25 minutes. I came back and she said they were boxing up my order. So, very good communication. My first time at Elf I went with a date. We get there at about 6:10pm. 10 minutes after they open and there are only two people in the restaurant. In a snotty tone the hostess/server asked if we had a reservation. I'm thinking your damn restaurant is empty, you just opened 10 minutes ago, you should be able to seat us. We get a table, we have dinner and by the time we left, maybe an hour later, there may have been 5 tables that had customers! The hostess/server gave off the attitude that we're such a popular restaurant that people need to make reservations! The service wasn't that great that first time either. Our server came to take our drink orders, then our dinner orders, bring our food and then our check. Never once asking if we needed anything or how the food was.
I won't go back to Elf again. Too pretentious, while the food is good, the prices are too high for the quality and portion size. I'll let the douchebag hipsters have Elf all to themselves! Little Pine has better food, better prices, and they are less pretentious!
