December
15
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ESCAPE LONDON, VISIT AMERICA – The Gadarene Swine in Los Angeles is simply the best!
The Gadarene Swine is a lovely little restaurant in Studio City, Los Angeles. As you walk off Ventura Boulevard you are greeted but a pretty patio, with little trees, fairy lights and a welcome arch. As soon as you step inside you can’t help but feel welcome and at home, yet walking inside is just the beginning of your visually exciting and amazing culinary journey.
Apart from the warm tones of the beautiful farmhouse décor, one of the first things to stand out at the Gadarine Swine is the lighting. It’s dim enough for a romantic meal or a cosey dinner with friends, bright enough to see what you are eating and just right to get you in the mood to have almost all your senses engaged! The lighting is pretty, the lights almost look like falling stars and little details throughout add to the ambience. A funky old bike sits next to the wine cupboard and the plates on the table are made of sliced tree trunks. Happy chatter can be heard from the clienetelle, the kitchen is open and surrounded by a bar. The high barstools add the country kitchen feel and the music plays at just the right level to set the ambience, but still allowing you to enjoy great conversation. 
The food selection is interesting, exciting and inventive. The tables are laid with pretty cutlery and the water is laced with cucumber. We began our culinary experience with honey fried stuffed olives; they were a unique combination of sweet and sour. The sour dough with crushed tomato oil, proved to be just as tasty. The sour dour was perfectly crisp and the tomato jumping with flavour. We had only just begun on our tour into their delicious delicacies, but already our taste buds were having a party in our mouths! The presentation is just as excellent as the food itself, the fresh and creamy tomato arrived in a plate surrounded by a bird’s nest. The Gadarene Swine certainly know how to create unusual and delicious food combinations, all the food is fresh, outstanding and simply divine. The next delicacy to enter our mouths was the edamame adorned with Japanese BBQ sauce, this is actually the best edamame I have ever tasted and the flavours were exquisite. With every course we became more and more excited about the food, never before have I been blown away by the taste of food and this beautiful restaurant wowed me with every single dish, food excellence at it’s best! 
The Gadarene Swine certainly know how to create unusual and delicious food combinations, all the food is fresh, outstanding and simply divine.
The perfect service at the Gadarene Swine adds to the wonderful experience, the waiters are friendly, knowledgeable about the amazing food and know how to make you feel special. Phillip Frankland Lee the owner and chef actually took the time to come out to talk to us, to our surprise he not only had an inspiring story, he was only 27! Sadly, he had an ear tumour a few years before and had managed to shrink it by turning to a raw vegan diet; this experience inspired him to create healthy and tasty vegetarian food.
The perfect service at the Gadarene Swine adds to the wonderful experience, the waiters are friendly, knowledgeable about the amazing food and know how to make you feel special.
I defy any meat eater who does not think vegetarian food can be filling and tasty to visit the Gadarene Swine, I have frequented many vegetarian restaurants over the years and the Gadarene Swine is simply the best! The food is fresh, organic, delicious and very addictive. For the main we began with sharing a tomato, parsley and white onion salad, on a bed of sweet corn pudding. There is just one word for this amazing dish, wow! There are so many flavours going on at once, I feel for the first time in my life I have discovered what food is actually meant to taste like and I guarantee anyone that visits this restaurant will be floored by the amazing flavors and exciting food combinations. We followed with the blackened cauliflower; the colours were vibrant and visually exciting, while the taste was out of this world. It is refreshing how fresh all the food actually is. We then tasted the roasted mushrooms with burnt sweet potato, which was equally delicious; every dish is bursting with flavor and will make your taste buds go wild. The crispy yucca with avocado moose is also visually exciting and full of amazing textures. It is hard to make yucca and the Gadarene Swine cooks it to perfection. The deserts are just as phenomenal at the previous courses. 
I defy any meat eater who does not think vegetarian food can be filling and tasty to visit the Gadarene Swine, I have frequented many vegetarian restaurants over the years and the GS is simply the best.
As you may have gathered, I can’t praise the Gadarene Swine enough. It is the first time in my life I have been blown away by the taste of food; I want to tell everyone how amazing this lovely restaurant is. Perhaps if I could change just one thing, I would say that the simple food descriptions on the menu do not give the amazing food justice. The way each description was described to us at the table was exciting and it would be great to have those wonderful descriptions on the menu itself.
Wherever in the world you come from, if you EVER come to Los Angeles, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you did not visit the Gadarene Swine and allow yourself to be blown away by it’s culinary delights. Never has food been more enticing, exciting, delicious and innovative. The Gadarene Swine gets it right on every single level and is simply the best! From the pretty décor, to the perfect service and of course the food, which is out of this world. This Los Angeles eatery may have just become one of Heart London Magazine’s all time favourites, so whatever you are doing, stop and run to The Gadarene Swine for the food experience of a lifetime!
Cuisine: Vegetarian
http://www.thegadareneswine.com/
11266 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, Ca, USA (001) 818 508 5500 (Open Tuesday to Sunday)
Twitter: @GadareneSwine
Facebook: Facecbook.com/thegadareneswine
Instagram: @TheGadareneSwine
Heart London 5 * Rating
Food 5
Décor 5
Service 5
Drink 5
Atmosphere 5
Cat, Heart London Magazine
Heart London Magazine 