The Gossiping Gourmet: Grateful to have found Gratitude

I must confess that I was not terribly excited by the prospect of a vegan dinner. However, I was quite delighted with the meal I had at Gratitude.

This new Newport Beach restaurant is located in a building that has been home to other restaurants over the years, but now it has been given a very attractive face-lift.

There is a large covered dining patio with numerous heaters warming the space from above. The interior features a long bar for drinks or dining, a high ceiling, interesting light fixtures that look like big woven baskets, cement floors and lots of attractive wood elements.

The menu is rather unique. A descriptive word represents each offering. For instance, the portobello tostada is called “Feliz.”

My concern about vegan dining disappeared with my first bite of this delicious concoction. It contained black bean puree, Mexican coleslaw, coconut bacon, cashew queso fresco and avocado. The many layers of flavor included spiciness from the coleslaw and a hint of sweetness mixed with the salty coconut bacon. The avocado gave it a lushness, and the cashew queso fresco was soft and mild.

From the appetizers we chose “Dynamic,” a samosa chaat. If you are familiar with Indian food, you may know that this is a snack with many variations, all based on fried dough. It is Indian street food.

Gratitude fills the thin samosa dough with baked garnet yam and cauliflower, and the filling oozes out. Coconut mint chutney and spicy tomato jam were the final touches in this excellent offering.

“Authentic” was the house-made ravioli, which was notable because no eggs were involved, but the “pasta” tasted like regular pasta. The five ravioli on the plate were stuffed with a cheese-like concoction made from cashew nuts. They rested on fresh mixed greens, harvested that day from Alegria Fresh in Irvine. My dining companion and I probably would never have known that this was not real pasta.

One more very tasty dish was “Fearless,” a baked eggplant polpette. A polpette is a small meatball, in this case made with chopped, baked, orange-scented eggplant and served with marinara sauce, cashew ricotta, arugula, grilled balsamic radiccio and chile flakes for zip. Although the “meatballs” lacked the texture of meat, they were still really delicious.

The restaurant features seven desserts. Two are gluten-free. “Surrendering” is a brownie with vanilla coconut ice cream, cashew cream, chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. The other gluten-free dessert is called “Lovely,” and it is a cooked fruit cobbler with coconut cashew ice cream.

Other options on the dessert menu include “Chocolates and Bars.” “Mighty,” for one, is a superfood energy bar consisting of hemp, flax, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, almonds, goji berries, coconut butter, cacao nibs and raw chocolate.

We went for the house-made ice cream named “Praising,” which is made from cashew coconut and vanilla bean. The ice cream tasted just like regular ice cream, with nice raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.

Gratitude has several locations in Los Angeles, but this is the first one to have a full bar — the alcohol is also organic and vegan.

The eatery does not use any meat substitutes or soy products except for tempeh, which is used to imitate the dense texture of meat.

I was really very impressed with the food. I did not for one minute miss real meat. I think the operators have done an excellent job in a very pleasant setting.

Gratitude also does a big takeout business and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

*

GRATITUDE

Location: 1617 Westcliff Drive, Newport Beach

Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

Prices:

Appetizers: $9 to $18

Entrees: $14 to $18

Desserts: $3 to $10

Wine:

Bottles: $25 to $100

By the glass: $8 to $14

Corkage:$20

Information: cafegratitude.com; (949) 386-8100