Quick Bites: Avanti Cafe in Costa Mesa

This is a new section of VV called Quick Bites, not because the food is necessarily fast food, but because it's just a quick overview of places I didn't go all out and order a bunch of items or visit a few times before writing about it. I have, however, been to Avanti Cafe in Costa Mesa many times over the years, but because I've always lived close and stopped by on a whim I never brought my camera.

Last week I met the lovely and talented Raya Belna at Avanti for lunch to discuss her upcoming Fall Harvest CSA Dinner (which takes place at Avanti on 12/8) and other new ventures for both of us, all while enjoying some locally sourced, healthy vegan food.

I ordered the soup and salad combo, which comes with a full bowl of the soup of the day and a house salad. The soup of the day was lemon cauliflower barley, and although I'm not a fan of cauliflower I really enjoyed this soup. The salad was fresh and light, with local baby greens, carrots, red onions and green apple slices tossed in a vinaigrette. The combo also came with a slice of house made whole wheat cranberry walnut bread. We followed our meal up with some tea, of which Avanti has a wonderful selection and the employees are very knowledgable about.

Avanti makes everything to order, sources local produce and makes their breads (including the gluten-free flatbreads) right there in the kitchen. They also have a great selection of craft beer and wine, with many of those beers on tap. Additionally, Avanti serves up the only real veg/vegan brunch in OC, which I hope to report on in the coming weeks.

Stop by Avanti any time you're in the Costa Mesa area for made-from-scratch quality, or come out to Palmo Project's Fall Harvest CSA Dinner on December 8th at Avanti. It's only $35 for five courses!

Click here to visit the Avanti site.

Click here to follow Avanti on Twitter.