Blue Plate Taco

Of course we did the Santa Monica pier/3rd Street Promenade tourist day trip with Dad and Elisa. Duh. What would a day in LA be without shopping???? Actually, we didn't get anything ): but we did eat. The second best thing in the world.

To get to the promenade we walked along Ocean instead of through the parking garage and the Nordstrom area of the shopping strip. There are plenty of cute restaurants under all the hotels that have their own outdoor seating areas and my dad loved them. After we'd walked the whole length of the promenade, he insisted on returning to one restaurant he noticed with "taco" in the name. "Uh dad, I can't exactly eat tacos..." But we went anyway, he wanted to check it out.

I forgot to take a picture of the interior. Thanks Google.

On the way Dad made us stop in a few other places (like a seafood restaurant...) to check the menus and see if there was anything I could eat. Naturally, no. But we did the same in Blue Plate Taco and they actually do have one option clearly labeled "can be made vegan" which is probably the most helpful thing a restaurant can do. Needless to say, we stayed and ate there.

I'm not complaining, it was a good meal. I convinced them to order an appetizer (why would anyone ever pass up the opportunity to have chips/guac/salsa???). Which ROCKED. FYI they bring you more chips when you run out. Not salsa or guac, but dad ended up asking for more of one salsa and our waitress misunderstood and brought both... don't know if we were charged? Who cares, I wasn't paying and it was delicious.


Then our food actually came out really soon after that, even though the restaurant was packed. [We wanted a table outside but there was about a 30 min wait so it wasn't worth it. But they provide drug-rug blankets for anyone sitting outside -- what a great idea.] I got the one vegan option duh. I probably could have made the vegetable tacos vegan but I wasn't in the mood to ask if there was any sauce that wasn't vegan etc etc, and they made it easy to order something else.

Mine was the rice bowl, not the catch of the day. Just to clear up any confusion. Alright anyway, it was pretty good. Nothing spectacular honestly. There were mushrooms which I picked out and gave to Elisa (who was thrilled) but other than that I ate it all. Even the tomatoes, go me. I found it sorta flavorless... sorta bland? So I started putting guac and salsa in and it helped a ton, I would only eat it with salsa if I got it again. Not bad after that though! We skipped dessert and decided to head out (back into the cold ocean breeze) but it was all in all a good experience. Cute, clean bathroom. Good staff. Would go again! If it means anything, it's under the Shore Hotel and if you know which one that is, you know this restaurant has to be good quality to get a spot like that...