A casual fine-dining restaurant for the modern American, Margo’s Santa Monica served many different meat products for six years. Some months ago, ownership changed the restaurant menu to make it fully plant-based. Even honey is not available at the restaurant any longer.
The move followed supervisor Greg Daniels and restaurant owner Mark Verge’s realization that the westside has many underserved vegans. Chef Daniels supervises the menus of Verge’s chain of restaurants, including The Golden Bull’s menu. For your information, The Golden Bull describes itself as the best steakhouse in Santa Monica.
Daniels told LA Weekly that it was a risky move to change the menu to make it fully plant-based. Daniels described it as a case of demographics versus the availability of vegan food. Daniels stated that vegans can visit the restaurant with no concern and demand plant-based food from the chef or choose through the restaurant menu. On the other hand, Daniels also said that he wanted a new menu with special importance for everyone. Daniels stated that if someone is not informed of the vegan status of a product, they might fail to realize the same.
Small plates at the restaurant include not only Impossible sliders alongside jalapeno mayonnaise, American cheese and arugula but also sugar snap peas on grilled bread with caramelized onions and ricotta. The restaurant also offers as good a trio of tacos as its vegan-friendly version gets. The trio comprises crispy sweet potatoes and chorizo, crispy avocados with cut cabbage as well as a jackfruit taco al pastor that is topped with pineapple.
The restaurant serves all the tacos with pico de gallo, lime, cilantro and chipotle aioli. It also offers the so-called banh mi sandwich on a baguette slice with jackfruit with soy glazing, mushroom pate alongside pickled carrots, cucumber and peppers. The sandwich is sure to satisfy even those carnivores who are more discerning than others.
The restaurant also has a broad brunch menu, which includes not only breakfast frittatas and burritos and vegan-friendly huevos rancheros but also an excellent pizza range.
Eleven Madison Park made headlines as it took meat options out of the menu in 2021 and went fully plant-based. For your information, Eleven Madison Park is among the best restaurants in New York. The NY restaurant has been packed since it adopted a fully plant-based menu.
Daniels stated that his restaurant did it to tinker with and explore the menu as well as that he feels that the move paid off.
