Los Angeles: M Café
mcafedechaya.com
7119 Melrose Ave.
Remember your macrobiotic friends who eschewed refined sugar, eggs, and dairy, and their noble (but bland) dinner parties? Meet your new BFF: This café makes macrobiotic cuisine incredibly tasty fare.
Berkeley, California: Chez Panisse
chezpanisse.com
1517 Shattuck Ave.
A longtime leader in the movement to showcase organic ingredients, cooked in simple, healthy, and delicious ways, Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse offers a daily prix-fixe menu that includes vegetables fresh from the garden, fruit right off the branch, and fish straight from the sea.
New York City: Blue Hill
bluehillnyc.com
75 Washington Place
The Greenwich Village setting may whisper “speakeasy,” but the menu sings “farm.” Since 2000, this nationally lauded restaurant has been using produce and animals from Stone Barns Center, a four-season farm and educational center 30 miles up the Hudson River.
Chicago: Green Zebra
greenzebrachicago.com
1460 West Chicago Ave.
Green Zebra makes its vegetarian-oriented menu stand out with chef-owner Shawn McClain’s creative, flavorful pairings. Roasted Squash Salad With Chestnut, Pear, and Parsley? Yum.
Detroit: Inn Season Café
500 E. Fourth St.
248-547-7916
In a city where some of the hottest restaurants are cooking up dishes with rich cream sauces, you can thank your lucky stars for the Inn Season Café. Whole-grain burgers and lasagnas with veggies rule the roost.
Atlanta: Bacchanalia
starprovisions.com
1198 Howell Mill Rd.
Talk about farm fresh: Husband-and-wife team and co-owners Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison supply much of the restaurant’s organic offerings from their own farm.
By Tracey Minkin and Frances Largeman-Roth, RD
Comments (12)
Sunset visited my restaurant in Eureka, CA years ago. Said ..great San Francisco style”. We would absolutely qualify for your independents category. We are dedicated to sustainable and humane practices, have an award winning wine list featuring artisan wines and do our business in a reuse, refuse, recycle manner. I’d love to tell you more. Avalon is open 8 years, and in the 1980’s we were at Stars, San Francisco, working alongside many chefs/restaurteurs that became well know as they stayed in urban areas. We made the choice to raise our family outside the cities, and though we are highly acclaimed by our guests who travel the world over, we do not get much notice from the media…..
You’d think a restaurateur could spell it right the first time! Come and see us!
Check out Seasons 52 in Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia…great fresh, low calorie meals at a good price.
R Thomas Grill in ATL is amazing too. Lots of healthy healthy!
Great suggestions! Now, if only I lived near any one of these outstanding establishments….By the way, it’s spelled ‘restauranteur’. You forgot the n again on your second try, Ms. Wolf.
Think you will ever come over to the northwest and see what we have thats healthy?
How come you didnt make a list of all the 43 places and fast food places? I want them for my travels.
Thank you.
Inn Season Cafe is noted to be located in Detroit, MI when it is actually in Royal Oak,MI. This is a gem of a restaurant and should not be missed.
Totally left out the Pacific Northwest, many wonderful and healthy restaurants in both the Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington areas. My husband and I have eaten at Chez Panisse and it’s wonderful. Another fabulous seasonal restaurant is the Herb Farm in Woodinville, just north of Seattle.
How about Applebees and their Weight Watchers section of the menu.
These are nice places to eat, but your average middle class person can’t afford to eat there.
I can eat at Mc Donalds and choose the right thing
I can eat at PaPa Murphys and ask for the right toppings Its not the resturant its what you choose to eat at these places RIGHT. Hit the salad bars and eat chicken breasts, Leave the dressings alone.
Thanks for your website, it is very helpful. My wife and I in or fifties don’t want to eat full portions of any restaurants main courses. We split plates all the time even if we are charged extra for it. I wish restaurants would provide a choice of small portion, medium portion, and large portion on thier menu’s. We often would like to order a dessert with our meal but we just don’t want to add the calories because we can’t finish the main course. Often we just want a taste of something we don’t need a huge helping of anything.
I often wonder how the Chinese keep so trim. I have noticed that they aren’t eating so healthy but the eat a little of lots of different things. Does this help? Gary
For people in the Cleveland area, try The Soup Pot restaurant. This place is great. The soups are amazing… Low calorie, low fat, low sodium and highly delicious! Check it out for yourself http://www.thesouppot.com