Restaurants

The delicious organic vegan macrobiotic moderate meal at Manzanita Restaurant in Oakland.

During the work week, I can guarantee that I will eat a healthy lunch if I pack it myself, so I usually eat lunch in my cubicle. So when my friend Erin suggested we meet up for lunch at an organic vegan macrobiotic restaurant, I jumped at the chance to get out of my cube and have a healthy lunch prepared by someone else.

Manzanita Restaurant in Oakland is one of Erin’s favorite places to eat, so she was more than happy to introduce it to someone new.

This mellow, little restaurant is truly unique. It’s hidden on a corner under vines and trees. I don’t imagine it gets a lot of customers who just so happened to walk past it and decided to check it out. There’s no big sign alerting you to its presence, but it is worth searching for.

The menu of six dishes is preset. All you can control is the portion size. You can get a “moderate size” meal for $10.95 or a full meal for $12.95. We went with the moderate size, which proved to be the perfect amount.

The menu changes daily and is posted on the restaurant’s website twice a day. The lunch menu is updated by 11 a.m., the dinner menu by 5 p.m. So, if you are not by a computer and show up at Manzanita, you don’t know what you are going to get, but you know it will be something delicious.

Our lunch consisted of a veggie, beans and miso soup; anasazi beans with onion and garlic; saute of daikon (which, honestly, was delicious but I had no idea what it was. I had to Google it when I got back to the office. It’s a mild, large Japanese radish, in case you were wondering), carrot and golden beets; mixed rice burgers with basil, tofu with a downright delectable coconut milk sauce; steamed greens with homemade pickle garnish; and a mixed green salad with fine vinaigrette

Every dish tasted fresh and flavorful. It was excellent! I don’t know how to describe the feeling you get while eating at Manzanita other than it makes you feel good about yourself. You will easily forget that you are eating something good for you, which isn’t always the case when you are eating healthy.

If you think you can’t have a satisfying, tasty meal without meat, think again. I left Manzanita full and happy.

Manzanita Restaurant
4001 Linden Street
Oakland, CA 94608
(510) 985-8386
Lunch hours: Monday through Friday, 11:30a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Dinner hours: Friday through Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday buffet: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Sunday buffet: 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

You can order food to go, and if you bring your own containers, you can avoid the restaurant’s eco-packaging charge 75 cents.