I hadn’t heard of celebrity vegan chef Matthew Kenney before Hungry Angelina opened in Long Beach, but apparently he has an empire: over 40 restaurants in places like New York City, Buenos Aires, and Dubai, including a food hall in Providence, Rhode Island (the world’s first plant-based food hall). So Hungry Angelina is busy. It’s the sort of place that takes reservations, and not for one person. Fortunately my PTO at work is maxed out, and I take random days off. That allowed me to visit Hungry Angelia at 3:30 pm on a Tuesday where I had the place to myself. The server recommended the beet poke above. It’s brown rice, cubed beets, edamame, avocado, oranges, and seaweed with sesame-orange vinaigrette and a bit of arugula, and it is delightful.
Since I’d seen it featured on their Instagram page a couple times, I also wanted to try the chocolate cake (with miso caramel and vanilla ice cream). The ice cream sits on a bed of crunchy chocolate crumbles, sort of like cookie sprinkles, and the cake is dense, almost fudge. The caramel is right-on, and the ice cream mixed with the crunchy chocolate bits makes a tasty dessert experience.