Plant Power Fast Food is the first drive-through restaurant with vegan food in Long Beach. It started operations in June 2019; the drive-through area was under construction some days before the opening. The concept of plant-based-type fast food was new to Long Beach at the time.
Plant Power is a company operating vegan-friendly fast-food restaurants in Redlands, Encinitas and San Diego. Its first Los Angeles or Orange County location is along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and Clark Avenue, formerly a University Burger location.
It is the best-looking restaurant of Plant Power, with a circular dining space, dark beams that hold fans, and large windows. A neon sign says, “The Future of Fast Food”, plus there is a small garden patio for people who wish to dine in the open air. Patrons order food and wait for the restaurant staff to call their number. The restaurant has prepackaged salads and a fountain that dispenses soda.
Plant Power may technically be a fast-food restaurant, but it has a longer waiting time as compared to a standard In-N-Out burger location.
The menu of Plant Power has burgers, milkshakes, fries, sandwiches, chicken wings, nuggets, tenders, kombucha, and raw tacos. It also provides breakfast food items with stuffed burritos and muffins.
Almost all the menu items are marked with quotations for alternative meat customers. Here, you can find products such as ‘bacon’ cheeseburger, ‘fish fillet’ sandwich, ‘chicken’ sandwich. Vegan cuisine may still be a bit new to almost everyone here, but the vegan marketing tool is perhaps necessary. There will hopefully be a time when vendors can sell vegan-friendly food without highlighting its meat-like taste. Plant Power also serves a black kidney bean patty as an alternative to its usual ‘beefy’ patty at no extra charge.
The so-called Big Zak is one of Plant Power’s signature burgers. It is a larger product than the Big Mac burger that it mimics as well as is softer in terms of texture and flavor. Three big, pillowy buns enclose beefy patties, American ‘cheese’, Zac sauce, onions, pickles, and lettuce. The sauce has no tang taste and is mild, but the patties are well-seasoned. The location offers the product in a yellow and orange burger box with a retro style.
The restaurant also has a crispy ‘chicken’ that is topped with tomato, ranch dressing and lettuce and that you can order as a sandwich or wrap. The wrap option is quite a decent and filling food item. There is also a good zip to the restaurant’s Buffalo sauce. Veggie Grill around the corner has the Plant Power restaurant beat in its vegan-friendly Buffalo chicken category.
The so-called Iconic Fries, an In-N-Out Animal Fries imitation, is a smashing product at the Plant Power location in Long Beach. The product has almost the same taste as Animal Fries, with a silky cheese alternative at the top of crispy fries, a tangy secret sauce, and caramelized onions.
If you visit the restaurant in a peak period, remember that it would probably have a cramped parking lot with cars going into and existing stalls. Long lines started to curve around the location after the drive-through feature became fully functional. What is more worthwhile is the sheer thrill of having a vegan-friendly meal of fries and burgers alongside milkshakes without coming out of our cars.