Crossroads (“Where vegans, flexitarians, meat eaters, and omnivores cross paths”) opened in L.A. in 2013. In May 2022, Crossroads launched its third location at Resorts World to much fanfare, being the first and only vegan fine-dining restaurant on the Strip.
Heralded by all kinds of publications as among the best vegan restaurants in the country, Crossroads has two claims to fame. First, its focus is as much on Mediterranean cooking as on vegan, so the meat substitutes aren’t tofu or tempeh based; rather, they use Impossible foods to some extent, along with beans, grains, and nuts for proteins. Second, Crossroads strives to recreate the cuisine as closely as possible, so that it’s hard to tell the difference between the plant-based and real things; as such, there’s not a lot of information on what products are used for what dishes, not even in the breathless reviews of the restaurant, which generally focus on how closely the food mimics regular restaurants.
In our research, we did find a few descriptions. The “foie gras,” for example, is made with roasted chestnuts, porcini mushrooms, shallots, and white wine. “Oysters” are made from oyster mushrooms. Runny “egg yolks” are orange-tomato based, and “cheeses” are non-dairy from nut milks.
When we heard that Crossroads was offering a Sunday brunch buffet, we jumped on this chance to try a lot of different vegan breakfast and lunch dishes.
The actual plant-based food, such as potato cakes, avocado toast, heirloom peaches, and Caesars, mixed-green, and tomato-cucumber salads, are readily identified and done well. Otherwise, the “eggs” (after inquiring, we were told they’re made of mung beans, soy, and onion) and house-made “sausage” were indistinguishable from animal-based; you probably couldn’t tell the difference if you didn’t know. The eggless Hollandaise sauce on the faux Benedict was as good as it gets. The “bacon” looks fake, though tastes authentic; the breading for the “fried chicken” was true, though the rest wasn’t.
The “lox” looked great, though made from carrots, there was no comparison. The “cream cheeses” (olive and scallion) were passable, but the faux cheeses were marginal and the smoked whitefish was a total dud — no smoke, no fish taste, no taste at all, really.
The desserts, such as berry parfait, strawberry “cheesecake,” tiramisu, and lemon cake, were fine, while the lemon cookies were outstanding, though we saw a lot of brownies left on plates, including ours.
And careful: We broke down and tried a glass of fresh fruit and vegie juice; it was all of five ounces for a ridiculous $12 and it wasn’t even all that good.
The room is comfortable, with a piano player in the bar area putting out mellow music. A few people were there when we walked in at 10:30, but it filled up and was pretty full when we left an hour later.
For the $48 brunch charge, plus tax and tip, it was a worthwhile experiment, but we won’t be back to try the regular menu.