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USA Today named a local eatery one of the ten best vegetarian restaurants in the United States as part of a feature story on vegetarianism.

Native Foods on Gayley Avenue in Westwood was one of two California restaurants to make USA Today’s list, published in October in an article about World Vegetarian Day. The other was Millennium, a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco.

Manny Angel, chef and manager of Native Foods, said he thought the creativity and variety of their food distinguishes Native Foods from other vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles.

“It’s really the quality of the food, the flavor, that makes us stand out,” Angel said.

Aileen Chang, a fourth-year microbiology student who eats meat, said she first tried Native Foods out of curiosity.

“I was interested in trying it because I like soy products, and I noticed they used a lot of soy in their foods,” Chang said.

Native Foods serves a variety of dishes, most of which include some type of mock meat, such as “chicken” made from soy, or steak made out of seitan, a meat substitute made from wheat.

Some of the most popular dishes are the Chinese “Save the Chicken” Salad, the Chicken Run Ranch Burger and the Meat-Lovers’ Pizza, which is made with grilled soy chicken and blackened tempeh, an Indonesian mock meat made with soybean, grain and rice culture.

Angel said meat eaters often say that the restaurant’s meat substitutes taste like the real thing.

“People ask me, ‘What do you put in here? It tastes like chicken,” he said about the various chicken dishes.

Native Foods also has restaurants in Palm Springs and Palm Desert as well as a newly opened restaurant in Costa Mesa.

Owner Tanya Petrovna hopes to open eight to 10 more restaurants in Southern California, Angel said.

In addition to making USA Today’s top ten list, Los Angeles Magazine named the restaurant the “Best Vegan Restaurant” on their “Best of Los Angeles 2004” list, and VegNews Magazine named it among “The Best Vegetarian Restaurants of 2004,” according to Native Foods’ Web site.

About 3 percent of American adults identify themselves as fully vegetarian, another 6 to 10 percent as almost fully vegetarian, and 20 percent said they were consciously reducing their meat intake, according to an MSNBC article.

A majority of Native Foods’ customers are not vegetarians, said Holloday Allen, assistant manager at the Westwood branch, adding that about 60 percent of their customers eat meat.