By LINDA BLADHOLM

Fans come to Gourmet Greenhouse Restaurant for mushroom sandwiches, veggie burgers, soups, salads, and creative vegan and vegetarian entrees, plus not-so-sinful desserts. The restaurant is an unlikely lunch spot hidden in a small, unadorned room above The Center for Human Development in Hollywood. It resembles a classroom more than a café -- although customers can sit at shaded tables in the meditation garden below, surrounded by tropical foliage and angel statues. The center specializes in spiritual healing and natural health counseling.

The six-month-old restaurant is the brainchild of the center's owners, Barbara Simons and Yvonne Chuck-Shing. Barbara's grandson Jason Rapp recently graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., where he did his thesis on vegetarianism; he was hired to create the menu.

The 23-year-old hired his grandmother's longtime housekeeper and cook, Maria Nagy, to be the chef and she brought in a fellow Hungarian Steve Istvan as an assistant. All three share cooking, serving and cleaning duties.

The best-selling sandwich is the portobello mushroom sautéed with onions and tossed in barbecue sauce with spicy mango-coconut purée, served open faced on a toasted ciabatta bun with sliced tomatoes, sprouts, dill pickle spear and house-made baked tortilla chips. Other sandwiches are made with a choice of soy cold cuts and soy cheese or veggie ''chicken'' salad on a choice of ciabatta, flaxseed bread or whole wheat pita. There is also cucumber or raw veggie salad sandwich of the day with the vegetables marinated in creamy Italian dressing.

Salads include cubed avocado with tomato, onion and cilantro in sweet and sour parsley dressing and tomato and green beans tossed in a citrus dressing. Chinese Mandarin salad with sliced almonds, orange segments and bamboo shoots on a bed of greens or a scoop of ''chicken'' salad mixed with cranberries and apples can be had with a choice of dressings. Most soups are made with almond or rice milk, including lightly spiced cream of pumpkin, thick mushroom, cream of tomato with basil, and sweet and sour cabbage. There is also chilled cream of strawberry that tastes like a smoothie.

A favorite entree is Hungarian-style stuffed potatoes. Peeled Idaho spuds are hollowed and stuffed with a flax bread mixture seasoned with onion, garlic, and paprika and slow cooked in vegetable broth that thickens into gravy as the potatoes start to dissolve. Others include almond pté with quinoa stuffed peppers cooked in tomato sauce, spaghetti squash angel hair with ''meatballs,'', and vegan pizza with soy cheese.

End with raw cheesecake made from mashed tofu and cashews drizzled in strawberry sauce or carrot and raisin pie, both with nut and date crusts.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.