Chipotle no longer stands alone in the Improved Fast Food world: Chop’t, Maoz, Freshii, Zoës Kitchen and several others all have their strong points. And — like Chipotle — they all have their limitations, starting with calories and fat. By offering fried chicken and fried onions in addition to organic tofu, Chop’t, a salad chain in New York and Washington, tempts customers to turn what might have been a healthful meal into a calorie bomb (to say nothing of the tasteless dressing), and often raises the price to $12 or more. The Netherlands-based Maoz isn’t bad, but it’s not as good as the mom-and-pop falafel trucks and shops that are all over Manhattan. There are barely any choices, nothing is cooked to order, the pita is a sponge and there is a messy serve-yourself setup that makes a $10 meal seem like a bit of a rip-off.

Despite its flaws, Improved Fast Food is the transitional step to a new category of fast-food restaurant whose practices should be even closer to sustainable and whose meals should be reasonably healthful and good-tasting and inexpensive. (Maybe not McDonald’s-inexpensive, but under $10.) This new category is, or will be, Good Fast Food, and there are already a few emerging contenders.

Veggie Grill is a six-year-old Los Angeles–based chain with 18 locations. Technically, it falls into the “premium fast casual” category. The restaurants are pleasantly designed and nicely lighted and offer limited service. The food is strictly vegan, though you might not know it at first.

Kevin Boylan and T. K. Pillan, the chain’s founders, are vegans themselves. They frequently refer to their food as “familiar” and “American,” but that’s debatable. The “chickin” in the “Santa Fe Crispy Chickin” sandwich is Gardein, a soy-based product that has become the default for fast-food operators looking for meat substitutes. Although there are better products in the pipeline, Gardein, especially when fried, tastes more or less like a McNugget (which isn’t entirely “real” chicken itself). The “cheese” is Daiya, which is tapioca-based and similar in taste to a pasteurized processed American cheese. The “steak,” “carne asada,” “crab cake” (my favorite) and “burger” are also soy, in combination with wheat and pea protein. In terms of animal welfare, environmental damage and resource usage, these products are huge steps in the right direction. They save animals, water, energy and land.

Boylan wanted to make clear to me that his chain isn’t about haute cuisine. “We’re not doing sautéed tempeh with a peach reduction da-da-da,” he said. “That may be a great menu item, but most people don’t know what it is. When we say ‘cheeseburger’ — or ‘fried chickin’ with mashed potatoes with gravy and steamed kale — everyone knows what we’re talking about.” He’s probably right, and the vegetables are pretty good, too. The mashed potatoes are cut with 40 percent cauliflower; the gravy is made from porcini mushrooms and you can get your entree on a bed of kale instead of a bun.

When I first entered a Veggie Grill, I expected a room full of skinny vegans talking about their vegan-ness. Instead, at locations in Hollywood, El Segundo and Westwood, the lines could have been anywhere, even an airport Taco Bell. The diners appeared mixed by class and weight, and sure looked like omnivores, which they mostly are. The company’s research shows that about 70 percent of its customers eat meat or fish, a fact that seems both reflected in its menu and its instant success. Veggie Grill won best American restaurant in the 2012 Los Angeles Times readers’ poll, and sales are up 16 percent in existing stores compared with last year. The plan is to double those 18 locations every 18 months for the foreseeable future — “fast enough to stay ahead of competitors, but not so fast as to lose our cultural DNA,” Boylan said. In 2011, the founders brought in a new C.E.O., Greg Dollarhyde, who helped Baja Fresh become a national chain before its sale to Wendy’s for nearly $300 million.

Image Credit... Craig Cutler for The New York Times

Veggie Grill is being underwritten partly by Brentwood Associates, a small private-equity firm that’s invested in various consumer businesses, including Zoës Kitchen, a chain that offers kebabs, braised beans and roasted vegetables. “For a firm like us to get involved with a concept like Veggie Grill, we have to believe it’s a profitable business model, and we do,” Brentwood’s managing director, Rahul Aggarwal, told me. “Ten years ago I would’ve said no vegan restaurant would be successful, but people are looking for different ways to eat and this is a great concept.”