Wild Food Cafe (Covent Garden, London)

Wild Food Cafe's a half raw, half vegan cafe up a set of stairs in Neal's Yard, Covent Garden. Having visited shortly after they opened in 2011 and had the most revolting raw soup ever, I decided not to blog about them until I'd given them a chance to redeem themselves.

I wasn't overly excited about returning though, so it took about 2 years before I gave them another go. Pushed for time I ordered:

Olive & Shiitake Burger - 10.5
shiitake, olive & jeruselem artichoke burger with dairy free pumpkin seed cheese, superfood ketchup, tomatillo salsa verde, baba ganush, Dijon mustard, lettuce in a sourdough focaccia burger bun served with baby leaf salad

The kitchen's open plan and seating cramped, with tables set up canteen style. The people sitting next me spent forever talking about crystals, which nicely sums up the (aging) hippy vibe of the place.

I couldn't see the point of eating cooked bread with raw filling, so paid £1 extra for a raw cracker instead:

Instantly I wished that I hadn't - whilst it was well presented it meant you couldn't pick it up and eat it like those dining around me. Also, I love sourdough focaccia - what was I thinking?!

I would go back and try different things, particularly if I was with someone who wanted raw food. London's better food for less however in walking distance of Covent Garden, so it might take a while before I'm in the mood again.

Down to Earth (Kensington, London)

Down to Earth's an organic cafe & restaurant, roughly half way between Kensington High Street tube and Olympia (walkable from each). All vegetarian; about half the menu is raw.

I had lunch there a couple of months back - a welcomed alternative to Saf or Wagamama where I normally end up. As you'd expect (given the area it's in); Down to Earth is as posh as vegetarian cafes come - sandstone exterior, chandeliers and marble tables inside. Prices are sensible though and inline with most other raw cafes / restaurants. Staff were friendly and waiting times low - it was about 1/3 full when I went.

Raw meals are pre-prepared and displayed behind the counter. Whilst it's good to see what you're getting, you could taste the fact that they'd not been made to order (or at least properly chilled prior to service). They are definitely fresh, but not quite fresh enough. I opted for their lasagne, described as "marinated courgette pasta strips layered with portobello meat, rich tomato sauce, herbed cashew and yellow pepper cheese and pesto served with a side salad":

I really enjoyed the lasagna part. Not as much as 42Raw's, but it was by far the best thing I ate whilst there. Not so keen on the salad, but I'm generally not that keen on salad in general (unless it's covered in oil / sauce or in a bun with a burger).

I love carrot cake, which is probably why I was disappointed (to the point of leaving half) with the dessert:

Raw cheesecake can be fantastic but fruit/vegetables mushed together with agave and spice in the guise of sponge cake doesn't really work for me. I did my best to eat the frosting from the centre and ditched the rest.

I don't love Down to Earth (yet), but will try it again. They do an evening menu (no prices on the website) so I might give it a go and opt for a cooked dessert next time.

RAW (Bayswater, London)

It seems social media really is everything these days when it comes to launching small businesses. While some of the least significant manage to generate thousands of Facebook likes, others slip quietly into existence - their potential clientele completely unaware.

How can it be in 2013 that a vegan restaurant open in an upmarket London hotel without anyone realising? I made the mistake of booking a table when I visited in November, which turned out to be completely unneeded as I was the only diner.

Their restaurant's a room (+outdoor seating) within La Suite West, just round the corner from Bayswater tube station. According to the website they do cooked non-vegetarian breakfasts too - I don't know whether this is in the same restaurant or elsewhere.

Arriving around 5pm I opted for their afternoon tea, which they describe as "a quintessentially contemporary vegan alternative to this Great British tradition. With a combination of designer finger sandwiches, home made scones served with coconut cream and fresh strawberries, followed by a delectable selection of home made pastries."

A Selection of Finger Sandwiches

Grilled Portobello | basil pesto | cherry tomatoes
Hummus | cucumber | rocket | red onion slices
Tofu scrambled | spicy guacamole
Roasted butternut squash | cream of artichoke and truffle
Roasted spinach | garlic | aubergine | cauliflower mousse

Warm Home Made Scones | fresh Strawberries | whipped Coconut cream

Mini Chocolate & Coconut Raw Cake | Mini Sesame Halva

Your preferred choice of Tea or Coffee

£19 per person
Like similar restaurants they do cooked food too - their afternoon tea is firmly in this category. Whereas Metrodeco's comes all at once, RAW's comes in 3 courses. I ordered a mocktail too, which turned out to be a good addition.

The sandwiches were beautifully presented and I enjoyed the majority of the flavours (I'm not and never will be a cauliflower fan!). They weren't particularly big thou, the equivalent of about 2 slices of bread between them.

I commented on Metrodeco's post that you should arrive hungry and plan to eat dinner late - at RAW (depending on your appetite) you should be slightly peckish and have dinner lined up soon after...

The scones were tiny. They look reasonably big in that picture, but trust me that's my dodgy iPhone camerawork! They tasted good, but for the sake of a few pence worth of extra mixture could have been a lot more impressive.

In comparison, the bowl of coconut cream that they came with was massive - enough for several people. It seemed homemade (which is nice), but the consistency wasn't quite right - more shiny and gelatinous than creamy. It tasted good though, and having spread as much as I could on the scones resorted to surreptitiously eating the rest with a spoon (it's not like there were other diners to offend!).

So far, so good. I was definitely ready for the "delectable selection of home made pastries" now.

Either that's the world's largest raspberry or the world's smallest looking plate of food. Sadly it was the latter (note the size of the fork on the left). I did wonder whether the pastries were coming in phases, but it seems that's your lot. They were ok - raw truffle on the left, chocolate coated halva in the centre, some sort of cake on the right.

RAW's got a lot going for it - nice part of London, good building, decent crockery/cutlery etc. With a few refinements and less stingy portion sizes their afternoon tea could be really good.

Next time I'll try their restaurant menu - if it involves the ability to sit outside in summer then all the better. I might plan a backup option though, in case I end up leaving hungry!

42Raw (Mayfair, London)

I sometimes wonder whether I'm being a bit harsh on restaurants/cafes where I have bad experiences. Afterall, shouldn't we (vegans) be encouraging all businesses that cater for us and helping them succeed?

I read various blogs however where authors have amazing experiences every where they go and everything they taste is simply amazing. It just becomes a bit sickly and unbelievable after a while - either they're lying, mental or have incredibly low expectations as to what constitutes good food and good service.

On the whole though the majority of places do get it right - I've had some very positive experiences recently and discovered many new places that I'll certainly return.

42Raw is the latest (mostly) raw vegan cafe to open in central London. Its existing sister cafe in Denmark gives it an obvious advantage over start-ups, bringing an established brand, well tested menu and a slicker than average execution. Its decor looks almost identical to the Copenhagen branch - even the food looks as if it was made by the same person.

It definitely shows - combined with good service 42 have done a good job of hitting the ground running.

Its location in Mayfair (close to Tibits / Regents Street) is both impressive and a hindrance - time will tell as to how well it does in its current building. Despite knowing its address I walked up and down Burlington Gardens a couple of times before I eventually found it. At first I assumed that it must be hidden in Burlington Arcade or above a shop - it was only when I'd given up looking that I saw a lone sandwich board pointing into The Royal Academy of Arts.

The building itself is beautiful, with extremely high ceilings and extensive architectural detailing. You have to pass the Academy's security however to enter and they've obviously imposed strict restrictions on the amount of signage/advertising that can be seen from the outside. Success will depend heavily on word of mouth and other media.

The set up is takeaway, with a few small tables outside the main room in the reception area of The Academy. The food itself however is restaurant standard - both in terms of quality or ingredients and presentation. Everything's vegan (except dairy milk in drinks), but there's currently too much slant on (boring) salads rather than complex dishes (for my liking).

Like Urban Eats (which also opened recently & I visited last week); there's more on the menu than there is available - hopefully the selection will improve with time as they get more trade. Unlike Urban I found the staff at 42Raw much easier to interact with.

I could lie and claim that I did it for research purposes, but through gluttony alone I ordered the same things that I had at Urban Eats last week:

Lasagna £7
Squash, tomato sauce, walnuts, parsley pesto, cashews creme and baby spinach

Chocolate Cake £2.50
Cashews, dates, cacao butter and cacao powder

Mint Cake £3
Coconut, dates, cacao powder and a mint cream topping

Prices were a little higher but still very reasonable - I maintain my stance that Urban Eats are undercharging. In context, Wholefoods Market is a short walk away and charges over £1 more than 42 for raw cheesecake.

The lasagne was very good indeed:

Though creamy it didn't really have a well developed cheese flavour, but the whole dish tasted fresh and well balanced. Visually it looked stunning, with well defined layers and variety of colour. I'll certainly order this again.

The cake was a mixed bag:

Good base, not so good top (the exact opposite of Urban's attempt). Just a bit too bitter for my liking and not quite smooth enough. The mint cake survived the 100 mile train journey home, which meant that we got to eat it with cream:

On first taste I didn't like it. Not because it didn't taste good but because it tasted like nothing I've had before. Usually minty things have a minty taste - either from mint oil or synthetic. This however actually tastes like fresh garden mint, captured in its entirety.

It definitely benefited from being eaten with cream (Soyatoo Rice Whip, which I realise isn't raw) and I'm not sure I'll order it again. It is good to experience new things like this though - vegan cooking certainly isn't dead! I look forward to having more surprises from 42Raw in the future.

It's difficult not to compare Urban to 42, but on the whole I like them both. Competition is good and the market's certainly big enough to support many more raw cafes/restaurants in London. If the joined forces it'd be awesome - Urban's 'cheese' on 42's lasagne, 42's base on Urban's cheesecake. If not then hopefully they'll visit each other at some point and perform some espionage :)

Urban Eats (Holborn, London)

I'm still slightly mourning the loss of Saf. Yes, it was expensive. No, not every dish they made worked. On the whole though they created flavours and textures I've not experienced either before or since.

I've tried Aloka's raw restaurant and Cafe Gratitude in Cupertino, as well as various attempts at raw dishes by places like Manna V. Some sweet things have worked (Aloka's cheesecake is to die for) but none have come close at creating savoury food that actually tastes like its cooked - or at least processed to the point where it's not obviously a bunch of raw ingredients mashed together. In November last year I met up with Sash and Mits to try a new raw place in London - Wild Foods Cafe in Covent Garden. See Mits' review here for pictures of what can only be described as sliced raw vegetables in orange juice - yuck!

I didn't have high hopes for Urban Eats, but was pleasantly surprised.

Location's good - a nice looking street with plenty of other cafes, 5 minute walk from Holborn tube. When I visited on Wednesday lunch time I was pleased to see a stream of other customers both eating in and getting takeaway.

Everything on the menu is vegetarian, many vegan. Confusingly though items containing honey are marked as vegan. Whilst I realise that some "vegans" eat honey, almost all I've met don't, including the Vegan Society's definition. It'd be good if the menu could be made clearer.

Not all menu items are always available - those that are are in a small chiller next to the counter. It's not obvious which are which or what a plate of food looks like. The front of house staff were friendly, but I had some difficulty trying to figure out what it was I was ordering. The one lady who did seem to know about the items (who I assume is the owner/chef) disappeared into the back before I got a chance to ask.

Hopefully everything I ate contained agave not actual honey.....

Eventually I settled for raw lasagne and a smoothie, followed by a couple of desserts (I'm greedy like that):

Raw Vegetable Lasagne £4.80
served with salad and bread
This is a delicious raw vegan lasagne bursting with flavour from the sundried tomato and macadamia cheese. (R)(G)(W)(D)(S)(V)

Minty Fresh £3
Bananas, Cucumber, Basil, Fresh Mint, Peaches and Apple. Great smoothie with soothing qualities which protect and heal the stomach lining. (G)(V)(R)

Marbled Chocolate & Orange Tavoletta (R)(V)(G) £2

Unbaked Mint Avocado Layer Chocolate Cake (R)(V)(G) £2
This cake is full of omegas, potassium and fibre.

Cheap prices! I can't remember the last time a dessert cost less than £4. I'm not complaining, but given the location I think they could afford to up the prices slightly without scaring away any custom.

First impressions very good - the £4.80 lasagne tasted as good as Saf's £15 attempt! The cheese part was moist and had the flavour / texture of grainy cottage cheese (or at least what I remember it as, it's been a while). The other ingredients were all tasty and worked together. Seriously delicious.

The salad size was extremely generous (but again well dressed), it also came with a couple of slices of "bread":

which I really didn't like at all (I love real bread too much).

I'll definitely order the lasagne again - I look forward to trying other options. The smoothie was good too (I know I use the word good too often and should learn to use a thesaurus).

Dessert a mixed bag. The upper part of the torte/cheesecake was as good as Aloka's:

Really smooth and no sign that it was raw whatsoever. Raw or cooked; a steal at £2!

The base however is what gave it away as being raw - it had that unmistakable texture and taste of raw ingredients mashed together.

The chocolate mint cake looked and sounded good: (there's that word again)
Unfortunately it didn't taste good, at all. I'm not afraid of avocado in sweet dishes - I know it works perfectly well in chocolate mousse. I couldn't eat more than a few mouthfuls of this cake though. It seemed to have been partially defrosted, with big ice crystals still in it. Not to my taste at all :/

Though I ended on a low note, my overall impression of Urban Eats is very positive.

Three out of the four things I had I'd order again, two were exceptionally good and far too underpriced!

I'm really looking forward to revisiting and trying other things :-)

Aloka (Brighton)

Having had a very agreeable experience at Aloka's lunch buffet last year; I had high hopes for the restaurant. The fully raw menu looked stunning - what could possibly go wrong?

We booked a few days in advance for a Saturday night sitting. I was pleased to see that decor from downstairs continues up: same lighting, tulip tables and Vernor Panton S chairs (don't be put off by the plastic seating, as one reviewer said!)

It'd been a hot day, so we were pleased with our table by an open sash window. From my seat I could see along East Street towards Terre-a-Terre; which I tried to avoid looking at whilst we ate (I'll post about that meal shortly).

Having personally thoroughly enjoyed Saf, @cherrivalentine was in for a treat - she'd not had a fully raw meal in a restaurant before (other than the plain salads that confused omni places give you).

The dinner started with an amuse-bouche; a(n IKEA) shot glass filled with overly vinegary gazpacho. It was more an endurance than a pleasurable start to the evening, which didn't set a good tone:

We ordered a mezze platter for starter (£15.75), which promised a selection of items from the menu:

OK, so, the entire meal wasn't raw: we got a small cup of the day's soup, some bread and lentil pancake things.

The carrot humus I thought was rather good. The guacamole a bit bland (needed garlic) and olives over salty (I couldn't eat more than a couple). The crackers weren't good at all (no-where near as good as those from Saf, or those in overpriced boxes from Waitrose), neither was the lentil pancake (bland). The bread was bread and the soup again, a little over vinegary.

The main thing that baffled the hell out of us was just what the brown stuff in the white pot was meant to be. It looked like caramelized onions but tasted like, well, nothing. It was like eating gelatinous water. Apparently they were jasmine tea pearls - I wouldn't have guessed.

The whole dish was a bit pants, but nothing could prepare us for the main.

Stupidly, drawn in by the description, we broke the golden rule of shared dining and ordered the same thing: Botanical Living Special (£13.75):

First impressions good, but if I had to sum this dish up in one word? Bad. Really, really bad.

There were four things on the plate which didn't seem to have a purpose for existing together. A little ball of horseradish on a slice of courgette (wtf?), some chopped beetroot with a couple of olives, a mound of mushrooms in some kind of sauce and la piece de la resistance: a stuffed tomato on a stuck-together-seed-thing, ontop of sliced courgette.

The whole thing just didn't work. Half way through we got giggling fits because it was so bad - it's a good job too, otherwise we may have cried.

I don't know where to start, so I'll start with the seed thing. At first it seemed like something you'd give to the birds, but then it reminded me of those chew things you give to hamsters. It was impossible to elegantly cut with a knife and just didn't seem to have a reason for being on the plate.

The courgette seemed unseasoned - that which I had in Saf had been salted to tenderize, but this just seemed to be sliced. A forkful of tomato stuff with a slice of courgette and a bit of birdseed did taste alright, but it was awkward to eat and only just alright - not £13.75 alright.

The similarly priced raw food from Saf seemed to actually be recognisable dishes (pasta, lasagne etc), so you knew how to eat them. This just seemed to be a collection of mediocre stuff on a plate.

As one of the worst things I've eaten in a v*gan restaurant this decade, it was a poor attempt and a really bad advert for raw food.

Our experience at Aloka was partially resuscitated by dessert, which was actually very good.

Confusingly they don't have a printed dessert menu - the waiter/waitress reads it out (minus prices). We ordered a raw chocolate cheesecake and a raw chocolate banana & macadamia torte:

Other than that the smaller one cost a pound more and tasted slightly of banana; it's difficult to tell them appart.

They were however very good indeed - both the best raw desserts I've eaten and for that matter, amongst the best I've had in any restaurant (either raw or unraw). According to the bill they were 5.50 and 6.50, which is most reasonable.

On balance; I wouldn't go back for an evening meal at Aloka. I thought their lunchtime buffet was excellent when I visited last year and I'd certainly return for that side of things. Their savoury raw food however is .... crap

What I would do though, is eat starter & main at Terre-a-Terre, then nip across the road for dessert.

Courgette Pasta

Who'd have thought that a fruit as disgusting as courgette could be actually quite pleasant raw?

Though I get on OK with cucumbers, courgettes have always creeped me out a bit. Maybe it's something about their furry skin or that they go mushy when cooked. With the exception of ratatouille, up until a week or so ago you'd have been hard pushed to find me voluntarily eating courgettes.

Saf last weekend has done weird things to my view on food, specifically to do with eating hated vegetables in raw form.

Kale (one of my top 5 most hated veg) was grotesquely disgusting when I first tried it a couple of years ago. It had been cooked up with a bit of oil, garlic and was apparently very nice according to the person I ate it with. Not so, my gag reflex went into overdrive.

This week I actually chose to go out and buy a bag of curly kale and try it raw in a smoothie. Having blended a handful up with a banana and some apple juice it actually was drinkable. Not the nicest thing I've ever tasted, but the banana did a good job of hiding the taste and it was very similar to the spinach smoothies I've been having recently. Spinach (in case you're wondering) is OK when raw, as it's more like a salad leaf than yucky cabbage. It's bearable in certain instances when cooked, such as in lasagne. Yesterday morning I blended a handful spinach, handful kale, 2 bananas and apple juice. Again it was OK - not amazingly tasty, but OK and more raw greens than I've possibly ever consumed in one go.

So anyway, back to the purpose of this post. Since last weekend I've made 3 'pasta' dishes from raw courgette. The first 2 used shop bought pesto, yesterday's (and that which is detailed / photographed here) with fresh pesto. It doesn't take an awful lot of prep and does taste good. It's better with some chopped up sundried tomatoes added, but we'd run out when I made this batch. I sometimes add other nuts and/or balsamic vinegar to pesto, but balsamic isn't strictly raw (the grapes are cooked during the process).

Ingredients (per person):

• 1 large courgette (or several small)
• Fresh basil leaves
• Extra vigin olive oil
• Olives
• Pine Nuts
• Sundried Tomatoes
• Chopped garlic
• Sea Salt

Using one large courgette is easier than using smaller ones. To make the noodles use a julienne peeler, taking first a strip off the underside so you have a stable base. You can leave skin on or peal first (the latter being nicer, but less nutritious). Chop off the opposite end from which you start each slice.

You have 2 options - shave off slices then cut into noodles, or do long cuts along the length, so each slice comes off already in noodle form. If using the second method, I found through trial and error that cutting slices 90% of the way through leaves enough connecting tissue to hold it together whilst you slice. Otherwise it can get a little unmanageable.

When you've created your noodles, sprinkle with salt and set them aside in a bowl. I'm not a great fan of salt, but if you don't add it they won't soften and become pasta like.

Blend all other ingredients together in quantity of your choice, or chop the basil, olives, tomatoes and crush the nuts in a pestle & mortar.

Toss together with the courgette and serve.

It would go exceptionally well with some warm crusty bread, but all thoughts of such things must be banished! :O

Saf

As the vegetable hater you all know me to be, the concept of attending Saf was more than a little disturbing. Though I like trying new things, expensive raw vegetables don't have quite the same allure as a nice wedge of focaccia or slice of lemon cake; especially vegetables I actively dislike.

I'm pleased to say however that I was pleasantly surprised by Saf - it was one of the best restaurant visits I've ever had. We each ate 3 raw courses and were buzzing for hours afterwards.



Saf is located outside the centre of London (on the edge of Zone 1) in a building with high ceilings, good decor and comfortable seating (choose a table at the rear for better seats than at the front). We arrived at 7.30 on Friday evening and by 8.30 it was almost full.

Service was excellent (for once it was worth the 12.5% 'optional' charge): we were well looked after by people who knew about and could explain components of the dishes they were serving.

We ordered a couple of cocktails whilst choosing what to eat, which whilst took a while to come were very well presented. A little on the expensive side, but interesting and unusual flavours that had had more work put into them than mixing the contents of store bought bottles together. Mine (a Rhubarb Triangle) contained balsamic vinegar and basil, which unfortunately didn't quite work for me. I'm glad to have tried it and it was drinkable. I've not considered balsamic to be a cocktail ingredient before, but as someone who sometimes drinks it neat from the bottle I'll be doing some experimentation with it.

We were a bit in the dark when it came to food, as the menu we were presented with was different from that on their website and from which we'd received recommendations. More disappointingly there was no cheese board (which we'd been particularly looking forward to) or taster plate.

For starters I chose Cannelloni (raw courgette slices, rolled with cream cheese, served with salsa and some kind of oil), Becky chose Pesto au Poivre (cashew cheese, tortilla chips, dehydrated tomato).

Mine was a little on the small side, but really tasty (coming from someone who doesn't like courgettes this is praise indeed), the cheese extremely good and generously portioned.

For mains we chose Salsify Fettucine and Lasagne. We ate half each and surreptitiously swapped mid way through.

I've always been somewhat sceptical of the whole fake pasta thing, but this really worked. It was quite obviously not your normal sort of pasta, but it was a good compromise between soft and crunchy, without the weird taste I'd expect. I've not had the pleasure of salsify before, nor for that matter knew what it was until I googled. It was (if wikipedia is to be believed) very popular in the UK a few hundred years ago.

I was more a fan of the lasagne. Again it bore very little to the lasagne we cooked earlier in the week, but was full of olivey goodness.

Disappointed by the lack of cheese platter, the manager agreed to let me order a macadamia cheese dish from the lunch menu, whilst Becky had the raw chocolate torte.

As others have mentioned the dessert sizes are small, but it was by far and away the best raw chocolate thing I've tried (I had a slice of disgusting raw 'chocolate cake' at a vegan festival a few years ago). The cheese was also good, though came with an insufficient amount of tortilla chips and think I preferred the cashew.

The lemonade we ordered to come with dessert arrived several minutes after we'd finished, so we had an odd (over sweet) lemonade course.

All in all Saf was the introduction to raw food I've been looking for. It was good, tasty, healthy food I could imagine eating more of without feeling like I'm punishing myself. I'm not looking to turn 100% raw over night (if ever), but we both agreed to trialling a (mostly) raw day once a week.

They have an unpolished iPhone recipe app (ingredients don't tally up with instructions) and various of their recipes can be found online. I'll certainly try making their nut cheeses.

The bill came to £88, which whilst on the more expensive side was worth it for the experience and is justifiable given the amount of prep that goes into their dishes. We'll definitely return.