I could, quite easily, raise some issues with that description since the processes they put their foodstuffs through before serving them are quite definitely not natural in any respect but I'll allow their intention is to serve food with as many of its intrinsic nutrients intact as possible and leave it at that.
The restaurant is easy enough to get to if you're comfortable with the tube, not the most attractive area of London but possibly the next place for a bit of gentrification. The premises are clean and cool, stripped and modern in appearance. There is a disabled toilet on the same level as the dining area but other toilets are downstairs. On a Thursday lunchtime it was nearly full which can't be bad.
The menu is quite varied although the naming of dishes can be confusing. This is a raw vegan restaurant and finding dishes labelled nachos, lasagne, even Boursin (as in the French cheese spread) is confusing and not particularly helpfully descriptive. As we were there for lunch the menu was slightly shorter than the dinner version but not hugely different, just a light emphasis on more snacky offerings.
Friendly waitresses found us menus and brought tap water on demand. We had some cocktails. I didn't much like my shiso ginger lemonade one but my son's was quite tasty. Unfortunately I've forgotten what it was! The waitresses are helpful and will explain the food to you if you need it, so don't be shy to ask.
We were both starving when we arrived and gobbled down our starters before remembering to take pictures. To begin we had the Nachos and the Boursin Trio. The nachos were dehydrated crackers and the toppings with them a pleasant enough salsa, rather nice guacamole and something that tasted strangely like the cheese spread that comes in tubes. Our opinion was divided over it, but I think we came down slightly on the dislike square.
The Boursin Trio was just three flavours of cashew cheese, red pepper, olive and herby served with some more crackers and garnishes. Everything looked very pretty and it was lovely to be in a vegan restaurant with no worries about what was lurking in the food but this starter wasn't outside of my experience in any way and so, probably egotistically, I spent a while wondering how I would have made it better!
For main course we had:
Wrap - I'm sure this had tofu in it but I can't fnd one like that on the menu now
Buddha Bowl
The wrap was good of its kind. The bowl very pleasant. My first bite of the tofu was sublime but then the next one I realised that actually it was just a bit too salty for total enjoyment. I didn't like the rice at all, it wasn't just sticky to eat with chopsticks but almost hard panned. The vegetables were nicely done but the sauce (in the bowl) didn't really seem appropriate and I left it.
Greedy as we are we decided we would have some puddings:
Ganache Tart
Strawberry Coconut Cheesecake
The Ganache tart was really rich and chocolatey. We liked it very much but it came, on this day at any rate, with some lavender sorbet. I'm not sure if this was a mistake but it was horrid, tasting like fabric softener. A disappointment since I've eaten much nicer lavender sweets elsewhere. The portion defeated my son but that's not too bad after a big lunch.
The cheesecake was sweet and toothsome. I enjoyed it, not least because getting a decent vegan pudding anywhere in London can be a struggle and this was a good one. Again the plate decorations and sorbet weren't gob smacking but the overall presentation and balance was pretty good.
We finished with a coffee and the prettiest little cast iron teapot of Redbush tea. Bill for the two of us, including drinks (no wine) and a 12.5% service charge (included on the bill) came to £60. Not cheap but certainly acceptable for a treat. I'd definitely go again.
7 comments:
I'm kind of wondering how you know what fabric softener tastes like! :)
Equally, the idea of the gentrification of Shoreditch (where me muvver was born) seems amusing.
A veggy neighbour of mine went to Saf last week. He was really impressed (tho he owns up to being slightly squiffy before he went there which maybe lowered his critical thresholds!) And he really liked the fake cheese - but unlike you he'd not had such a thing before so was impressed at how cheeslike it was.
(As you know I don't really approve of faking animal foods - but then I'm not a vegan & will eat the real thing If I want so maybe its different)
Shoreditch is most definitely gentrified! Even these days you could probably buy an entire village in France for the same price as a house in Curtain Street. Us South-East Londoners can barely afford to breath up there. And not at all off the beaten track - its a short stroll from the City, only a few hundred metres from Liverpool St Station or Bishopsgate.
Looks rather gorgeous. Shame about the fabric softner flavoured sorbet. I'm not a fan of perfumey desserts at all - those nasty violet flavour little fizzy sweets you can get, for example, eew!
Pamela, my secret is out, I cannot give up the fabric softener! Actually I loathe all the 'fragrances' that are foisted on us by marketeers anxious that we should disguise our humanity because they are so strong it really does seem they can be tasted on the air. Yuck.
Ken, I'm not keen on fake animal foods either but something to take the place of cheese in the vegan repertoire would be welcome. The cashew 'cheeses' almost make the grade as spreads and these were pretty good. It's just that I'm working (in my head at any rate) on the vegan substitute for Camembert and can't be satisfied by cheese spread.
Shoreditch may be expensive but it lacked the ambience of say, Primrose Hill or Islington, places that are the epitome of gentrification in my view. Carnevale is another veggie restaurant located close to the city but I'd be quite nervous about getting there after dark. I had the same sort of feeling about Saf.
Hi Ruby, do you mean Parma Violets? I have to admit I did like them when I was at school. We bought some violet flavoured liqueur recently though, to relive the experience and nearly died, it was disgusting.
I went recently, & I'll write it up one of these days. Mean time I wanted to say the main thing that impressed me was how FULL it was! A (mostly) raw, completely vegan restaurant, absolutely PACKED with trendy types. I found it interesting that Saf don't really market themselves as vegan, but "botanical". I wondered if the punters even knew they were eating vegan food.
AVCB - I'd love to read your review. We were impressed at the number of people there on a very ordinary Thursday lunchtime. They seem to have got the marketing right for London.
Saf is fantastic! As a mostly raw food eater I was TOTALLY delighted to discover this little treasure in the heart of Shoreditch.
All I need now is one closer to me in South London...
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