saf' London - Shoreditch

[JuiceFiend]

I visited saf' in Shoreditch (http://www.safrestaurant.co.uk/shore...estaurant-bar/) for the first time on Tuesday 9th of August for lunch. It was very quiet so I sat at the bar and had a bit of a chat with the guys as they were preparing for their evening shift which is apparently when it gets much busier.

The food was great. I'm no where near 100% raw and this is the first time I've purposefully eaten a raw meal at a restaurant. I picked the sea vegetable salad, and considering I mostly live in Japan, I thought the chef did a great job. This was a 100% raw starter and if I'd been given it in Japan, I would have thought it was a very nice seaweed salad. Without knowing that this was raw food, I would never have guessed. The serving size was generous and it was priced at 8.50.

For my main, I picked the Zuccini Pappardelle (100% raw, cost: 14 pounds). The serving size was huge. Without the starter, this would have been perfect but as it was, I couldn't finish it. Looking back on it, a starter followed by a dessert would have been a good option. The highlight of the Pappardelle for me was the "parmesan cheese".

The juice I had was pear, cucumber, fennel (juiced in a Breville Juice Fountain Elite) then blended with tarragon in a Vitamix. It tasted nice but seemed a bit overpriced at 5 pounds. As I didn't drink it straight away, the drink separated markedly, which I notice myself when I use this centrifugal juicer.

The staff were very friendly and were knowledgeable about their menu. I would definitely eat here again next time I'm in London. Would love to check out their Kensington restaurant too. One thing that surprised me was that most of their lunch menu wasn't 100% raw. I'd just assumed it was all raw.

Anyway, as my first "raw" food restaurant experience, saf' did a great job of opening my eyes to some great tasting raw foods :)

[MysticTree]

sounds expensive but probably not really . . . for London!