Posts filed under ‘Raw Restaurants’
Our Favorite Restaurants
I was inspired today by Kevin and Annmarie’s list of their top 9 favorite restaurants and I thought it was time for me to bring you a list of OUR favorite restaurants!
We really love food. And we really love for other people to cook for us…especially after a long day of driving! When we’re coming into a new area and we don’t know where to go, we almost always rely on the Yelp! iPhone app. The reviews are usually quite accurate…love it.
Here is our list of top 10 restaurants around the country (in no particular order) that we have enjoyed eating at. Most of them are vegetarian, vegan, and/or raw. I have put a * by the restaurants that are not vegetarian. I won’t go into specific details for each one, but each of them use super fresh/local ingredients and are very creative with their dishes.
Kalachandjis – Dallas, TX
Daily Juice – Austin, TX
Govinda’s – Eugene, OR
Red Avocado – Iowa City, IA
Cafe Gratitude – San Francisco, CA
The Grass Root – Tampa, FL
Brasserie Ten Ten* – Boulder, CO
Emerson Grill* – Bozeman, MT
Whole Foods Market Salad Bar – Everywhere USA
The Sprout – Mount Pleasant, SC
And now for our top 10 favorite Thai restaurants! We are Thai food fanatics…I would guess that we’ve been to over 100 Thai restaurants around the country in the past 3 years. These are the places that stand out for us as being amazing at that point in time. 🙂
Titaya’s Thai – Austin, TX
Thai Flavors – Des Moines, IA
Khow Thai – Boulder, CO
Tum Rup Thai -Minneapolis, MN
Joy’s Pattaya Thai – Richfield, MN
Marnee’s Thai – San Francisco, CA
Lotus of Siam – Las Vegas, NV
Malee’s on Main – Scottsdale, AZ
Thai Spice – Omaha, NE
Basil Thai Restaurant – Charleston, SC
What is the name of your favorite restaurant right now (and why)?
Have you been to any of the places we listed?
Tree of Life: Raw Food Heaven
We spent a blissful day at the Tree of Life in Patagonia, AZ. Read more about it here! Pay close attention to the presentation and textures they have used…it makes such a difference when preparing and eating raw foods. Don’t miss the video at the end…and if you are ever in the Phoenix or Tucson areas, be sure to go!
I Heart Cafe Gratitude
When we were in San Francisco, we HAD to go back to Cafe Gratitude! Definitely my favorite raw restaurant. We went over a busy lunch hour at their location in the Mission District. This location is really small…but somehow, they make it work. I love looking at all of the fun cards, clothing, and gifts they have available. Most of them are available on their website as well.
I dream about this dish. It’s SO good. Here is what it has in it:
Steamed Bhutanese red rice tossed w/ kale, avocado, cucumber, nori, scallions, & herbs in sesame-ginger sauce.
If anyone has the exact recipe for the “I am Accepting” Sushi Bowl, I will love you forever. I’m sure I could figure it out, it appears to be a simple sesame-ginger sauce and “herbs”. But there must be something secret and magical in it as well 🙂
Matt had the “I am Passionate” marinara pizza with buckwheat sunflower seed flatbread crust, topped with hearty sauces, sliced tomatoes & cashew ricotta, sprinkled with Brazil nut Parmesan. Yum.
Bella had the “I am a Winner” cheesy rice…wish cashew mozzarella and Brazilian nut parmesan.
You would think that I would have taken a photo of their food. But I was a little obsessed with my sushi bowl and I totally forgot!
The Abounding River board game cards.
Fun stuff to buy.
I LOVE the water bottles that they put on your table.
Each one has a different word etched on the glass. We had “familia”.
Perfect 🙂 Can’t wait to go back again someday!
Mary’s Secret Garden – Ventura, CA
This is possibly the yummiest veggie burger ever made. All veggie, all VEGAN! Even the cheese. Matt devoured this at Mary’s Secret Garden in Ventura, CA, a sweet little vegan and raw cafe near the beaches in Ventura. I ordered some fresh spring rolls and a pineapple & date smoothie, but forgot to take photos. Oops! I ate them too fast.
The cafe featured all vegan food…with much of that being raw vegan. They had such a great mix of food…and they were super sweet with Bella, making her a special noodle dish upon her request. I had read rave reviews about this place, but we almost left town without checking it out. I’m so glad we didn’t…now I wish we would have been there longer so I could go every day. Yum.
A cute little outdoor patio…looking over the park across the street.
It was hoppin’ at lunch time.
A quaint little corner.
Feelin’ the Love in L.A.
This week in L.A., we had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, Matt Amsden. Matt is also the author of RAWvolution. Be sure to check it out next time you’re in Santa Monica! His restaurant also does raw food delivery (“The Box”) and will deliver nationwide. You can see Matt speaking on YouTube here.
We also spent some time in Redondo Beach at Terra Bella, owned by the lovely Melissa Davidson. I’m still dreaming of their Coconut Curry soup. Wow. Check out the close up of Melissa’s tattoo here!
I’ll be writing a full blog on our raw restaurant visits soon (including Cilantro Live! in San Diego)…complete with food photos, of course! Stay tuned!
