Wild Food Cafe

A few years ago Mr RF and I decided that when it comes to our wedding anniversary, instead of exchanging presents we will make it an event and do something together instead. As the date in question is in July, most of the time we luck out with decent weather, so as often as not we take this opportunity to explore the city. This year it just happened to be my turn to plan the outing (I mean after 7 consecutive years of planning I thought it was time to give Mr RF a break). When it came to choosing a place to eat, I took this opportunity to finally visit one of the cafes I have been stalking on Instagram.

Wild food cafe is located in the Neal's yard in Covent garden. It reminds me of a posh canteen, the place is a decent size by London standards, but it fills up so quickly that sharing one of the bigger tables with strangers is likely to happen. Food is vegan and most of the menu is raw, with the exception of things like soup and sweet potato chips (everything is sourced from local independent suppliers and is organic whenever possible). The atmosphere is super chilled and friendly, you don't have to ask for water it is already on the table. The place is ridiculously busy, we came at opening and within 5-10 minutes of sitting down pretty much all the tables were taken. Things do move fast so I doubt you would need to wait too long in a queue if you happened to come when there wasn't space available. Despite the fact that the cafe is clearly popular, no one rushed us or made us feel like we were taking too long (which let's face it I most definitely do, not only do I eat super slow, I also talk a lot).

I took forever deciding what to get, pretty much the whole menu looked appealing, but I was hesitating. Whenever I had things like raw vegan burgers and pizza in the past they always turned out super sweet, and my taste buds definitely veer towards savoury (unless its a smoothie, those mostly get a pass, as long as it doesn't taste like liquid sugar). In the end I settled on the Wild C.U.L.T. sandwich made with cashew and coconut 'mozzarella', young coconut 'bacon', umeboshi plums, watercress, tomato, truffle, homemade grain-free multi-seed super bread. Served with kale chips. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water. I have never had a coconut cashew mozzarella before, but my experience with coconut yogurt was not great, so I was very curious. While it doesn't really taste exactly like buffalo mozzarella, the texture is somewhat similar, however, I found it to be delicious in its own right. The sandwich was ridiculously good, and the Kale chips just made it that little bit better. These were proper big, crunchy leaves with a barbecue topping. Now I am not a fan of your regular BBQ sauce, but this stuff is clearly not even from the same universe of condiments. The dish was very well put together and tasted amazing.

I can't resist a good juice or a smoothie when eating out, pretty much all the ones on offer would have made me happy, in the end I settled for the Incredible Green. A blend of apple, celery, cucumber, kale, dates, celery, avocado, banana, lime, and superfood green powder. As you can imagine it is sweet thanks to the dates, but I found it to be well balanced and rather delicious. Unfortunately for me, I no longer felt hungry by the time I finished my food, so I couldn't try any other dishes. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm in the area again as I am definitely planning to go back.

Generally speaking I love good food, and it is easy enough to do in the comfort of your own home. When it comes to eating out, I want it to be exciting (I'm not talking about grabbing lunch from a corner shop when you are at work, but when you make an effort to go somewhere specific). It doesn't mean complicated or elaborate dishes, but you do want them to be a little creative and obviously taste good. Saying that, when you go to a restaurant with nice food but with terrible ambiance, it doesn't make for a pleasant outing. Wild food cafe has got the balance perfectly right, they manage to have quality food, remain super friendly and relaxed, despite the crowds. A winner in my eyes.