Literally!!
A new cafe called Real Food Charlotte featuring vegetarian and raw cuisine opened in July and I have been wanting to try it for a while. KERF was born to eat there! (Emily, we can go back!)
When Matt got off work we headed up town and met Sarah + Josh at 1PM. They are totally awesome.
They had been shopping at IKEA and brought us some I-K-E-A cookies and Lindonberry preserves!
Our excitement!! [Can you believe that I have YET to go to the new Charlotte IKEA? I think I’m scared of it (the spending money part). And it’s also kind of far away]
Real Food was decorated with all kinds of fun things at which to gaze –
The menu.
Sadly, I was not all that hungry from my late breakfast, but I sure managed to eat enough Real Food!
We had to have them explain most of the dishes because they were all kind of mysteries! Lucky for me, there are NO RAW ONIONS in 90% of the dishes! That was such exciting news!
The beverage menu included raw juices and smoothies
We got two green ones –
I ordered the Ouroboros, and all I remember about it was that it had lots of greens, and I think citrus and maybe ginger?
It was definitely grassy, but remember I have acquired a taste so I liked it a lot. Very refreshing. [And notice I am sporting the fleece on October 1st!]
S+J ordered the Avo-colada – avocado and coconut for sure. Theirs was delicious!
Out came the food!
Josh ordered the Dolphin Plate (no idea why it was called that!) and it came with lots of veggies and tabouleh. He wanted to go all raw to see how invigorated he felt 😉
Sarah ordered the Harvest Plate with avocado, hummus and bread.
Matt ordered a focaccia + veggie sandwich
And I had the Gyro’s Journey, a homemade pita stuffed with tabouleh and a side salad.
I ate about half the pita and all of the salad and most of the tabouleh out of the middle
Sarah‘s hummus was really good so I requested a little extra and we were presented with a nice little plate with pita chips!
Lastly, we shared a little Goji cookie four ways. It was not all that fabulous.
Tasting Notes:
- The presentation of everything was gorgeous
- We all raved about the salads – they had nuts and seeds and honey and the presentation was beautiful!
- The drinks were really good – although really expensive too
- We all agreed that the bread products were really, really dry. (Although I thought the herby flavor of my pita was good)
- It was a bit expensive for the portions, but all tasted very fresh
- My favorite part was the hummus, which gave me garlic breath that I now can’t get rid of!! But that’s my all my fault 🙂
Next time I want to try a homemade soup!
Evolving Guts
Salad Girl Maggie (who I just met in SF!) actually just posted about the raw food trend on her blog the other day after reading/listening to this transcript from NPR about the new book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by primatologist Richard Wrangham. Maggie summarized it here: "Does Cooking Make Us Human."
I was |this close| to being an Anthropology minor at Davidson and took a handful of classes like "Humankind Evolving" and "Human Adaptation and Variation", so I am always fascinated with anything anthropological (Matt was an anthro major!!) I will say that I have only had time to skim the NPR transcript, but at first glance, I really like what Wrangham has to say. I really think there’s something to be said about the success of our species in the scope of all life on this planet.
I downloaded it and can’t wait to listen to the whole thing. This stuff fascinates me.
What do you guys think?
***
To class, then, To Weekend!
What a fun restaurant to try, good or bad, hope you go back for the soups, would love to see what they offer!
The green juices look fantastic!
Looks like a fun restaurant! Love the green juices!
Your lunch looked gorgeous…but I have to agree it the prices looked a bit steep for what you got. I always have such a battle with prices and food…..You got high quality food that looked really good…was it worth the price? At least you didn’t pay 6$ for a value meal at mcdees…right? ha-Does anyone else struggle with this?
Looks like a delicious lunch, sorry the prices were a bit high 🙁
Have a good night!
Wow all that stuff looks absolutely incredible. My mouth is watering. I would love to go all-raw but I don’t think I have it in me!
You ate at Real Food! Yay!
Thanks for posting about this! I am loving my anthro classes… I’m glad you enjoyed the summary 🙂 The whole interview has some more cool facts that I left out.
I am definitely going to try that place when I am in Charlotte next month. The food looked great. Any restaurant that serves green juices is ok with me!! 🙂
I think this place looks lovely! If i’m ever in the area i want to try this out for sure. i’ve never been to a restaurant that caters directly to only vegetarians and raw, i think it would be fab! 🙂
That’s literally the perfect restaurant for you. And lindonberry preserves? Never heard of that but I’m very intrigued
That food does look delicious. I loved Matt’s veggie focaccia and your tabouleh pita! Tabouleh is so good!
I have to try raw food. I wouldn’t eat it all the time but I definitely wouldn’t mind eating it sometimes, if it was good. 🙂
Cool idea for the new restaurant! But I gotta say, I don’t think that food looks very special for the pricing. There’s lots of ways to diddy up real food, and I’m kinda shocked at the portions and lack of diversity in grains/etc. Good lookin smoothies tho!
aww those waffle cut cukes look so cute…looks like a great meal overall!
pretty pics… one of the wonderful things about raw foods is how fresh and colorful they are! (but it’s not for me!) :o)
Fascinating link. Here’s a really interesting soundbite from that interview with primatologist Richard Wrangham:
“When we turn our beef into ground beef – just like hunters and gatherers who cook their meat and then pound it, what we’re doing is making it easier for our bodies to digest the food and therefore sparing our bodies the need to waste energy, calories, on digesting the food. And the result is that the net caloric gain is greater when we eat food that has been more highly processed.
…
And, of course, this is fantastically significant in terms of the fact that we’ve got an obesity crisis and very highly processed food in the middle(ph).”
Cool place! I’ve had a similar experience with the couple of raw places here in Chicago as well though – small portions for the price. I always feel like I need a snack afterwards!
The cucumbers that are made to look like waffle fries are ADORABLE!! 🙂
what a cool place, and you definitely need to eat there AT LEAST once just because of the name!
Haha, loving the play on words! The lunch honestly sounds PERFECT! I love how the meals all sound light and healthy, yet totally filling. And the presentation is just gorgeous. Glad you enjoyed it and great review!
I hear you on the fleece day… It is cold awfully early this year. I was cold the other morning when I was about to leave my house, but thought “I am not going to wear a jacket when it’s not even October yet”. But, today is Oct. 1st… so I guess it’s legal now. 🙂
I like cooking over an open fire… s’mores anyone??
All of it looks really good, but what is up with those LITTLE scoops of hummus? I’m would have to eat about 6 of those!
Avo-colada sounds amazing! I must try that. The other foods don’t look like my sort of thing, I like cooked food too much. 😛
Jenn
That looks like such a fun place to eat, interesting meals.
I read through that NPR transcript definitely pretty interesting.
Interesting topic. I feel like since a lot of ‘raw’ food is dehydrated, frozen, vitamixed or cured it isn’t really fair to call it ‘raw’ anymore.
Cooking probably has had the most benefit in killing dangerous bacteria that were living in the raw meat our ancestors were eating.
ha! there’s a great place in los angeles called “real food daily” – if you ever find yourself in this part of time you should obviously eat there!
Food looks delish! I love places that have fresh real food!
I have a question for you- my husband found an article that said that baby carrots are bad for you because they get processed with chemicals, including chlorine. Have you ever heard this before? I always buy them out of convenience but now they don’t sound very appetizing….
A bite-sized scoop of hummus?!
Quaint…but I prefer XL scoops!!!
That looks like such a cute little place, although the portions seemed rather small. Maybe a good spot for a light lunch?
Love the lingon berry preserve since I’m currently OBSESSED with canning and love to see new products out there.
Wonderful food presentation! I also struggle with wanting high quality foods and not wanting to pay like $15 for a side salad… my fiance and I are saving for our honeymoon so there has been lots of cooking at home lately… that is such an interesting take on the raw vs cooked food debate 🙂
Love all things NPR! I havent read the transcript either–but I liked what I read from Maggie’s summary. I feel like I have a pretty similar outlook on our bodies’ capabilities and evolution…
I love IKEA! It’s kind of overwhelming–but they have really good vanilla fro-yo fir like $1 in their food court!
Aand, lastly, I really don’t like that the dish had the word dolphin in it!! Kind of creepy!
I hear you on being wary of going to IKEA for money reasons. I could spend tons at that place. That’s probably the reason I haven’t gone back in a LONG time. But it is a blast 🙂
The food looks yummy at that place. I’m glad you had fun.
I’ve just recently started listening to NPR and thought maybe I was a dork, so I’m so glad to know you enjoy it also, since you are definitely not a dork! 🙂
I enjoyed reading SGM’s thoughts on the topic. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hey!
Great cafe review! Did you happen to read the About Us page? The bios are pretty funny! Check it out if you have a chance 🙂
Macrae
IKEA is God’s Swedish gift to America. If you don’t there, you are denying yourself some of the good things in life. Just sayin’. 😉
Man.. wish Charlotte was a tad closer to Chapel Hill.. that place looks super cute!
Awesome. I had no idea Charlotte had a restaurant like that, the smoothies looked yummy. Ya unfortunately natural organic vegan raw foods are more expensive but hopefully that changes : )
looks like a yummy place to eat! i must say matt’s lunch looks the best 😉
jenna
kath we had a fabulous time with the two of you! wish we could run together more often!! and i’m excited to see if those IKEA letters will be part of some artistic K.E. concoction in the future 🙂
Susan,
I have never heard that about baby carrots. I don’t eat them often because I think the big ones are so much more flavorful. It wouldn’t surprise me though.
Sarah,
Come back soon!
K
I love trying new restaurants! Matt’s veggie sandwich looks amazing!
Hi Kath!
I haven’t had a chance to listen to Wrangham’s interview yet, but I’m a grad student in Anthropology right now and just read another of Wrangham’s articles for a class recently. I do think that one of the things that sets humans apart from other primates is how we process our foods (aka cooking) and the fact that our digestive systems have evolved to handle cooked foods so well. VERY interesting stuff! : )
Kath, I obviously am missing something about the onions… I’ve just noticed alot of posts that says something about onions. Allergy or dislike? Because I love me some onions! Just curious. Oh, and IKEA rocks!! We have one near Austin (about 40 miles from my house) and love to just browse.
YUM – we will definitely have to go back! I have another fun place we need to try – Blynk Organics – do you know about it?? I am talking to them about a potential job opportunity!
That food looked delicious!
IKEA nerd here! I get those same lingonberry preserves every time I visit too:)
I tried a green drink in Hawaii and it was way to grassy for me 🙁 The avocado and coconut sounds yummy (and caloric)
never knew raw food could look so good! But too bad it’s pricey.. good to have something RAW in the system once in a while though! 🙂
Oh I just hate it when you can’t get rid of garlic breath even if you’re the only one who can tell :-/
Those pre-meal drinks would have had me FULL FULL FULL!
Oh I heard that piece about how cooking makes us human and I knew that the raw foodies would be up in arms. what I found fascinating was that he said that it takes so much more energy (read: calories) to digest raw food rather than cooked. So I thought- oh perhaps that’s why some people do it!? Interesting though!
Deb
By the way, Ikea has soooooo many yummy eats in their bistro. i was there yesterday and my mind wanted a froyo for $1 but I was too full from lunch. The meatballs rock the house too- hubs eats them ALL the time.
I always find it funny what people consider pricey. I guess as a Canadian I’m just used to our prices being higher. When I first saw the menu I thought it was pretty cheap for high quality food, but I guess it’s all relative.
Ikea is one of my very favourite places, but every time the BF and I go there it’s a minimum of $100. Eep!
by the way, it is linGonberry, not linDonberry!
– a swede
Gretchen,
I have a supertasting nose/tongue and I just hate the taste – both during and after – of onions. I will taste them for 24+ hours if I accidentally eat one.
Emily,
I’ve never heard of Blynk! Take me there!
Kath
I like the quilts hanging there. Very pretty. That’s my other hobby, after food.
I just finished reading Catching Fire and I loved it. The first half of the book focuses on metabolism, which you would probably find very interesting. The second half focuses more on the cultural implications of cooking, which were very interesting as well.
My favorite way to get rid of garlic breath is chocolate! Seems to work for me. And with the stash from the BlogHer conference, there’s plenty to choose from.
Bummed though, because I was at the conference and didn’t get the chance to come meet you. (I’m also REALLY bummed that I skipped the after party!!!)
I saw you and Tina (love you and your blogs both!) in the session with Ree, Garrett, etc. I was in the back, standing room only. It just didn’t work out to come find you after class and now I’m bummed! Next time!
I’m one of your fellow onion hater/banana lovers! 😉
Katrina,
Great suggestion with the chocolate! I will try that for sure. Sorry to have missed you at blogher!! Next time for sure 🙂
Kath
Hey Kath and Matt,
Thank you so much for the Dakota Bread and tart they were fantastic! Great to see you again and just wanted to let you know that I just signed up to follow your blog on google reader!
Take care,
Joshua