Restaurants
Cruda Cafe
Cruda Cafe is not the kind of place you'd expect to find in the St. Lawrence Market. It may be a great place to shop for fresh veggies, cheeses and breads, but if you're looking for lunch, the options aren't exactly healthy.
Enter Cruda Cafe, a vegan resto dedicated to using fresh, organic ingredients to create dishes that consist of living foods, either raw or cooked at low temperatures so that all nutrients remain intact. Suddenly the St. Lawrence Market, where local, fresh ingredients are readily available every day, makes sense as a location after all.
After wandering around the Market's maze of food vendors and cafes for a while, I finally find Cruda hidden in the back corner of the lower level, across from a fluorescent-lit food court with plastic tables, which on this beautiful day is expectedly vacant. The small cafe offers eco-friendly takeout containers, so we opt to get our lunch to go and head for the sunny picnic tables on the Market's main level.
While we mull over the many options, an affable employee offers me a raw coconut water to drink ($4.99). When I oblige, he quickly turns around, takes out a whole coconut and drills a hole into the top to place the straw. It doesn't get much fresher than this, and the juice is delicious and refreshing.
As we select the items we'd like to try, we witness the owner preparing our dishes from fresh ingredients right in front of us. Unfortunately there's no soup special today, but vegan chili ($4.50) turns out to be a very acceptable substitute. A generous portion of the chili, consisting of various veggies including mushrooms, carrots and tomatoes, as well as nuts and seeds, is topped with a giant dollop of fresh guacamole. Savoury and crunchy, the chili is a great start.
The Glow Salad ($8.50) comes with heaps of greens, beets, carrots and other vegetables, as well as nuts, seeds, edible flowers and big slices of avocado. The salad is crisp, fresh, and undeniably healthy. The vegetables taste great, but the house carrot-apple-ginger dressing falls a little flat.
The Enchiladas ($7.50), stuffed with veggies, chili, salsa and the same tangy guacamole, rolled up in a flourless corn wrap, are tasty enough, but slightly lacklustre in flavour.
The Gnocchi Carbonara ($10) is by far the best item we try, and probably one of the best vegan dishes I've tasted. Raw vegan gnocchi might seem like blasphemy to the true pasta lover, but this creative dish, call it what you may, is delicious.
A bed of zucchini noodles is topped with house-made dumplings of cashews and essential oil of rosemary, each one a burst of intense flavour. The dish is then smothered in a creamy, garlicky sauce and topped with fresh pea shoots. We definitely have no problem making this dish disappear.
Today there's also a crepe special ($5.50), and the owner tells us we are the first ones to try this new creation. The strawberry crepe, red and white, is intended for her special Canada Day menu. Imagine a healthy, naturally flavoured version of a strawberry fruit roll-up, filled with coconut cream and fresh strawberries. Not much else needs to be said.
When told that the vegan Nanaimo Bar ($4.50) is a signature Cruda Cafe dessert, usually sold out by lunchtime, we can't resist. The sweet, chocolately confection, with a layer of cashew cream, is a highly enjoyable take on the dairy-filled classic.
A visit to the St. Lawrence Market always makes for a great afternoon, and with Cruda Cafe's healthy lunch offerings, the trip is even more worthwhile.
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30am-5:30pm.
Photos by Taralyn Marshall
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Good thing that you're keeping a keen eye on Toronto restaurant reviews for us lowly diners.
This looks like a great healthy and tasty place to eat and I think the reviewer did a really great job enticing new customers to try it out.
"St. Lawrence Market might be a great place to shop for organic veggies, but if you’re looking for a takeout nosh a bit friendlier to the planet than back bacon on a bun, pickings are slim.
Enter Claudia Gaviria.."
and this:
"Cruda Cafe is not the kind of place you'd expect to find in the St. Lawrence Market. It may be a great place to shop for fresh veggies, cheeses and breads, but if you're looking for lunch, the options aren't exactly healthy.
Enter Cruda Cafe.."
..Are almost exactly the same to me. So why don't you go stuff your own pie hole?
im not on a raw vegan diet but i know for a fact its the healthiest diet FACT!
Does anyone else think their choice of name is a bit unfortunate? It's a little too close to "Crud Cafe" which isn't at all appetizing ...
Also, to "d"; that's a fantastic argument you've got there. Consider me convinced. {scarcasm}
And, perhaps most importantly, our reviewer refrains from the use of the word "nosh," a most annoying lexical choice which would surely discourage anyone from the act of imitation.
also, lycopene IS definitely enhanced with cooking.
ps..i hope you paid no attention to the "now" guy, sounds to me like he is someone who finally got one article published and is looking for any reason to bring it up
But whatever.. I still intend to try the restaurant.
Great photos, by the way.
As an aside, I don't understand people who hate on vegetarian/vegan food. They always come out of the woodwork anytime you even mention not eating meat for even a single meal. And these posts attract them. Do you find carrots threatening or something? I don't think you can lecture about nutrient-levels while munching McDonalds, or steak and steamed potatoes.
Here's the thing with vegetarian food. It's like any other food. It's not like you have to eat it all the time or not at all. You can choose to eat it when you want it, just like Mexican, Chinese or anything else. It's not an all or nothing religious decision. Relax.
oh, I might try the restaurant, feeling vegetarian today.