Restaurant Spotlight on Indigo Food Cafe

Dinner with friends out last night took us on a spontaneous excursion to Indigo Food Cafe for food packed with flavour, colour and an artistic feast for the eyes.  Lovena Galyide  is the founder of the cafe where they offer lunch six days a week, dinner on Fridays and Saturdays and raw food classes as well.  She also offers catering and is present at different health and wellness shows in the community.  I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Lovena since she opened the cafe in the summer of 2011 and have taken many raw food classes with her.  Her recipes are some of my favourites in the raw world.  I absolutely love her philosophy of sharing knowledge, freely giving recipes to some of her amazing dishes that she serves in the restaurant in her classes!  It’s all about educating and helping people eat healthier.

Get ready for some gratuitous food porn!!!!

High Tea

At the table next to us was this adorable gay couple who had reserved high tea with a groupon deal online.

They were very kind to indulge the foodie girl who kept staring at their table and let me take a quick picture, even apologizing that they had started eating before allowing me to come over to start snapping.

High tea must be reserved ahead of time, and is an absolute must try!

Arugula Salad

Indigo Cafe is getting more and more popular and has become very busy, so calling ahead for seating is a good idea, especially for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays.  Also, if there is a certain dish you really want to try, phoning ahead to reserve one is also a good idea.  My recommendation is the raw pizza, which is one of the most popular dishes and completely sold out when we got there.

Another popular dish is the Rose-Arugula Salad.  They only had one small one left.

Kale Salad

Another popular salad is the Kale Salad with peppers, avocado, cherry tomatoes, olives and hemp seeds (among other things).  My dinner companion who ordered this also got some bonus pine nuts with his salad this time.

Savoury Crepe

Enoki Mushrooms in Savoury Crepe

My dinner was the savoury crepe, filled with enoki mushrooms,avocado, marinated portobellow mushroom and greens, etc., drizzled with cashew garlic cream.  Aaaahhhhhmazing…

Perogies

Indigo does offer cooked perogies on their menu as well!  Lovena is Ukrainian and wanted to offer something authentic from her home country.  Instead of sour cream and bacon, it is served with a cashew cream and marinated mushrooms.  They are available in either potato or saurkraut, both of which are deliciously flavourful.

Borscht

The cafe also offers three soups on their menu, borscht, seaweed soup and carrot curry.  My companions both had to try the borscht, which I’ve also had the pleasure of having.  It has the most intense flavour any of us have ever had in a borscht.

Dessert Sampler

One of the most popular aspects of the raw food diet is that the desserts are rich, creamy, delicious and extrememly HEALTHY for you.  For first timers, these alone are enough to usually convince them to try it out.

Let me just say, I’ve had a lot of raw desserts in my day from many different sources, and Indigo is one of my favourite places to have it.  The texture of Lovena’s desserts is light and silky and creamy and moist without being runny.  They burst with flavour without being overly sweet.    Each of us had a sampler plate so we could have three different kinds of pies, coconut cream pie, chocolate mousse pie and berry cheesecake.  I’ve had these desserts many times and have even made them myself at home using Lovena’s recipes, but I am always delighted at how great they taste at her cafe.  They never disappoint.

The raw food diet is vegan, so you can feel good about them being cruelty free.  They usually are low glycemic, so fine for diabetics, and gluten free.  Because the nutrients in the food are not cooked and destroyed, they are extremely nutrient dense, very healthy for you and bursting with flavour.  Win, win and WIN!!!!

Indigo Food Cafe is at 2589 West 16th Avenue and can be reached at 604-537-7288 for reservations and inquiries.

Cheers and good eats,

Silver