FutuRéale Magazine

Fresh - www.juiceforlife.com

Fresh
Food: Vegetarian/Vegan

Reviewed By: Riva Gold

Forgive me, for I am a vegetarian. Now forgive me again-- it’s not even for health reasons. If I haven’t by now lost all credibility, I’d like to recommend one of the hippest eateries in town: Fresh, an award-winning vegetarian restaurant by Juice for Life with locations on Bloor, Spadina, and Crawford.

I first experienced Fresh in 2006, when my well-informed and omnivorous cousin took me out for a birthday dinner. Upon hearing that it was a mostly vegan restaurant, I immediately figured she was yet another person sacrificing her taste buds for my sake, a Pascal lamb for my 18th year Exodus, if you will. A “Singing Grasshopper” and a “Green Goddess” later, I realized she wasn’t just out to make me happy. She had found a vegetarian restaurant that actually appealed to the meat-eating world, and I had found an excellent source of tofu steaks.

Fresh prides itself on serving, well, fresh stuff. “Fresh ingredients, fresh recipes, and fresh ideas” is literally their slogan. If you’re lucky enough to get a peak behind the counter and check out their endless stock of bananas, mangos and sprouted flax, you’ll see what they mean. The juice menu at Fresh is almost as long as the food menu, and it has some of the most delicious energy elixirs, power shakes, super power shakes, lassis, fruit smoothies and vegetable cocktails you can find.

And that’s just the juices. The meals are almost entirely made from hippy-approved maximally healthy ingredients, designed to make you feel good after you eat. I’ve never been able to resist ordering one of their “bowls” (usually some combination of basmati rice or soba noodles with vegetables and tofu), though their wraps and salads are pretty tasty too. The menu is especially good for those of you with special dietary restrictions, as Fresh welcomes you to design your own meal from scratch using ingredients from quinoa to goat cheese. Picky eaters beware, though- if you’re looking for something in particular, this place does not serve up your typical staples.

The décor at Fresh is about as trendy as Pilates, Kabala, and pregnant celebrities, and appeals to Fresh’s mostly student crowd. The wallpaper is a veritable mishmash of creams, darks, and swirls, yet it works. Actually, it kind of makes you wish you had a better understanding of colour theory, so you could understand how the hell orange, brown, blue, black, and white can work together so delightfully.

Also delightful are the ridiculous meal names, which include “Dragon”, “Warrior”, “Ninja” and even “Buddha”. They’re pretty awkward to order, but at least they allow you to test the character of your company.

And the service? It’s kind of like that well-intentioned niece of yours who keeps sending you presents you’d never choose or want, but you like them anyway because you kind of have to. Orders at Fresh are often lost, but it barely matters because the staff is so darned nice about it. On one of my visits, both of our meals were entirely forgotten, so the waiter started just bringing us free vegan carrot cake instead because “we looked sad” and he couldn’t figure out why. You know what? It was delicious. And twenty minutes and several pieces of cake later, our meals finally arrived.

I’ve since been back to Fresh several times with many of my meat-eating friends. Despite their initial scepticism, I think I’ve got them hooked. I’m pretty sure it’s the organic hulled hemp.

For recipes, store locations, and a sample menu call 416-533-9923 or visit www.juiceforlife.com