Gorilla Food (Raw Vegan restaurant downtown)
Gorilla Food (map, web site, 101 – 436 Richards St. Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-722-2504) is currently one of the only restaurants in Vancouver that serves all raw, vegan, and organic foods.
I have a friend who follows a raw vegan diet, which means that he doesn’t eat any animal-related products (vegan) and foods must be unprocessed and not heated above 46 degrees Celsius (raw). He blogs about the Raw Vegan lifestyle on Eat Raw Vegan. I was interested to see what a Raw Vegan meal would taste like!
Raw Vegan food preparation takes a lot of creativity to make food that is satisfying and interesting to eat without using cooked or processed ingredients, and without meat or dairy products. Amazingly, all the dishes pictured below are raw vegan dishes. I must say that I was quite happy and full after the meal.
The Raw Vegan Cashew Alfredo Zucchini Linguini ($10, pictured below) was made with zucchini “newdles†smothered in a rich white cashew cream. It was served with a green leaf salad. It tasted cool and refreshing, and was amazingly creamy considering that no dairy products were used.
The Maui Waui raw vegan pizza ($6.00, also pictured below) is a sun-dried tomato and fresh tomato herb sauce topped with a mix of tenderized kale and seasonal greens then topped with fresh pineapple bits and a crumbly walnut “cheezâ€. It is served with a sprouted sunflower and buckwheat, flax and carrot crust.
For an appetizer we also tried the Raw Vegan Zucchini Hummus and Crackers ($7.50, pictured below). This tasted amazingly good, better than ordinary hummus I thought! The bean-free garlicky hummus dip is served with house-dehydrated crackers.
Other notable items included the Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice ($5.25, pictured below) – this is heavenly if you like orange juice; in fact I thought it was some of the best orange juice I have had in Vancouver! The raw vegan chocolate cake (also pictured below) was really fudgey and chocolatey, a treat not to miss!
The restaurant is open every day from 11am until 5pm.
January 12th, 2013 at 6:59 am
What a great video and message! Eating green smoothies is Healthy and Cool! I will be visiting Vancouver next month (from Montreal) and will definitely check out Gorilla Food! Thanks for sharing.
April 15th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Went for lunch..
The staff were great..
The desserts were amazing..
Carrot ‘cake’ and Avacado/Lemon pie.
I will be back to try other items on the menu.
August 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Great review! And I love your photos, they made me hungry.
One correction though – Gorilla Foods isn’t the only place in Vancouver serving raw, organic food. Check out Radha: http://www.radhavancouver.org/dinner/
(though they are closed til Sept. 9)
June 29th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
wow! great photos… i’ve never been to this place but am now very very curious to try it…! 🙂
June 19th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Nathalie Lussier wrote “…the photos are mouth watering.” Am the friend that went to Gorilla Food with Geoff — I can honestly say the food was mouth watering as well 🙂
I wanted to point out an early post on EatRawVegan.com (http://www.eatrawvegan.com) that has a video about the owner of Gorilla Foods, Aaron Ash:
http://www.eatrawvegan.com/30/gorilla-food-raw-food-restaurant-vancouver/
You’ll get a better feeling about what Gorilla Food is all about by watching the video.
All the best!
M.E.B.
http://www.marcusebarnes.com
http://www.yoganearme.com
http://www.twobrained.com
June 12th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Wow, the photos are mouth watering. I follow a raw vegan diet as well, and I’d love to check out this restaurant. Maybe next time I’m in Vancouver. 🙂
For now, I’ll just need to keep drooling. Thanks for the great review!