Stuffed Vegans Served Daily at Urb Herb

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Any Canadians out there? Posted by Laura Sutula in restaurant reviews, vegetarian on May 9, 2007 at 7:27 am Urban Herbivore64 Oxford Street416-927-1231Lunch for two with all taxes tip and fresh-squeezed juices: $25 While Urban Herbivore does not quite scream out its values, it certainly does declare them clearly. It is not so much nestled in the heart of Kensington Market as it is plunked into the

upper torso. You can recognize it by the sign outside declaring “Yummy Vegan Food Inside,” “Hmm…Vegans Make Better Lovers” and, recently, “The Guy Who Writes Our Clever Signs is on Vacation.” The register is decorated with PETAkids stickers, and a table of alternative health-related flyers is situated in one corner. The philosophy of Urban Herbivore is explained in greater detail by the yellow signs posted on the walls- Vegan, Local, and Organic is the theme here. In addition, the cups are reusable, the juice containers are made from 100% corn, the take-out packaging is recyclable cardboard, and even the napkins are post-consumer recycled and made in Canada. Furthermore, the prepared foods packaged in glass have a $1 refundable deposit; this place doesn’t mess around with its morals, nor are its ethics just for show. In addition, or perhaps more to the point, the food items themselves stack up nicely. While I came in expecting

a smaller version of Fresh, what I got was - well, refreshing. The selections are fewer, but every choice is just so damn filling that it will take you a dozen trips just to try everything once. I overestimated my hunger with a sandwich and a salad- either one served as a complete meal. The sesame tempeh sandwich was surprisingly dense, with the tempeh providing the toothsome overtones to the plentiful veggies. The grilled vegetable sandwich was distinctive in that it was hard to discern which vegetables were the grilled ones, and which were the fresh. While this may sound like a bad thing, it actually left the entire sandwich warm and roasted as if it had come straight off of an unorthodoxly healthy backyard barbecue. The BBQ tofu was chewy and sweet, with a more

recognizable “barbecue sauce” flavour than the grilled vegetable sandwich. The best parts of all the sandwiches were the abundance of fresh sprouts and the homemade bread, which had a distinctive yellow tint and a dense, moist texture. The bread itself had a flavour that bordered on sweet and savoury, and in every case it added to the overall taste of the sandwiches instead of simply acting as a container for the food inside. The arugula and spinach salad was too strong, with the sun-dried tomatoes overpowering the other vegetables with their sweetness. The roasted yam was cubed small enough that its flavour was lost entirely, and the Dijon red wine dressing made the entire salad taste more like a dessert. On the other hand, the baby spinach salad had delicious grape tomatoes that were firm enough to burst when they were bitten into. The oranges complimented the fresh spinach, while the pumpkin seeds added a crunchy crispness which reinforced the idea that

fresh ingredients are part and parcel to a good meal. Even a salad was filling enough that I almost invariably ended up bringing home leftovers. The Gold and the Green juices were both excellent choices, with the ginger and lemon adding a tartness and sharpness. This simple addition topped off the vegetable juices perfectly. While the muffins were hard and burnt on the outside, the cookies were warm if you could get them soon after they emerged from the oven, and soft and cinnamon-y even if you couldn’t. In conclusion, Urban Herbivore talks big and delivers big - big on portions, big on flavour, and big on the kind of satisfaction that made me lean back in my chair and relax in the beam of sunlight that always seemed to be coming through the windows. Other diners were inclined to do the same, and so easy conversation was struck up between strangers, comparing meals and yoga schools. If you wish to experience how fresh ingredients really do make all

the difference when it comes to food, Urban Herbivore will satisfy your appetite on top of satisfying your conscience. Peter H

 

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