Yesterday, for Father’s Day, we went to Cafe La Vie, in Santa Cruz.
Cafe La Vie isn’t entirely raw, but it’s about 80-90% raw, and entirely vegetarian, with lots of vegan options. And even the things which aren’t 100% raw are pretty close – mostly it’s just that the dish is served hot to cater to those who want something, well, hot.
In any event, it was, in a word, fantastic!
There were so many choices, and between three of us we tried a lot of them!
Soups sampled included the Thai coconut soup (served hot), the sweet and spicy avocado soup (raw) and the “energizing soup” (made from beet, celery, apple, carrot, turnip, garlic, cayenne, and salt and pepper – also raw).
The soups were delicious, although my husband, who had the “energy soup”, said that by the end of the bowl it was too spicy for even him (which is really saying a lot).
We also had the spinach dip with their ‘house crackers’. I ordered this because I wanted to see how someone else’s (and professional to boot) raw crackers were. And they were good. Much better (and thicker) than mine. They were made of sprouted buckwheat, flax, and sunflower seeds.
For our main course I had the “16 layer vegan lasagne”, which wasn’t raw (I hadn’t realized that, and had oped for an example of raw zucchini-noodle based lasagned, but I have to say that it was very tasty!). This is actually one of their signature dishes, which they describe as being made with “sauteÌ?ed onions, eggplant, roasted bell pepper, zucchini, spinach, marinara sauce and rosemary, topped with basil and house-made garlic infused hummus. It actually reminded me of a vegetable moussaka, and it was delicious.
My husband had the La Vie Original Salad, which was made of spring greens, carrot, beets, sunflower sprouts, tamari pumpkin seeds & avocado, served with La Vie’s “ginger yum yum dressing” (and it was yummy).
In fact, my lasagne came with a healthy serving of side salad, which seemed to have all of the same ingredients as the Original Salad, except for the avocado.
We also had an almond coconut smoothie, made from coconut water, rice milk, dates, whole almonds, and vanilla.
And for dessert we had their raw blueberry lavender cheesecake. I don’t know how they made it (probably using macadamia “cheese”), but it was delicious!
Here’s a picture of it:
All in all it was wonderful and delicious meal, and all three of us agreed that we’d gladly go to Santa Cruz again just to eat at Cafe La Vie. Santa Cruz is about a 40 minute drive for us, so that’s saying something.
Cafe La Vie
429 Front St.
Santa Cruz, CA
831-429-6746
