RSS Feed RSS Feed
Jan Moir Are You Ready To Order?
  Current Previous Five Reviews Europe About Us Interviews
Saf, London

Jan Moir Are You Ready To Order

Beetroot raviloli with cashew nut milk ricotta at Saf LondonSaf London is a new gourmet raw vegan restaurant, not a geographical area south of the river Thames, as described in the local patois. There are other Safs, in Germany and Turkey and while Munich-Istanbul-Shoreditch may not quite have the same cachet as Paris-London-New York, it suits Saf, which is quirky and unique.

This branch is situated in the depths of groovy east London, on the apex of two of the area’s most fashionable streets. Put it this way, I swear I spot supermodel Agyness Deyn walking past the window as I sip my botanical cocktail and read the wheat, meat and dairy free menu. It’s surely a moment which condenses the very definition of urban now in our capital city.

Like Agyness, the restaurant layout is long, slim and stylish; also just like her, it is expensively kitted out in the latest fashions. There is lots of reclaimed timber, a row of beautiful bar stools and many attractive light fixtures - including tiny, porcelain tealight holders on each table that glimmer prettily, but burn like the blazes if you touch them. So don’t touch them, says S, whose poor, tiny bloke-brain is in meltdown at the prospect of a dinner that does not contain sausages or steak.

A bar runs down one side of the clean-limbed, rectangular room, with a glass cube kitchen at the end. Here, a quartet of white-coated chefs bend studiously over intricate creations with the intensity of nuclear scientists. Have the possibilities of the raw vegetable ever been considered so profoundly? I doubt it. In the concentrated still of this restaurant kitchen, few dishes are actually cooked and anything that does is heated below 48°C. This, they say, preserves ‘optimal flavor and nutrition’.

S grasps the nettle

The raw materials used are 100% botanical and organic with no animal products, dairy, refined or processed elements. The tap water is ionised. Everything from the vegan chocolates to the nut milk cheeses is prepared on site. It’s like a religion. It is almost too happy clappy for comfort. 'Even the nettles are sourced locally,’ says our waitress, referring to the greenery on a starter dish of water chestnut dumplings. ‘From where?’ asks a worried S, imagining a damp clump nearby, popular with local pitbulls. ‘Oh, just outside London,’ she says, airily.

Chefs working on the vegan cuisine at Saf LondonSaf restaurants are part of LifeCo, a rather creepy-sounding ‘wellness’ organisation, whose anonymous owner is dedicated to promoting veganism across the world. LifeCo’s eating philosophy is promulgated by international head chef Chad Sarno, the ‘king of uncooked and vegan cuisine, and chef to the stars’ according to one glossy magazine. Go, Chad. Saf’s website contains rabid, anti-meat eating quotes from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney and Woody Harrelson, all of which feels a bit like being repeatedly battered over the head with a giant courgette before dinner even begins.

But then here is the thing. Most of this stuff is delicious. Nearly everything, from the citrus-spritzed olives in a tiny jar, the smoked almonds and the wasabi cashew bar snacks to the apple cheesecake for pudding tastes quite amazing. Even my ‘Julian’ cocktail - blueberry gin poured over a tumble of ice, with organic lime, mint and fresh blueberries bobbing in the mix – is clean-tasting and lively, with none of the sugary, chemical undertow that puts me off most cocktails. It’s a win-win drink; lots of vitamin C – and minimal hangover!

From the short opening menu, we have beetroot ravioli, which features slices of beetroot folded over puffy ricotta made with the milk from cashew nuts. With this comes wands of early asparagus, as thin as straws, dressed with drops of pumpkin seed oil. The aforementioned dumplings are canapé sized but tasty, and come with a haunting ‘black vinaigrette’. Vegan nut milk cheese is one of those things I’d normally walk a hundred miles in hemp shoes to avoid, but the moussey macadamia version – a little like thick Boursin cheese in texture - is intriguing, served here with slices of mi-cuit tomatoes.

A Beets salad comprises slow-roasted beetroot with a merlot reduction, walnut chutney, horseradish and mustard cress. This comes in an oblong dish containing small cubes of lavishly dressed beetroot which, even when pushed together Jenga style, strains to make one complete beet. Are Londoners, even vegan ones, ready for the £7 beetroot? Even if it is an impeccably sourced one?

The principle seems to be to take classic foods and reinvent them in a vegan way. A Saf ‘lasagna’ is a moulded cake containing layers of courgette, a ‘bolognaise’ made with nuts, some sage pesto and a pine nut ‘parmesan’; a well-made and constructed dish. ‘If you like that sort of thing,’ says S. Cauliflower risotto – with the ‘rice’ made up of florets of the vegetable – sits on a little cake of sage ‘polenta’ and is one of the few cooked dishes on the menu, its seasoning courtesy of an intense emulsion of parsley. ‘That is one of the most horrible things I have ever eaten,’ says S, who is not quite up with the vegan programme. However, a non-dairy apple cheesecake with a coconut crust and a vanilla/rum syrup cheers him up no end. ‘Excellent,’ he says.

In short, Saf sell the kind of food one might expect to be served at the home of an anorexic millionaire vegan Hollywood producer during his annual Oscar night party. It is very high concept Californian, served in Paris Hilton portions. Yet the quality cannot be faulted. In terms of preparation and display, some of the dishes are almost reminiscent of Jason Atherton’s Maze.

The smoking friendly outside area at Saf, LondonSaf are brave to launch their plant-based cuisine in London in the teeth of a big and beefy recession, but it is a singular restaurant offering an eating experience to be found nowhere else in the city. There are plenty of vegetarians out there who are bored to sobs with the roast aubergine/pasta/salad axis of evil which is trundled out to cater for them with insulting ubiquity elsewhere. They ache, ache, ache to eat stuff like this.

Plenty of restaurants make lame claims about the provenance of their food, but I believe in Saf’s promises. They do seem to be sincere, right down to the wine list - which contains only sustainable, organic and biodynamic wines - although one does wonder where all the money is coming from. Saf's restaurant site, which includes a large outdoor area for smokers and summer dining, is worth millions of £££. Perhaps a global vegan version of SMERSH are behind the whole thing, even if our charming waitress admits to eating meat on a regular basis

Yet everything here is the best it can be. Saf goes all out to provesthat veganism does not have to be austere and boring, but can be zesty and interesting if enough obsessive care is taken. And if a ‘Buddha bowl’ of green tea smoked tofu with garlic greens, wakame, kinpira and sambal is not to your taste, remember that the bar here is worth a visit in itself. Come on! Don’t let Macca scoff the lot.

  • SAF, 152 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3AT. Tel: 020 7613 0007. Lunch or dinner for two, £50, excluding drinks and service.

Bookmark this article with:

Search by restaurant type ...
cuisine:
price/head:
location:
 
Search by restaurant name ...
name:
 
Add this page to your favourites
Set this as your homepage
Are You Ready To Order Ltd
PO Box 55524
London
SW7 5YU
Copyright © 2024
Are You Ready To Order Ltd