Two of my friends have recently become vegans; buying bananas in bulk and scoffing plates of veggies, fruit and rice all day. A catch up was due so I began investigating somewhere we could go - the perfect girl date which suited their new diet and somewhere I could indulge too. Tanya's Cafe popped up during my search and I instantaneously remembered the name from an issue of Women's Health. In fact, I had already attempted to replicate one of the delicious raw desserts that furnished that week's issue; 'Jingle Me Protein Balls with Matcha Cream.' (Which, by the way, was gorgeous!)
We all met at South Kensington and equipped with Google Maps we trekked through the glamorous streets of West London, finding Tanya's tucked away under a hotel (raw dessert room service!? If only!) The inside was pretty and relaxed, with the walls surrounded by plants pots and boards prompting positive thoughts and pretty coloured lights which tinted the room in shades of yellow and pink.
The staff were immediately welcoming and offered lots of information and suggestions. from the moment we sat down.
Tanya's serves a breakfast menu from 9:00 am till 11:30am (one of these includes 'rawtella' on toast - that is guilt-free Nutella if you are wondering), lunch from 12:00pm till 3:00pm and dinner 6:00pm till 9:00pm.
We arrived at 6:00pm. After chatting too much and not even looking at the menu - I used to be a waitress - these customers were just one of the many annoying ones... We finally decided to order a couple of items to share; raw nachos made from dehydrated corn chips with walnut mushroom meat, guacamole, pineapple salsa and sourced cashew cream, raw pizza with marinated veggies and cashew cream cheese, and inside out pumpkin dumplings with a big pile of raw, crunchy salad topped with pine nut cream. Oh, and of course cocktails; 2 x Spice up your life (dehydrated strawberry infused vodka, rhubarb, lemon, agave, spice mix and orange juice + 1x Boabab chicka wow wow (spice and boabab infused flor de cana, raspberry, cinnamon, banana, agave topped with sparkling water).
The food came out quite quickly, as you would expect seeing as no cooking is involved! The food looked amazing and full of flavour. Unlike other raw foods I have tried, which taste earthy and dry, the food was moist, appetizing and full of texture. I had a raw pizza before but the bases were always crunchy and nut like however this tasted like soft doughy flatbread.Yep, so in summary this place serves you health pizza and cocktails - ones we hoped for in our dreams.
After tucking into the plates of living food we sampled three raw pies; banana and lemon, chocolate and carrot cake. All three were sweet, refreshing and yummy - so good that I actually ate them slowly... and I definitely did not buy a slice to take home for my boyfriend knowing that he would probably share it with me (which he did of course...)
All in all it was a great experience and a really nice place to go especially with girlfriends or even a health punch date with a handsome fella. The atmosphere was nice and we ended up spending a good few hours chatting.
However, do be warned, this yummy healthy goodness comes with a bit of a Hefty price tag. For 3 small plates (one of those supposedly a sharing platter but resembled a starter - pictured below), 3 cocktails and 3 desserts our bill came to a whopping £112. With that said, the food was good and hey, why not treat yourself.
