There’s Nothing Tame About Wild Food Cafe’s Menu
As a vegetarian people love to ask me banal questions like ‘where do you get protein from?’ and I am forced to smash them out of the park with retorts of every single protein-rich ingredient I can think of that doesn’t contain meat (there’s a lot). For the last few weeks though, I’ve slowly been committing carbicide, defined by Webster’s dictionary as ‘to eat so many carbs that one fears that they may overdose and become a pure loaf of bread’. I was a few crumpets away from completion when I came across Wild Food Café’s online menu, which offers plant-based food rich in nutritious dishes and an emphasis on vegetables – I decided to accept the accidental intervention and head over to their Islington venue.
It was rammed when I arrived at lunch on a Saturday, a common occurrence at the weekend I was told by the host. After standing awkwardly at the entrance for a bit and nosing on other people’s orders we were seated. Anyone eating out in London at the moment will have noticed the surge in vegan options, offering anything from vegan junk food to haute cuisine. A fabulous sight to see, moving in the right direction to give the planet and our bodies a break from unnecessary animal products, but sometimes people get a little lazy when trying to think of what vegans eat. The menu at Wild Food Café is so refreshing, the dishes are interesting and varied, and best of all everything is rich in nutrients and delicious goodies that your body needs (especially if you’ve been eating hot cross buns for breakfast for the last few weeks).
I loved the Quinoa Dosa Pancake served with slow cooked aubergine, hummus and a mango-fennel chutney, a smart and delicious dish to start with. The Wild Green Burger (one of the dishes I spied being served up while I was waiting) is very Insta worthy given the bright green bun it comes in; the raw pink olive & shiitake mushroom patty has a slight meaty texture to it which can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference. The burger comes with some seriously moreish Cheese & Onion Kale Chips, which you can also order just as a snack. Wild Food Café has several pizza options but the Pepperoni appealed to me most, it comes topped with tomato sauce, house olive pepperoni, smoked chilli cashew cheese, chilli oil and rocket; the cheese is really nice, sort of like a mozzarella mousse.
For dessert I had the salted caramel doughnut with coconut ice cream which was really moist and then also had to order the beautiful rainbow cheesecake that had a lovely lemon flavour.
In-keeping with the healthy vibe, Wild Food Café serves health shots that vary from the mild-flavoured, Aware, made with coconut water, blue spirulina and bilberries to the slightly more daring, Alive, which is a mix of kimchi and horseradish juice. They also do a great selection of juices and smoothies plus some health-conscious cocktails.
I really enjoyed my time at Wild Food Café, it had that sort of posh yoga studio décor vibe that Gwyneth Paltrow would approve of but without being pretentious. Although the menu could be more expensive I thought it was all really reasonably priced and can see why everyone flocks there.
