It pays to talk to people. When I went to the Patagonia Store, they asked me if I had tried any restaurants in Kensington Market and besides Hot Beans, I realized that I hadn’t. So, me and my mom decided to go to Urban Herbivore for lunch before going home.
It’s a cafe-like spot at the corner of Augusta and Oxford streets. There are no tables but lots of stools up along a bar along the windows, so you get a great view of what’s going on outside of the restaurant while you eat. Everything is vegan and mostly organic (which I didn’t know before going) and you can choose from sandwiches, salads, quinoa or rice bowls, soups, juices and incredible LARGE baked desserts.
I chose to have a BLT Sandwich (Bacon – but there isn’t any, Lettuce and Tomato) on whole grain focaccia, but I think it should really be called a LCTT since it’s Lettuce, Coconut, Tempeh, Tomato, doesn’t that make more sense? And while that seems like an odd combination, it really works and was absolutely amazing. I liked that they put it in a panini press before serving to us and that it was nice and toasty. I also had a salad – you get to choose your kind of lettuce and 6 ingredients from many in their display! Fun! I chose the lettuce and kale mix and topped with tempeh, marinated mushrooms, tofu and sundried tomato salad, carrots, lentils and yummy black bean salad. They had lots of dressings that sounded great, but I ended up choosing a lemon tahini one (and I added a little balsamic vinegar too, I like extra vinegar on top of my dressings). They tossed it all up, so it was mixed well and even though most people do takeout, they still had reusable bowls and cutlery, which obviously, I appreciated!
It was hard to choose from their desserts because they had such a very large selection of freshly baked goods. I ended up with 3 desserts – a muddy trail cookie, a mocha chocolate cookie and my mom tried an apple raspberry muffin. The cookies were absolutely astoundingly huge with chocolate chunks that were oozing from the centre. I loved the flavour of cinnamon in the muddy trail cookie, but beware if you have a nut allergy, because there are walnuts in it. I would advise sharing the cookies with others, because they are super large and way too big to finish by yourself, especially after a full meal.
- Big Salad
