I have been a fan of the Kind Living Cafe ever since I heard about it, having yet to actually visit it! Brock hadn't heard of it so of course I was showing him mouth watering food piccies online during our drive out... a little temptation never went astray.
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| This is my picture though - just so you know :) |
By the time we got there, yep we were starved, and had to wait for a table which I had kinda expected, but the staff there were lovely and happy to chat to us amongst their busy lunch shifts while we waited. Once we sat down we knew exactly what we wanted to order - well pretty much - having sussed out the menu while waiting. Still, a tough job to say the least.
Not being huge fans of traditional gourmet raw food fair we tried to stay away from the nuttier 'gourmet' options - although the kelp noodles in cashew cheese sauce did sound so tempting. More the kelp, less the cashews.
Anyways here is our spread...
First up (although we ordered everything at once) we tried the raw Nori Rolls. We figured it was kinda like an entree. Brock and I both LOVED LOVED these! I've tried gourmet raw nori rolls where nut pates and the like take up most of the filling, and I'm not a fan. It's too rich for me. But these babies were completely stuffed with alfalfa, cabbage, carrot, capsicum, cucumber, beet, avocado, spinach, enoki, sprouts and more!! So refreshing I could have easily eaten another plate of them. And whatever is in the dressing that comes with it - it needs to be bottled and sold!
Then we had the Tortilla. I wasn't sure about this one initially... but when we saw one go out to another table; BAM! Easiest decision ever made! It was a chia seed/flax seed/other stuff wrap stuffed with a melange of spinach, avocado, mushrooms and paw paw all mixed together in some sort of a yummy salsa, then topped off with 3 different sauces which were AMAZING, and side salad of course. And it wasn't your usual shitty scrap of ice berg lettuce here. Proper side salad! The dressing on that was damn good too! Happy days :) But a great dish to share. Brock and I both said we couldn't have eaten the whole one mainly due to the richer sauces, not the size.
Then Zucchini Linguini. Such a roll off the tongue isn't it? Brock wanted this one the most. It sounded a little lighter than the cheesy kelp noodles - zucchini with a miso asian styled sauce. Avocado based I think but we tolerate that alot better than nuts. And anything with miso - I'm there! So you can imagine the tang of this was delicious. Mushies and shallots throughout too, but like the tortilla, the richness was too much for either one of us to have had the whole dish. This is exactly why eating at raw restaurants or cafes needs to be done with friends. Because (1) the meals are often rich and 'gourmet' (when you find a raw place to begin with) so can be tough to tackle through them. And (2) so that you can try most of - if not all of - the menu they offer!
So they were our main dishes to satisfy our grumbling bellies. And we could have easily finished up there, but how often do you come across cafes in Australia that make, serve and sell you raw cakes? I mean really? Um... maybe one in New South Wales... a couple scattered across southern Queensland... more in Melbourne, few in Perth... few and far between really. So when in Rome (or Maleny in our case), you get the cake and eat it too.
Opting against the chocolate mousse torte, presuming the key lime pie wouldn't be so sweet and rich, we both dipped our forks in. Light and refreshing it was delicious. The base wasn't anything special, and the cashew cream on the side was ok, but the cake itself was divine. Brock said I've got 'em on desserts but they trump me on mains! Fair call.
We savoured every little mouthful with a raw hot choccie with cacao, nut milk, vanilla and honey - the only strange thing was that the milk came pretty damn hot. Raw ingredients, but not so raw. I thought that was odd. Maybe they hadn't thought about that though. Who knows. It still tasted really good.
And one last choccie bite tempted my tastebuds, but I wasn't all that impressed. To me it tasted like the coconut oil in it had gone a little bad. Great little concept though - brownie type base with more of a ganache top with goji's and macadamias (I think?) throughout.
All up though, I LOVED IT! And would definitely go back! Brock and I spent a little time chatting to the owner Lucy about organics, ethical eating, sustainability and loads more before we left which was really interesting. Kind Living Cafe use organic and local produce first and foremost which we were very impressed to be told. It's just not something they advertise. Why? Well because if their produce is local and spray free, chemical free, grown with love, tastes amazing and is everything you could ever ask for in a plant... but it's not certified organic, then they can't say it's organic - even if it is.
And for all those of you out there loving the raw journey you're on, or if you're just raw-curious... this cafe caters for both raw and cooked vegans so you can take your mates that might not eat the way you do, and still get them a decent feed. On the main road of Maleny, up in the hills from the coast, a beautiful little town and there is also a wicked little co-op selling organic produce, amongst everything else you'd expect to find in such a store, and a few unexpected goodies like these babies -
BLACK SAPOTES!! nomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnom
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