http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar Saf Restaurant & Bar - London, 152-154 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AT, United Kingdom en http://cdn.trustedplaces.com/i/uploads/placepics/300644_09549eb9.140.jpg http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar/167tw7
Review by intoxicating

Rating: 4.00
Tags:
WELCOME TO â¬Üsafâ¬" (seasonal authentic food). This bright, â¬Übotanicalâ¬" restaurant is brought to you by â¬ÜLifeCoâ¬", an organisation which sounds like it might have cryogenically filed Walt Disney somewhere. In reality, its intentions are all about promoting â¬Üwellnessâ¬". Diet is of course part of that. An obvious statement, although you would be surprised how frequently my psychologist mother sees â¬Sirreparably hyperactive⬠children whose effervescence is attributable to no more than an o.d. of Sunny D.

â¬ÜTrendyâ¬" Shoreditchâ¬"s version made its debut last April ⬠there are other wheat grass green embassies in Munich and Turkey. I imagined it to be corny, even fluffy although it is of course neither, being gluten free and staunchly furless. It also disallows dairy and serves mostly raw food. The marketing at most only gently touches on this, which is cunning. On launch day I was elsewhere - bibbed in Madrid, grinding my way through several platters of haemorrhaging chops. They were so moistly cooked that my fellow carnivores actually applauded the chef.

Being blinkered by blood, I harboured three doubts about a â¬Üfree fromâ¬" restaurant:

1. Lack of takers / masticators. There are very few vegans in the wild (around a quarter of a percent of the population). Many must have been put-off linen for life by poor plated appeasements in conventional establishments. Whilst fanatics of the flesh might stop by out of curiosity or confusion, a creeping nostalgia for protein could prevent repeat custom.

2. Sheer ambition and technological requirements. Using complex techniques such as â¬Üspheriphicationâ¬" born in elBulli-like workshops, a reasonably priced restaurant of calibre would be running at a loss for a long time.

3. Heather Mills is a regular.

Were my suspicions founded? Was the reality what a friend described as â¬Üall mung* beans and self loathingâ¬"? Veganism is not hedonismâ¬"s obvious bedfellow. Whilst December was calm, every table was taken on the January weekday when I went. A depressingly attractive set wearing tweed with irony were seeing through healthy resolutions. They were lured like yogis to a pot of rooibos for safâ¬"s specially marked detox dishes. Spending pounds to lose them, although no one could be described as a challenge to the floorboards.

Over a carafe of Château Thames carefully filtered, adjusted to a sharp pH and garnished with cucumber, my companion, Jonathan from â¬ÜAround Britain with a Paunchâ¬" excitedly told me about the deer hanging in his parents garage. Despite our choice of venue, it seemed this would be a meating of minds.

Out of nine courses, the one most laden with promise was also the first: â¬ÜCaviarâ¬" with Sour â¬ÜCreamâ¬". Nothing is what it seems at saf, however, and what transpired was poignant, chirpy, kelpy chive pearls falling over scoops of cashew nut paste on sweet potato blinis. These smelt like white mushroom flesh. Two apple â¬Üchimneysâ¬" rose. Dried beetroot powder was dusted across like crushed cochineal. This was matched with a Champagne saucer of charismatic organic cava from Albet I Noya. Incidentally, all drinks, from â¬ÜThe Safiaâ¬" chamomile / green gin in the stylishly bare bar to â¬Ügroovyâ¬" Grüner Veltliner from the wood fringed list are voted in for their natural beauty. The restaurant even runs a wine club.

A dedicated â¬Ücheeseâ¬" course of Pesto Au Poivre was the most filling dish ⬠a tall stack of turkey scented cashew with bands of gently drying, feathery sage and a pink peppercorn crust. This was finished with a shallow trickle of white balsamic, tarragon and bacon-like heirloom tomatoes dried into crisp crackers. We wondered quite why this was so successful, until we paused to examine our vocabulary. We were desperately drawing meaty comparisons.

The Tom Kha Soup was the mealâ¬"s only concession to properly heated food. According to LifeCo, warming enzymes over 48 degrees Celsius depletes them. The coconut-lemon grass broth with tofu (welcome), oyster mushrooms and coriander was as near to being a complete dish as possible, but schizophrenically spicily out of character with the rest of the meal. In all fairness, the â¬ÜSpicy ⬠can be modifiedâ¬" description should have cautioned us.

Swiss Chard Rolls with mung beans*, water chestnut, Thai vinaigrette, a shuffle of pickled cucumber and slimy seaweed was not the best looking dish, but probably the healthiest thing I have ever put in my mouth. It caused such a crunch in my cranium that I momentarily knew what it was like to be rabbit grinding its incisors. I may have appreciated it more had I had three more stomachs.

The mandarin scented chocolate ganache decorated with dried rosebuds was a valiant effort to supply something to salivate over whilst avoiding the untouchables. Pumpkin pie was decorated with a surprisingly delectable, nutty yet succulent winter pansy. Jonathan and I awkwardly joked that we might look like a couple of pansies. This is complimentary in a way ⬠they are surprisingly hardy plants.

Soy milk holds all the appeal of a holiday in Hull - grassy Argentinean Yerba matte therefore replaced a macchiato. Thankfully it was heated above 48 degrees.

I would like to say that our six hours at saf passed like an eco fairy tale: â¬Ümeat meets veg and lives happily ever afterâ¬". The food was carefully, painstakingly executed and daintily presented. It was enthusiastically explained by staff with energy and served with warmth. Arranged around an open plan kitchen cool in temperature and temperament, the room was a pleasure to sit within. Chef Chad Sarno was gracious with a greaseless hand. The cocktail list was spellbinding and the wines accessibly, encouragingly priced. The unisex loos with Ecover handwash were immaculate No wonder pilgrims are making the journey from Britain and beyond.

Inevitably however saf remains a slightly tough nut to crack. It packs too many culinary genres on one menu, from Caesar salad to samosas, Thai soup to Chinese pancakes and fake pasta to British roots and shoots. It also represents ingrediental absenteeism: imagine the Mona Lisa in monochrome. Whilst it keeps its principles discreet, I left feeling smugly privileged that my life is enriched by death.

That night I dreamt of molten butter spread deeply onto toast triangles, almost curdling cream, sticky, runny, bursting egg yokes, the sensation of tearing blazing red flesh and sucking warm marrowbone goo, twirling swines on spits, fried swordfish steaks, tear salty oysters and garlic sodden crayfish tails. The rich aromas from an oil fired Aga stuffed with plucked, basted fowl⬦]]> Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:40:02 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar/167tw7762343731 intoxicating 51.524475 -0.080335 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar/1s6sx7
Review by ladi

Rating: 5.00
Tags: romantic, international, good value, vegetarian, expensive
Saf is truly special. It's one of the only restaurants I rave about and is my default venue of choice for special occasions or just when I want to make sure I'll have a great dining experience.

Saf isn't just a pretty place, it's an adventure into the world of veg. I'm generally vegetarian, and I've taken many an omnivore, and every single one of them has been impressed.

Although Saf isn't just vegetarian, it's vegan. And it's not just vegan, it's about 50% raw (yes, not cooked)! Imagine trying to make a tasty pasta, cheese, sushi or pizza with that in mind. The food doesn't always taste or look like the name, but that's part of the fun. Some dishes are pretty much what you'd expect, like the thai curry. So there are safe options if you're feeling like it was a big enough step just to go to a veg restaurant.

I never go without having at least one of their special botanical cocktails, which are equally exquisite. The bar staff know their stuff and always impress with their artisan knowledge, without any pretense.

I always feel a little bad that I don't eat as much as they suggest... but I would be broke and way too full if I did. I don't think most people need to order from every course, as the servings are a good enough size. I usually just go for 2-3 (not the 5 or so they have on offer).

Ah, and they often give little tasters during your meal.. to tempt you for next time. Nice touch!

Saf is a gorgeous place, with fantastic creative and unique food, served by knowledgeable and altogether nice people.]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:24:59 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar/1s6sx7194771140 ladi romantic international good value vegetarian expensive 51.524475 -0.080335 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar/1j4a78
Review by chrisp

Rating: 5.00
Tags: lively, good value, vegetarian
When I first heard about Saf thanks to a post by Andrew of the eminently readable Eating Albion blog, my reaction sat somewhere between disbelief and open ridicule. Regular readers will know my position on vegetarians and vegetarian restaurants, but for everyone else here is the comment I left on Andrew's piece:

1. The best vegan restaurants will never serve better food than the best non-vegan restaurants, because taste in Western cooking by and large comes from dairy and animal fat.

2. In a normal restaurant serving the odd vegetarian dish, you can be reasonably sure that dish is judged by the standards of the other dishes, and not just â¬Ügood enough for vegetarianâ¬". See my review of Pearl in Holborn, where my favourite dish (gnocchi and truffles) just happened to be vegetarian. In a pure vegetarian restaurant it will be incredibly difficult - though not impossible - to keep standards consistently high across the menu as your ingredient options are so limited.

3. Any restaurant committing itself to just serving vegan food is already starting with a huge disadvantage, and just by appealing to and satisfying the tiny handful of vegan diners does not really say much about the standard of cooking. If all youâ¬"re used to being able to choose is a green salad every time you eat out, I donâ¬"t blame you if youâ¬"re excited about SAF.

4. There are good vegetarian/vegan restaurants but the successful ones are generally from an ethnic background where meat eating is culturally more unusual. See Kastoori. Just making French food and taking the butter out is a surefire way to create some pretty bland dishes.

5. That said, I think I owe it to vegans to try out SAF, and I will as soon as Iâ¬"m back in the UK. I will do my best to keep an open mind, but Iâ¬"m already not the first to raise a dissenting voice.

So, ill-informed and closed-minded I may be (not my words, the words of a righteous vegan responding to the above comment), but I am a man of my word and so today made a lunchtime visit to Curtain Road to see if it was as terrible as I knew it was going to be.

First impressions were depressingly good. The room is huge - light and airy, with great high ceilings, attractive furniture and a bar stocked with organic vodkas and gins. There's an open kitchen too and I peered in suspiciously, wondering what kind of cooking could be going on in a vegan restaurant.

When the starters arrived there was an even bigger psychological blow - mine was actually rather good. Tasting nothing like the Boursin cheese advertised on the menu it was nevertheless a very tasty trio of herb, tomato and olive flavoured nut paste thingies, kind of a more solid humous. The accompanying crackers were a bit cardboardy but it was all so prettily presented it added up to a reasonably good plate of food. It was all getting dreadfully upsetting.

Fortunately - thank God - things began to fall into place once the starters were over with. My main course of wild mushroom ravioli looked the part and had clearly been cooked with great skill, but there was something slightly wrong with the pasta. It was anaemic tasting and the sauce had a very strange film on it. At once I decided it was basically a dish crying out for some animal product. Still, full marks for effort and if you're a vegan it's probably the best pasta dish you're ever likely to taste, if that's any kind of compliment.

My dessert, again, was a prettily composed slice of Ganache Tart with berries on top, served with a zingy fruit sorbet. It was perfectly edible, with a good smooth texture and probably as good a chocolate tart you're going to get that doesn't have any chocolate in it. But I return to my same point - this would have been fantastic made with a shedload of butter. These chefs can definitely cook and I couldn't help thinking how great they'd be if they were let loose on some fois gras or a beef carpaccio.

But then that's not really the point of Saf. Saf is a vegan restaurant, self-consciously healthy and worthy, and you shouldn't really be expecting the same taste sensations as somewhere using butter and cream in their sauces. And despite the largely bland food, I actually can see myself going back - it's healthy, attractive and different and the worst you can say about it is that all the talk of Himalayan salt and Ionised tap water can get gratingly pretentious. What's more, the knowledge that all this appealing food is actually good for you means there's none of the pangs of residual guilt from a lunchtime steak and chips or salt beef beigel - that is, unless you decide to load up on the excellent house cocktails and do damage to yourself that way instead. I can recommend the Spiced Apricot Martini, a superb invention.

So, and admitting this will most likely send me spiralling into a cycle of self-loathing and depression, but I liked Saf. The dishes don't quite taste as good as a conventional restaurant but they're a damn sight better than they have any right to be thanks to the extraordinary skills on display from the kitchen staff, and stepping out of a restaurant after a three-course meal feeling like you've actually done yourself some good for a change was a delightfully unique experience. I will be back - I wonder if they can make me a vegan humble pie?]]> Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:30:46 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1f36z88/saf-restaurant-and-bar/1j4a78848160530 chrisp lively good value vegetarian 51.524475 -0.080335