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2014-03-19
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I've been to Maya Cafe myself more times tHan I could remember, but this was the first that the whole family came. Thanks to The Entertainer (a coupon program which entitles you to enjoy "buy one get one free" offers from various F&B and other establishments), we got a free main dish for every other we ordered.Maya Cafe offers a special breed of vegetarian and vegan in that it is mainly Mediterranean in style, partly because of the French-Moroccan origins of one of the chef-owners. It is also on
Maya Cafe offers a special breed of vegetarian and vegan in that it is mainly Mediterranean in style, partly because of the French-Moroccan origins of one of the chef-owners. It is also one of the first restaurants in Hong Kong to introduce raw cuisine (e.g. raw pasta) to its menu.
The decor is not without Greek influence and I just loved that lamp up there.
We managed to try some of Maya's staple items while ordering some other dishes I hadn't tried.
We started off with some juice.Pick Me Up ($48)
carrots, apple and ginger
~Ginger will help to alleviate symptoms of nausea and carrots and apple provide a burst of nutrients~ according to the menu. I believed that the ginger helped remove some of the "coldness" of the juices (as in traditional wisdom) and generate some "heat" on a rather chilly evening.
Red Hot Juice ($48) tomatoes, red bellpepper, carrots celery, cayenne pepper
~Low in natural sugars and high in the flavour vitamin A and C. Cayenne pepper removes toxins from the blood and help raise the body temperature~
As described it was a wintry juice, packed with antioxidants. The cayenne pepper really gave me a kick!
Even the soups got a raw version.Raw Soup of the Day ($55)
~carrots avocado with ginger and coriander seeds~
To the unfamiliar this soup can more be likened to gazpacho, but it was richer and more creamy due to the avocado inside.
And now down to the mains.
Mezze Platter ($142) ~Hummus, babaganoush, Lebanese salad, cheese, olives and multigrain bread~
This was one of the more Meditteranean dishes. I think there were a couple of falafael balls as well. Standard fare, can't really get too wrong with it.
Frittata ($138, gluten-free, vegan)~Baked organic hand made tofu with potatoes and bellpeppers with spices~
This was one where the creativity of the chef came in. Thanks to tofu, you could vegan-ize almost anything that calls for eggs, and you wouldn't believe this frittata has got no eggs whatsoever! The texture was light but it was flavorful, I could easily finish the whole dish all by myself! (Probably except the salad on the side which was too heavy on the dressing and was exactly the same salad that came with the follwing dish).
Meatless Balls in rich tomato dressing ($148, gluten-free)~Made of mushrooms, oatmeal and Parmesan these balls taste like meatballs, served with red/brown rice and salad in a sesame dressing~
This was probably the best among what we had that evening. First of all it was hot (I'm referring to the temperature - a definite plus point on a cold day), served in a clay casserole for that extra homey touch. As you can see from the picture that the "meatless ball" in fact imitated the texture of ground meat quite well (although no mock meat was used), got a hint of spices just likethe real thing and was very hearty. Eating it with the rice was even more filling. Let's not forget to try one of their signature Raw Vegan Pastas too.
Raw fettuccine with Alfredo Truffle Sauce ($140, gluten-free, raw, vegan)~Fettuccine shaped zucchini with a creamy cashew-truffle sauce~
This is one of Maya Cafe's signatures. Zucchini is spiralized (using a specialised machine) to form strips that resemble spaghetti, and then mixed with a cashew sauce, which is very commonly used in raw cuisine to give a creamy consistency. One useful tip: don't let this "zughetti" sit for too long or else the water in the zucchini would be released and the sauce would get diluted.
I was perfectly okay with it as I'd had the same dish quite a few times already, but my family members thought it was like another plate of salad.
We wish we'd had room for dessert, but we were too full after all these yummy dishes for that. However, do look for their extensive selection of sweet goods including Mango Delight (mango pudding), chocolate mousse, gluten-free orange muffins, baklava and so much more!
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