影片
更多
2016-06-06
4930 浏览
The recently opened organic vegetarian/vegan restaurant HOME EAT TO LIVE! has become the latest trend here in HK and has received raving reviews from local bloggers including Green Queen, The Loop. That's when I know I have to go find out how good this restaurant is even though I already have my long-established go-to Top 5 Vegan/Gluten-Free restaurant in Hong Kong for Eating Healthy (on my blog).Disclaimer first: I’m not paid that’s why I’m being so honest about my review here. LOLThe founder o
Disclaimer first: I’m not paid that’s why I’m being so honest about my review here. LOL
The founder of this newly established vegan café is the co-founder of Mana! Fast Slow Food, which has been a hit for almost everyone really, vegan or non-vegan alike. But on the other hand, with this new restaurant, he’s basically doing the same thing and serving similar food at a different location and within a larger space. I understand this café is more dedicated to environmental protection and endangered animal species, but today we are only focusing on the food here so as a food blogger I’ll only comment on the food related stuff. XD
I came here on a weekday night with a friend and surprisingly this place is packed full of people. Apparently it’s catching on among the vegetarian and healthy eating community in the area haha. On the ground floor they have various food items and other snacks/to-go items on display, including take away salads, kumbucha, etc. Everything in the counter looks extremely fresh and appetizing. What’s very special in their ground floor setting is a small corner stacked with the menu of this restaurant combined with the latest news & blog coverage of the newly opened café. It’s such a great idea since it not only is a promotion of the restaurant but also gives the customer a glimpse of almost everything on the menu, what it looks like, how it tastes, making it so much easier to make a decision as to what to order since almost everyone is new to the eatery.
Compared to the ground floor the upper floor is surprisingly packed full of people and there is another kitchen/counter to order food from. The restaurant owner and a group of his friends are also eating on the upper floor. One thing about this place really stood out for me, that is, this place is almost the exactly same duplicate of Mana, only with a different menu (and you can even argue even the menu and the food are essentially no different from each other). And honestly, I don’t know if this is a good thing or bad….especially for a new born restaurant. The deli salads, the wraps, the eco-friendly core spirit, the staff, and the way food is ordered and picked up all make you feel you are literally eating at another Mana, flagship edition maybe…. XD
Al’right let’s move on to the food here. Having heard so much about their signature flats, I had to go with a flat for my first visit here. I ordered a custom made flatbread. The red base was recommended by the staff who said it has more spice in flavor and who wouldn’t love that lol! For the four toppings I chose kale, roasted mushroom, avocado and rockets. And last you get to choose a sauce. Upon asking, I was informed that all of the sauces have garlic in it…. Normally I don’t eat garlic but since I’m eating here for the first time I decided to go with the creamy cashew as a recommendation from the staff, also it’s pretty special compared to other sauces like hummus or tahini. I was glad I did! My friend just went with her regular order and got the Blue Whale, first one listed on the pre-designed flatbread options and also seemed to be a popular choice. As a salad addict coming to a vegan eatery who boasts of its healthy eating choices, I had to try their salad here and give my ratings. We chose the Manta Ray to share as it’s the most appetizing looking among the salad bowl choices.
Originally I intended to go gluten-free and try the green lettuce wrap substitute offered here. But apparently I got completely overwhelmed at the counter when ordering the flatbread with so many steps to go through and so many options to choose from filling my flatbread I completely forgot about asking for the lettuce wrap instead of the whole wheat wrap…T。T
Anyways, the wrap was actually nothing like I expected and boy was I DISAPPOINTED… Yes I know the wrap is made with healthy whole-wheat flour, but the texture and taste might be a little too “healthy” even for me, a health food addict. Being made with no oil or sugar doesn’t have to mean the flatbread must be dry, tasteless and extremely hard to swallow, does it? For the toppings they are just average, to say the best and nothing stood out at all, even the roasted mushrooms came with no flavor, and I’m usually a big sucker for mushrooms of any kind. Furthermore, the RED base that was supposed to have a lot of spices and bring much flavor to the wrap, for me I couldn’t even taste it…. The only thing that stood out was the creamy cashew sauce. Very creamy and flavorful!The salad! I went to the Matay Ray which looks very good with spinach, beets, broccoli, quinoa, various seeds topped with a tahini dressing. But first of all, the portion at the price was pretty outrageous. Even at the small portion, the price came at 78 and neither the flavor nor the portion can be anything on par with any of the deli salads at Mana. The entire bowl of salad felt pretty much like eating everything without seasoning and the tahini dressing added nothing but dryness to the salad. I would never ever order this kind of salad every again… especially at this price. My friend and I couldn’t even finish the small salad.
I was dying to try their expansive dessert options which all look very delish with wholesome ingredient listed on the menu when I first came. But unfortunately I lost all my appetite after the flatbread and the salad so I was desperately wanting to get out of HOME to find something else to fill my hungry tummy…..
All in all, if you want food of the same or even better tastes, go to Mana. Despite their smaller number of options, the food tastes much more flavorful and comes at a much more reasonable price. But if you only want to hop on with the trend and go with the hype, maybe this place wouldn’t be that bad….My ratings:
Flavor - ★
Environment - ★★★☆ (Very spacious and decoration very appealing but the upper floor can be noisy.)
Price - ★★ (Pretty expensive even for healthy food considering the portion and flavor IMHO.)
Location - ★★★★★ (in the heart of central)
Overall - ★★
Recommendation: None….maybe creamy cashew sauce, maybe
张贴
