NAKEDFOOD

Nakedfood is a sanctuary in the city for ambiance and food. The space is bright, inviting, warm, and funky. The food is surprising, refreshing, energizing and flavourful.

I've been putting this off for some time, but it's reached the point where something just had to be said, so as the city “ ambassador” (volunteer contact person) I guess it's my job. While it serves decent raw food, Nakedfood needs to stop promoting itself as a “vegan” restaurant while it serves non-vegan beer and wine. On their FB page they classify themselves as a “ vegan” restaurant, even while currently promoting a new meal + drink deal, for which the beer has been shown by the (rather frustrated) vegan community to all be made with fish products.


On my visit I wasn't told anything about the wines not being vegan, despite identifying myself as vegan. I inquired about it, and the staff member said he didn't know and asked for my email address. The owner quickly got in touch and said that she didn't know wine wasn't vegan, and promised to look into it. She also said that the South African wines were vegan, but later admitted that they weren't; it appeared that she had just made that claim up. I later discovered by accident that three months before she had had an almost identical discussion with another vegan, who like me had proceeded to tell her all about isinglass etc, yet she still told me she had no idea about it. It seems that the modus operandi is to claim ignorance each time a new customer asks about the wine, and then continue to pass it off as vegan.

Running a restaurant can't be easy, and I would never judge anyone for making the necessary decisions to stay in business. But as a matter of honesty the owner needs to stop promoting her restaurant as vegan when it's not. It can be a raw, health-focussed restaurant, or whatever she likes, and it can be promoted as offering vegan meals. But it's not a vegan (or vegetarian) restaurant if it serves fish (derivatives). This lack of honesty calls into doubt whether the food itself is really vegan, and as such I can't recommend it.

Whether you're vegan, vegetarian, coeliac or not, this place is a must for foodies! As a non-veg, it was really eye-opening for me and evolved my thinking on vegan food.

The food here was genuinely delicious and surprisingly filling. I tried the pizza quartet - a gluten free base of walnut, zucchini and flaxseed topped with various raw, vegan ingredients (my favourite was the pumpkin and mushroom!). I also tried Kombucha tea and a zingy juice of ginger, beet, apple and lime! I paid only $615 for everything and I was even gifted a glass of wine and a sample dish - thanks Prish and Leiven!

The venue itself is a warm and stylish space with a relaxed ambience - I came for lunch and ended up staying until closing time...7 hours later! The staff and owners were so friendly and helpful especially with explaining ingredients, processes and making recommendations.

Can't wait for my next visit!

really tasty raw vegan food, and good wine. one of the few places we've seen kombucha. staff are all very friendly and fluent in English. it is expensive but worth it.

I came here alone thinking, let me have a small snack and study-- i ended up staying for 2 hrs just so i could make room for dessert!! I had the chimmichura? cauliflower pizza and banana cream pie -- I DIED AND WENT TO HEAVEN . The pizza was so rich in flavor I was actually upset when there wasnt any left -- just come,order one of everything -- you will NOT regret it! Also worth noting, the staff were SO kind and helpful, they explained all of the ingredients (i didnt even ask) but I'm so glad they did! They really take everything into account and use amazing, clean, and delicious ingredients. Some might say its expensive compared to other places, but this is HIGH QUALITY RAW food, raw pizza here was $10 US but would be $25 US in new york -- this place was a BARGAIN for what youre getting !!!

I was looking forwards to Naked Food opening and wasn't disappointed by the food. The food and the decor are both beautifully presented. The kitchen is all stainless steel and stretches to the back of the room, covering as much floor as the dining area. This isn't used day to day, it's for teaching culinary classes.

The coffee/tea portions are generous, although they use soy milk to make their lattes – I was expecting coconut or nut milks, which I would have preferred. They had the nice touch of coconut sugar, instead of normal sugar, which made the soy milk particularly surprising. We were a big group so all ordered pizzas so we could split them between us.

The owners were lovely and welcoming and definitely added a lot to the dining experience. They’re extremely passionate about their food, and I believe the menu will develop a lot over the next few months. The pizzas were delicious: the unanimous favourite being the ChimChurri cauliflower pizza which was divine. The food was fresh, delicious and full of flavour. It’s some of the best and healthiest vegan food I’ve tasted here.

My price tag for a decent amount of pizza, the raw strawberry vanilla bean pie and a latte came to 760ntd. I was still a little hungry. If you want to treat yourself to a different dining experience, this is definitely somewhere to try - just be aware that it's pricey and small portions, although it's still inexpensive compared to raw places in other cities. They're developing the menu over the next few months and promise larger portions and different flavors, so I'm looking forwards to visiting again.