I’ll be bombing you with more food porn from my trip to London last month. I hope you don’t mind! My boyfriend and I discovered raw vegan restaurant Nama Foods when we were strolling around Portabello Market in Notting Hill. It was tucked away on a very quiet & unassuming street next to the courtyard of a church. I was overwhelmed by all the entirely raw, vegan, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free menu, not to mention the fridge stocked with raw desserts. Seriously, it was a dream come true.
What I really appreciated about Nama Foods was their passion and commitment to health. They not only create beautiful dishes that taste absolutely awesome, but also they make sure everything that comes out of their kitchen nourishes your body and is handmade made fresh for you on the spot. They’re enthusiastic about being as eco-friendly as possible too which was a major bonus. Plus, you really get a sense of community when you step into Nama Foods. This all really aligned with my values and made me appreciate them even more.
The first dish I absolutely had to try were these pancakes & ice cream.
Can you believe this dish was raw & vegan? I know, I couldn’t believe it either. But it was the first and best raw pancakes I’d ever had in my life. These were walnut pancakes topped with banana ice cream, nut anise crumble, and blueberries then drizzled with berry coulis and maple syrup. If you’ve seen my Instagram @dayslikelaura, you’d know I have a next level obsession with banana ice cream. Nom!
The inside was so packed when we went, so we opted to sit outside on their nice and quaint little front patio. If you go, I definitely recommend trying one of the superfood smoothies. We drank them so fast that I didn’t even have time to take photos! I guess that’s a good sign. I’d say go for either the mango lassi made with mango, dates, young coconut, cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla or the lucious lucuma made with lúcuma, banana, chia seeds, coconut oil, fresh almond milk, maple, coconut sugar and vanilla.
Okay, confession time: we loved Nama Foods so much we went back a second time. I know, it may seem a little overboard but the food was so unique, delicious, and well-made that we just had to. I mean, we’d only been for breakfast so I guess it’s not too shocking that we wanted to go back for lunch.
This time, we went for the raw vegan sushi platter: Kohlrabi rice, ‘roasted’ Asian mushrooms, carrot,
cucumber, cabbage, avocado, sprouts, nori, sesame dipping sauce, and Savoy salad. Being from Hong Kong and quite the chef himself, my boyfriend was even impressed by how good this sushi was. Trust me, that’s huge coming from him because he really is the biggest foodie I know.
Basically, if you’re ever in London, you most definitely need to stop by Nama Foods.
Even if you’re not vegan or haven’t tried raw vegan food before, I think you’d really like this place! And if you live in London, seriously go ASAP. I was so hooked on their food, I even stocked up on some raw vegan desserts for my flight back to L.A. I got a couple of raweos, salted caramel fudge, and a mars bar just to name a few. I’ve been dreaming of going back to London just so I can enjoy Nama Foods all over again. Also, be sure to check out my vegan food guide to London and my list of the top 5 vegan restaurants in London.
No Comments