Rawvolution NYC

Rawvolution is a restaurant transplant from Los Angeles, CA. Knowing this going in and my general love for all that is raw vegan cuisine, needless to say, I was expecting allot. Upon first glance, they had a great selection of take out meals or parts there of. Mock tuna and egg filling, sandwiches and and an assortment of dessert balls full of nutritious superfoods. As far as other dessert options go, the other pickings were pretty slim. One type of cake, being pumpkin which I could really appreciate for its seasonal conscious instead of focusing on more imported products as well as a few different cookies.

I went in with a humongous smoothie craving and seeing as I was not particularly hungry, I figured I'd go for that and a dessert. Since they were out of ingredients for the smoothie I initially chose, I settled on a simple strawberry smoothie with a maca add in. No ingredients listed for the smoothies on their menu so I was going into this a bit blind. With this I was fairly disappointed. Being the average $8 smoothie price for NY, plus the additional charge for the maca, what I received was something I could have put together at home if I were running out of ingredients in the fridge. It literally tasted like straight up strawberries and nut milk which, don't get me wrong, is tasty enough but when I go out and spend $10 over all on a drink, I'm expecting something a little more elaborate and flavorful. At least a date or something to sweeten it. On top of the basic taste, it was pre-made. The texture was thick but it didn't have the satisfying icy texture to satisfy my craving. I tried to legitimized that perhaps their raw vegan values system is so stringent that they also refuse to freeze fruit due to nutrient loss or they don't want to add ice because it would make it less easily digested. I would never order a smoothie here again. You know you're dissatisfied when 1/3 of the way through something you think 'I'll just take this home and mix it with something else later.'

My desserts of choice were the raw cookie dough balls. These were spectacular. Not like a regular cookie dough ball but probably as close as you'll ever get in the raw vegan world. The texture of the dough was extremely smooth in contrast to the crunchy cacao nibs. The taste was slightly like coconut but not so overpowering to make them a coconut dessert. If anything, I'd go back for these.

The Staff was absolutely lovely. I'm salivating just thinking about their take-out selection so despite my disappointment, I think I'll be back for lunch at some point.

Rating: 6.5/10