Yesterday Raleigh hosted it's St. Patrick's Day parade downtown! We began the parade with pastries and coffees from Lucettegrace located at 235 S Salisbury St, Raleigh, NC 27601 (it's a truly magical place, please go and eat all the macarons they have to offer.) The parade itself was fantastic! Lots of music, candy, dogs and a surprisingly low number of bagpipes. After the parade was over Nate and I decided to go to Raleigh Raw for lunch. An attorney I work with has been raving out Raleigh Raw all week so I was a little worried that it wasn't going to live up to the hype but boy did it!!!
Raleigh Raw
Raleigh Raw is located at 7 W Hargett St, Raleigh, NC 27601. The cafe offers organic pressed juices, poke bowls, sushi, smoothies and breakfast items.
Decor: good. The cafe is very compact and has limited indoor seating, however there are a few tables set up outside on the sidewalk that are just lovely when the weather isn't in the 30s or 40s (as it unfortunately was yesterday). There is local art lining the walls, low lighting and a few cozy alcoves with tables.
Food appearance: good. Food is served to you on ceramic and glass, despite being a quick-serve style restaurant and there is definite attention to detail. Sushi is drizzled with sauces, poke bowls are piled high with all the fixin's and smoothies are topped with fresh garnishes.
Food taste: excellent. Unfortunately for Nate and I, the restaurant was out of several of their sushi items due to increased volume (great for them, bad for us) but we still were given a delicious meal! We started with The Hustle poke bowl with yellowtail and sticky rice. The bowl was topped with chives, dragonfruit, jalapeno, pistachio dust, sesame asparagus, seaweed salad, shallot, and chef's mixed microgreens. The jalapeno was fresh and spicy, the asparagus had the perfect toasted sesame flavor, the dragonfruit was juicy and sweet and every flavor complimented each other perfectly! My only complaint would be the chive was a little strong but it was absolutely fantastic! The poke bowls are served with raw cashew spicy mayo and some type of soy sauce. Had I not known the mayo was dairy-free, I would've never guessed! The texture and consistency was right and had the perfect spicy and nut flavor. We also ordered the Spicy Avocado sushi roll which was drizzled with the spicy mayo and dusted with pepper powder. The avocado was cut into thick slices and was an excellent pairing for the poke bowl. We ordered the Green smoothie to drink and it was absolutely divine! The smoothie itself was a vibrant green and a mix of mint green tea, date, avocado, spinach, mango, Himalayan sea salt, spirulina, lime and topped with coconut flakes. The smoothie was sweet and fruity and I can't wait to order it again!!
Service: good. We were greeted when we entered the cafe and the employee helping us seemed genuinely apologetic that we were unable to order the fish we wanted with our poke bowl. We also had a gift card that couldn't be used due to a change in their point-of-sale system and informed us that our lunch would be on them that day despite the gift card not covering the whole balance. It was very kind and professional of them. The one negative note I have regarding their service would be the food all came out at different times. The poke bowl was served about 5 minutes after we ordered, the smoothie several minutes after that, and the roll after so much time we were convinced they'd forgotten it.
Cleanliness: good. The cafe was clean and orderly and tables were turned over quickly.
Total: 11/15
I will have to thank my co-worker because Raleigh Raw really is worth raving about! The food is fantastic and fresh, the smoothies are sweet and just make you feel healthier while you're drinking them and eating local is important! Fortunately for me they also deliver in the downtown area so I think I know what I'm going to get next time I have to work through lunch!
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