Amsterdam, Museum QuarterZest for Life, the best raw food café in Amsterdam

By Fabienne Dobbe @modelslovefood
1 May '18

Zest for Life has the reputation of serving the best raw food in town! Their Raw Food Cafe, in the Museum Quarter, was created by detox expert Nancy Mulder, in 2015, to share her expertise.

All the food is house-made, vegan, dairy and GF free – and most importantly raw. This means it’s not heated above 42 degrees C in order to maintain optimal nutrition.

You may think “Hmmm, raw food all tastes the same” but you’d be wrong. These creations both look and taste amazing!

The setting

As you walk in, the wooden designer bar strikes you, as does a stylish, but random piano!. Exposed brick walls are complemented with warm wood floors and tables and and the space is filled with natural light.

You can sit at the bar, chill on cushions next to the window or there’s a larger seating area down a few stairs at the back.

The Raw Food Café even has a pretty garden terrace for sunnier days.

The little things

If you’re in the mood-there’s a Health and Beauty salon attached to the cafe!

The fresh juice challenge

I ordered the green juice of the week, and it turned out to be purple!!! It was packed with veggie nutrition though- beets, celery, ginger and some apple which made the juice perfectly balanced – not too sweet, not too veggie.

We also tried the Chocoholic smoothie which was made with bananas, cacao, hemp seed and maca.

It was a delicious blend of flavours, usually I’m not a fan of maca, but it wasn’t that strong making it a must try for all those chocolate lovers!

What we ate

They have a new concept of a tapas and a vegan platter. So we chose one vegan platter and tapas for two to try as much as possible. The menu suggests try it all at once and let your tastebuds bounce! Well I can tell you they did, what flavour!

The tapas and vegan platter were both similar but perfect to share. The Vegan Platter included an avocado and spinach soup topped off with some black sesame seeds and sprouts.

It tasted very creamy because of the avocado, and the spinach added the flavour.

The raw chicory with activated and featured spiced nuts (my personal favourite), a beetroot hummus with raw vegan crackers, sweet potato and beetroot chips and some romaine leaves filled with marinated beetroot noodles and rawmezan cheese.

The Tapas for two had an olive spread with raw vegan crackers, the activated spiced nuts with some coconut yoghurt, beetroot and sweet potato chips, zucchini rolls filled with vegan pesto and basil and some parsnip/beetroot rolls filled with another olive spread and fresh blueberries. Both were delicious.

The bill

1 weekly juice special 5,00EU
1 chocoholic 5.75EU
1 vegan platter  14.00EU
Tapas for 2 persons  9,50EU

What else

You can order this amazing raw vegan food at Deliveroo . Zest for Life also does detox week long retreats in Turkey, where you can detox your body.

What made us glow

The chef is always creating new recipes and dishes, so the platters we had are changing daily.

You won’t ever have the same food experience when you visit!

Zest for Life

Van Baerlestraat 45 hs,
1071 AP Amsterdam, Netherlands

+31 20 778 7465
visit website
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