Milan, Corso Buenos AiresMantra Raw Vegan, the best raw food in Milan

By Fabienne Dobbe @modelslovefood
25 May '18

Mantra Raw Vegan is the very first raw, vegan food bar in Milan. It’s curated by chef Alberto Minio Paluello, who trained at the Matthew Kenney Academy in Santa Monica.

Paluello brings his Italian passion for food and expertise in raw “cooking” to this trailblazing, innovative kitchen. It’s  an Instagram delight and a favourite of the King of Fashion, Karl Lagerfeld.

The setting

The café is based in the more contemporary east side of Milan. I went with a friend and as we entered there’s a market space where you can buy take away options like raw desserts, juices and snacks.

There’s also a half open kitchen where you can see the chef creating his artworks.

At the back of the restaurant is the dining room. The setting is minimal and modern with a stripped back palette, aluminium lighting and coloured vinyl chairs. A few little cactuses add warmth to the room. I loved the cosy the grey blankets.

The little things

They have a shop and a selection of containers where you can scoop your own portion of one of their treats. There are kale chips, chocolate walnuts and raw crackers.

The green juice test

Our green juices came in a wine glass. All the green juices were sold out so I went for the Purple Zen and my friend chose the Yellow Aim.

The Purple Zen was a mix of beets, apple and ginger and tasted more like a green juice – it wasn’t sweet at all (despite the apple).

The Yellow Aim was really special, because it was made of melon, lime and rosewater! The rosewater and the melon combined together to make the juice really delicate, but the lime gave it zing.

What we ate

We both had the two choice menu – a starter and a selection dish of the day which was pumpkin ravioli and walnut with mushroom balls. We ordered 2 different dishes and starters and shared everything between us.

The starter was a homemade carrot bread topped with a very thick layer of avocado smash, cherry tomato, lettuce, pretty edible flowers, e.v.o oil(extra virgin oil) and lemon marinated fennel on top, which gave the dish a very fresh flavour. The mushroom and walnut balls came with marinara sauce and some lettuce garnish.

The “no meatballs” were very crispy which was pretty impressive for raw food!

Our other plate was carrot bread with “feta cheese” and mushrooms. The feta cheese was stunning, it was really thick like real feta, but was made of soaked almonds and nutritional yeast! The pumpkin ravioli were filled with pine nuts and spinach fondue and came with some cilantro/pumpkin seed pesto and sweet and sour apple.

For dessert we had the tirawmisu (as we are in Italy)!

The base of the tirawmisu was made from hazelnuts soaked in caffeine-free coffee, and it did really taste like the traditional soaked lady finger cookies. The cream was made of coconut with beetroot juice (for the pink colour).

We also had a raw pie with a base of dried mango and a topping made from from soaked cashews with lime. Delicious!

The bill

Two Choices menu x 2   24EU
Purple Zen   5,90EU
Yellow Aim  5,90EU
Tiramisu  7EU
Raw pie  7EU

 

What else?

Mantra Raw Vegan is the first raw and vegan food bar in Italy so massive applause to them!

What made us glow?

It’s a real feast on your plate, all the food looks so pretty that you almost don’t want to eat it! Plus, the variety of ingredients they combine make the dishes very special …and it’s all raw, so packed with nutrition!

 

Mantra Raw Vegan

Via Panfilo Castaldi,
21, 20124 Milano MI,
Italy

+39 02 8905 8575
@mantrarawvegan
visit website
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