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Calii Love, Toronto

Every city needs a dose of Californian Summer from time to time, right? Well, Toronto has struck lucky with Calii Love bringing super smoothies and Summer sunshine across the city no matter the weather.

The cafés aim to spread good vibes inspired by Californian sun and Hawaiian breezes. They also make a mean smoothie bowl.

The setting

The branch we visited is on King St West near the TIFF Bell Lightbox and a short stroll from the CN Tower and the Harbour Front. There are other branches of Calii Love in Yorkville, Union Station and First Canada Place.

The space

The exterior is vivid turquoise with large welcoming windows. Inside is light and spacious.

Most of the café is on a large mezzanine level with long communal tables and a serving bar where you place your order.

There’s a more chilled area with softer seating as you enter, plus a few stools along the window side counter. The decor is modern, with cool wallpaper and slogans on the walls and stairs. The vibe is very relaxed.

The fresh juice test

Calii love has an extensive drinks menu. The lattes include Golden Milk, Collagen, Blue Majik, Beet and Activated Charcoal and there’s a choice of a five superfood smoothies. Each smoothie (and dish) is named after a feeling, we decided to review the Charming.

The smoothie was a vegan blend of strawberries, mango, banana, chia seeds, beet, rose water, coconut, medjool dates, Himalayan salt and house nut milk.

The addition of the rose water and salt gave it an exotic twist and we loved it.

What we ate

There’s a good selection of smoothie bowls, poké bowls and build your own bowls – where you choose variations of a base, proteins, toppings and sauces.

We decided to review a Signature Salad Bowl and chose the “Excited”.

The large bowl contained chopped kale, roasted beets, green apple, watermelon radish and vegan feta and was topped with apple beet vinaigrette, seaweed strips and espresso walnuts. The combination of flavours and textures was pretty much perfect.

For desert, we ordered the “Dreamy”. The aptly named smoothie bowl was also perfectly favoured and textured. It was a delicious blend of blue majik spirulina, mango, banana, coconut mylk and pineapple. All topped off with bee pollen, shredded (and beautifully crunchy) coconut, raspberries, kiwi and mango.

What else?

The recipes are all created by a nutritionist and Calii Love sources ingredients as sustainably as possibly. All their packaging is recyclable and their website includes a macro nutrient breakdown of each dish and an allergy grid. They also run wellness workshops including meditation and yoga.

What we’d go back for…

The servers list the names of your dishes when they take the order.

I was feeling “charming, excited and dreamy”.

I’m hoping to feel “grateful, limitless and legendary” next time, but I just might have to re-order the Dreamy…

The bill

Charming smoothie  $7.95
Excited salad  $10.95
Dreamy smoothie bowl  $10.95