Review- Lyfe Kitchen

I pass by Lyfe Kitchen often, but I'm always on the way somewhere and never had time to stop in, until last week. It's located on 55th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue.

 Always like seeing this on the outside.

 How cute! A fork to open the door with

 They have their menu up on this wall, on a sign in the window, on the wall when you come in AND paper menus! haha  I always like reading paper menus because I find it easier for some reason, than reading a board.

This place is not all vegan, but it clearly marks what's vegan, what's gluten free and what contains nuts.  It also lists the calories and the amount of sodium.  Definitely have never seen the amount of sodium listed. I was thinking of getting the Thai Red Curry Bowl, but that has 950mg of sodium!! Yikes! I decided I'd get several things, and went with the Sweet Corn Chowder (though now I see it's 953mg of sodium haha I must have looked that over at the time! Yipes.) , Roasted Brussels Sprouts, a side of their Garlic Lime Tofu and a Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is listed as "still warm, fresh out of the oven", that was definitely not a hard sell! Drool.

I paid and the woman gave me a buzzer and said my food would be brought to me.

 Seating area.  There's also some counters in the front and more seating upstairs.  I was going to go upstairs to see what it looked like, but was lazy haha

Love these quotes at some of the tables

After waiting about 15 minutes, a woman brought my food to the table.  The buzzer didn't go off or anything so not sure exactly how that works..maybe it's used more when it's crowded..not sure

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Squash and Cranberries.  Of course, typical vegan worry.. "what's that sauce? it looks creamy" I was pretty sure it said vegan on the menu, but now wasn't sure.  I went up to the counter and she told me it was dijon vinaigrette, and sure enough, my initial thought that it said vegan on the menu was accurate.

side of the garlic lime tofu.  Tasted it on it's own and it was super flavorful! The woman at the counter told me she add it into the brussels, & so I decided to copy her idea

SO tasty!! Really loved this.  Although, it was cold, and I expected it to be warm and think it would have been better if it was warm.  I mentioned it when I was leaving and the woman thought it was odd and said it should have been warm. hmm.  Nonetheless, it was really yummy.

 Sweet Corn Chowder soup, which is made with cashew cream.  This was also delicious

& last, but certainly not least:

This was also really good!  It was crunchy.
Everything was so good here!! Really enjoyed my meal! Was a bit full, as everything was really filling.

Total calories: 772
Total sodium:1,678

A bit excessive for one meal.  I think I'll definitely ask them next time, why some things have SO much sodium in them..

I'm definitely going to come back here though.

They even have their own little garden! How cute

Favorite places in Berlin

Berlin is one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world.  According to Happy Cow, there are about 30 all vegan restaurants in Berlin.  There are more vegetarian ones & countless are veg friendly[if not, almost all]. Almost everywhere has vegan options clearly marked[I even noticed in some supermarkets things in the bakery, as well as on the shelf, were clearly marked with the word "vegan"]  Even most ice cream shops offer several soy flavors.  There's also the popular vegan grocery store Veganz, which has 2 locations in Berlin & I visited them several times.(as well as the location in Hamburg)

Now, on to the actual restaurants & food! Here are my top places, in no particular order:

Let it Be, as the sign says is an all vegan creperie, selling both sweet and savory crepes.

This is only part of the menu. They also have both a German & an English menu. As you can see, the names of the items are vegan celebrities, the whole menu is designed this way.

 

this cute guy was behind us! 

Shortly after ordering, they gave us free mini muffins! They were corn muffins, my friend thought they were dry, but I thought they were tasty! I was a fan! & how nice of them to give them to us!

It was hard to decide what to get! So many things sounded really good! & I kept trying to decided if I wanted savory or sweet.  I kept going back and forth, but since I rarely get the sweet option these days when I eat, I figured, I'm on vacation! So Why not?  & so, I went with the Alicia Silverstone : Chocolate Cream & Banana.  It was delicious! & not too sweet!

how cute are those plastic hearts to hold the bread together! (I'm sure there's an actual name for this..but can't think of it haha)

This was the dish I was trying to decide between, the Johnny Marr: caramalized tofu, apples, walnuts, greens and chutney.  I tried a piece and really liked it! I was thinking of getting it to go but after the meal I was so full, I couldn't think about food. [I do regret this, as it was really good and would have loved to have a whole sandwich of it)

Close up!

My other friend got the Mike Tyson burger, which I remember it being BBQ Chicken & not sure what else was in it, but he was a fan!

Then! I couldn't believe it! They brought over this:

 

More free food! I'm not exactly sure why they gave it to us..said something about having extra? not sure..After my sweet crepe, I couldn't eat too much of this! but of course, I did have a few bites. It was tasty but I was sweetened out!

Anyways, I highly recommend this place. We all liked it & I'd definitely go back.

Next up!

Sfizy Veg is an all vegan pizza place! Since we do have some vegan pizza options in NYC, I didn't feel the need to run to it, and wound up going here on my last night.  Well, had I gone earlier in my trip,  I would have definitely come back. The menu is huge! probably 20 pages! All in German, but luckily, since I was with Germans, they helped me out.  They had a page for salads, several pages for pizza pies, one page for slices, one for calzones, there were pastas & more.

Unfortunately, it was dark & so my photos of the food didn't come out well :( so I will just tell you about them (I know, not as exciting as photos!)  I went for the pie with cheese & spinach and broccoli & it was amazing.  In Germany, there's a ton of vegan cheeses, & I have no idea which one they used, but it was delicious & the style was like old school pizza. So good.  My friend got the..well I'm not sure what it was called, but it was a mix of Mexican Food & Italian Food..I remember there was marinara sauce, but there was also guacamole, there was cheese, maybe beans.  When she told me she ordered that, I was a bit scared that it was going to be awful, but, surprisingly, it was AMAZING and I would definitely order it.

Here's some photos of the inside

 

How cute!

 Oh & a heads up, it's cash only.

Next we have

  This place was SO cute! Look at all the pink!

& before I go on, I must show the beautiful dessert case

 Oh La La specializes in French desserts, but they also have food.  On the weekend, they have an ALL YOU CAN EAT VEGAN BRUNCH! (turns out several restaurants in Berlin offer this, but sadly I didn't make it to them :(  [Kopps, Mia Matto, Cafe Morgenrot, Viasko..& there are probably other places I'm not aware of]

Oh La La's all you can eat brunch, I believe was 12 euros, that is considered on the pricier side of things, though it didn't seem like a lot to me!  There was a mix of both sweet & savory:

I want those bowls! So pretty.

Pineapple Coconut Smoothie! So delicious

                                       these were yummy, filled with different beans and corn

I took more photos but they didn't come out too clearly unfortunately and my regular camera battery had died.  Other things that they had were the most amazing strawberry mousse crumble, I went back to get it several times & it was the first thing they ran out, the other most amazing thing was this vanilla cream dish with almonds , I'm not even sure what it was, but it was heavenly.  Other items were various salads, one that I enjoyed had tempeh in it, there was a gazpacho soup, a risotto, some tofu dishes.  Definitely lots to choose from.

After I finished eating & chatting with the people at my table, it was time to figure out what to have for dessert. I was so full, so I had to take it to go.  It was very hard to decide but the woman working helped me telling me what their specialties are and what you can and can't find elsewhere.

I went with:

 Indiana - Peanut Butter

Igloo's- Chocolate with coconut cream

I had both several hours later while at the park & they were both delicious. I think I liked the peanut butter one more but loved both! &surprisingly they were both not overly sweet!

This seems to be their image, if it was on a shirt I would have probably bought it.

The last two places that I'm going to mention are actually in Hamburg. I went there for the day.

My first stop there was Eisbande, which I actually found out about randomly on Instagram!

   [Eis is Ice Cream]

This place was super cute & the woman working was very helpful, and translated things for me, as everything was written in German. I sampled several flavors, but in the end went with Vanilla & Snickers!

I love how this looks! You can't go wrong with a heart wafer! There's also strawberry sauce and those little bits are hazelnuts. SO delicious! I wish i had more time to come by for more later in the day.

For lunch I went to HappenPappen. I randomly picked this place from the list of vegan places on HappyCow and I'm glad I did, because not only was the food probably my favorite from my trip so far (went there on maybe my 4th day) but the people working there were so nice.

Red lentil balls with sweet potato mash. This also came with a side salad which had THE most amazing dressing, which the woman told me they make in house, it was a mix of mango and passion fruit if I'm remembering correctly [note to self: take notes next time! I'm not sure why I thought I'd remember everything!].

The red lentil balls were so tasty, really loved it.  For dessert I had the blueberry pie. I know it may look a little odd, but I can assure you, it was delicious!

I would definitely recommend this place. Yummy food, super nice staff & they have vegan books for sale too.

Before I go though, here's a photo of some of the things I bought at Veganz, as well as some from the local supermarket. Favorites were the Vego, Dame Blanche, Shortcake cookie, Nougat bar, Amore Milo wafer, the Twibio, and the Teegeback cookies...why did I bother saying favorites? all of it was pretty amazing!!! & I still have a fridge filled with some of these! Trying to make them last!

 

Snacks

I know it's been a while! Hi again! I took a summer class for about 5 or 6 weeks and that kind of took over my life! However, I didn't stop eating! & so I have been saving wrappers & things that I have been wanting to write about!  This entry is going to be dedicated to snacks..not sure what else to call it.  I definitely prefer to eat actual foods, but sometimes if you're in a rush, it's nice to have a snack!

We'll start with the first items:

I spotted these at Commodities (health food store) and thought they sounded interesting! I had never seen them anywhere else, and still have yet to see them anywhere else.   It's hard to see, but in the bottom right hand corners it says "Energy Balls", so that also made me interested!  I loved both of them! I think I liked the almond butter slightly more, but they were both really good & I'd get both again.  There are also almonds in the Spirulina Ginseng ones, so they both kind of taste like marzipan! They are a mixture of soft and chewy.   They are both 170 calories and 80 calories from fat. I don't love that they have agave in them .  I try to avoid agave.  This is a good post about why agave is bad.  Not sure I would run to get them, but I would get these again though. They were very yummy.

omg this is SO GOOD! I discovered this at Juice Generation. I actually don't think I've seen them elsewhere.  The first time I had one..now I unfortunately can't remember which one it was! It was awful so I must have blocked it from my memory! I went back shortly after and asked the woman working "do people like these?" and she recommended the cocoa crunch..I hesitantly bought it..and I am glad I did, because it's SO good!  I love products that have rice crisps in them, I love the crunchyness of them. All their bars are vegan and gluten free. This bar has 12g of protein! 200 calories and 80 calories from fat. It's a great pre or post workout bar & they don't use any refined sugar.  It's sweetened with coconut nectar. Yum Yum Yum. Read more about them & where to buy them on their website.  They donate some of their profit to the non profit Not for Sale which helps to fight against human trafficking.

Lara Bar came out with protein bars! I've just recently discovered these.  Have seen them at Commodities & Westerly.  On their website, they show 6 protein bars, but I haven't seen the other varieties yet. These are both really good, and also really filling!   They use pea protein for their protein source, and these have 10g of protein them. I always liked Lara Bars because they have such few ingredients.  These do have slightly more, but not a lot compared with most bars! (only 8 ingredients!) On the wrapper, it says "1 bar= 1/4 cup of fruit" I think I like the chocolate chip macaroon more, but they're both really good!

Aside from  Lara Bar coming out with protein bars, they have also come out with granola! I actually can't remember where I got this! I'll have to keep my eyes open. I liked the handy single serving bag it came in, and only 5g of sugar! (Granola often seems to have lots of sugar added!) This is made of almonds, sunflower seeds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, cocoa nibs, cashews and cocoa powder are the main ingredients.  I had half in a smoothie bowl and half in some coconut yogurt. It was delicious! If I can find it, I'll definitely buy it again!

I had previously posted about the Chia Bars, but they have just came out with 2 new flavors!! I was excited when I saw them in Whole Foods!  The mango one is good, but I don't think I will get it again.  I think I prefer my mango plain, and not in things.  Oddly, I don't like eating cherries but I love cherries in things, and cherries and chocolate together? So good! I loved the dark chocolate cherry bar & have already gotten it again since getting it the first time.  I love these bars!

Really Goods , gotta love the title "raw fruit and nut thing" at least, I did.  Found this at Green Symphony a store/salad bar/juice bar/hot bar etc. in Times Square.  I occasionally work in Times Square, so I love coming here sometimes to get some healthy food or snack before work. Raw, gluten free, refined sugar free.. made of walnuts, bananas,  pecans, macadamia nuts, coconut, raisins, and sweetened with coconut nectar.  170 calories, 12g of fat. Crunchy and really tasty! I checked the website and it doesn't even list it as being sold in New York, I'll have to check if it's still at Green Symphony! I'd definitely recommend it.

 I was really excited about trying this! I love lemon poppy & liked that there were no "bad" ingredients in it, then when I took it out of the package to see its shaped in a heart..look how cute it is!! I was even more excited. Sadly, it was not "the Great Tasting Energy Bar".  It was SO dry! I took a couple of bites and then gave it to my mom, who wasn't a fan either.  If you see it, skip it.







Lastly [for now], Rave Bites.

These are SO good!! Found them at Westerly. All natural ingredients: dates, cashews, sesame seeds, coconut, raisins, chia seeds, cocoa butter and orange extract.  That's all, 8 ingredients. No added sugars. 5 pieces are 120 calories and 60 from fat, so it's not too bad.  They are so delicious! They have several other flavors, I'd like to try the others, but these were so good, I bought a second bag after I was done.  Super healthy delicious snack!