Redemption Bar Review
This weekend me and my sister, Alice, decided to take a trip to Redemption Bar in Shoreditch. I had seen a photo of Redemption bar a few months back and we had been intending to go ever sine. Well when we finally got round to it, we were not disappointed!
Redemption Bar describe themselves as "London’s healthiest restaurant, serving up vegan, sugar-free, and wheat-free food with an alcohol-free bar."
The restaurant itself is small and bright, it has an outdoor seating area that floods the indoors with light through large windows. The atmosphere is trendy and chic, with an understated decor. Plus you can have your own pair of angel wings outside, definite bonus!
We started off with two of the alcohol-free cocktails, Alice went for a Redemption Royal, which was pomegranate and frozen strawberry with sparkling rose water. While I went for a Pious Pinacolada, a virgin version of the classic pineapple and coconut cocktail. Both were super refreshing, fruity and looked beautiful. The pincolada had a delicious creamy froth. And we didn't miss the alcohol at all.
For mains I went for the temple of ten, a bowl providing all 10 portions of veg you need a day. It contained kale, red cabbage, carrots, peppers, mange tout, cauliflower, purple sweet potato, spinach, cucumber, mushrooms, broccoli and was topped with a spicy peanut sauce. The bowl was huge! But who needs portion control when all your eating is vegetables. The peanut sauce was heavenly, the perfect balance of sweet, spice and nuttiness. The purple sweet potatoes were deep roasted and drizzled with more of the peanut sauce. The kale, mushrooms, spinach and broccoli were sauteed in a rich miso, ginger and tamiri sauce. The cauliflower was pickled with tumeric and topped with nigella seeds, this added a lovely sour note to the dish. The red cabbage, carrots, peppers and mange tout were served in a crunchy slaw. The whole bowl combined so well, the flavours were perfectly balanced and every mouthful was an explosion of vibrant tastes. I loved it! This was the most expensive dish on the menu at £15, the rest of the mains were below the £10 mark. However I'm glad I splashed out because it was amazing, like so good. And it was so massive I had left overs that they kindly boxed up for me. That was dinner sorted, so I reasoned totally worth it!
Alice went for the brown rice penne pasta with a rich tomato, red pepper and garlic sauce, served with black olives, rocket, and roasted pecan ‘parmesan’. The tomato sauce was one of the best both me and Alice had ever tasted. (And Alice is totally a simple tomato sauce on pasta kind girl, she's eaten a lot of tomato sauce). It had such a depth of flavour. The pecan 'pamesan' was just crushed pecans, but it worked so well. This is definitely something I am going to try out at home, it's a really easy addition to add that je ne sais quoi to Pasta.
Being diabetic I don't often go for a desert but I had to at Redemption as they don't add any sugar to their food. Of course they use fruit, so the food still contains fructose and so I still kept a close eye on my blood sugars. We got the raw lime cheesecake and the banoffee pie to share (because we couldn't decide between the two). The raw lime cheesecake was made from cashew nut cream on an almond and sprouted buckwheat base and was drizzled with raspberry coulis. It was cheek suckingly tart but also brilliantly sweet and creamy. It was super refreshing and light. In contrast the banoffee pie was super rich, with it's chocolate base with medjool date salted caramel, bananas and coconut cream. The chocolate base was crunchy, chewy and nutty. The banoffee filling was smooth and creamy and tasted divine. It was super sweet, but not at all sickly. Both deserts were showstopping and looked amazing. Alice was raving about the banoffee pie for hours afterwards.
The healthiest food in London certainly wasn't boring! No dull salads and soups here. I felt super inspired after eating at Redemption Bar and that to me is the sign of a very very good meal.