Safa serves raw, experimental food in a fast-paced designer

Tag : Turkish Walnut

It's the energy that hits you. Everyone at Saf is full of it.They're off their faces with it. Waitresses can barely stand stilllong enough to take an order, bar staff shout cheery greetings toeveryone who walks in and chefs happily chat to customers who stopby the open kitchen. So that's what happens when you ditch meat anddairy, stick to plant-based foods and add alcohol. Wow.

Saf is Turkish for "pure", but there is nothing too pureor innocent about a room full of twenty- and thirty-somethingstucking into lethal-looking cocktails, organic wines, sweet-potatolatkes and mint-chip ice-cream sundaes. They just look as if theyare enjoying themselves. And so am I. At. A. Vegetarian.Restaurant.

Not just vegetarian, but vegan. The menu is 100 per centplant-based, with no dairy, eggs, or animal products, and much ofthe food is raw or cooked to less than 48C. There are already threeSafs in Turkey and one in Munich, and another is slated for westLondon. I like that it doesn't scream wholewheat, stone-groundvegetarian, but is just like any other cool, friendly Shoreditchdiner with its long bar, fabulous light fittings, modern woodentables and booths and small outside terrace. The crowd, like thestaff, is young, casual and smiley.

Saf's Boston-born exec chef, Chad Sarno, and head chef DavidBailey, previously at Notting Hill's E&O, have ventured whereother chefs fear to tread, going in with new kitchen technology,dehydrators and Pacojets blazing. Ordering from the menu is likeleaping into the dark – who knows what to expect from"caviar" chive pearls or "macadamia Caprese"?

Little spring dumplings filled with spinach, onion, date and waterchestnut (£6) have sweetness and crunch, and a black vinegardip adds kick, but a "lasagne" (£10.50) is more aeuphemism than a lasagne. A high moulded round of layeredcourgettes, walnuts, sage pesto and olive relish, it's heavy,nutty, mulchy, and, I have to say, vegetarian. A pan-Asian Buddhabowl (£8.50) has more character, the generous serve ofwell-cooked jasmine rice set off by sweet, smoky tofu steaks,glossy, garlicky greens and chilli-flecked kim-chee cabbage.Flavours bounce from sweet to spicy but remain in harmony.

The best dish, however, is the one with the least done to it: apretty platter of earthy, slow-roasted beetroot cubes is hit with avibrant beet reduction, walnut "chutney" and a whack offreshly grated horseradish (£5), proving that beetroot isgorgeous in its own right.

While the labour-intensive food is good value, the wine isstrangely punishing. I'm happy to pay extra for organic, biodynamicor sustainable, but not £71 for a Muddy Water New ZealandPinot Noir. Being on my £80 budget for two, I have to settleon an Era Primitivo red from Apulia for £18, about which thebest thing I can say is that I can afford it.
Working with a plant-based agenda could get boring andone-dimensional, but Sarno miraculously keeps up the interest withdifferent techniques, fermentations and reductions. There isflavour, thank the lord, in everything. It is only towards the endthat a recurring granular pastiness creeps in among the"cheeses" and puddings. An apple "cheesecake"made with a coconut lemon crust and flavoured with vanilla rumsyrup is cleverly crafted but still leaves me craving cheesecake.Likewise, the caprese of soft "cheese" made fromcultured, fermented macadamia milk teamed with squidgy, semi-driedtomatoes is ingenious, but still leaves me craving cheese.