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| - It's a fact that omnivores go nuts for the Fresh chain of vegetarian (it's not wholly vegan) restaurants. It doesn't matter what location of Fresh you visit, the place is always jam packed with people who are searching for something healthier than their normal fare. But make no mistake, that the vast majority of people who come to eat here are not vegan or vegetarian and frankly, I don't think they know they're being cheated by Fresh's substandard offerings.
While I consider Fresh a good fall-back dinner choice for take-out, with so much awesome veggie food in this city, like One Love, which is one subway stop away, I just can't bring myself to eat here most of the time. Live Food Bar also isn't far, at Dupont & Spadina and makes for a way better date experience. Greens, E.L. Ruddy, Hogtown Vegan, Loving Hut, Urban Herbivore, all heavy hitters in my books, but not Fresh.
So, why the lack of love from this herbivore? The meals are just very uninspired and they are made in a half-hearted manner, assembly line style and it shows in the presentation and taste. I constantly see ads on Craigslist for line cooks for Fresh, so the turn-over in the kitchen must be high. I don't blame them, it's the McDonald's of vegetarian food. Sometimes popularity is a curse?
Buddha bowls and Green Goddess' taste just like several people each tossed one thing into a bowl in layers, with no thought about the cohesion of the meal. The ingredients are not organic and aren't always the best quality. I also give great importance to dressings when you're eating this style of healthy veg food, and Fresh really disappoints in this area.
Over a decade ago I had my first ever vegetarian dining experience at the first Fresh on Bloor, when it was a quarter the size, near Bathurst - now long since a sushi joint. And guess what? It sucked. I had a mediocre smoothie and a weird hippie pizza and never returned (they don't do the pizza thing anymore, as far as I know but surprisingly the atmosphere was vastly better. It was dark, intimate, and definitely cool, think Queen West West of today).
That experience put me on a 5 year stint of never bothering to try vegetarian places, despite being vegetarian, because I figured everything would taste as bland as a hummus pizza. Why would I settle for that?
Part of me really wants to love Fresh and in a way I think I do. My love for Aux Vivres, Montreal's hipper cafe cousin (there's no affiliation) is exactly what Fresh is trying (or pretending?) to be. The dishes are clearly planned and created by a chef with care and attention paid to what the final product will be. If you're ever in MTL, try it and you'll see exactly what I mean.
Fresh remains good at a couple of things in my books. A quick soup and bread meal - though overpriced, can be really good at times. They are also conveniently located and if you get take-out, it's fairly painless process. You even get a 15% discount if you have a TVA Veg Discount card, something 99% of Fresh's patrons don't have because they aren't vegetarian. But for someone who eats veg all the time, it's just really falls short in the taste and flavour department.
I'm glad it remains packed with students and Miles Nadel gym-goers who dine solo with headphones on. But make no mistakes, this is without a doubt the favourite vegetarian restaurant of Toronto omnivores (even most of the staff aren't veggie).
It's 'vanilla' vegetarian food that is lacking interest and inspiration. I think a lot of people leave here thinking, 'Well, I endured that bland meal for the good of my body' and wake up the next day to buy a fat and cholesterol packed breakfast sandwich, never knowing what delicious vegetarian offerings they are missing.
2.5 stars - Needs improvement on food quality and flavour. Atmosphere is cafeteria-style, loud, and crowded. Prices aren't great considering the food is just egh.
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