Café Gratitude

What are you grateful for? - the motto for Café Gratitude, a plant-based restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz that offers 100% organic vegan food. Their natural ingredients are simple, yet incredibly satisfying. The theme of the restaurant is about expressing gratitude and wholeness of our lives, hence the names of their menu items all start with the two words, "I Am". It's a pretty neat feeling when I look at the menu and see names like "I Am Adoring", or "I Am Thriving."

I absolutely love fresh and organic cuisine, so Café Gratitude suits my taste perfectly. Needless to say, I was super excited to go there for dinner last night with two of my co-workers. For the main course, I ordered the "I Am Accepting" sushi bowl, which has raw kale, sprouts, cucumber, nori, and brown rice tossed in a homemade sesame-ginger dressing. It was refreshingly good and filled me right up! My co-workers also really enjoyed their main dishes, as they savored every bite of their food. In the middle of dinner, our server surprised us with kale shots on the house. It had almond butter, banana, kale, spinach, and hazelnut milk. It was creamy and tasted like a milkshake. After devouring our main courses, of course we made room for dessert! I was originally going to skip on the sweets, because I had a huge slice of cheesecake for lunch. But seeing my two friends were all getting something from the dessert menu, I couldn't resist and ordered a slice of tiramisu cake. The seasonal layered cake is made with raw almond biscuit, coconut cashew cream, espresso, and raw cacao. We took turns sinking our spoons into the three plates of dessert, and I think there's just something really wonderful about sharing dessert. In a way, it makes me feel not so guilty about indulging the entire plate of dessert by myself.

Everything tasted amazing, and if you get a chance, it's definitely worth giving the place a try! It's one of my favorite restaurants in Santa Cruz, hands down. Now I leave you with wholesome goodness :)

I Am Accepting

Seasonal Apple Caramel Cheesecake, Ice Cream Sundae, Tiramisu Cake

What are you grateful for?