Prana Raw Cafe in Newton, MA
by Janel on December 21, 2009 · 2 Comments
in Raw, Restaurants | 
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On Saturday night, despite warnings of a blizzard (seriously, New England, that’s a bit dramatic), Funk and I decided to check out Newton, MA’s raw food restaurant, Prana Raw. I’ve been wanting to try it for months, but they just opened for dinner making it that much more feasible for us to go. So we bundled up and headed out.
To our surprise, Prana Raw’s dining room was empty except for us! But it was probably because everyone was freaking out over the snow…that we get every year…we’re not D.C. people. Our waitress told us they get a good lunch crowd but we didn’t mind being the center of attention, in the center of the dining room, and got to chat lots with our raw-foodie Brazilian waitress.
I was a very unprepared food Blogger and completely forgot my camera for food photography. So I snapped some weak photos on my phone. I also didn’t write down any descriptions of the food (and only the lunch menu is online) so bear with my fuzzy memory.
Funk and I started off with squash ravioli with a cashew cream sauce. They were soft and flavorful and very light. We shared our entrees: savory portabella and spinach crepes and a portabella mushroom with a side of broccoli and some parsnip mash. Funk loved the crepes, I loved the parsnip mash. One of the entrees, I think the crepes, was extra heavy on the garlic, which I don’t love. I also don’t love waking up with garlic breath the next day, which I did. It was that strong.
Because our food was room temperature at its hottest, our meal was a bit…chilly. No wonder nobody dines there on the night of a potential snowstorm! If you’re looking to warm up with some comfort food, maybe save Prana Raw for a hot summer day instead.
Our waitress recommended we have the chocolate torte with crème anglaise for dessert and we took it to go (photo from Pranaraw.com). It was very rich and tasted like a chocolate truffle. We left with very full bellies.
Raw food lifestyles really intrigue me. The food isn’t cooked above 112 degrees and the meals are all vegan. This restaurant was started by a husband and wife team who also own the Prana Power Yoga Studio next door (and we got a free yoga class pass from our waitress!). Here’s a 
blurb from the website:
But instead of defining raw vegan by what we don’t eat, it’s much more fun to talk about what we DO eat, which is the best, most vibrant, most delicious, and most energizing food ever.
How do we make our food if we don’t cook it and if we don’t use animal products?
We use super-cool high-speed blenders, super-fast juicers that maintain all of the minerals and nutrients, and dehydrate some foods in lieu of baking, broiling, frying, toasting, roasting, broasting, or microwaving (gasp!) them.
We tried going raw, and it’s VERY hard and time-consuming. Who has three hours to dehydrate nuts before dinner? Who has the time management skills to determine when you need to soak something so it’s ready for the meal? Plus, you’re right, spices like garlic are very potent when raw, which is something we failed to remember when “cooking” our zucchini pasta with pesto sauce. We had garlic breath for days.
If you do decide to go raw for a month, let me know how it goes!
Haha well, we never went raw. Not even for a day. But I do love some raw recipes, especially maccaroons! There’s a great recipe on my blog if you want it!