Rawthentic Eatery

I was so excited to find this sweet little eatery while Road tripping on Vancouver Island. They offer everything I need in my diet sugar free dairy free organic soy free and all made right there with love. Even the wraps they put all the yummy veggies in are handmade with seeds and without wheat and are delicious. The service was great too, they really helped me decide what would be best for me to get with my dietary restrictions and let me sample as many things as they could before I made my final decision. I knew we were headed to Vancouver that day on the ferry so I loaded up with as much that would fit in my cooler and it got me through the next few days until I could get to a kitchen and make my own food. I walked out of there with one of every dessert and wished I had gotten more because they were out of this world and on the healthier side of desserts made with coconut sugar or honey and no dairy or soy and tasted so good. If you get the chance or just passing through make sure to stop by for a least a smoothie or juice it’s so healthy and yummy! you will not regret it.

The meals make you feel so healthy!
I am amazed every time I eat here that what is in the meal can taste the way it does — cheese made out of nuts, noodles made of raw veggies, who would’ve thunk? Tastes really great, veggies always a good thing!

The Rawthentic Eatery serves wheatgrass, kale, chia, along with various other claimed superfoods in a non-​dairy, non-​gluten, vegan environment in hopes of reinforcing the myth about their purported health benefits. The café’s website attempts to validate these long since debunked fabrications in order to justify substandard food at excessive prices. By including recent buzzwords – coconut water, spirulina, orange oil – the owners attempt to dawdle behind novelties in hope the gullible masses will believe the Oz-​like hype and pay excessively for a placebo. In the scope of trends, I honestly have more respect for Mary Kate Olsen in a disheveled sweater.
I’m sorry, is this too serious for you – fine, I half-​expected the place to be run by Thomas Jane and Clifton Collin’s Jnr. sporting sunglasses, threatening to use their «deveganizing ray» on me for multiple violations («No vegan diet, no vegan powers!»). I bet the owners dress in their off time as drifters from the 1930s. In defense of the inevitable onslaught of criticism I’m going to receive, Rawthentic was not my first choice that morning, it wasn’t my second (hell, it wasn’t even my third), but it was nearby another location, and as I unfortunately discovered, apparently everything is closed on Monday in Courtenay.
But it’s not enough to condemn Rawthentic for embracing the superfood craze, they also avoid gluten… you know that, one of the most important discoveries since the development of agriculture (stressing one, not the biggest – I mean you got pasteurization, fermentation, animal husbandry, genetic manipulation, etc.). But you know what, sure, turns out we’ve all been eating badly for ten-​thousand years. Let’s clear the air, about 90% of people that eat gluten-​free don’t require their food to be gluten free. Only about 1% of the country has celiac disease, fewer still with a wheat allergy, and that’s not a significant percentage to base a business, meaning the rest of it is snake oil salesman tactics boasting the benefits of something and charging extra for it. And for reasons unclear, it’s working, about twenty times more people adopt a gluten-​free diet than require one. And that’s not the end of it; Rawthentic also claims to be pure vegan, and dairy free. Now, I sympathize with those lactose intolerant and understand the desire for vegetarianism, but veganism, paleo, and raw food diets carry significant health risks, and many of the various claims made by them either have been disproven or lack any scientific evidence.
It also makes their Philly cheese and burger offerings rather disingenuous.
The former I ordered, and it was delivered wrapped tighter than a thong at a muscleman competition. It needed to be, because the moment any slack was given, the dehydrated veggie and flax seed «tortilla» instantly disintegrated. I also ordered a smoothie, or rather the most expensive drink I’ve ever had that didn’t contain cognac. This place is so fraudulent, they even offer and anti-​oxidant smoothie with spinach, dates, ginger, and coconut water. Entrée ingredients include nut cheese, pumpkin meat, almond mylk, and – just stop… Stop.
Stop!
Bread…is…bread.
Cheese…is…cheese.
You can’t list a cheesecake in your menu if it has no cheese, and sorry, replacing an «s» with a «z» doesn’t fly. A pretentious idiot invented almond mylk, don’t follow that line. And stop posing and parading as other food. Just make new dishes rather than ride the coattails of better ones. My girlfriend’s taco salad was the only thing borderline passable; it needed to be at nearly $ 12, but there was no possibility for leftovers as within an hour, the whole thing turned into slime.
At the end of the meal, we paid too much for food that didn’t taste good, and the only benefit was… what…that we should feel a little better? Maybe it’s my carnivore mentality speaking because of all that increased aggressiveness, but in truth, I’ve had better and/​or cheaper vegetarian meals. For those with authentic dairy and gluten allergies, I sympathize, I really do, but Rawthentic is part of a problem, not your solution.
Food: 1.5÷5
Service: ²⁄₅
Presentation: ²⁄₅
Value: ²⁄₅
Recommendation: ²⁄₅
PS: Technically, the joke should have been «fermented grapes» but «cognac» just sounded funnier.

Wow! Hier kommen definitiv nicht nur Veganer auf ihre Kosten. Sollte man den Ocean View Richtung Campbell River entlang fahren unbedingt einen Stop einplanen, es lohnt sich!!! Wir haben eine Raw Lasagne mit Zuchinis gegessen, sowie einen Salat. Beides geschmacklich hervorragend! Selbst die Preise waren für Organic und Kanada absolut akzeptabel!
Leider war mir der Versuch eines Smoothies oder einer Matchalatee nicht gegönnt, da ich hier feststellen musste mein Portemonnaie verloren zu haben. Das schonte lediglich meine nicht vorhandene Entscheidungsfähigkeit! Schade, gerne hätte ich diese Karte rauf und runter probiert. Diesen Laden hätte ich gerne in den Koffer gepackt und mit nach Frankfurt genommen!

Great find. Was driving down island and looked up vegan and wheeled on in. Superb value and fair priced with very substantial portion. Had the regular wrap which was huge, savory and filling. Surprisingly big menu. Will try desert next time.

The food is very good, the menu quite varied with lots of options and the dishes are inventive and clever. The new owners have the place looking clean and modern where in the past it wasn’t always so. Great spot for a quick heathy lunch!

So glad I got to stop here on my way through Courtenay. The menu was excellent and I had a very hard time deciding wart to get. I settled on the Raw «Hot» Cacao which was literally the best I’ve ever had. The service was fast and I had a really great experience. Great to see eateries like this that offer tasty, healthy, raw and vegan options! Highly recommend a visit!

I can only speak for their fresh vegetable juice and smoothies-​they are great! However the place is very dirty and not well kept by the employees. I usually try not to look behind the till because the business is fairly dirty and in a mess. The employees I have dealt with are all fairly un-​friendly and lack is customer service. This place could really thrive if they tweaked a few minor things.