Eternal Abundance

For May’s vegan adventure, Avocado, Jerky and I went to Eternal Abundance. Eternal Abundance is located on Commercial Drive. Luckily, we found free street parking in close proximity to the restaurant!

Walking in, Eternal Abundance seems more of a grocery store with a cafe on the side. It seems like this is common in this area, as we ended up checking out a vegetarian supermarket a block away, Sweet Cherube, which had the same thing.

Everything screams ‘HEALTHY!’ and ‘CLEAN EATING’ here. Everything is raw, which means no heat is used to make or cook the food. And of course, everything is vegan. It was probably the healthiest place I’ve ever eaten at in my life. To be honest, I didn’t like it that much because the 100%  raw, vegan lifestyle is not for me – personally, it was toooooo healthy and clean. So keep in mind that this review is from someone who eats ‘ordinary’ food such as meat and cooked products. Hate me if you want 🙂

Marvelous mushroom burger: This was definitely not a burger that I was expecting or used to. The ‘bread’ was not your usual bread, it had the texture of those SunRype fruit-to-go stripes that reminded me of childhood.  I’m sorry but I can not see this as bread. Bread does not have this texture or taste. The taste was kind of onion-y and salty, like vegemite. It was very odd. The vegan patty was more acceptable. It was made with mushrooms, and also had a dense texture.

Although Avocado and I were going to share this, I ended up just swapping some food with Jerky and he ate the rest of my portion cause I couldn’t eat it anymore ROFL.

Zugghetti: My first time trying zoodles, aka shredded zucchini. I must admit that vegan names sound delicious and intriguing… but I prefer real noodles instead. Y’all know noodles are probably my favourite type of food.

Anyways, the zugghetti was a lot better than the marvelous mushroom burger. We got it with pesto, and it was smothered in it so you couldn’t really tell you were eating zucchini or vegetables. I thought I would hate zoodles, but it wasn’t that bad… it wouldn’t be my first or second or third choice though LOLOL.

Kale caesar, large $11.25: Finally, something familiar haha! No complaints about this caesar salad. After finding out that caesar dressing is made from an anchovy (type of fish) base, I find it pretty impressive when vegan caesar salad tastes like a non-vegan one.

Spicy kimchi roll, $7: This was my favourite of the day… probably because it had seaweed and rice (albeit, brown rice which is okay as well). This is actually only ‘half raw’ because the rice is cooked. I’m not sure if it was because I wasn’t that full from the few bites of that ‘burger’ or because zoodles aren’t filling, but I really liked this. It came with kimchi, sesame sauce, avocado, cucumber (or as they say “cuke”), carrot, peppers and sprouts.

IF you’re a person who enjoys clean, raw, healthy eating and vegan… then I would definitely recommend this place to you. All the vegetables are very fresh and crunchy, and there is a big variety of vegan, raw foods to pick from.

But for me, I personally did not like it. I still shudder at the thought of that mushroom burger, it is definitely not a burger.  All of the vegan places I’ve tried in Vancouver so far mimic non-vegan food… such as pizza, chicken wings, ramen, ice cream, etc. However, since this restaurant is ‘raw’, nothing is cooked so your options are quite limited when making food. And since when is cooking/using heat to make food considered a bad or dirty thing?! Anyways, if you like your meat, dairy, bread, carbs, or basically anything deemed as not “clean” eating, stay away from this place.

Vegan or raw food lovers are probably hating me for this review right now or that I’m “uneducated” despite doing research on this trend… but that’s okay, we all have our opinions, and this is mine. I’m glad that I tried it so that I can appreciate meat burgers even more. Sorry not sorry.

Nay.