HIP-HOP VEGANS | PLACES TO EAT…COMPTOIR V

COMP1I was so excited to vis­it Comptoir V as one of my places to eat blogs, I was fol­low­ing them already on ins­tagram and the food looks stun­ning plus all I ever saw was great reviews so I had to go find out myself what all the fuss was about.

Dir­ectly out­side Kens­al Rise sta­tion is this beau­ti­ful vegan heav­en, the sign was very simple but eleg­ant, and my favour­ite col­our (green). From I spot­ted the shop my excite­ment began I could not wait to exper­i­ence Comptoir V.

I met Sa’eed Kazmi who is one of the founders of Comptoir V. He told me is vegan jour­ney and what inspired the open­ing of Comptoir V. I came to learn that they have anoth­er res­taur­ant in Kens­al Rise called Le Comptoir, which is a grill and meze bar, Sa’eed was inspired to open up a vegan ver­sion of that when his diet had changed. His story was inter­est­ing and we talked for ages, I couldn’t fit it all in the vlog but by what I have included you can pick up on his warm, friendly per­son­al­ity and his pas­sion for Comptoir V.

He talked me through the menu, which is full of choices. I will list them all after my review of what I tried on the day which was:

DYNAM­ITE SHRIMP

DYNAMITE SHRIMP

 

 

This is described as a tem­pura battered vegan shrimp lightly tossed in a sri­r­acha aioli. You get 7 pieces in a por­tion.

From it arrived I was intrigued, the idea of vegan shrimp was not very appeal­ing to me, I was scep­tic­al. I had seen so many posts about this pre­vi­ously and heard noth­ing but great reviews yet how could this work? I mean the shape already reminds me of shrimp instantly. The smell was deli­cious which is a great start, and from my first mouth­ful I was blown away. wow. what an exper­i­ence.

The bite was explos­ive with a pleas­ant chew leav­ing you with so many ques­tions. I instantly had to take a look inside as the tex­ture was way to famil­i­ar like shrimp. I kept double guess­ing, Did I eat shrimp? upon closer look I was reas­sured I didn’t. The spice is not too over­power­ing but enough to give it a kick and leave you want­ing so much more. After try­ing the shrimp I under­stood why it got so many great reviews as a vegan this is some­thing you must try! even non vegans, dynam­ite shrimp is a real exper­i­ence.

FALAFEL

falafel

 

 

Middle-east­ern cro­quettes of chick­pea and broad­bean with tra­di­tion­al herbs and spices.

The por­tion was epic, I am used to small por­tions of falafel. When I broke in to the falafel it had such a crunch to it, this made me happy as it shows it was freshly made. Falafels can be dis­ap­point­ing when it comes to the crunch factor, this did not lack and I can not believe it is glu­ten free.

The fla­vour was mild and plain as a falafel should be, the bite alone was dry (which I per­son­ally find all falafels to be) but when you mix the falafel with the beet­root hum­mus or auber­gine zaa­lock it is so more­ish.

SPICY BEET­ROOT HUM­MUS

beetroor

 

Smooth rich chick­pea purée blen­ded with tahini, beet­root and fresh red chilli pep­pers.

This hum­mus was full of fla­vour, fresh, creamy and smooth. I loved the look of it the beet­root gives it a pleas­ant col­our. I tried this with whole­meal pitta and on the falafel. It was great on both.

If your a fan of hum­mus this is def­in­itely one to try.

AUBER­GINE ZAA­LOCK

aubergine

 

 

Gently cooked with fresh toma­toes and moroc­can herbs and spices.

yes! I am Ira­ni­an so I love auber­gine and eat lots of it, alot of Ira­ni­an dishes are auber­gine based and we have a dish quite sim­il­ar to this.

When I saw this it looked as if it might be oily and filling but com­pletely the oppos­ite when I tried it. Full of fla­vour, very light and fresh with an explo­sion of mor­rocan spice and zesty after­taste that leaves you want­ing more. I tried yet again with the whole­meal pitta and falafel. Great on both and even on its own. It has an Ira­ni­an auber­gine experts thumbs up.

MOROC­CAN BUDDHA BOWL

 moroccanbudhha

 

 

Auber­gine zaa­lock, sauteed spin­ach, cur­ried chick­peas and spiced quinoa.

I love me a buddha bowl and this is what buddha bowl dreams are made of. Instantly mouth water­ing and eye catch­ingly stun­ning.

Each mouth­ful was a fla­vour combo made for the gods. so light yet full of fla­vour. I was sur­prised at how light each ele­ment of the dish was. The sautéed spin­ach turned out to be kale with was made so nice, I don’t usu­ally enjoy kale cooked so this was sur­pris­ing. The onions was so sur­real as I was expect­ing a sweet onion taste that I am used to but being greeted with that sweet­ness with a unex­pec­ted hit of spice mak­ing a sweet spice combo that is so unique, com­bine that zesty smooth auber­gine zaa­lock and OMG I was in love. The fluffy light­ness of the quinoa, crunch of the sun­flower seeds, fresh burst of the juicy fresh cherry toma­toes and a per­fectly bal­ance cur­ried chick­pea which was so well cooked. It was such a dreamy fla­vour com­bin­a­tion and it changed depend­ing on what you coupled your spoon­ful up with, leav­ing you with a gamble of fla­vours with each mouth­ful but everytime you would hit the jack­pot.

RETURN OF THE MAC 

mac

 

 

South­ern style battered mush­room ribs, Comptoir V’s house cashew mac ‘n’ cheese, steamed gar­lic kale with a her­bed car­rot and squash purée.

What can I say???…. mind blown will best describe this exper­i­ence.

who would have thought mush­room would sub­sti­tute ribs and it would work so well. The mush­room gives a chew that your used to with meat but com­pletely plant based the sticky sweet ribs sauce works so well on it and heav­enly with the mouth­ful of gar­lic kale. The mac ‘n’ cheese had a crunchy breaded top and a smooth creamy cen­ter. I still can’t believe that is spelt pasta, The meal is Glu­ten free as well as a lot of the menu. This meal is com­fort food at it’s finest. Return of the mac makes me happy as it brings back fla­vours and tex­tures that I gave up on as a vegan.

LET THE BEAT DROP 

beet

 

 

Comptoir V offers a vari­ety of fresh juices, I tried let the beat drop which con­sists of pine­apple, apple, beet­root, cucum­ber, banana and hemp pro­tein.

This is a com­bin­a­tion I would have not thought up but wow it really works and you know it is packed with good­ness.

 

 

BANANA AND DATE CRUMBLE

banana

 

Bana­nas, dates and pecan nuts encased in a light crumble with a banana car­a­mel cus­tard

This is also glu­ten free

this is anoth­er exper­i­ence you do not want to miss out on

I love date and this deliv­ers a jour­ney that you want to take while hav­ing a dessert. Unex­pec­tedly light and sweet, but the per­fect bal­ance of sweet without get­ting sickly. The cus­tard is so smooth and light bal­an­cing out the dense chew of the crumble, the banana is baked per­fectly leav­ing a car­a­mel­ised sticky taste com­bined with the date nat­ur­al sticky sweet­ness, the pecan crunch binds it all togeth­er. What was really nice was get­ting bursts of fresh­ness from the blue­ber­ries and the coconut hint from the des­s­ic­ated coconut gar­nish.

Over­all this was such a great food exper­i­ence, lovely place to sit and eat with a unique book corner with books to browse. Such a relax­ing, clean, friendly res­taur­ant dec­or­ated to give you a feel of morocco with the vibrant col­ours and pat­terns. Great ser­vice and friendly staff which is a big bonus to my comptoir V exper­i­ence.

I really enjoyed my vis­it and will def­in­itely be head­ing back asap to try the rest of that tempt­ing menu

This is vegan goals at it’s finest a def­in­ite must try!

Check out my Vlog of the exper­i­ence!

Long live Comptoir V

For more info

http://www.comptoirv.co.uk

1 keslake Man­sions, 12 Sta­tion Ter­race, Lon­don NW10 5RU

Sunday-Thursday:Midday til 10pm . Fri­day and Sat­urday: Mid­day til 11pm.

tel: 02030920047

email: info@comptoirv.co.uk

ins­tagram: @comptoir_v

peace and love

Azita x

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Azita Edwards
Hello, My name is Azita Edwards I am a moth­er to two beau­ti­ful amaz­ing girls Sienna 6, Maya 7 and a won­der­ful step son Aaron 14. my whole world changed from the moment my old­est was born, I became a mummy! I will be shar­ing my art­icles from my blog to share a little piece of my world with you, tips, recipes, arts, books, days out etc Wel­come to our world!
Azita Edwards

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About Azita Edwards

Azita Edwards
Hello, My name is Azita Edwards I am a mother to two beautiful amazing girls Sienna 6, Maya 7 and a wonderful step son Aaron 14. my whole world changed from the moment my oldest was born, I became a mummy! I will be sharing my articles from my blog to share a little piece of my world with you, tips, recipes, arts, books, days out etc Welcome to our world!