Great healthy dining experiences at pulp kitchen & deli and Treat
When you ask nicely, I find people overwhelmingly obliging. Take pulp kitchen & deli at Willowbridge Mall, for example. I was so impressed with the chicken salad (R49), a good-sized portion of peppery rocket, creamy, perfectly ripe avocado, shaved carrot ribbons, feta and seeds along with other greens served with Willowcreek Director’s Reserve Extra Virgin olive oil and Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar, that I looked for something else on the menu.
They get their coffee from Deluxe Roasters and I like that they say so on their menu. I feel like a little more action than my usual black Americano and spied a Cool Beans (R22) smoothie. I ask Deonette who was serving me if she could tell me how many calories were in the frozen yogurt used in the smoothie. She returned in a heartbeat to say the owner was going onto Marcel’s Yogurt website to check. Next, I assumed, was the owner to tell me she couldn’t find the information on their site but had called them. Turns out the only person at Marcel’s with that info was not there. The owner then suggested I might prefer a Frozen Latte which is the same thing but without the yogurt.
I would have been satisfied had said she couldn’t get the information I asked for and appreciated her trying to. However, the levels to which they climbed to provide me with what I wanted, not to mention that my salad was delicious and good value for money, means I will make a beeline for pulp kitchen & deli. I will again skip Kauai, which is directly opposite them, because despite calls and two emails to Kauai HQ last year, I still don’t know the nutritional content of the Peanut-butter Bomb if I skip the chocolate.
While I think this experience was exceptional, the other day at Treat –my other go-to spot for a salad lunch, the chef assuming I was gluten-intolerant because I avoid carbs, said she could bake me something with gluten-free flour. Isn’t that great? I had made no special requests but she drew a conclusion, incorrectly but that doesn’t matter, and offered me an alternative.
All diners, those of us on limited diets or not, are better off with restaurants like pulp kitchen and Treat around.
www.pulpkitchen.co.za. www.treatpatisserie.com