Organic Foods and Café : guilt-free, healthy meal for the conscious diner.

For a person who has never bothered with the words  “gluten free”, “healthy” etc when it comes to food, Organic Foods & Café came as a revelation. For ages, I had turned a careless blind-eye at this store that we drive past almost everyday (being so wonderfully close to my residence), until one fine weekend, I let the pretty green name board finally welcome me in. What I saw there, was refreshing to say the least, to a hardcore non-vegetarian junk eater as myself (never really said I’m proud of myself, did I?! ).

Pleasant cafe interiors.

The Organic supermarket, as the name clearly suggests, sells everything you need, in its richer, healthier version. Hence it goes without saying that the vegetables looked crunchier, the meats looked safer and the bakery looked less sinful. It was a completely alien territory to me, as I was only used to the commercial haggling of regular supermarkets, where only fancy packaging and fancier advertising seem to matter. In here, everything was organic, which meant I could just munch into those lettuce in the shelves without freaking out over the unappealing concept of chemicals and growth stimulants.

Organic vegetables on display.

Racks and racks of Organic goodness!

It was 3pm when we entered the café, narrowly missing out on the Saturday brunch buffet. I immediately regretted peeking at the quickly emptying trays of buffet food- my firecracker appetite had got mercilessly ignited. I wasted no further time to launch into the menu placed in front of me.

Skimming through the breakfast options of Eggs Benedict and Canadian style pancakes, through the winter special duck parmentier and seafood gratin salads, I landed on the big guns. Yes. A Quarter of Roast Chicken sounded good to me. Who am I kidding? It was sweet music to my ears! Mr.Foodkisser, an acclaimed burger-lover that he was, went for the Organic bestseller, The OFC Beef Burger.

Organic’s offerings..

Utilizing the waiting time to explore the rest of the menu, I saw that OFC took some pride over their pizzas, all of which were free of eggs and nuts. There were enticing options to choose, like goat & soy cheese and to switch to regular and gluten-free pizza base at an additional 10dhs. The kids menu were tailor-made by their nutritionist and included home-made organic chicken nuggets, pasta with spinach sauce & parmesan cheese and of course, the inevitable mini cheeseburger. One cannot NOT expect a smoothie and fresh juice section in such a menu, and rightly so. The page called out Winner Smoothie (carrot, celery & apple with honey), Scale Tipper Sipper (fresh cocktail of carrot & orange) and more, and proclaimed that agave syrup or liquid sugar are available upon request.

The interiors- cuteness.

I didn’t have to drum my fingers on the table for long. Our order arrived and my appetite did a double take. It was the best looking roast chicken ever. Just by merely looking at it, I could sense the tenderness of the meat and the juiciness in the flesh. The browning was perfection, just enough to bring the flavors out. And oh, what flavor! Together with the mashed potatoes (which DID NOT reek of butter, yet was blissfully creamy) and the super crunchy salad served with it, I was gladly admitting to myself that this was one of the best feel-good meals I have had off late.

Quarter of roast chicken.

Scrumptiousness on a plate. Organic’s Roast Chicken!

The husband was faring well too. The OFC Beef Burger had a reason to be their best-seller. The action-packed patty was cocooned inside the sesame crusted burger bun, under a veil of melted cheese, ripe tomatoes and fresh lettuce. I took my share of bites, but the chicken was my hero.

The OFC Beef Burger

Desserts normally come mandatory in my order while dining out. But thanks to the previous night’s cake marathon, I was on a possibly-week-long sugar high, and so had to give an “until next time” nod to the chocolate mousse in the menu.

Organic Foods & Café was a pleasure to visit. And it is even more enticing when you have an Entertainer voucher to flaunt. The FoodKissers thus ended up having an amazingly healthy (even by our standards) and cost-effective lunch. Yet another success story to brag on the Internet for the days to come!

Organics Food & Cafe. Definitely worth a visit.

The pricing story:

Eggs benedict- Aed 38

Seafood gratin & mixed green salad- Aed 48

The OFC Beef Burger- Aed 45

Quarter of Roast Chicken- Aed 45

Pizza OFC Special- Aed 38

Chocolate Mousse- Aed 18

Winner Smoothie- Aed 28

Organic Foods & Cafe: Sheikh Zayed Road (04 3382822), Greens (04 3617974), Village Mall (04 3617974).