21 aug Healthy hotspots in Rome

Three weeks ago I went to the beautiful city Rome with my sister. We had a wonderful time walking through one of Europe’s most beautiful cities and discovered healthy hotspots in Rome sweet Rome.

Healthy hotspots in Rome

Italy is best known for its world famous delicious pasta’s, pizza’s and those incredible italian ‘gelatos’. We were planning to just enjoy the italian food and loosen up the healthy lifestyle. But actually we were quite surprised how many lovely and healthy spots we came across!

So. Going to Rome soon? No worries, you will be absolutely fine eating delicious healthy vegan food. Actually better than fine. And in the other case: not going to Rome soon? Then you can enjoy my favorite healthy hotspots: 

• aT Restaurant 

Near the Pantheon and the Fontana di Trevi you can find this healthy breakfast & lunchroom. They serve the most awesome juices, smoothies and milkshakes. Feeling like having a green smoothie after those fatty gelato’s? Than aT is the perfect place. Next to that, they have delicious premade salads, yoghurts with granola, and…VEGAN ICECREAM! Oh my god…with Acai, papaya and maracuja..

We came across this place around 2pm and unfortunately we already had lunch. So we only sipped on our fresh homemade juice.

My fruitjuice was made of lemons, oranges and grapefruit. And this lovely view of the Pantheon.

And if you are not feeling like having a fruit juice or icecream, you can satisfy yourself with a homemade pie or quiche.

Or with a cup of carrots and a dull of hummus.

Or with a aloe vera drink.

Or with a piece of carrot cake. Should I go on? 😉

I think you have a good impression of this awesome place. Vegan-proof! On your way to the Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon and some city-shopping? Go the aT and grab your food-to-go:)

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information on the internet about aT restaurant. When in Rome, go to the Pantheon, walk to the backside and on the corner you can find aT . Enjoy!

• Ginger 

Since my sister’s luggage got lost when we arrived in Rome, we got the perfect excuse to get some shopping done (yihaa). We were wandering around and suddenly we saw this fancy terrace outside with a delightful menu. We couldn’t resist ourselves and we were just in time before every table was booked. The interior inside is definitely worth seeing and since Ginger works with a semi-open kitchen you can have a sneak peak on what’s going on there, always fun.

While arriving at Ginger, we saw a lot of fancy people entering and even an American celeb (Jared Leto?) haha I couldn’t forget. They all had reservations inside but we dutchies love every second we can spend outside so my sister and me got our ass parked outside on the terrace, not bad aswell. 

We wanted something vegan and eventually we could choose between 4 vegan dishes, that’s quite a lot he?

My sister got the Seggiola salad: Mixed salad, fennel, carrots, almonds, raisins, avocado, mixed organic seeds (€11,-)

I chose the Quinoa salad; Organic red, black and white quinoa salad with steamed asparagus, zucchini flowers, sun-dried tomatoes, chopped almonds (€13,-) 

Pros: delicious light lunch on a beautiful, fancy location. Clean ladies room and lovely environment.

Cons: No dressing on the salads, quite pricey for how much little you get and the order takes quite a bit.

Overall quite a fancy place (with more than 1 vegan option). If you have enough money and you are up to meet the rich and famous. Go to Ginger!

Ginger, Via Borgognona 43/44 – 00187 Roma. Website: http://www.ginger.roma.it/

• Baylon Cafe 

We were so lucky to have this cafe right next to our lovely B&B (In Trastevere House) We stumbled this cafe the first night and it immediately attracted our eyes.

Next to the fact that they have colorful terrace, the waiters are so sympathetic and helpful. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the Brunch Menu.  They serve homemade

Tofu. Scramble. Hell yeah

I’m always too lazy to make Tofu Scramble so this was the perfect moment to try this lovely dish.

My sister (above) had pancakes with maple syrup, strawberries and scrambled eggs.

I had french toast with tofu scramble, rosemary potatoes and sweet onions.

YUMM.

Next to that, sorry we had to drink something so why not a healthy, colorful smoothie?

This beast contained strawberries, lemons and grapefruit. Beautiful colors he?

Apart from these lovely smoothies and tofu scramble, they have a lot more healthy options for lunch and dinner. Not a lot vegan options, but they offer a lunch buffet with a lot of veggies. At night, Baylon cafe turns into a fancy cocktail bar where you drink the weirdest cocktails named ‘Godmother’ or ‘Godfather’.

We tried a very sweet cocktail which I can’t remember the name of. Something with honey, fig jam and vodka.

Conclusion: I hope my teeth are still in my mouth.

Definitely worth a visit! (or two)

Baylon Cafe, Via di San Francesco a Ripa 151, Trastevere Roma, 06.5814275, http://www.bayloncafe.net/#!__restaurant

• The King of Salads 

The King Salad is an healthy lunchroom where you can order salads. The cool thing about King Salad is that you can choose any ingredient you like to make your own customized salad.

Despite salads, you can order fresh fruit juices, cold soups, pasta-dishes and everything customized your way!

The King of Salads has a few places to sit inside, so take-away is recommended.

And look at that, how cute! Animal friends, Are our friends 🙂

We had a fresh fruitjuice with apple, orange and strawberries.

In short, a healthy animal friendly hotspot to grab a freshly made fruitjuice, salad, sandwhich or pastadish!

The King of Salads,  Via San Giuseppe Vecchio, 51, 54100 Massa Tel. (+39) 373.880.52.60 http://www.thekingofsalads.it/

• Il Margutta 

We spend our last night at this amazing vegetarian restaurant called Il Margutta.

They serve all vegetarian dishes and a a lot of vegan options aswell (yeey!) They even offer a whole VEGAN MENU!? Isn’t that wonderful?

It’s a lil bit pricey (compaired to the regular Italian restaurants) but hey, once you see the dishes its definitely worth every penny. The waiters are so friendly, everything is clean and they are open to suggestions or questions you may have.

Before we could chose anything, a delicious plate of raw veggies and dip were served right in front of our noses. That’s a pretty good welcome isn’t it?

We decided to enjoy it to the fullest and order a starter ánd a main-course. For our first course, my sister had courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta cheese and thyme, baked with tomato and freshly toasted Bronte pistachios. Oke, seriously, this already sounds delightful, but it looked delightful too.

I took a bite to taste these courgette flowers. They were actually one of the best ones I ever tasted!

My first course was a pesto marinated tofu mille-feuille with courgette, courgette
flowers, served with spicy guacamole and carrot sticks. How can you think of it?

Do I even need to tell you how it tasted? No, just what I thought.

Our main-course was : Homemade Burrata ravioli with an aubergine, tomato and basil sauce (vegetarian)

My main course was a raw courgette spaghetti with a basil and parsley vegan pesto, seasonal vegetable brunoise, flaked almonds and lemon rind (raw-vegan!)

Yum. So our bellies were filled, our money was spend. With difficulty we decided (heavy breathing)..to. skip. dessert. But we got BUSTED. The waiter saw the look in our eyes and gave us a dessert from the house!! (even more heavy breathing now)

This was a fig trio! Fig and ricotta semifreddo, rum and fig ice-cream,
fresh figs with a honey and dried fruit salad.

Yeah, I can’t find words to describe the moment he surprised us with this dessert haha. Unfortunately not 100% vegan, but well. for once..

So, nothing rest to say about this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, creative restaurant! When in Rome, definitely go to Il Margutta. You háve to!

Ristor Arte Il Margutta, Via Margutta 118, http://www.ilmarguttavegetariano.it/ 

Reason enough to visit the beautiful, ancient Rome.

So make pasta, not war 🙂 

ENJOY!