Tips for Finding Raw-Friendly Restaurants

Finding raw-friendly restaurants in your city or as you are traveling, takes a bit of research. First things first, the food is raw. Think of food safety in terms of the restaurant. Be aware of consumption of raw or undercooked shellfish harvested from contaminated waters. Don't eat raw oysters. Don't eat eggs that are raw or not fully cooked. These can hide in Caesar salads, custards, and some sauces. When you receive your dish, it should feel cold. Cold foods should be at 40 degrees or lower. If you get a takeout order, cold food should be eaten within two hours or put in the fridge or freezer for later. If in doubt, throw it out.

Vegetarian USA has compiled a list of 500 top natural food & vegetarian restaurants around the USA and placed them in their free City & State Guides. There are links to raw (uncooked) food restaurants in the Live Food Lifestyle chapter. Their sister site Raw Food Planet is a worldwide raw and living food resource and travel guide. The site has links to journals, magazines as well as other internet links. The restaurant link guides you to actual websites of featured restaurants. You have the opportunity to look at menus.

RAW RESTAURANTS TAKE OUT & JUICE BARS is a directory of takeouts and juice bars in several states and a few foreign countries. Not all states have resources. Raw Food Restaurant Guide will email a list of 131 raw food restaurants (some partially raw, some 100% raw), cafes, and juice bars-including addresses, phone numbers, websites and reviews. Living Foods site has a list of restaurants some listed on other sites.

In researching raw-friendly restaurants, I found several vegan and vegetarian restaurants that were not raw food restaurants. The written material on raw food was mostly recipes books, not restaurant guides. There was a limited amount of restaurants found, many often repeated on several sites. Smaller cities and town are not listed.

One last reminder, the food at these restaurants is raw. If the restaurant does not look clean, smells bad, don't eat the food.