Healin' Cuisine - Rise Above Restaurant Review

Traveling is one of the most enriching experiences in life. Traveling is an adventurous path that creates a lifetime worth of memories, changes the way we look at this world, enriches our soul, help us bring back home new ideas and new ways of doing things, understand different cultures around the world, build our professional network, make new friends, and overall, change our life for better. On the other hand, traveling can also be a challenge, especially for the ones with serious health goals and want to support eco-friendly restaurants or businesses.

 

We are a bunch of vegans and vegetarians so food is always an important issue for us. Recently we made a trip to Niagara, Canada, and we had no idea where to eat. While it wasn’t easy to navigate that restaurant scene, we finally managed to find this chic eco-friendly vegan restaurant and bakery, RISE ABOVE, that was perfect for all our dining needs. Located in the heart of downtown St. Catharines,Ontario, this cute little place was so good, we had to review it.

 

 

 

 

At RISE ABOVE,  owners Brian and Kelsey not only care about animal rights but are also passionate about environment and sustainability as well. The restaurant specializes in comfort foods, healthy choices, and fresh baked desserts. Here are some reasons why we loved the place –

 

Chic Laid-Back Interiors:

The interior of the restaurant is chic, cozy and modern with an urban artsy – industrial sustainable theme with brick walls, mason jar lighting fixtures, carved out paper board store sign and green hued walls adorned with artistic abstract paintings. In addition to that, mason jars serve as drinking glasses, cool glass bottles with hermetic closure serve as pitchers and huge cafe-style coffee cups render a chic and relaxed cafe-style vibe to the dining experience. For pictures, click here.

 

Planet – Friendly Practices:

From interiors to recyclable PLA plant plastic and compostable cardboard packaging for takeouts, everything in the restaurant is chosen with care to have minimal impact on the environment.

 

Thoughtful Ingredients:

The restaurant focusses on buying organic and local produce, and practicing fair trade. You can read more about it on their website here. 

 

Flavorful Food:

First of all, Food is super delicious here. It has a more French – Mediterranean – Asian flavor to it. Soy and nuts replace all the dairy products so if you aren’t a fan of soy or allergic to nuts, you might want to keep this in mind. Most dressings have a tahini or red wine vinaigrette base. Maple Syrup seems to be the sweetener of choice. There were tons of gluten-free options as well. The food in general was very fresh and light yet filling and so delicious with full of flavor. Overall, it was a unique experience and very different from the vegan restaurants here in Chicago (I would say better than ones here). 

 

Must Haves:  Chocolate Almond Tea latte with peppermint flavor (which is absolutely delicious), Pizza on Kid’s menu with Daiya Cheese (our kids loved it!!), Killer Beets Salad, and Red Curry Bowl.

 

Philanthropy:

Most noteworthy point is that the restaurant owners are very supportive of their local community. They support local non-profit groups, artists, and other community members by providing the restaurant space for events, and through the donation of food or gift cards.

 

If you ever plan to visit Niagara Falls, either Canadian or American side, this restaurant may be something you might want to check out. It is about 30 minutes drive from Niagara Falls, and it’s in Canada. Hope you’ll get a chance to check out this restaurant. Do you like to travel? What are some of your favorite vegan / vegetarian restaurants around the world?

 

  “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.”

–  Dalai Lama  

 

xx

Heel in Mint