RVD, a 100% Vegan Resto-Cafe to open in Mumbai this May!!

Well it just keeps getting better for Vegan India doesn't it?! It has been a long time coming but Mumbai is finally getting its first 100% Vegan Resto-Cafe!

We manage to catch up with Ritwik(R) and Vidhi (VD) who are about to launch Cafe RVD serving exclusively plant-based food this May. 

The Birth of Cafe RVD

Mumbai has been waiting for a 100% Vegan Foodspot for a long while now. There are surplus vegans in the city, among the most in India, and even the non-vegan populace is an open-mnded crowd which would sure love to eat Vegan.

VD says " The idea first came when we just couldn’t order chinese food any more. The Vegan delivery options are extremely limited and there is only so much triple schezwan rice you can eat." 

The lack of exclusive Vegan restaurants where one can go to or order from resulted in VD and R deciding to start their own Vegan cafe

The Perfect Location

R Galleria, Mulund.

It’s located in R Galleria in Mulund (W). R lives in the building upstairs and VD has lived in Mulund all her life. Mulund has always had a bunch of people who are passionate about food and very eager to eat out. The retail infrastructure has so far inhibited the boom of restaurants. But then this property came along and we’ve seen the launch of about 25 cafes/restaurants in the last 6 months! Competition is going to be tough but we are really looking forward to it.

Building it from scratch 

R and VD are personally overseeing the interior development

Ritwik and Vidhi  are both practicing architects. We work at Marathon Realty and we have led the design of Next School and Marathon Nexworld over the last 4 years. We are incredibly proud of both projects and the guys who oversaw the design and branding of those projects will be overseeing the design and branding of this cafe. We have got a very talented graphic designer on board as well.

Le Menu 

Cafe RVD will be 100% vegan. Ritwik and Vidhi are both practicing vegans. Ritwik has been vegan for two years now. Vidhi has always been a vegetarian and a massive fan of cheese, paneer, butter and chocolate!

Yummy Chocolate Dosa

She is now reimagining all that indulgent goodness without dairy. There are a couple of broad concepts that we will try to address with the food at the cafe. Vegan and indulgent .

The Classic Falafel & Hummus

Many vegan eateries conflate veganism with no gluten, no sugar and even no oil - this is very commendable and props to these places for trying to pioneer something new. But it’s not the kind of food we always crave.

When pictures make you Hungry

Sometimes we want that sloppy burger and we want to dip the fried cheese in some melted cheese. Our menu will have a lot of indulgent food.

BBQ Tofu Burger! Oh that Vegan Mayo...

I think it’s important to know that you have these options and we believe the inclusion of these indulgent foods will help make the process of turning vegan and staying vegan a whole lot easier.

Mango Bite Dessert

All this is but a glimpse of what one can expect at Cafe RVD. They will cover multiple cuisines and cater to every taste bud you can think of. 

Their Inspiration 

VD Says "We are very inspired by Miyoko Schinner - she’s literally written the book on vegan cheese! We love her new brand - Miyoko’s Creamery. It’s positioned as being ‘phenomenally vegan’ - and one look at the offerings and you can see why! This stuff is not an imitation of the old non vegan stuff, it’s so much better. It’s better for your body, it’s better for the environment and you’re not putting cows through the trauma of animal farms so that it can land on your plate. And it tastes so good! We’ve followed her lead and make our own cheeses - these cheeses are aged and develop complex flavours that are pretty incredible. We’ve done taste tests with about 50 people so far and the response has been phenomenal - even the omnivores think this stuff tastes better than its non vegan counterpart."

Towards a phenomenal future 

Brands like Miyoko, Beyond Meat and Ripple milk are paving the path for this ‘Phenomenally Vegan’ movement - it’s no longer about imitation, it’s about forging a new path altogether.

"We have been experimenting with making all our core ingredients in house - cheese blocks, cream cheeses, herbed butters, mayonnaise, and even dahi. This stuff is all atleast as good as their old non-vegan counterparts. " said Vidhi

She went on to exclaim that "We considered starting a delivery service only - just rent out enough space for a kitchen and deliver the food. This would have been the common sense approach, especially in a rent expensive city like Mumbai. But it just didn’t seem exciting enough. We wanted a shop, we wanted to control every part of the experience. We want to experiment with breaking down the divide between the kitchen and the patrons - we want our chefs to take orders and even converse with the people at the shop - just knowing what the patron is craving is half the battle! We think the dining experience could be taken to a new level if you can pull off an experience like this."

You can follow them on their Instagram here. They currently have a vacancy for the position of a Sous Chef, be sure to contact them if interested. Stay tuned for more news on Cafe RVD.

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