Festival of Firsts – Raw Food by Sseduced

I recently attended a tasting menu event in Sseduced. Having gone to similar events before, I had expected to leave slightly unsatisfied and trying to source chocolate as quickly as possible.
However, I was very pleasantly surprised, and left positively stuffed!
I started with the soup, which wasn’t really to my taste. I think I still prefere soup to be served «piping» hot, and despite the raw theme I think this is something I will continue to prefere.
The risotto was full of flavour, as was the courgette pasta dish. But it was the banana curry and the pizza that stood out for me. The banana curry was unusual, both sweet and filling — definitely worth a try. The pizza was amazing — being a coeliac, having a pizza is such a treat, and having a pizza that was healthy and tasty was a double treat. This is something I would definitely recommend and will be coming back and bringing friends as tasting is believing!
The staff were very friendly, and happy to share any information about the food. They were obviously very enthusiastic about the whole concept.
For me this would be a great place to meet people for lunch rather than dinner as I wouldn’t feel the chairs are suitable for long drawn out dinners.
But all in all a winner in my book.

I heard of raw food before but wasn’t really sure what it is. When I first heard of it I thought it really is raw and not heated at all. Well, I like sushi so that wasn’t a problem. In preparation of this event I learned that while the food is not cooked it can indeed be warm (just not hot).
It was brilliant to get to taste everything on the (short but absolutely sufficient) menu. Especially as none of us ever had raw food before — a real festival of firsts.
My personal favourites were:
— the celery soup (not a huge fan of celery but that is more using it just as is with a dip)
— the onion bread
— the risotto
— the cheesecake with orange sauce
— and the (detox) juice
I don’t like banana nor coconut so some of the dishes weren’t for me. I tried the curry and carrot cake anyhow and while quite good they were just not for me. And sorry, I just couldn’t try the banana ice cream. But that really is just me.
But be aware that there is ginger in a lot of dishes. I’m a fan, but if you’re not maybe make sure your dish doesn’t have ginger in it.
And overall I really enjoyed the food. While I know I’ll never be patient or organised enough to prepare raw food myself (seeing that some of the dishes take 2 – 3 days to be ready) I really enjoyed the food — and the feeling /​knowledge of healthy eating was an added plus.
So I’ll be back for sure :-)

I had no idea what to expect when signing up for the event and basically thought we ‘d be eating salad and crudités. I was very wrong!
We were welcomed into the modern looking restaurant by our friendly waiter. We sat down and our waiter and Sil (the owner) explained the concept of raw food to us (nothing heated above 42c to retain all the goodness of the food) and examined that the recipes had originated in her own kitchen. Everything we are was gluten free, vegan and raw.
We started with celery soup and onion bread. Deliciously creamy (and I thought I hated celery… I had just been doing it wrong!)
We sampled the risotto (nice and crunchy), banana curry, pizza (Delicious! I have no idea how they did it) and courgette «pasta» with other veg in a creamy sauce (great light alternative to real pasta)
We also had one of their juices with ginger which was very refreshing.
For dessert we had banana ice cream and cheesecake with orange sauce. They tasted just like the real deal to me with a fraction of the guilt.
Great to see more choice in Dublin and I’ll be dragging my veggie boyfriend along for pizza and ice cream!

Ok, so since I got on the whole juice buzz (see previous evangelical rants about the power of juices), i’ve been trying my best to stay relatively healthy, and not pollute the aul body tooooo much.
Which is all well and good when you’re eating at home and can control what goes in your gob. But not so easy when you’re in town, out and about, meeting people and socialising.
Step in, Sseduced.
A fabulous new raw food restaurant in Temple Bar that has the potential to change the way many people eat. I certainly walked away deep in thought about the whole raw food ‘thing’.
Anyway I won’t bore you with too much of the detail — what you really care about is the food, right?
On this night, we feasted on:
— Celery soup. Served warm and frothy, and feels so creamy it’s a shocker it’s not been made with any dairy
— Wild rise risotto — this rice is cooked all night to give it a perfect cooked crunch, without the need to boil it.
— Banana curry — this is absolutely immense. Sweet, creamy and very filling
— Pizza — made with a seeded crust, fresh veg and cashew cheese on top. Truly incredible to me that this could be made from all raw ingredients.
— Carrot cake, banana ice cream & ‘cheesecake’ with orange sauce. These deserts were so good. Like sooooo good. The banana ‘ice cream’ blew my mind in particular. It is literally made from frozen bananas blended up. Nothing else. You will need to come here to really understand what I’m saying, but seriously, do, and try it.
The staff in here are also tremendous. If you’re lucky enough to be in the restaurant at the restaurant at the same time as Sil, the restaurant owner, do ask her about her passion for raw food, and how it all came about. It’s fascinating. If she’s not, you’ll be in good hands with her friendly and total pro of a manager, Henrique.

Sseduced is hidden gem in the heart of Temple bar. It’s nicely decorated, not very big, but big enough for people to create good atmosphere. I have visited this place for very first time because of Unilocal’s Festival of Firsts, and now I am more than positive that it was not for the last time. We have tried several dishes from the menu and everything tasted fantastic. It’s crazy to think that everything we had try was raw! Each dish is prepared below 42 degrees celsius, for the reason. Basically all nutritions from the food we should get are staying in the food. They are not killed by baking, boiling etc. You might think that food is boring, but believe me it’s not. Raw pizza was my biggest surprise, YES raw pizza and its taste unbelievable delicious. Even banana curry?! was fantastic. We also got some samples of lovely celery soup and we finished off our meal with nice range of deserts which included; ice cream, cheese cake and carrot cake. Remember raw! :) Staff in the Sseduce was very helpful, funny and gave us all informations we asked about their products. I will finish this review with two words; Amazing food! and wanna say huge Thank you to Sseduce for having us.