Belmonte Raw

Belmonte Raw is a organic, high-​end, raw food store. It offers a variety of unpasteurized cold-​pressed juice, smoothies, raw desserts and raw meals.
I wanted to love Belmonte Raw, unfortunately, I did not. I ordered the raw taco ($ 9.00), jicama, tossed in a fragrant cashew sauce and wrapper inside collard greens. The flavours were good. However, liquid was coming out of the bottom of the wrap. The sauce was slightly watered down because of that. It was also messy to eat. It got on my work dress. In the future, I will spend my lunch money elsewhere.

Arguably, the madras curry kale salad I had at Belmonte was the best salad I’ve had this whole year.
After eating here all I could think of was the following:
1) Am I in heaven? The madras curry kale salad was ungodly good. I really could eat this for the rest of my life and just go vegan.
2) Did I really just spend almost $ 30 on a salad and juice for lunch?!
3) Why do the names of your juices all sound so good and have to be in perfect matte colours? This awakens the «omg let’s instagram everything girl» that I hate in me.
4) The juices apparently have 8 pounds worth of vegetables/​fruit in 500 ml. If that’s the case, I’m making a cost-​efficient decision of buying bottles of juice that are $ 11+ tax, RIGHT?! Not.
5) Apparently their menu changes every week. Who comes up with these salads? Who is this genius?
6) They do delivery to your door, but obviously with delivery charges. Just thinking of having beautiful salads delivered to my door every morning brings a smile to my face, but no, I will persist, resist the urge and just walk like any sane human being.
7) I love you so much but my wallet hates you.

Disclaimer: I did not do the juice cleanse. I like to use this as a way to get me through busy periods of my day :)
Overall, Belmonte Raw should be your go-​to if you’re trying out this cold-​pressed juicing thing and you’re in the PATH/​financial district. The quality and flavour in Belmonte’s juices are superior to Greenhouse Juice Co and Daily Press Juicery for the same price*. This FCP location is an open-​concept store with an ambiance that feels upscale but not pretentious.
Customer service is top-​notch. I LOVE the people who work here — extremely helpful and knowledgeable. It’s almost like visiting an alchemist — tell them you’re looking to feel «cleansed» or «less bloated» or «energy-​booster» and they’ll match you up with the right juices!
Favourite green: «Uplift» because 1) it’s refreshing 2) apple makes everything taste better and 3) I dislike the taste of celery (bleh — so, this strikes out Detox and Drive)
Favourite milk: «Cinnamon Pumpkin Milk» and a far second would be the «Vanilla Cashew Milk». The first one is so calming and delicious and great to have with your cereal or muesli.
Stand-​out juice: «Apple Cider» — so potently apple-​y! SO in love with this one. The description is fitting (unsweetened) apple pie in a bottle but it’s actually more than that. It’s actually quite complex in flavouring: spiced with cinnamon, tangy lip-​smacking of lemon zest rounded out with a subtle vanilla note. Yum! Also, a special mention for the «Strength» which is grapefruit and spirulina — I deem this a go-​to if you’re looking to get some protein in!
Sweet indulgences:
Raspberry thimble is a godsend amongst luxurious (yet healthy!) indulgences. Belmonte’s chocolate is so rich and beautiful and it’s so lovingly balanced with the tarty raspberry center. I prefer this over the peanut butter thimble, heh.
Chia pudding is good in small doses — wouldn’t recommend eating the entire thing in one-​go!

This location opened up fairly recently in the PATH, and is in an easily accessible location beside the Starbucks at First Canadian Place. In all respects, it is comparable to every single other high-​end, organic, unpasturized, cold-​pressed juice place, so I can’t really say I like it more or less than any other store. I have tried two of their juices, Calm and Uplift, both of which are green juices meant to be detoxifying. I can attest that they both do what they are meant to do and cleanse your system. I think compared to Greenhouse Juice Co., which is the only other juice place in the PATH I know of, Belmonte Raw has a larger selection of drinks, some of which are very interesting (i.e. Hydrate, which is black in colour and contains activated charcoal — this is on my list to try). Prices are comparable to Greenhouse Juice as well, being around $ 8.75 after tax for your standard juice. Overall, I think it’s worth checking out, especially if you’re new to the juice thing! Very friendly staff.