The Detox Kitchen, Lily Simpson’s renowned healthy food delivery service, deli and 2015 cookbook, opened its doors last month to its second flagship café in Fitzrovia. Bringing together homely interiors, delicious and healthy dishes, on the go nutrient-dense lunch options and a fully equipped fitness studio, The Detox Kitchen has delivered a true hub of delicious wellness to central London.
In the past few years Fitzrovia has grown up. Far from its young days as the quiet and boring sister of Soho and its adolescence as a fairground for the working week hustle and bustle, the area has now grown into its own unique and quirky character. Its new attraction can be partly thanked to the flow of new eateries and drinking houses to the area. 2015 alone saw Mortimer Street welcome great new hubs such as Maple and Fitz and Percy and Founders, whilst Fitzrovia as a whole has seen a new restaurant on every corner.
Therefore, it is no wonder that Lily Simpson, founder of The Detox Kitchen, chose to launch her second flagship deli on Fitzrovia’s trend-setting Mortimer Street. The two floor café comprises of not only an eatery, but also a fitness studio, fusing the two most important elements of wellness into one gorgeous location.
The café itself is all white washed floors, walls of growing herbs and fruits, buffets of rainbow coloured salads and a plethora of cakes and baked goods that look like they’ve escaped a scene from the jungle book. Purple, flower adorned cheesecakes and ruby red brownies are hard not to stare at, and after reading the detailing of what is on offer (each plate has the list of ingredients and allergens) we are further impressed to see that everything is coloured naturally from beetroots, exotic fruits and vegetables; just like it should be. Everything from The Detox Kitchen is free from wheat, dairy and refined sugar, making it a haven not just for clean eaters, but also for those suffering from allergies and intolerances.
Juices, coffees, Matcha lattés and chai teas can all be ordered from the smoothie bar with your choice of milk or four different substitutes (Rice, Almond etc.). Favourites include their Green & Lean smoothie: a powerhouse blend of pineapple, apple, cucumber, avocado, wheatgrass powder and spinach, whilst their chai lattes are naturally sweet and creamy goodness.
Diners can opt for either the beautifully adorned salad bar or order from a concise menu offering breakfast, small hot plates, brunch and lunch. It is hard not to order something from each menu, but we knew after eyeing up the salad banquet, that words on a menu couldn’t compete with the clean and healthy decadence on offer. Serving a mixture of salads, each customer can choose to pile high their plates with an assortment, meaning that lunch isn’t just about picking one dish, but rather about picking which to forego!
We carried our heavy weighted, yet light in guilt plates to be devoured. Dishes on show that day (they are switched up daily depending on local produce) included a tender grilled sweet potato stack filled with soya yoghurt and topped with crunchy caramelised pecans, fresh and light cashew pesto courgetti, a warming roasted veg and lentil stew, sticky and sweet miso aubergine and a creamy tahini drizzled kale salad. What is great about the Detox Kitchen is their focus on whole rounded health, and each dish comes with the option to add protein, making this the perfectly nutritional meal. The vegetarian protein option is a moist cousin of the falafel with an added sweetness from the sweet potato, whilst their salmon burger is fresh and flavoursome on the inside and crunchy on the outside- all sans the oil and deep frying.
Sweet treats change daily depending on what the kitchen has cooked up, but there is no remorse here when grabbing a slice of cake – all the beautiful people around you are doing the same thing. At Detox Kitchen it’s just another nutrient delivering food factor to add to your day. Yipee! Alongside healthily sweetened agave flapjacks there are beetroot brownies, cacao and coconut bars and paleo (grain and refined sugar free) banana muffins. The piece de resistance is a gorgeous magenta raspberry, beetroot and orange mousse cake with a crisp cacao base provided by innovative cake company Clean Cakes (www.henscleancakes.com). It is so pretty we could barely break our slice, but once we did, It was gone in a flash, crumbs and all.
The Detox Kitchen, located at 10 Mortimer Street, is not to be missed for those looking for the perfect nutritious start to the day, wholesome lunch or virtuous afternoon pick me up. Check their website for updates on their class schedule in the basement studio featuring sessions including Yoga, Barre and HIIT.
Open Monday (7am-7pm) to Sunday (10am-5pm). Check out www.detoxkitchen.co.uk and Instagram @TheDetoxKitchen for further information on the wonderful Lily and The Detox Kitchen.