Terra Viva, Gabriel Street, Royal Square, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 2LU
 |
Terra Viva is a vegetarian and vegan restaurant in St Ives, Cornwall. Newly opened and just getting on its feet, with friendly and well intentioned staff, clean and pleasant new fixtures and fittings. I visited Terra Viva earlier this year but have not been too sure what to write about it.
The menu was quite extensive: Nut Cutlets, Lentil Rissoles, Spicy Tofu Bean Burger, Quiche. With a mix-and-match attutude to salads and side dishes to be used as a compliment to the main menu choice.
I chose the Spicy Tofu Bean Burger and a Green salad. The burger was advertised as gluten free which I thought would be interesting – supposing that they would be using gluten free flour for the burger bun…
Terra Viva, Spicy Tofu Burger
But when the burger arrived there was no bun – just the actual Tofu Bean patty with the small side salad. The burger was gluten free because it didn’t have a burger bun at all!.
After being bowled over by Blas Burgerworks and their homemade tofu burger the night before, todays minimalist Tofu burger was both a suprise and a disapointment – made worse by their admission that it was bought in.
Terra Viva is well worth a visit for a lunchtime meal. Any new vegetarian restaurant deserves support and I’ll be going back again. But I don’t think I’ll be having the burger next time…
[MP. August 2009.]
August 1st, 2010 at 8:38 pm
I actually don’t think the owners or staff are vegetarian. It’s the worst place I’ve ever eaten in, and the staff don’t care one way or another whether the customers are happy or have been cooked the correct order. There is no friendliness in the place whatsoever, just a chilling and intimidating atmosphere and I would certainly never, ever go back.
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:13 pm
@Veg Girl, it’s a shame what you found.
When I visited Terra Viva it had just opened. I found it a bit iffy but I was hoping that they would get better …unfortunatey your comments suggest otherwise
Thanks for the feedback.
Mark.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I have to say that I do not agree, I had a lovely time at this cafe and wish there was one close to where I lived. The owners are clearly vegetarian/ vegan and understand the needs of a vegetarian. The bean burger has been changed as it was clearly a delicious home made vegetarian burger. All the food was very fresh and well prepared. The staff that we had were friendly and chatty and we had a lovely afternoon. I would try it out for yourselves and make your own opinion. I loved it.