where jess ate

If you’re looking for a healthy alternative to the usual fast food fare, Crave Healthy Habits (@CraveHealthy) recently opened up their first store in the financial district.

The store is located in the underground Path at 145 King St. West, just a few steps away from St. Andrew subway station.

The concept started off as a school project and 4 years later, this storefront was the result. Their mission was to change the way we look at fast food – providing a fresh and healthy alternative to the usual heavy and greasy options.

Their menu consists of two types of options – steam boxes (served hot) and salad boxes (served cold). The boxes all contain complimentary ingredients which are rich in nutritional value – you won’t find any lettuce here! Each of the boxes come with a choice of organic quinoa or brown rice. You can also add chicken, turkey or smoked salmon to your meal for an extra charge.

You’ll notice that the boxes each come with two different dressings to compliment the dishes. They enlisted the help of Chef Jono to create them and were one of the highlights of the meal.

The store doesn’t have any seating, so you’ll have to bring your boxes to the nearby food court. Open up your box, pour in some dressing and mix it all up. The dressings are in separate containers which allows for you to control the amount you include.

Here’s a look at what we tried, starting with the Californication Steam Box – organic quinoa, napa cabbage, snow peas, corn, red pepper, bean sprouts, peanuts, sesame seeds and fresh coriander with a soy honey dressing & thai peanut sauce

Crimson Dawn Steam Box – organic quinoa, kale, asparagus, mushroom, zucchini, red pepper, sun dried tomato and  pumpkin seeds with a pomegranate sun dried tomato puree and garlic basil dressing

Nirvana Salad Box – organic quinoa, swiss chard, baby spinach, cucumber, pear, strawberry, blueberry, pistachios, sunflower seeds and grapefruit segments with Chef Jono’s pomegranate vinaigrette & grapefruit juice

Unagi Salad Box – mini rouge potatoes, smoked salmon, grape tomatoes, avocado, lemon, beet, cucumber, carrot strings, fresh dill and local cream cheese with a roasted garlic vinaigrette and creamy thai dressing

My personal favourites were the Californication steam box and the Unagi salad box. The Californication consisted of some of my favourite ingredients and I loved the Asian inspired peanut sauce.

The chunky Unagi salad was also up there. A bit of saltiness from the smoked salmon, creaminess from the cheese and fresh dill all covered in a roasted garlic vinaigrette. Delish!

If you’re looking for a healthy alternative in the Path, drop by Urban Healthy Habits!

*This was a complimentary meal. The opinions in the post are my own.*