The Junction’s gentrification has come in stages. First came pizza and pubs. Then Dundas West was invaded by fried meat: Bronto Burger (hooray!), The Purple Onion (hooo-raaay!) and the Black Jack Grille (uh, OK!) opened months apart, all serving gorgeous grease at low prices.
Offering a remedy for the now-clogged arteries, this year’s catchphrase is organic and veggie: The Beet café is mostly vegetarian and all organic; the Sweet Potato organic supermarket is only a block away. Between those fancy-stroller magnets, construction has begun on the Toronto location of Vancouver veggie-hipster institution The Foundation.

Now, a few blocks west, is Rawlicious, Toronto’s second vegan, organic, raw food restaurant. (The other is Live, which we rated flawless a few years ago.)

For anyone who hasn’t heard Woody Harrelson going on about the wonders of the raw-food movement, the short version is that adherents believe that refusing to process food or to cook the vital nutrients out of your vegetables will make you healthy and wise.

Open only since spring, Rawlicious has attracted a tight-knit and vocal community. When we, two omnivores, walked in looking to see how it fares as a restaurant (rather than as a lifestyle) we got remarks from other diners before we even sat down about how the pregnant one of us (not me) would produce a “Hercules baby” by eating raw.

The day we visit, the kitchen is so busy it runs out of nearly everything before we leave. Our server — who internet research reveals to be co-owner Angus Crawford — is frazzled due to the unexpected flurry of business but exceedingly friendly.

Seating options in three bright rooms range from armchairs to floor cushions — we opt for a more conventional table and chairs. We get a couple of sweet, refreshing smoothies ($6 each). Berry Green mixes kale, spinach, parsley, banana, apple and mixed berries, while Cream­sicle blends orange and mango with vanilla, nut milk and agave.

The short menu offers salads ($7-$8) and wraps (served in collard greens, $8), but that’s the sort of food we can not cook for ourselves — we want the unusual stuff. Since the kitchen is out of nori rolls ($6), we start with spring rolls ($5). The soft rice paper is the only item labelled “not raw,” but the vegetable-and-ginger stuffing and sublime tamarind sauce bring our tastebuds to life.

A dip platter ($10) ranges from the decent (a somewhat bland chickpea paste) to the very good (a sweet and spicy mango chutney) to the excellent (an olive tapenade that had us scraping the bowl with our fingers). The real achievement here is the dippers, crackers of seeds and herbs dried to an impressively crispy impression of corn nacho chips.

The crackers make another appearance as pizza crust, smothered in miso-garlic paste and an assortment of vegetables that is heavy on the olives. Pleasant enough, though its similarity to our appetizer suppresses the wow.

More zing arrives in the form of zucchetti pasta ($8), spiralled zucchini that’s a great imitation of al dente spaghetti. Served with a tangy, gazpacho-like tomato marinara sauce, the dish surpasses a similar presentation at Live — the gold standard. Dry, nutty “neat balls” ($2) served on top disappoint.

Unbaked goods work well. A raw chocolate truffle ($1.50) explodes with the essence of raspberry. When sampled solo, the cheesecake’s ($7) pleasingly thick texture and nutty crust is undermined by slight chalkiness,  though spreading strawberry sauce onto each bite gives a sophisticated conclusion to the meal.

Everyone asks: was it filling? The generous portions and heavy doses of nuts and seeds mean that even a couple of meat-eaters were losing steam before dessert. Yet a little more variety would be nice. We’re told to expect extended hours and more options as soon as the crew get their legs and react to their unexpected quick popularity. Which is good, because though we left satisfied, we’d be happy to come back for more.