Rawk Star Cafe

Met a friend here today for lunch.
Let me be honest, I was trepidatious. I am not vegan, I don’t know anything about eating Raw, and I didn’t know what to expect.
From the moment I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised. First, it smelled REALLY good. I mean REALLY good! 2^nd, I was asked if this was my first time, and since it was, they offered me samples of their smoothie of the day, an Orangecicle one that was tasty, and then samples of their veggie pâté’s that they use in their food.
I do have a food allergy, so after clarifying which ones I could eat — the ones without the hot peppers (only their chili has it) We were good to go! The faux eggs and faux re-​fried bean paste were both absolutely delicious. My friend and I opted for their today’s specials and we were RAWKED to the core. The food tasted clean and fresh as it’s all made in house. The strawberry lemonaide was neither too tart or sweet and was refreshing to boot.
For desert we had the key lime Cheeze cake which was absolutely yumm-​ola! I would certainly recommend this place if you’re in the area. It’s THAT good.

Today was my third day in a row coming here for lunch. Given the opportunity I always love to try vegan/​veg friendly restaurants b/​c there aren’t enough of them. I was in the area for work for 2.5 days so after my first lunch meal here, I came back the next day with friends and then again today. If you’re not sure about vegan/​veg/​raw etc foods, they will answer your every question and give you samples to taste which BTW are all so tasty! The staff is friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. In general, restaurants of this nature are not cheap but you truly do get what you pay for and compared to that of some other places I’ve been to, mainly in downtown St. Pete, I’d say the price here is very reasonable and the portion filling. Everything I tried was so tasty and I really do look forward to coming back when I’m in the area!

Best healthy food I’ve ever tasted!!! Wish I could eat here everyday the people are so nice who work here too

Everyone there is so nice. They answer questions and have conversation with you! Great attitudes and great customer service.
I got to try samples. Every sample was amazing. The eggless spread, chilli spread, and nacho «cheese» spread were especially good.
I had the raw pizza, and sweet potato pie. I would not shut up about how good I thought it was.
I was completely ignorant to the raw food world. I kept thinking bland food. But I was proved wrong. I can’t wait to go back and slowly but surely try everything on the menu.

Can’t believe I didn’t find this place before now. Food is terrific, friendly atmosphere and the staff, Shelly was more than happy to share her knowledge! I would definitely recommend this place, healthy and good.

FRESH, HEALTHY, DELICIOUS!!! I can’t say enough about how FANTASTIC this place is! It’s clean, inviting, the customer service and the food is OUTSTANDING ! The family works together as a team in a quick, friendly and efficient way! It’s perfect for the person who is familiar and unfamiliar with vegan food because they let you sample virtually EVERYTHING on the menu! They even call you by name, and get to know their customers (that’s rare these days) ! I could immediately tell why this place consistently is raved about! It’s got every awesome quality that a great restaurant should have!

I was hesitant to try this for lunch thinking it would be just snack items and smoothies, wow was I wrong! It was amazing! Absolutely delicious and beautifully presented, wonderfully seasoned and very filling meals. I was amazed at the variety of flavors. This place is not just for vegans/​vegetarians, you will not miss the meat in a dish when it has so much flavor.
There are so many delicious options for everything I couldn’t even decide on a beverage and ended up with hibiscus tea and cold brewed coffee that was incredible. They offered us samples of the different «sauces» and made the decision even harder, and then there were dessert options. We had an avocado and veggie wrap, chili wrap and side of rawghetti. So delicious we already picked out our next meals and lunch date. Then I had to bring home bullet bites for dessert for the family– delicious! I am so full– and have no guilt about overstuffing myself at lunch!
The café was very clean and the staff was very helpful and friendly. This will definately be my new favorite place. So happy to have a raw eatery with so many options and flavors.

A terrific fresh vegan café .
Met here for a vegan friends birthday .
Bright open and friendly– Adam — one of the owners gave us tastes of everything —
I bought the cheez cakes to take home– macadamia coconut crust with vegan filling made with cashews, agave and Himalayian salt– it was delicious .They served a kombuka tea made of hibiscus .
I had the eggless wrap — blend of fresh veggies, turmeric and cashew spread.
I bought the chili spread, and some of the eggless salad to take home. It’s excellent spread on pita!
The cooler display was full of fresh nut butters and assorted teas.
For vegans this is a dream place– since everything is raw veggies!

Awesome! ¹⁰⁄₁₀ service. 5+ stars, 2 thumbs up. I can’t remember her name but the lady behind the bar/​counter was super nice and knows her stuff. If you like vegan/​raw food then u will looooooove this. They make these raw chocolate bars that are the best thing I’ve ever had… Crazy good! Like I didn’t know chocolate could taste so good. I bought a bar.
Get ur vegan on!

Love everything about this place! They truly Rawked my world! A haven of plant based goodness, without gmo’s, and all the other crap that scientists add to our food.
Adam, co owner is a delightful transplant from Boston. He encourages tastings to try out the multitude of flavors to add to wraps made of collard greens, salads, or their own house made healthy wraps.
He also gave us tastings of different flavored kambusha tea which I loved! The grapefruit flavored one actually tasted like beer to me. The rose tea was excellent!
I ended up getting an eggless wrap, made from macadamia, cashews and turnip with turmeric. Super healthy and super yummy! Also got a side of the rawghetti salad made from zucchini and kelp with a hemp pesto sauce.
Brought most of the wrap home along with a matcha crème cake. Trust me, the food is not only healthy but tasty and totally satisfying.
Finally found my new favorite restaurant and supplies place in Tampa, actually located in Oldsmar.
Not only did Adam sing to me for my birthday, he gave me a tour of his very clean kitchen. While everything is raw, they make all from scratch and bake the wraps, bread and chips.
Guilt free food gets a well deserved 5 stars!

Raw Vegans — the extremists of the culinary world? Don’t judge, this is the US and it’s not that the route of standard deviation is extreme; it’s that the standard here is just an unhealthy comparison. Searching for understanding? Read.
As a gluten-​free vegan, I indulge in a roasted veggie palooza on the regular. Fewer things are as scrumptious as a charred onion or grill marked corn on the cob. And let’s be honest, there’s only so many ways to skin a cat — or a potato, or carrot, or beet. So when you’re looking for inspiration and hunger satisfaction, Rawk Star Café is sublime. Click «here» for my petition for Lady Gaga to strut a dress made out of collard leaves. Kidding (half kidding).
Recommendations:
— Rawkster Wrap
— Raw Chili Wrap
— Raw desserts (the pumpkin pie was good, next time I will desire chocolate)
They do have:
— Table seating
— To-​go ordering
— Cheerful and healthy patrons
You can purchase their pâtés to take home. They also carry supplements and extremely knowledgeable staff.

I have never heard about this place before until I of course UnilocalED it… LOL I have been on the VEGAN journey now for a few weeks and it has been really interesting. I have tried some really goor VEGAN spots but I have never tried a RAW vegan place.
The customer service was phenominal, I believe they were a husband an wife couple, but I am not sure… either way they both were very friendly. THe gentleman came to my table and explained the menu since I had never been there before. He even gave me samples of some of the foods and also a drink. (A HUGE PLUS FOR MY GREEDY SELF).
Although, I am love the vegan lifestyle, I think the RAW VEGAN lifestyle is gonna take me a little while longer to adapt to, however, this place was great. I enjoyed my meal and I even bought some snacks… which are delish.
I will surely be back!!!

The smoothies are BIG TIME. I especially like the cacao one and the #9. The cheesecake desserts made with cashew or macadmia nuts are also divine. And the raw food dishes are fun, fresh and interesting.
The owner is very nice, friendly and accomodating. Lots of things to try and the food is flavorful and fun. It’s an unusual and palate expanding experience because the ingredients are not cooked, dairy free and animal free. Lovely saucings. The «burger» and eggless wrap are my favs.
The interior is comfortable and casual. Hopefully they will get a table set up outside so you can bring Fido. Definitely worth experiencing. They also have various health food products and foods. Live well, eat fresh.

Amazing food! My husband and I visited this café as part of our Valentine’s weekend plans. We’ve never tried «raw» food before and we aren’t vegans, but we decided to try out the café, especially after seeing that the menu is entirely gluten-​free. My husband is allergic to gluten, so it’s always great to find a place where we don’t need to worry about anything.
The prices are very reasonable for the quality of food served. We ordered and shared the Burger Platter and the Rawkster Wrap. Both were ridiculously delicious, super flavorful and very filling. The Burger Platter had a great mixture of textures – I especially love how the onion rings gave it a nice crunch. The Rawkster Wrap was filled with tons of fresh veggies and featured an AMAZING nut and seed pâté.
For dessert, we shared two different slices of pie – key lime and matcha crème. Both were really yummy and a great way to end our meal.
I can’t recommend this café enough. Even if you aren’t a vegan, raw foodist, or allergic to gluten, this café is still a wonderful place to have lunch. The food never felt like it was missing anything – I didn’t find myself asking «where’s the meat?» The dishes are unique enough to stand on their own and will satisfy and delight even a hardcore carnivore.

This place is awesome and truly something special. Also a natural and vegan products food store, Rawk Star Café offers smoothies, foods, salads, cold juices, and chili. Who would’ve thought that off of Tampa Rd. that this little haven for vegans would exist? Nestled in a strip mall amongst different types of stores and establishments, Rawk Star doesn’t appear like much on the outside beyond having nice signage. When you go inside you discover what the buzz is all about.
Rawk Star Café offers healthy vegan creations that are appealing to the masses. I was impressed by the variety of ingredients they use. Their use of macadamia nut, and cashew nut products was appealing to me. I must say, I thought their execution of entrees was stellar.
I took my sister who was visiting up north here as she is a vegetarian and wanted to explore the local restaurant offerings. The staff was very passionate about what they do, super friendly and wiling to answer whatever questions we had about the menu. Both she and I were impressed with the quality and taste of the food. the items we had were presented nicely and flavorful. We split a raw burger platter, daw zucchini pesto, and a slice of pizza. I very much enjoyed the entrees and I was delighted that there were additional toppings available to apply liberally on the food on the front, such as nutritional yeast, and other seasonings. It’s tough for me to choose a favorite, as I really enjoyed them all. The zucchini pesto and For dessert we split a key like cheesecake slice and it was delicious as well. Mother Kombucha (from St Pete) on tap was excellent as well.
I very much enjoyed my meal and look forward to experiencing more of what RSC has to offer. Thank you for an outstanding vegan dining experience, Rawk Star Café!

Phenomenal raw vegan food made with love! You can tell this place puts passion into their cooking, er, culinary creations… it’s all living, delicious and nutritious food here. And my impression is that they care about happy customers, based on my first impression and the way I saw them interacting with customers who seemed to be regulars. It was my first time and I had no expectations of finding such delicious food and friendly service, especially after I’d been searching for healthy vegan food for days while down here on a business trip. Now I know where I need to go first.
When I walked up to the counter a friendly woman immediately asked me if she could help and offered me samples of three of their staple fillings: the rockstar, egg-​less salad, and the chili. This only made my decision more difficult because all three were divine, each had their own unique qualities and mix of creaminess, spice and texture. Next I sampled some kombucha on tap and let the young lady help another couple who walked in, since clearly I was taking my time to order.
One of the owners, Adam came out and introduced himself and started chatting about my trip and healthy foods. I decided I would pickup a few things, dinner for that night, lunch for the next day, and a smoothie. I got a collard wrap with the rockstar to go for lunch the next day but I will need to come back to try the chili with avocodo. For dinner I went with the raw burger platter. It comes with two sliders on dehydrated flax bread with crispy raw onion rings, greens and seed patties. These were some of the best raw burgers I’ve ever had. Amazing combination of savory flavors, fresh veggies and the fermented slaw all went together perfectly. It may not look like a ton of food but they will fill you up. Eat them slowly and savor every bite.
For the smoothie I made my own with collards, spinach, mixed berries, cucumber, brazil nut mylk, maca and ginger. Everything was made with organic ingredients and tasted crisp and fresh.
I had to try dessert too. I was looking for chocolate and they offered me a sample of one of their new creations that was made without sugar. I had to get some too! They also let me sample one of the raw «bullet» truffles but it was excellent, sweet just a tad salty… I will definitely be back next time I’m back in Tampa. So glad I found this place!

My coworker & I needed a close place for lunch, and we really wanted something healthy. I’d remembered seeing this place on my drive down Tampa Road and wondering how the food was. Now I can tell you: It’s fantastic!
As soon as we walked up to the counter we were given a taste of at least four of the café’s main flavors. My absolute favorite was the «egg-​less». It’s Rawk Star’s take on egg salad and I honestly like it better than the real thing! That wasn’t the only time I was impressed during this trip.
After deciding to order a raw burger platter and an egg-​less wrap between the two of us, we were even told they’d plate it for us with one of each on our plates instead of having to redistribute items once the entrees came out.
One of the perks to visiting a raw vegan restaurant is how fast the food comes out. Since nothing has to be cooked, your plate is in front of you within minutes. That was such a plus since our lunch was less than an hour.
We both took a bite of the raw burger and I saw my friend’s face light up. It was brilliant! The flavors of earthy greens and hearty vegetables (with a great combination of spices) all came together for one of the best damn meatless burgers I’ve ever had. We both started giggling at the prospect of being so surprised about this. The egg-​less wrap was just as fantastic. I could probably eat that everyday with no complaints.
Later on we tried desserts we’d taken to go. The Berry Cheez-​Cake knocked my socks off! Does it really taste like cheesecake? Well, kind of, but not really. In this case it does not matter at all. The creamy filling with the tart berry topping really did it for me. We also loved Karen’s Matcha Crème Cake. This one’s the right pick for you chocolate lovers out there.
I cannot wait to go back! The prices are good for how much food you get, and the feeling of good health is priceless.

My first impression was «man they keep this place clean!» The dining area was super inviting with items for sale along the walls. They have little information flip cards for different foods and whayntheir benefits are.
The staff was really attentive, patient, and friendly. They gave us a few of their samples of protein blends and allowed us to take our pick from the menu.
I ordered the cold coffee with coconut oil boot (XCT or something like that, I don’t recall the exact name.) I really enjoyed the coffee. It had a smooth, bold flavor.
I also had the avocado wrap. It was pretty good, but I was hoping for a little more flavor or seasoning. I still give it ⁴⁄₅ but for me it was lacking something maybe like a salsa or hot peppers-​I do not know if they offer hot peppers but will definitely ask next time.
I will venture back and try a new item and see if there is something else on the menu that bumps it up to 5 stars for me.

An interesting concept for this meat lover. The woman at the counter (I think the owner) allowed me to try a few small samples before venturing into the unknown.
I had the raw, vegan burgers with «chili». Wow! It was fantastic. Service was friendly. Although I was encouraged to eat a completely plant based diet (fat chance for someone that loves steak as much as me), they were open and understanding to my naivety and were more than happy to explain everything. I am looking forward to returning, trying a few new things and even some of the vegan products for sale!
*BONUS* eat your fill and don’t feel guilty!

Totally awesome experience! This restaurant demonstrates culinary expertise way beyond my mind, super cool. WILL BE BACK :)
The super friendly gal working asked if it was our first visit (it was) and she immediately offered us samples of their various pates and they were all wonderful. Egg-​less is creamy with a light mustard flavor (think egg salad), Rawk Star reminded me a flavorful hummus (without the over-​creaminess that comes from adding too much tahini), and Chili is a lovely blend of chili spices. Then she offered us tastes of their on-​tap (like keg beer) probiotic drinks — one tasted like fermented apple juice and the other had a light ginger flavor. Very interesting indeed but not really my thing.
I ordered ½ rawghetti and ½ raw burger. Love the texture of the zucchini pasta and kelp noodles and vegs toppers added nice crunch. The hemp sauce was mild and creamy, a little bland but still very good. The raw burger is a culinary masterpiece — highly recommend! I could not figure out what made it taste like the seasoning on my most favorite ever tortilla chips (Garden of Eatin Red Hot Blues) but I immediately fell it love with it for that reason ;) BF ordered the Rawkster Wrap — it too was delicious and wrapped in the most perfect collard leaf I’ve ever seen. I was a little concerned the collard would be tough and it was not at all.
While eating our lovely hostess offered us samples of the Orange Screamsicle and Potion #9 smoothies — both delicious and I’m already wanting the Orange Screamsicle again because it tasted just like a Creamsicle — num!
We ordered 2 desserts to go (because we were packed!) — loved the Berry Cheez-​Cake, the coconut/​nut crust is so good. The Macha Crème cake was good too although I already have some good vegan creamy choco dessert recipes so probably would not get again.
Every menu item at Rawk Star is organic raw vegan and everything-​free (corn, dairy, gluten, soy, GMO). They offer a huge variety of smoothies and other drink-​ables (coffee, tea, elixirs), food, desserts, and some grocery items.

Life sucks when you realize that you start to count calories every time you look at your plate. I don’t like to lose. The alternative for not crash at the dead end is to surrender my palate to someone who offers a better choice. I ceased my conflict at Rawk Star Café, a plant-​based haven.
Bring along your curiosity, this is not your average organic vegan café. This is rocket science. Their food is complicated, and believe it or not, it is also delicious. Very strange combination I tell yal. Let me enlighten you.
Raw Burger Platter with Raw Slaw (9.95 +tax): quote, «Two seed burgers made with sunflower seeds, shitake mushroom, green cabbage, zucchini, carrots and select herbs — served between our dehydrated flat bread consisting of sunflower seeds, freshly ground flax seeds, black sesame seeds and coconut. Each burger is topped with house tahini mustard sauce along with organic baby lettuce, sliced tomato, cucumber and a dehydrated onion rings» end quote.
Do you see what I mean, rocket science. No kidding. But don’t worry, people who work there are good teachers! They let you try dressing samples, explain how they assemble their food and all these magical ingredients they add into the delightful energy smoothies. Portions are large and it worth every penny of yours. It is best to bring a friend with you. They do combo for everyone to sample the flavor.
By the way, the word to describe that raw burger is, Crunchy.
Support the local business.