One of the O-Food founders Jens Hannibal in the blue shirt
On Thursday Frost went to the launch of an exciting new restaurant concept, O-Food. This was the most inspiring event we’d been to for a long time. O Food is a new eco friendly healthy fast food restaurant. They serve seafood and vegetarian food but no meat. O-Food believe that by changing the way we eat we can change ourselves and the planet.
It’s not long before we meet one of the founders of O-Food, the friendly and passionate Jens. Jens tell us that their main aim is to create great food. ‘Everything else is just something we think everybody should be doing’, he says.
‘We’re not people who think that meat-based fast food is inherently bad. We just think that someone needs to take the lead to show people delicious, low impact, alternatives to meat and mainstream choices of fish.’
O-Food sources all its produce from local sustainable sources. The fish it uses are non- ‘Big Five’. The so called ‘Big Five’, Haddock, Prawns, Tuna, Cod and Salmon, are being terribly overfished and this is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
Jens tells us more, ‘It’s very sad, because people don’t know about these other delicious sustainable alternatives and there’s no demand for them, many of them just get thrown back into the sea’.
One of the O-food founders. Roel Philippart
It’s a major problem but people are starting to realise and O-Food is leading the way in raising awareness. Both Sainsburys and Morrisons have recently helped promote alternatives and they’ve seen a surge in demand for alternative fish.
Jens is so passionate and enthusiastic that eventually someone has to drag him away from us and take him to see some other guests.
As Jens disappears we turn our attention to the all important question of the food. Everything we tried was delicious. The chef who had put the recipes together was clearly extremely talented. What was particularly evident was the exceptional quality of the ingredients particularly the fish.
I was I confess surprised at just how good the fish tasted. The fish actually tasted better than the mainstream ‘big 5’ fish I was used too. We had two favourites, mine The Hastings
Fishy patty, Romaine Lettuce, Tomato, Gherkin, Curry Sauce
I don’t even like gherkin or curry sauce and yet this combination was simply divine, everybody we spoke to loved it. I urge anyone to go and try it if they can.
There are no sandwiches left! A common theme of the night as soon as the food was brought out it was gone.
My colleagues favourite was The Portobello
Portbello mushroom, mature cheddar, roast pepper relish, red cabbage, romaine, nordic pesto.
This was also delicious, a wonderful combination of flavours.
You can find a full menu and more information at the O-Food website. Everyone we spoke to from O-Food was full of passion and energy. This is a great concept and they’ve created some fantastic food. I hope this is the future of fast food. O-Food is far more exciting, tasty and healthy than your than standard pret or eat sandwich.
They are currently testing the concept and will be open until the 23rd of September with their pop-up restaurant. It can be found at 54 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3QN. Open from 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Go along and try it! You won’t be disappointed.
