Alexandra Botoș, Rawdia Cluj-Napoca

The story of Rawdia Cluj-Napoca

Starting a few years back, my body started slowly to ask for a shift in nutrition. My nutritional habits changed gradually away from conventional food. Step by step I eliminated the foods that did not feel favorable and, after many trials, I realized that the diet based on fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, without animal based products or preservatives, was the most suitable for me. In other words, I reached a point when my diet was vegan and raw vegan.

The next challenge was to learn how to cook according to this new culinary way and eating out. In quite a short period of time I was familiar with almost all vegan friendly salads in the menus of the restaurants in Cluj and I was wondering how I could sustain this lifestyle in the long run.

A new discovery

In 2016, a good friend from Bucharest told me “I will take you here in Bucharest to a place where you will eat well indeed”. He was familiar with my struggle with food at the time. It was…obviously rawdia where he took me to!

That lunch was a feast! I left nourished, happy and glad to find out that vegan food could be that tasty. I was also nostalgic because that kind of restaurant was not available in Cluj.

A year later I returned to Bucharest and, with the dear memory of my tasty experience, I went back to rawdia, where again I was delighted by the dishes. This time, as I was leaving, I asked jokingly “Will you not open such a restaurant in Cluj also?”, and the immediate answer was “Why do you not buy the francize?” That moment, a seed was planted…

As long as you put passion and soul in what you do, the results will always be miraculous. After all, our motto is “Love. The rest are ingredients”

And so it shall be!

Alexandra Botoș

General Manager Rawdia Cluj-Napoca