It’s a vegan’s paradise at Natural Touch Café. Whether all-natural fruit smoothies, protein-rich dishes and wraps, or fresh-from-the-oven vegetarian patties, the café is a beloved foodie destination for those with a no-meat penchant. Davine Moving opened the Orchid Village-situated eatery back in April, taking the reins of the business from her dad Hopeton who operated the restaurant at its previous location in Liguanea Plaza.

With dad already responsible for overseeing a number of concessionaires and restaurants, the younger Moving stepped up to the plate and assumed managerial duties for Natural Touch. Never mind that her initial career interest saw her pursuing a BA in History and Social Policy Administration at the University of the West Indies, Davine was bitten by the family bug. Post university, the 25-year-old took the leap into the food business. Growing up a vegan, as she was raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home, the nature of the enterprise she was heading was long familiar to Davine and made it that less challenging to helm. “I grandfathered into the business,” she told Thursday Food when we popped in at her modestly decorated restaurant (that also offers Wi-Fi) last weekend. The restaurant’s walls are painted in a relaxing turquoise hue and dotted with small food images ranging from fruits to pastries. Conversation with the manager breaks ever so often as customers stream in and she pauses to take orders or explain the ingredients in a particular menu item. She has a welcoming, cheerful disposition and demonstrates easy knowingness with her regulars and their fave meals. “I’m happy whenever my customers are pleased, because they will return and introduce other people to the restaurant,” she rationalised.

Natural Touch is a well-oiled, eight-person operation (including Moving) that, since its move into a new home four months ago, purposely diversified its menu. “We added more things…smoothies, herbal and green teas, salads, wraps and more variety in our vegetable dishes,” the manager added. Freshness is paramount in the taste of the meals and to that end Moving said the produce and fruits are all sourced at Coronation Market in downtown Kingston.

For head chef Matthew ‘Spice’ Hylton, this is expectedly important. The self-taught Hylton, who has a twenty-year history in the kitchen, having worked at other vegan restaurants Imperial Kishinn and Livity, said nothing beats the flavour of food fresh from the market. “The taste is better by far,” Hylton, a vegan himself, said. We had to acquiesce after eating a plate of tofu chop suey with a bean stew. So delish indeed! Equally quick to concur were regulars we bumped into — Donisha Prendergast and Michael Aiken — who were dining in, separately. Aiken, en route to the gym for a workout session, was finishing up a slice of pudding and readily admitted to eating at Natural Touch a least once a week. Prendergast, who frequents the café more than Aiken, said what keeps her coming back was that “good food is important and the food here comes with love…that’s the ‘touch’ they talk about.”

The Natural Touch Vegetarian Café is located at Shop 22, Orchid Village Plaza, 20 Barbican Road, Kingston 6. Telephone: 977-4157 or find the eatery on Facebook at Natural Touch Vegetarian Café. The café’s opening hours are 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday and 9:30 am to 2:30 pm on Sunday.