Whether you find yourself in San Diego, Santa Monica or Newport Beach, CA, Scottsdale or Phoenix, AZ, or Dallas or Denver, you need to find yourself again at True Food Kitchen. Created honoring the anti-inflammatory diet of Andrew Dr.Weil, this restaurant is about enjoying tasty, enticing, healthy food - nurturing your body and pleasing your palate. It was referred to me by a non-vegan, and dined there with two as well - True Food met those goals!
Hummus
Lettuce Wraps
So, as not to be deceiving, this is not a vegan restaurant. It is a fabulous, menu of healthy options bursting with flavor, and highlighting those that are vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten-free. In addition to the options, and the bright open restaurant design, I love their open kitchen. You can see your greens being washed, your food being prepared...it's like one giant cooking class but you just get to sample!We first checked out the Juby True juice menu, offering drinks with names like Kale Aid (kale, apple, cucumber, celery, lemon & ginger), Cucumber Refresher (cucumber & honey lemonade) and Hangover RX (coconut water, pineapple, vanilla & oj.) My son loved the Honey Lemonade. They also serve almond milk blends, juice boosts, what they call hydrators, and other cold pressed juices.
Back to True Food food...the herbed hummus with tomato, onion (hold the feta), olives and cucumber tasted as fresh as it was, and it was hard to choose between that and the edamame dumplings! I settled on the shiitake and tofu lettuce cups with ginger, soy & cashew. Phenom and gorgeous! Loved...wished I had ordered more...I would eat them every day if I were a local. The side of Tuscan kale salad with lemon and toasted breadcrumbs was also good, and farm fresh.
Squash Pie
My son loved his inside out quinoa burger (which I was shocked he ordered) ~ two burgers accompanied by tzatziki, hummus, tomato, cucumber, red onion and feta ~ and my husband really enjoyed his shredded turkey panini.For someone who is not a dessert person, aka me, I am a sucker for the vegan dessert menu at a restaurant. I am sure if I frequented them more often I would show more willpower but, a) there aren't many near me, and, b) there are worse ways to lose restraint. Besides, it was vacation...
Our waitress recommended a butternut squash pie with non-dairy whipped cream. I was intrigued, my family? Skeptical. Yeah well, see the photo? Within a minute there was just an empty plate, equally enjoyed by all three of us.
