True Food Kitchen

True Food Kitchen Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant: True Food Kitchen is a partnership between healthy-living author Dr. Andrew Weil and Arizona based Fox Restaurant Concepts. It’s appropriately named, as a sense of “true food” coming out of your own kitchen is part of the dining experience. Ingredients are fresh and healthful, so it makes it easy to frequent the restaurant when you want a casual escape or don’t have time to cook.

Food & Drinks: The menu mingles Mediterranean, Asian and California influences. Start with the edamame dumplings, Monterey Bay sardines with salsa verde and grilled lemon, the Tuscan kale salad or sashimi tuna. The simple bowl of local vegetable crudités, served with tzatziki and black olive dips, will make you wonder why you don’t encounter them more often. Expect to find a turkey burger, a vegetarian burger on whole-grain bread, and a grass-fed bison burger between a flax seed bun. Curry amateurs should order the gluten-free Panang curry composed with brown rice, potato, broccoli, ginger, carrot, mushroom and coconut broth base, in which you choose to add tofu, chicken or shrimp. Steak tacos are also gluten-free and a must-have. Skip the spaghetti squash casserole for the spicy shrimp and Asian noodles. If you stay on the healthy path, end with the lemon-ginger low-fat frozen yogurt. The wine list is divided into four by-the-glass price points, plus bottles from California and Italy. Also available are cocktails, beers, sakés and “natural refreshments” (natural juices). The Santa Monica Place location is easy to find in the mall, on the street level on the 2nd Street side. There is a large patio, and we like the spacious and bright interior.