Adventures in Dining Out: True Food Kitchen, Newport Beach, CA

My sister was having an abnormally crappy week last week and she decided it would be a good idea to get away from her office for a bit and do something she wanted to do. Great idea, no? I think if you’re ever having a bad week at work it important to do things for yourself so you don’t let the work stuff ruin your attitude towards everything else. She suggested going to lunch and I was all for it because who doesn’t love getting lunch with their sister in the middle of the week?

We decided to try a new restaurant at Fashion Island, an outdoor mall near our offices, called True Food Kitchen. We’d attempted to have lunch here about a month ago, but the wait was crazy and we only had an hour. This time, we got there early enough and found a seat in the bar right away.

Source

According to their website, “At True Food Kitchen, we celebrate simplicity. We practice sustainability. We believe that simple, fresh, pure ingredients create the most memorable and satisfying meals. And while our healthy menu is packed with nutritious, good-for-you vegetables, whole grain and proteins, we never sacrifice flavor. You may not notice the difference. But it’s there.”

They also follow Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid™, which to be honest I’d never heard of before visiting their website. According to Dr. Weil: “Following an anti-inflammatory diet can help counteract the chronic inflammation that is a root cause of many serious diseases, including those that become more frequent as people age. It is a way of selecting and preparing foods based on science that can help people achieve and maintain optimum health over their lifetime.”

Plus, they have gluten free menu options – SCORE!

After examining the menu we decided on three things:

I ordered the Panang Curry…


The waitress smiled when I ordered this dish and told me it was her favorite. Don’t you just love that! I really love when a waitress (or waiter) will tell you what their favorite dish is where they work. Nothing bugs me more than when you ask what they would recommend and you get, “Well everything is really good.” Anyway, this was delicious. I don’t know how I’d forgotten how much I love coconut milk, but the combination of the coconut milk and curry was amazing. I ordered this again for lunch on Monday.

My sister ordered the Quinoa Tabbouleh salad…

Pretty, huh? This was our waitress’ other favorite dish and if I like beets it would probably be one of mine too. I had a few bites (even one with a bite of beet) and it was really tasty (minus the beet). The dressing was just the right amount of not too sweet.

We also ordered the tomato basil soup…


Well, my sister ordered the soup, but when it came there was so much food we decided to share it. Tomato soup is probably my favorite soup. My roommate in college and I would have it with grilled cheese all the time (hmmm, I wonder why I gained weight in college). Usually, I only like creamy tomato soups, but this was great without the cream. It was very fresh.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a Tweet from me earlier this week about a planter I want for my patio.


The planter is from the front of True Foods Kitchen. They have about 3 or 4 of these planters out front full of fresh herbs and a couple vegetables. I love the idea and in this context, not only do I think it is a great design addition, but a fun way to show kids what things look like before they are in our food :)