Eatery - Native Foods Cafe (CA) Revisited
The District at Tustin Legacy, 2453 Park Ave, Tustin, CA 92782
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Vegan/Vegetarian
www.nativefoods.com
[You can read my first review here.] My friend and I decided we wanted to be healthy last Friday so we opted to meet up at Native Foods (there's one right down the street from my work). I'm glad we did. I always love their food, and it's always amazing to see what ways they can reinvent some of the more common food items.
My first choice was for an appetizer as it was Happy Hour still and those were half off. I chose their newest addition, the Maryland Tempeh Cakes (in lieu of crab cakes). Those were labeled (cleverly) as "freshly caught Native Tempeh blended with red onion, peppers, herbs and spices, and seared hot and crisp. Served with a chipotle remoulade." I love them actually. There weren't too salty. If they were trying to imitate crab cakes however, they didn't accomplish it completely. Regardless, delicious appetizer with a great amount of spices and fair texture (not as broken apart as crab cakes but a good alternative).
My entree choice was for their Soul Bowl, a delectable ensemble of their Native Chicken "Southern fried" and accompanied by red beans, brown rice, kale, steamed veggies, BBQ sauce, and a thick slab of cornbread. I love love love the way they recreate chicken as it peels away as perfectly as regular chicken would. As always, there was a lot of flavor in my order. The chicken could have been a little crispier but other than that, bravo on the burst of tastes in the kale and veggies from the BBQ sauce! The cornbread was more like corn cake than bread but man was it still tasty.
My friend got the BBQ Love Burger consisting of thinly sliced Native Original Seitan with an Asian sesame slaw on top and more than plenty of BBQ sauce. I really liked the slices themselves as they were akin to thin pork slices. Since they were so fine, a general person probably would not have guessed they were non-pork. As for BBQ loving, you definitely need to love BBQ to stand all the smothering of sauce. What an indulgence!
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