Mr.Natural — Restaurant in Austin

I’ve always enjoyed everything made by Mr. Natural. That’s why I was so surprised by the cake my friend bought for her wedding from Mr. Natural. I baked their traditional wedding cake for the groom and wedding guests. The bride is gluten and dairy free so they chose to have the gluten and dairy free cake baked by bakers who we thought were professionals at Mr. Natural. She ordered a gluten and dairy free two layer strawberry cake with fresh strawberry slices between the layers and no other decorations. My friend set up a cake tasting with Jesus before the wedding, but he did not show up. I know that gluten and dairy free baking is more difficult and it’s never going to taste like a traditional cake, but I’m not even going to address the bland flavor of the cake in this review. On the day of the wedding, we opened the cake box to find a two layer cake with fresh strawberries on top of the cake (not between the layers) and strawberry jelly between the layers instead- which caused the top layer of the cake to completely slide off the bottom layer and become smashed between the box and the bottom layer. When the bride texted Jesus on the day of her wedding with a ruined cake in front of her, he flippantly texted back, “I’m sorry the cake had a few strawberries on top. I’m not liable for how the driver placed the cake in their car and how they drove”. Both the cake and his response were completely unprofessional. I would never bake a wedding cake with jelly between the layers because bakers should know that will not travel well to a venue. I would certainly never bake a cake with jelly in the middle and NOT use dowel rods and cake boards between the layers to stabilize it. The cake was 100% structurally unstable regardless of the driving. Again, I’ve always been such a fan of Mr. Natural and I’m so surprised and disappointed in...

As plant-based establishments start to make their way into the mainstream, Mr. Natural is an Austin classic that has been around since the 80’s - providing homestyle Mexican dishes with a vegetarian & vegan twist. There are many options to choose from and the two plates that peaked my interest the most were the:

Holy Mole Vegan Enchiladas: they take corn tortillas, stuff them with seitan (which is the main protein in wheat and gives off a neutral flavor, so the idea is that it’s to resemble plain chicken), and tops them off with vegan mole. I appreciate what they are trying to do here, but I felt there was more to be desired in the richness of the mole. I’ve also had seitan many times, but I was also hoping those would have been marinated with a bit more flavor too. ($14.25)

Fajita Special (on Monday’s): they take seitan and mushrooms and cook them with onions and peppers to give them that caramelized flavor you find when you get regular chicken fajitas, so I liked the seitan here a lot more. The portion size was alright, I do wish you got just a bit more “meat”. ($11.75)

Tres Leches: a vegan take on a classic Mexican dessert. My only gripe here was that the texture was a bit more drier and more dense, like a regular cake. I understand it’s vegan and again, I respect what they’re doing here, but I’m used to tres leches being a lot more moist in texture. Aside from that, the flavor was there and I did like it. ($5)

All in all, I rate them a 3/5 because although I desired more with some of the flavors and such, they did have some good qualities too. If anything, I would have liked to have seen more integration of newer vegan ingredients like Beyond Chicken or Impossible Beef which I felt could have given them a higher score. All in all, this is not a bad spot to check out if you want some Mexican...

First off, I hate to be writing this review. I have been a loyal customer of Mr. Natural for years, but the quality and customer service has been less than expected the last few visits. Being vegan, it’s wonderful to have options to eat where my partner can also eat if he would like to consume dairy. I drove 25 minutes to pick up two taco salad Friday evening. One of them was vegan (vegan cheese and dressing) and one contained dairy cheese and dressing. Both salads look identical on the top as the cheese is under all of the lettuce and other toppings. The boxes were not labeled, so the only way we could know the difference was the dressings on top. I realized after my partner had poured the dressing on his salad that had dairy based dressings in the box, that his salad was the one with vegan cheese. So at this point due to a mistake of Mr. Natural in preparing the food, I can’t eat either salad as they both contain dairy and I’m vegan.

I called the store and let them know, and I was told they would call me back after they talked to the supervisor. I waited 40 minutes and had not heard, so I called back. The person I spoke to told me it was handled and I would get a notification and then asked me if I had eaten the salads. I told her again that I could not eat mine as I am vegan and they both contained dairy. This resulted in me having to purchase a second dinner elsewhere. It is now two days later and I haven’t heard from the supervisor, and I have not been issued a refund. I even emailed the business to try to resolve the issue there. I know food mistakes happen, but I expect more from an established who serves the vegan community. Im hoping to hear from someone in management to...