True Food Kitchen — Restaurant in Oro Valley

This place has a really cute atmosphere as soon as you walk in, I looked at the menu and felt so excited everything looked delicious.

We got the guacamole appetizer and it was delicious, pesto in guac is an interesting take but we all enjoyed it. They didn't bring many chips with it though which felt weird. We had to ask for more and they brought a very tiny cup with like 7 more chips maybe and in the end we just had to eat the guac with spoons.

When the food came I got the salmon bowl, my friends got the spaghetti squash casserole, seared ahi tuna, and can't remember the other dish. They all were plated beautifully except the salmon bowl looked thrown together. And they got my side wrong.

We ordered juices I got the bright eyes it was very good, my friend got the dragon fruit and loved it as well.

None of us enjoyed the quinoa that came with the seared ahi tuna very much. We all liked the spaghetti squash. The mac and cheese was okay. The carrots and sweet potatoes were quite good.

Then we got dessert. This is kind of where I flipped a bit on the restaurant. We got the spiced seasonal cake, the chocolate pot of creme and two chocolate chip cookies with the grass fed ice cream. The spiced cake was delightful. We all liked the chocolate creme but found it too dark to eat more than a few bites. But the cookies came out and it was like a big hard cold cookie. We double checked the menu that it was supposed to be warm and mentioned it to the waitress. She had us keep our ice cream and took the cookies to go warm them. But in a restaurant with all fresh ingredients I wouldn't expect my dessert to be a reheated cookie. When they came back our ice cream was at least half melted. I was actually surprised they didn't just bring a new scoop of ice cream with our reheated cookies. And then when we started eating them they were warm but kind of just dry I didn't get close to finishing mine. Anyway when I go out, even if I am eating something reheated it needs to be quality and I should at least be tricked into feeling it's fresh made. And the ice cream and chips thing felt weirdly stingy.

This place has some good food, cute atmosphere on the surface but overall the scarcity vibes turned me off and I likely...

My family and I are now regulars at this awesome new Tucson location for True Food Kitchen. We are all very particular and fussy eaters for various reasons, and there are many things on the menu for all of us! I, myself, am a "foodie," and this food really does merit the restaurant's name "True Food..." This chain restaurant seems to genuinely and thoughtfully consider its ingredients, and the staff seems particularly willing to modify most menu items as per patrons' requests, preferences, and dietary concerns. I could go on and on about how much I like the food, but that is not even the main reason my family has become regulars... In fact, as much as we/I love the menu, there was, actually, one dish that came out a bit too salty...it was some sort of pasta/pesto dish, so be mindful. So, yes... that's why only 4 stars on food. Everything else, so far, has been delicious. So why are we regulars, you might ask. The service... but not just any service... Our new friend Markus. He is a server in the evenings only I think, so make sure to ask for him, and tell him David and family said "hi..." I rarely leave reviews at all... it's not my thing. So, when do, it is for a good reason. Markus is much more than just a server, he is a genuinely kind, attentive, funny, engaged, interesting, kind, "present," and authentic new brother. We liked him from the start, and he is truly one of the main attractions for us. By the way... we really were just strangers to each other when we first met Markus at True Food... The world is in a rough way, and we all have to move beyond simply transactional engagements. That's what my family and I get to do when we visit the restaurant. Otherwise it's just a good place in the Foothills to eat pretty healthy, basically nutritious food in an environment which is a bit more crowded than I like. This new location for True Food Kitchen is lucky to have a "Yoda" like Markus on its staff...they should probably promote him to some fancy manager position to "spread...

So my girlfriend had been wanting to try this place, telling me about Dr. Andrew Weil’s background. I tend to shy away from the “frou-frou” — restaurants with menus highlighting foundational ingredients of responsibly-raised sustainable organic raw honey-glazed fire-roasted wild Alaskan sweet potato-fed Yoga-practicing salmon roe with our chef’s famous Magic Pixie Dust™ …not exactly my thing. So I had been looking for and finding convenient excuses to punt this down the calendar.

Anyway, wanting to try something new and me running out of excuses, she talks me into joining Les Nouveaux Biches, I mean Riches, one Sunday at La Encantada for what promised to be a most inspired culinary experience I was not to forget.

Actually, it was fine. The menu had something for almost everyone, I guess. My girlfriend, a good sport who wanted me to feel right at home while eating healthy suggested we get what I can only imagine is one of their offerings included for carnivorous men feeling out of place: the “Grass-Fed Bison Pizza” with its “Force of Nature regenerative bison sausage”. The bison no doubt raised among Healing Crystals — Citrine for happiness, Carnelian to get its creative juices flowing before slaughter, producing a juicy, tender and happy sausage. And an egg perched on top? OK, I’m in. For a second dish, I chose something I supposed she might appreciate that wouldn’t be too off-putting for a non-vegan: the “Thai Peanut Noodle Bowl” featuring (yes, you guessed it) translucent sweet potato noodles — VEG && GF, of course.

There’s just enough pooftiness in the menu to inspire your most snarky review, but there’s also plenty of items that might appeal to even the most hardcore hockey player (provided he still has his teeth). The pizza was delicious (the bison appeared to be regenerating right in front of my eyes!) and the noodle bowl was quite tasty.

As for “Service” and “Ambiance”… well, it’s in La Encantada. ...