True Food Kitchen — Restaurant in Pasadena

This was a new experience for us as this was our first time at True Food Kitchen.

Its in old town Pasadena off of Colorado Bl, which is a positive.

They have an extensive menu with many vegan dishes. A relative suggested we try this place and commented that they had pretty good food, thus, the reservations.

One thing we noticed was the main entrees didn't come as a full course meal. You get the entree, but no soup or salad. This could be easily explained as a way to keep the cost down, but either way, with the upbeat atmosphere, a more fulfilling meal would have been nice.

On to the actual meal... I had high hopes for the food, but... I can't say that I was impressed. I ordered the Lasagna Boulogne (which according to the menu, contained fennel chicken sausage, mushrooms, organic spinach, ricotta and basil). Sounds like an impressive list of ingredients.

I love chicken sausage and all of the various spices. I had high hopes, based on the Ingredients.

When the dish arrived, it was lacking flavor, lacking chicken sausage, and lacking lasagna noodles. What it did contain was a ton of chopped tomatoes on top.

I'll try not to be too hard on this particular dish but it was lacking flavor and there was no discernible chicken sausage. It had what appeared to be a 1 inch x 4 inch sliver of lasagna noodles. Additionally, it was a rather bland dish. As I sifted through the majority chopped tomatoes looking for the chicken sausage, I was met with disappointment. There was plenty of ricotta cheese, however, it was lacking my favorite ingredient in this dish, the chicken sausage. There was also no Italian seasonings.

Service on the other hand was great. We had an actual comedian as our server who made our experience here awesome. She made sure we were happy with our meal, and kept our drinks filled. She really was an awesome waitress.

We will return and try to go to where she is working since she was so attentive.

I have to give the food a highly inadequate three stars but the server was five stars plus. Balance them out and I give True Food Kitchen four stars.

As previously stated, we will definitely return and sample some of the other dishes.

For those not familiar with Pasadena, True Food Kitchen is on the west end of old Town Pasadena on Colorado Bl and Pasadena Av.

This is well worth trying, due to the extensive menu and...

Normally, I wouldn't go to such a healthy place like this. Afterall, it's in the name of some items, like the "Bougie Blanco Pizza", and bougie this place is, but you know what? It's OK! Their pizza was nice and thin, and it was good! We also got the Grilled Asparagus, The O.G. Grass-Fed Burger, and even though I didn't eat all of that, it did look appetizing. My friends did complain about the taste of the umami potatoes though. That bit of Tamarind in the potatoes had a tartness that my friend didn't like. Maybe if they added more sugar to it to make it more like a Pad Thai sauce, things would have been different. In any case, it tasted more tamarind than umami. Their Classic Mac & Cheese though, I thought was on point! Nice variety of cheeses, not just a single glob of melted stuff like you find with Kraft. But if these chefs had a cook-off with my friend Molly, that would be tough, because she makes Kraft Mac&Cheese taste gourmet. The Wild-Caught Tuna Lettuce Wraps, were really popular with my group. Really good! Plus, the way the lettuce wraps curved into a bowl, it really helped keep things in place! Ultimately, my friend and I topped off our meals with a Pineapple Spritzer, and that Q Rum. Rum wasn't bad, but looking back, I should've followed my friend's lead in getting that Pineapple Spritzer --more drink for the money. Oh, and the dessert! My friends couldn't finish their THE PINK LIME TART, but it looked pretty good. In their defense, we did have a lot of food. I on the other hand am the glutton, had no problem finishing the Blueberry Crumble Sundae. If our server wasn't quick enough, I probably would've finished what's left of that tart too! On the topic of the service though, our server was running all over the place, and was really overworked. I felt sorry for him. If you drink a lot of water, and they offer a carafe or giant bottle for the table, just take it, so they don't have to constantly check your water levels. Overall, I'd come...

Today's Uncomfortable Experience, Aug. 2024... We just had lunch there today and it was a pretty interesting experience. I went with another friend of mine, we're both Asian descent - darker and short in height, and we went up to the hostess cart to be seated. As soon as we got there, the two hostesses left to go seat people. When they came back, two women of very light skin complexion with nice purses came up after us. The hostesses immediately faced them and gave them service even though we were there first. Of course, they then greeted us and sat us as well. Both my friend and I noticed the shift and attention as soon as they walked up and we were both questioning what happened. We didn't try to make a scene or say, Hey, we were here first!" But for the first time in a long time, I felt uncomfortable and a bit dismissed. I don't want to overthink this and I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why something like that would happen, but I didn't get the feeling they were regulars. Also, I don't want to take it personally, but it definitely makes me think twice before going back even though it's a spot that I really like and a place that we typically have large birthday parties. Going to focus I'm having an open mind and being graceful about the situation. But I thought I should still mention our experience.

Food was still great and we got the poke bowl and the grass-fed steak. Service was fine.

From 4 Years Ago... 5 Stars Just was taken here for my birthday dinner and the variety of Cuisine is surprising, but manageable. The food is really American fusion and I went ahead and tried the Thai curry which had excellent flavor and the vegetables in the curry where tender without being overcooked. The dishes everyone else got we're also top notch. The food here is simple and clean, and I would say lean towards...