TasteBudz Natural Selections — Restaurant in Ukiah

I won't be back to Tastebuds unfortunately, but probably would go again if they switched to coconut oil for at least some recipes. I realize coconut oil is more expensive but vegetable oils, including safflower, sunflower, canola, soy, corn, grape, etc, are inflammatory and cause "leaky gut". I hope they look into using coconut because they seem to be genuinely trying to offer healthy food and the vegetable and seed oils are very bad for our digestion.

The food itself is DELICIOUS, but I have to give them only 2 stars because twice now the food has given me digestive distress. Not food poisoning or anything severe like that, so don't be scared off! I am sure it is because they use seed oils and after eliminating them from my diet I am much more sensitive to their ill effects.

That said, their 1/2 price special 20 minutes before closing is a great value. $5 for a 3-piece option that is filling and they use a lot of interesting spices. Definitely the best "fast food" option around!

The young boy is always really nice and helpful. I was there once when two women (one of which may have been the owner, or a manager) interrupted our transaction to carry on a very mundane, personal conversation without even looking at me or acknowledging me, as I waited for her to finish giving me my change, which when you are hungry can seem like eternity. If I hadn't felt totally disregarded by their lack of even saying hi or smiling, I wouldn't have been bothered by their social clumsiness. But if it were me I would wait for the "hey how's it goin" until the customer was taken care of.

As a side note, I urge vegans/vegetarians to please read up on "leaky gut" and "paleo" diet. Humans are not equipped to digest vegetable seed oils and even "gluten free" whole grains cause leaky gut. A leaky gut can lead to a whole mess of health problems, even psychiatric disorders, anxiety and depression. They are inflammatory to the intestinal walls and deprive your body of vital nutrients. Most doctors are not up-to-date on the latest research about the "gut - immune system- brain/mood" connection and continue spouting the unscientific FDA recommendation that we should be eating lots of whole grains and mostly plant-based foods. Increased consumption of grains, vegetable oils and sugar in the last 50-100 years has caused autoimmune diseases, cancer and heart disease to skyrocket. I suffered for years before discovering this so hopefully this can help...

I tried to find things to dislike about this place, but that was hard to do. I like the hot bar options. I tried the kale and carrots dish which was delicious. I also ordered the BBQ drumsticks and a strawberry milkshake.

The drumsticks were coated in a BBQ sauce that had a spicy garlic twist to it. The vegan ranch was gross-the only way I can describe it is that it tasted like firework smoke smells. That's OK because I just got extra BBQ sauce and dipped them in that (rather than the vegan ranch). The bad thing is there were only about 5 wings for a dish that was $10.50! I also had a strawberry milkshake. Although it was delicious, it cost $9 and it was only 12 ounces. Some of their items are definitely overpriced for the amount you get. If I were them, I would keep the prices the same but double some of the portions.

Bonus! All of their silverware, straws, cups, etc are...

We got the hot bar with the faux pork, bbq tofu, sweet potatoes, curry cauliflower, kale, and mac and cheesy. With cucumber ginger juice to drink.

The food was well-seasoned and delicious! The faux pork was impressive, a great texture that I didn't realize they could make soy into. The mac and cheesy though, please work on that recipe! Undersalted and underseasoned. 5 out of 6 dishes were delicious though, thus the 5 star review.

The juice was excellent! It reminded me of the fresh juice shop near where I used to live. Either they're hiding some secret to preserve it, or they're fresh pressing it every morning. Nice spicy kick from the ginger.

Huge portion sizes too, a much different experience than another reviewer had months ago. We came hungry and got close to finishing our 5-dish combos, but not quite. I will...