Nature’s Express

I stopped here once if I remember correctly. It was very busy at the time, say — 2012?
I ordered the air baked sweet potato fries and they were delicious! I also ordered a sunflower burger but it fell flat for me. I remember it had a delicious chipotle sauce but needed more and the patty fell apart. Definitely not the worst veggie burger I have had but not the best either. Sad to see them close. Maybe they will resurface with a reworked menu.

Closed forever. Never that fond of their small portions of meh food and high prices

I was already having a bad day this Sunday and found a place to grab something to eat. I ordered grilled cheese and this is what they gave me, all burned out. I have no cooking experience and I think I can prepare bread better than this.

This used to be one of my favorite places and the Avocado Kale Wrap was my favorite. Well… Everything changes. Not only have they raised prices but the food — specifically my wrap — was not very good. Now, how could someone screw up making a wrap? Easy. Just get a bag of that cut up bitter kale like they sell at Trader Joe’s. You know the one with the bitter, tough big pieces of unmassaged kale with the big olé stems? I had to spit out pieces of kale. I won’t be back again… I think there must be others that feel the same way too. 12:30 and no one else is here. I remember when there was a line out the door. Yep, everything changes.

Alright, so I’m giving this review after being a patron for probably the last 3 years. When I discovered Nature’s Express years ago, this spot was magical. Cheap and delicious vegan food with a friendly staff.
About a year ago, I felt things were going downhill. Although prices were going up (completely understandable), the service and the quality of food was going down.
Today, I ordered what used to be my favorite item on the menu, the bac-​un cheeseburger. It was delivered to me in what I can only describe as the form of what I imagine a McDonald’s Big Mac looks like, for 11 bucks plus tip, this will be the last time I go to nature’s express.
Nature’s Express, thank you for all of the amazing food, but the time for you guys to fully reevaluate your business is now. I wish you the best of luck.
To everyone on Unilocal,notice most of the beautiful pictures of food look like they were posted over a year ago. This place just isn’t what they used to be.

Had to wait over 5 minutes just for someone to acknowledge we were there, then another 5 for someone to take our order (the place had ONE customer in there so this was definitely weird). The menu needs to be overhauled, as well as the presentation of the food and, well, pretty much everything else too! The place looked grungy and dirty, there is nothing on the walls, I mean this place is depressing. Its pretty shocking to me that theyre still in business. For the price, you may as well go over to SOURCE on Shattuck and get a really GOOD vegan burger with delicious fries for the same price. Also Source is in the Berkeley Epicurious Garden, a place you actually want to hang out at, eat at the bar and chat with the cooks, its just a better experience on every level.

I’m going to give you some visuals. Imagine being whisked away into the night with a vision of a magical, vegan burger on a gluten free bun. You take the bus to the end of the street and hike the twenty minute El Camino of food, looking for the true meaning of the burger. All the
Unilocal reviews say this is everything you’ve been looking for. The meaning of vegan life. You open the door, initiating the point of no return.
Upon entrance, the energy is drab and dusty — maybe it is ripe with the age old secrets of a harvester’s cookbook? You cannot judge by the cover since delicious dishes sometimes hide where people are unwilling and afraid to look. But you like a good challenge and you trust in the wisdom of those who have previously walked the path. After a few minutes of quiet consideration, life choices are made: a strawberry smoothie, an order of mac and cheese, & their finest lentil burger. It is time to pay up. It takes a while for the staff to figure out what is going on and you wait for ten minutes as they try to figure out what you owe them. You sit outside in solitude to await the ceremonious bringing of the meal. The smoothie is lovely, the mac and cheese is aight, and then you bite into the mystic of the night, the burger itself.
You realize when they say Nature’s Express, they must mean right then and there. I imagine the stoves to be covering an open surface of earth where the chef (a giant worm with sunglasses in my imagination) digs his trowel and places his findings in a basket. He sits idly in the dirts company, warming it with his stomach until it reaches perfect moistness and luke warm temperature (a process which gives me another thirty minutes to dream of what could-​be the burger I’ve been searching for) and then sends it to the waiter to cover it with cheese, lettuce, and onions to mask the sodden, dirty flavor. He lights up a joint and laughs and munches up the remaining dirt from the ground, and passes out a ticket requesting eight human dollars. The waiter delivers the burger, bare of a gluten free bun — a disappointment at best. The food cannot be forced down and you feel short-​changed that a pig bucket hasn’t been provided as a premeditated service.
Afterwards, you reemerge — more refined than ever in your tastes. You have gotten through the bottom of the vegan barrel. The journey continues to find the perfect burger. As the saying goes, it is all uphill from here.

I used to love this place but something has gone very wrong. To start with it doesn’t seem clean enough to be serving food, everything looks as though it needs to be scrubbed or wiped down (which makes me uncomfortable about eating the food prepared there).My husband and I ordered the Cheesy Chickun Mushroom sandwich, the Thai chicken collard wrap, and sweet potato fries. There were two people eating in the restaurant, one person in line when we arrived. Our order took 45 minutes. They said it was because the machine that steams the collards was acting-​up. But, they didn’t mention that until it had already been over 30 minutes. The food was mediocre, barely warm, not very well assembled (the collard leaf was super baggy around the filling, and tasted only so-​so. The fries were a soggy mass, literally a wet-​ish mass.
I am so disappointed; I really liked the food here a couple years ago. I don’t think I will give them another chance unless there is a big change.

The first time I tried the famous Avocado Kale Wrap it was wonderful. This was 2 years ago. The quality of the food (avocado kale wrap) within these past couple years has gone down. At first I thought it may have been a new worker making the wraps, but it seems to have gotten worse. I don’t mind paying almost $ 9 for a wrap – but not for poor quality food =(
After many attempts for Natures Express to improve the quality of their specialty wrap & still no changes. I am done with this place for good.

**Review from a non-​vegan who has a strong love of fresh veggies**
The food is decent by vegan standards (i.e. no weird fake meat textures and tastes), but it’s nothing special. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. After eating, I left with much to be desired.
Food– I had the avocado kale wrap ($ 7.50). This is the most popular item, and two other people after me ordered this as well. It tastes healthy and has fresh ingredients inside (kale, red bell pepper, baked tofu, avocado, lettuce, cucumber, creamy avocado dressing). The dressing was good, but there wasn’t a solid balance of food textures. The tofu was bland and didn’t absorb flavors, so it wasn’t a memorable protein filling. I left wanting more.
The wraps come with a spinach tortilla. For $ 2 you can substitute a blanched collard leaf. I asked for this and they ran out. BOO. If that’s a case, they should mention the caveat and say «when available».
The baked sweet potato fries were fine. Tastes healthy, no oil.
Service– It took about 10 minutes to get our food, and there were two people working there. Self serve utensils, drinks, and condiments.
Atmosphere– Available indoor and outdoor tables. Order food at the counter and then grab a seat. Good place to relax over an easy going lunch.

What happened to this place? It recently came under new management and the new employees seem confused. I’ve tried hard to still remain faithful to the establishment but every visit leaves me displeased. After producing half of our order, an employee told us our 2^nd half of the order will be right out. We finished and waited 20 minutes and nothing. After politely asking for a refund of the no-​shows the same employee responded, «I don’t under what the problem is?» And to which I replied, «that’s exactly the problem.» No one seems to know what going on. There’s no direction from management. Plus, food is only half as good as under previous management. Lame.

I drove 25 minutes to have dinner at this place and they told me, when I asked for the gluten free option, «We don’t have any gluten free buns.»
W.T.F.
He didn’t even try to say «We just ran out» or some weak ass thing like that. He just said, «We don’t have any gluten free buns.» I am sure you can wrap my lentil patty in a GD collard leaf, BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANTED. It also took too freaking long for them to figure out whether or not their vegan cheese had soy in it.
I am CRANKY because I am eating this way now. Don’t freaking misrepresent and act all clueless about the ingredients you avidly claim to carry.

Quick, healthy food. Want something fresh? Something grilled? Get it here.
You can’t go wrong when you visit Nature’s Express. The Stellar Burrito had a huge portion of greens, mushrooms and sweet potato all wrapped up in a slightly grilled spinach tortilla. And the lentil bowl had just the right kick. Both were well worth the low price On my second visit I was skeptical to try Cheesy Chik-​un Mushroom melt but was thrilled I did. I enjoyed it more than the Stellar or Lentil bowl. The crispy shoe string fries came out with the chik-​un steamy and delicious.
No need to be cheap at a already cheap restaurant. Order a side of fries.

Pretty cool. Vegan fast food, but not horrible deep fried stuff you need to worry about eating occasionally.
I had the burger, which was pretty good, but I’d really like to go back and try more of the menu, although it’s a touch out of the way for me.
They do have a bathroom, but it’s way in the back past the kitchen. The staff was really nice too. I’ll definitely go back if I’m close by.
No beer, oh well.

A great hole in the wall for vegan food that isn’t too vegany… If that’s a word.
The casual experience is refreshing and the bistro style setting is so Berkley!
Try the air baked fries or the chick-​un chipotle burger!

I should come here more often. It’s nice knowing I can order anything off the menu rather than eliminate most choices for containing cheese or some other form of dairy. After walking around in the hot sun with my friend I was craving a smoothie so went with their most popular 5-​A-​Day. With its vegetable ingredients, I expected the drink to be green but I suppose the beet dominates so it came out a bright purplish-​red shade instead. At $ 6, it is certainly expensive, but it tasted healthy and refreshing and at least contained ingredients I couldn’t juice myself including kale, beet, and celery so I didn’t feel too guilty about being too lazy to simply blend a bunch of fruit at home. While the smoothie is thick, I don’t think it would be filling enough to serve as a meal, so keep that in mind if you wish to keep lunch in the $ 6 – 7 range.

I’m not Vegetarian or Vegan, but wow this food is delicious! Friendly staff and everything I have tried so far is good.
Favorites: Avocado kale wrap, Reuben sandwich
My fiancé hasn’t been to too many vegan restaurants and was also impressed with the reuben sandwich and was able to get past that there was no meat in it

Vegan express!
Friendly costs, tasty food, good casual vibe.
The avocado quinoa wrap was really tasty and the sauce was not heavy. The quinoa bowl was mediocre. For $ 9 the bowl is really small, but I love how they give you a lot of avocado!
I recommend their wraps!

I was absolutely heartbroken when I saw a post on Facebook saying that Nature’s Express was going to close down after the holidays.
Wait… WHAT!!!
My jaw dropped, my heart sank. I felt like falling to my knees and screaming «Nooooooooo!», cursing the heavens for this cruel twist of fate. Then, a light broke through the clouds. In a happy turn of events, the management of Nature’s Express agreed to keep chugging along and the restaurant will be staying open. YAY!
Honestly, this is one of my all-​time favorite East Bay vegan spots. Okay, so maybe that list is a long one (and ever-​growing), but this one is Top 5 material. I’ll admit it… I was part of the problem. I’ve only dined here a handful of times because it’s so far out of my way. With the prospect of their possible closure looming over me, I am now going to make it a personal mission to stop by more often. No excuses. Let’s keep this place open, please and thank you!
As for the food, everything I’ve tried thus far has been effing amazing. I’ve had the Colossal Grilled Reuben, the Avocado Kale wrap (in a collard leaf), and the Sweet and Spicy Chipotle burger. Everything was aces! You really can’t go wrong.
Okay, you can go slightly wrong… the air-​baked fries. I cannot recommend these. They were a hodgepodge of improper cookage: some were soggy, others were overly crunchy and stick-​like. I was actually craving sweet potato fries, but every time I’ve visited, they’ve completely sold out of them (sad face; single, solitary tear falling down my cheek). I guess they must be incredible, since they always run out so quickly. Perhaps next time will be my lucky day.
Other than that, this little restaurant is a dream come true. I mean it when I say I will put forth the effort to visit more often. You should, too!

My absolute fave that is always consistent every time is the grilled mac n cheese. It tastes just as good as the real thing but might even be better! You’d never guess that the cheese is actually not cheese and the Parmesan topping is actually not Parmesan! They also have a mega mac plate with tomato, greens and tuna salad mixed in but I actually like the original one better. You would think that the mega mac would have a bigger serving since it costs a little bit more but it’s actually the exact same. The other thing I really like is the spicy Thai chick-​un wrap, «naked» (as a plain olé salad) or with the spinach tortilla. It tastes just like chicken!!! It’s very good but watch out for the mega spice kick! It could burn your tongue if your sensitive to hot foods. I got my friend who thinks vegan food is gross to try it and he was actually very impressed by it!
Getting your food might be a little slow sometimes but they do have an option of ordering ahead — online or over the phone!