Cafe Gratitude

done with this place.
WAY overpriced, extremely messy, too spicey, out of nearly EVERYTHING when we came [no joke]…i tried giving them another chance, this time i found a huge piece of a plastic utensil in my salad that i bit down on! is this place for real?
horrible.

The three stars are for the food I love so much, the blanks are for the service.
I love Café Gratitude food. I go to the Cupertino location quite a bit. Within the last month, the service has gone downhill. I understand the management has changed hands, but nobody seems to know what’s going on anymore. I miss Matt and his crew.
I keep it simple when I go there and get the black beans because they are amazing for black beans and their, «I am Vibrant», side of kale. I’ve been on a special diet so it’s great to be able to get food that I would cook for myself but someone else is making it. A month ago the recipe seemed to have changed.
The kale went from a nice size portion for $ 7 to a ridiculously small amount of greens for the price. And they didn’t season it? What happened to the lemon, sea salt and pumpkin seeds? When I asked, I was told the new manager is a stickler on portions. But to sacrifice flavor, really? I have not ordered the kale since then, don’t want to risk being hungry.
Then the beans went from being a subtly good rich flavor to a bland pile of cardboard. When I asked about that, I was told nothing had changed, they only used water and salt. Well their binder says different, cumin, oregano and chipotle. I tasted none of that. Since that day they have been ok, depending on who makes them I guess.
But today they were bad. I ordered the side of beans and they were so soupy and gross. I saw my beans sitting on the counter without a lid. The server looks at me like I could give her a solution, then goes to get more containers from Whole Foods. She comes back with ones from the fish department, when the soup department is only a few more feet away. Just kind of tacky in my opinion for a vegan place. I wish I would have voiced my disapproval then, I swear the beans tasted like fish because the container was saturated in fish smell.
Another unfavorable experience was when the girl could not tell me what was in the salad dressing. Like I said I’m on a special diet, there are certain things I choose not to eat and certain things I’m allergic to. After looking through two binders and not finding anything she gave me her rendition of what was in the dressing. Not good enough, I’m sorry. I saw the page on allergies and how café gratitude tells the server to check the dish at least 3 times to make sure there are none of the allergens specified. They take it seriously. This girl did not, but again, I think she was new and wasn’t trained properly enough to know where the information was and how to care for this kind of situation. It’s cool, I guess.
I did speak to the new manager, he seemed tired and he said he had been working long hours. He very kindly gave me my money back when I had to wait a half hour for a salad when there was a couple in front of me and because they screwed it up, then I told him the experiences I had there. I appreciated his compassion and the willingness to make it right.
I’m kind of having a hard time at the Gratitude though. I have held Café Gratitude in such high regard for so long because it’s such incredibly clean, live food. But some of the servers now obviously do not embody what Café Gratitude is all about.
I am sad.
I will definitely keep coming back though, but I need to allow an extra 15 minutes to a half hour to get my food and I’ll just use all the weird mishaps as an awareness practice. Or maybe it’s just mercury in retrograde.

Café Gratitude
Food– Amazing Very delish. I live with a Vegan and this place was yum yum goodness. Everything here is very tasty. I would come back only for the food.
Service– Their service could be a little more better and they can be a little more helpful. Being a Vegan the person I went with wanted to be reassured that everything is vegan. The lady that was taking our order rudely said, «everything is vegan» in the most blah-​est face. Geez, poor customer service. They could at least crack a smirk. If there’s a different café gratitude I’d rather go to a different location not the one in Cupertino.

This is a hidden gem tucked inside the Cupertino Whole foods. Go straight in to the back left corner and you can see a sign for Café Gratitude.
It’s quite cute and the staff is super friendly. I didn’t know what I wanted so the cashier told me some of her recommendations on what to get. I had the I am Whole — Sea vegetables and kale, steamed quinoa or local brown rice, house-​made kim chee, carrots, and sprouts with tahini-​garlic sauce and teriyaki almonds. Its got an interesting crunch and powerful kick of sauce — a mouthful of bright colors. And for a beverage I got the I am Bright The house Kombucha — A probiotic fermented tea known for its 2,000 history as a detoxing digestive aide as well as a rich source of antioxidants, B-​vitamins & glucaric acids which was interesting and tasty as well.
It’s a bit pricey but it is worth it because of the quality of ingredients. I say that if you are looking for something satisfying, and fresh this should be a stop on your list. I will be heading out more of their sister cafes in the future!

Came by here for dinner with some friends last night.
When it was first suggested, I was a bit leery of going to a vegan café — there’s no meat! And no eggs!
However, I ordered the «I Am Transformed» and it was absolutely amazing. I had intended on ordering the I am Hearty but they were out of that dish. I will definitely have to come back and try it.
I Am Transformed comes with two corn tacos and a side salad. The salad is tasty but quite spicy and has a kick to it. The corn tacos were also quite spicy as well (but tasty!!).

Oddly enough, this was my first time to a Café Gratitude. This location, of course, is inside the Cupertino Whole Foods, which makes for an unusual vibe and feel for a dinner. This is either a brilliant or a terrible spot to take a date, depending on your point of view.
I got an «I Am Extraordinary» ($ 11) sandwich. It was a marvel, consisting of a spicy chipotle aioli, tomato, avocado and toasted shreds of maple-​coconut «bacon.» I think the coconut bacon idea is truly inspired and I’ve never seen anything like it elsewhere. Put on a sandwich, these little tasty pieces mixed wonderfully with the other ingredients of the sandwich. Indeed, the best part of this dish was the complex interplay between the semi-​sweet coconut, the spicy chipotle sauce, and the neutralizing tastes of the tomato and avocado.
It all came on a sprouted bun, too, which tasted great.
At $ 11, however, this was a really expensive sandwich and is not a good value in terms of portion size. The sandwich itself was probably 25 bites or less and the rest of the plate consisted of a boring, bland salad.
I also got a café latte made with hazelnut milk ($ 4.25). I thought this was fairly tasty (and I’m not a big fan of coffee), but they foamed up the hazelnut milk rather than mixing it directly with the coffee.
Also, the mug they give you is enormous. It’s actually a medium-​size soup bowl, from what I can tell. I would rather get half the size for half the price; who would want to drink a soup bowl full of coffee anyway?
The service was friendly and fast.
So, while I liked my dish here, it’s too expensive for me to warrant multiple trips. Come for the atmosphere and the interesting people-​watching and dynamics of a grocery store, if nothing else.
That said, if every Whole Foods had a vegan café inside the world would be a much better place.

Located inside of the Cupertino Whole Foods, this is a great option for Apple employees, De Anza students or Whole Foods shoppers.
This is a mostly-​raw, all Vegan small chain owned by a lovely couple in San Francisco. There are a few locations in the bay area, including a few inside of Whole Foods Markets.
It can feel a bit silly sometimes ordering based on the names, which are all affirmations. For instance: one of my favorites is called Yo Soy Mucho. So I basically walk up to a counter and say «I am a lot». It’s weird but the friendly staff make up for it.
The food is awesome. I always feel amazing after eating here. A nice treat is anything that is made with their Cashew Nacho Cheese. Do yourself a favor and purchase a jar to go. It’s amazing on anything!
While this place is pretty pricey, the quality of the ingredients and the amazing dishes make it money well spent. A personal favorite is the Grateful Bowl. It’s quinoa (or brown rice if you prefer), black beans, shredded kale and a sauce made of tahini, garlic and parsley. You can name your price on the bowl. I believe anything over $ 7 dollars is a donation so I always try to pay at least $ 8 for it. But if you’re a Vegan short on cash, it can be such a blessing to have this option available at any price – with no judgement from the staff when you decide on a dollar amount.
Also check out their desserts. The I Am Devoted coconut cream pie is very good.
Eat at this place and then trek to SF and go to their sister Mexican Joint in the Mission: Gracias Madre.

Ate here yesterday and la, la, loved it. I’ve never been to the SF sister and although the Hole is a little commercial, the food was fantastic! We had the following:
I AM ADVENTUROUS (lentils and mushrooms — pretty good)
I AM FULFILLED (with fig-​balsamic dressing — SO good!)
I AM COMFORTED (delicious)
I AM TRANSFORMED (FANTASTIC — so much flavor!)
I AM WHOLE (great texture, fun to eat)
I AM EFFERVESCENT (so yummy)
We also took two yummy Tiramisus and a Key Lime Pie to go. Our friends have the cook book, so it was fun to see that the one of the ingredients in the Key Lime Pie was actually avocado.
The seating area had a good variety of games/​books. Although a little pricey for some, but not necessarily for the area, we enjoyed every nutrient-​rich, creative bite.
Question of the Day: What would you like to be appreciated for?

I’m a regular at their SF sister restaurant Gracias Madres… which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! I go down to the South Bay about three times a week, so I was excited to learn about vegan options in Cupertino. I don’t even mind that it’s inside the Whole Foods grocery store.
I’ve eaten here twice. The first time I had the Briyani Bowl with half Quinoa and half brown rice. The taste was okay, but it wasn’t hot enough. I also ordered the «I am rejuvenated» wheat grass, apple, ginger, and lemon juice. The whole bill with tax and tip (plus a 10% student discount) came to around $ 20. I was okay with the bill because it’s hard to make even decent vegan food satisfying.
Second visit, I ordered their veggie Padthi special and the same drink. The veggie special was tasty but a little too wet, and the drink the second time made me sick. It was too fermented.
Overall, the food was missing something. I haven’t tried any of the other Café Gratitudes so I can’t really compare. I was hoping that this could be my regular «go to» eatery in the South Bay, but I’m torn about the quality of the food so far. I’m willing to give it another couple of tries though. But for now… it’s just three stars.

If I’m going to be paying $ 50 for a meal, is it too much to ask that the ambiance does not include fluorescent lighting and public address systems announcing that someone named Tomás has a call waiting on line three?
For my money, can I at least expect that when my food is ready and dropped unceremoniously onto the counter, that at least someone will announce that my food is ready?

Last year, a lady friend got interested in raw food. Being the consummate gentleman, I suggested meeting for dinner at Café Gratitude, having read about the restaurant years ago in SF Chronicle. I thought we will be venturing all the way to San Francisco, but she informed me there is a Café Gratitude in Whole Foods here in Cupertino.
That dinner never happened.
Tonight while shopping in the area, I decided I wanted to have something healthy for dinner. Thinking quickly, I decided to stop by Café Gratitude. I have been to Whole Food Cupertino several times before, but never paid any attention to the café near the seafood section. Turned out, that was Café Gratitude.
I browsed the menu and decided on I am graceful. This is the Indian Briyani Bowl, with steamed quinoa, mixed with diced carrots and peas, and topped with pea shoots. The grain was mixed with a curry coconut sauce that had great flavor and not spicy. The amount of sauce was just enough to dressed the quinoa and vegetable without making the grains soggy.
It was actually quite good!
On this Friday night at 8pm, there was only a person manning the counter and a lady preparing the food. There were several customers waiting for food and it took about 15mins for me to get my order. The staff were very nice, but it was still a bit of a wait when the store was not very busy. This being the end of the day, the open kitchen looked unorganized, with dirty mixing bowls and used silver warare piling up in the sink.
My half order of rice bowl was $ 10 which I thought was quite expensive, especially since the serving size was small, albeit quite filling.
Given the price, I will probably not be back often, unless I wanted something healthy and is willing to splurge.

Wayyyyyy over priced!!!
What are they trying to prove?
Vegan = Snobby rich ppl’s food?
I lived in LA where Vegan food was decently priced.
Veggie grill for example had great Vegan food that
actually tasted delicious and even my husband loved it.
Vegan food isn’t that hard to make and it shouldn’t be priced this high. I wish someone would make an Vegan or Veg restaurant in SJ that is kinder to ppl’s wallet. I remember talking to the owner of the vegan restaurant in LA.
He said, «I’m making this food to let ppl know that healthy food can be tasty and cheap.»
Café gratitude? No… café no thank you!

I was so excited to find a Café Gratitude in San Jose! This café is located inside the Whole Foods and it is fantastic! If you have never been to a Café Gratitude you probably don’t know about the menu. Everything is organic and fresh! All the food items are named I am thankful, I am beautiful etc…
I ordered the I am graceful ~ Indian Biryani bowl which is steamed brown rice or quinoa tossed with seasonal veggies, basil, cilantro, mint & cashews in an Indian coconut-​curry sauce. I also had the I am loved latte with hazelnut milk.
Everything was super and it was delightful to sit and enjoy my food in a warm and friendly environment. This is a great place to go with a friend. If you are in the mood for something new or you are just trying to treat your body better this is the place for you.
It is pricey, but definitely worth the experience!

Lately, I have been going to Café Gratitude for one thing — faux cheese! They have the best nut-​based cheese out there! The Macadamia nut cheddar cheese is by far the best of the bunch. I would buy it by the pound if it was possible. It is a must have item!

WOW this place is awesome.
I went here with my friend/​bandmate after band practice. She had a cold and wanted something healthy. I wanted to finally try Café Gratitude (after years of just being really interested).
We wandered around Whole Foods for awhile. My friend assumed it would be to the right of the entrance, a la Mother’s Market in Huntington Beach. It is the opposite; Café Gratitude is in the far left from the entrance.
So yeah, there were too cool, nice young ladies working there (sisters!) and they rang up our order, made our food, et cetera. My friend got I Am Fortified (steamed veggie quinoa bowl) with I Am Effervescent (house ginger ale). I got Yo Soy Mucho (guacamole kale quinoa bowl) and I Am Rejuvenated (nifty wheat grass soda thing). They were all completely awesome. The veggie bowl came with this awesome garlic tahini sauce and CAULIFLOWER! (The best vegetable.) My bowl had tons of kale and guacamole and it was so beautiful. And our DRINKS! Ohhhhh the drinks.
The service was very friendly and fun. And they gave us a piece of raw vegan chocolate cheesecake on the house! IT WAS SO GOOD, AAAAGGGHHHH. I was ready to cry, it was so good. (Funny enough, this marks the second time I’ve wanted to cry from eating delicious food. The first time was at Shojin in Los Angeles. Also vegan macrobiotic food. Coincidence – or NOT?)
Pricey, but so very awesome. You should eat here. Do it.

Expensive, yes. If I had the time I could make this food for a lot less.
But I don’t have the time and with all the hormone-​injected meat masquerading as food, I rather keep it simple and get back to basics with a Yo Soy Mucho rice bowl … with extra black beans … now that’s lunch!
4 Stars!

I really wanted to love this place especially because of the types of food they were serving but someone should really put this out in bold:
THIS PLACE IS INSIDE WHOLE FOODS MARKET.
There I said it! Now all future visitors will be able to clearly see where this place is instead of driving around in circles and wondering what you missed.
Now, onto the food. I understand the vegetarian aspect of this, which is why I don’t understand why it’s so extremely pricey. On the value for money scale this place should really be $$$. A two entrée two drink meal for the bf and I were $ 44 before a 10% student ID discount and $ 39 after. Holy crap? All we got were a bowl of black beans, a very tasteless, flavorless tamale, and a bowl of brown rice with $ 3 extra «kim chee» which was literally pickled cabbage (in my book the only kim chee that exists is the red spicy Korean kind …).
I thought the bowl of brown rice and kale with «kim chee» was good, but it was not worth $ 18 (yes! it was $ 18!) and my tamale dish which had very little other than some black beans and a bad version of a tamale was $ 12. I think at an authentic Mexican joint you can get 4 of these, even vegetarian ones. I know again this is healthy and vegan, but it doesn’t need to be highway robbery.
The service was ok, but having only one person there most of the time means when the lines for ordering stack up, your food gets delayed. We waited about 25 minutes for all of those things and the tamales were pre-​cooked and the rice bowl was just a mixture. It’s like serving salad and soup, it doesn’t take 25 minutes.
I really just had no love for this place and I’d save my $ 40 to have a great sushi or Mexican meal elsewhere.

Macro Bowl… YUM!
I came here straight from LA, driving home from a weekend with the girls. And instead of going to a veg breakfast in LA, i opted to drive home early, and hit up Café Gratitude before coming home. And boy… did i!
I’m so glad i came here. First of all, the Whole Foods this was located in is AMAZING. It was vegan heaven. But i’ll save that for my review on Whole Foods.
Back to CG, I had the macro bowl. Quinoa, rice, shreadded carrots, sea veggies, kimchi, dressing… PURE YUM. I got a large and wanted to finish it. I know i could have finished it. But i tried to listen to my belly and brought some food home. Hoping to eat it later, my mom ate it. Which is all good, but now i want to go back.
Awesome place. Nice place to go and make a day of it. Do some Whole Foods shopping while you’re at it!

Café G is the place to be!
This RAW VEGAN café is located inside of the biggest Whole Foods in NorCal! Some of my favorites include I Am Sensational (code for pesto pizza with a side salad), I Am Eternally Sweet (code for an amazing chocolate milkshake) and I Am Honoring (code for live nachos). No dairy, meat, eggs, flour and nothing cooked over 116 degrees. Yes, Café G is quite expensive but how can you say no to your health? I spent $ 30 the first time I came here! $ 20 the second time. I truly believe it’s worth every single penny because all the produce they use is organic and their food takes time to prepare since nothing they use is processed. You have to try Café G at least once even if you think the whole Raw movement is BS. You will change your mind once you taste their food!

This is a great, if expensive, option for vegan and raw food goodies.
Café Gratitude has taken over the Bistro spot in the Cupertino Whole foods. It’s behind the produce section and has several table and chairs for seating. The seating is blocked off with a short fence. You could also take the food to their other indoor or outdoor seating.
We had the tacos, the tamale, and a daily special of sunflower-​seed based enchilada. The enchilada was the only all raw dish. We also ordered the blood tonic (beet juice mix) and agave-​based gingerale.
The tacos were decent — very similar to vegetarian tacos you might get elsewhere — heavy on the rice and beans. I was hoping for a higher percentages of green vegetables. The tamale just a touch dry, the squash filling was very good and I loved the tangy slaw. The enchiladas were my favorite — I’m a big fan of seed and nut-​based mixes and pates, this was great!
Agave as a sweetener can sometimes overwhelm drinks, but the gingerale was nicely strong in ginger and so the sweetener worked fine.
The service was prompt and polite. I was a bit gunshy going here since I’d heard they can be rude to you if you don’t order the way they want you too (by forcing you to do it ‘right’, making you wait, or refusing service). This would be bad for us since we sometimes dine with mentally disabled friends and family and this sort of treatment would be cruel on their part. However, I figured if they were inside a Whole Foods they might be friendlier (and you can’t always tell if someone is mentally disabled). Thankfully, they were very friendly and accommodating. We easily ordered with a mix of the «right» names and the more straightfoward names on the menu and they treated us very politely and didn’t bat an eye — they accepted the order as presented.
Thanks, Café Gratitude! We’ll be back.