Native Foods Cafe

After numerous visits I just can’t seem to find a dish that I love.
In my youth I was a vegetarian for over a decade, so I’m a big fan of vegetarian & vegan food. In fact much of the cooking I do at home is vegetarian. So naturally, my wife and I are always attracted to restaurants like Native Foods and we’ve kept going back in hopes of discovering a gem on their menu.
Unfortunately the food here always leaves us unsatisfied. It’s healthy, prepared nicely and presented well, but it just doesn’t do it for us. Maybe they’ve fallen victim to our high expectations, but we’ve found the food to be fairly bland and unappealing.
I really do want to like this place more. The staff is nice and I love the setting. Relaxing at their little tables outside during the more temperate months is very pleasant.
I’m sure we’ll give the café another try now and then, but we’re really not in a hurry to return. Oh well.

Native Foods Café is truly a gem in the middle of a desert.
I recently visited Palm Desert expecting to find nothing more than outlet shopping and overpriced restaurants, but then I went to Native Foods. The options on their menu are truly unique mixing comforting dishes with exotic flavors. My boyfriend and I chose to split the sweet potato taquitos appetizer, which actually ended up looking more like flat tacos. The shell was crisp, while the filling was creamy and smooth. The accompanying guacamole was delicious and their hot sauce was authentic with a hard-​hitting spice. I had the Chicken Run Ranch burger for my entrée, while my boyfriend chose the Scorpion Burger. Both of us could not stop ooh’ing and ahh’ing during our meal. Finally, we finished with the chocolate love pie. It was a firm chocolate mousse filling in a spiced almond crust topped with chocolate chips and fresh mint. It was sweet without being overpowering and an excellent finish to a fantastic meal.

I was shocked at how delicious this place was.
I have passed by the Culver City location a bunch of times so when I saw they had a restaurant in the desert, I convinced my family to come with me and give it a try.
The restaurant itself is kind of small, but it is decorated in a cute worldly way with many wood or tiled tables and plastic chairs – it seemed strange that it had a bar.
The hibiscus tea was yummy and was lightly sweetened with agave, which is ok… although I typically prefer my tea without sugar.
I ended up ordering the Greek Gyro Earth Bowl and it was so dang good! It was loaded up with all sorts of steamed veggies, quinoa, kale, grilled flat bread and a peppery seitan.
Did I mention it had a lemony garlic hummus sauce drizzled over it?
Yum.
(For someone who had been eating dairy queen for multiple days in a row, some good healthy organic roughage was what I needed to kick my butt back into gear).
Loved it.
*I also had a chance to taste my moms sweet potato taquitos. Although they looked more like a taco then taquito, they were super tasty too.

I am a life-​long meat eater, but every time I walk out of Native Foods I walk out full and happy. I had the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger yesterday and it was delicious, though for the average meat eater I would recommend the Chicken Run Sandwich. If I had not known it was soy I would not have guessed.
Great for kids, too. My 6yo and 3yo loved their chicken nuggets and rice.
Great food. Great staff. Megan took wonderful care of us all meal long.
I’m in no danger of giving up on meat, but I love this place.

Absolutely delicious portabello mushroom sandwich! Hubby liked my order more than his Reuben but he still really enjoyed his meal. Also tried the yam jalapeño soup and for dessert we ordered the chocolate love pie. Mmm yummy. Free refills on drinks. Love the watermelon fresca! Total with tax & tip = just over $ 30.
We signed up for the restaurant’s rewards card since they have locations in LA (Culver City & Westwood). When you sign up, your drink is comped. Yay!
The high Unilocal ratings led us to Native Foods Café. The restaurant can be a little hard to find because it’s located between buildings — not street facing and not interior facing. Service is very good, friendly, and down to earth.
Definitely coming back to Native Foods Café!!!

Vegan Happy Hour
Located at the back of little shopping alley
Friday night happy hours
½ price beer & wine & appetizers
Loved the organic Napa Smith Organic IPA
Tasty nachos, healthy mini-​green salad, yummy taquitos (sweet potato filled?), and super spicy «buffalo» wings (soy protein?)
Friendly service
Negative: the tables & chairs had not been cleaned; there were chips & junks on most

Some of the most tasty, light, and filling vegetarian food you’ll ever eat. I found out about this place on Unilocal,and my wife and I decided to try it when we were in the area for the Coachella Festival. We loved it, and would definitely recommend it to anyone, vegetarian or not.
We had a party of four and went for lunch on a Saturday. We got lucky and beat the lunch rush. It wasn’t hot outside, so we took a table out on the patio. It was very comfortable, and it was nice to sit outside. We started off with four watermelon frescas, which were refreshing and had just the right amount of sweetness. They sweeten the frescas with organic agave, which balanced the natural flavor of the watermelon perfectly. They offer free refills too, so I probably had about three glasses. (It was a perfect way to stay hydrated in the desert heat.)
For our meal, I had the Chicken Run Ranch Burger while my wife had the Ensalada Azteca Salad. The Chicken burger was crispy and delicious, just like a regular chicken burger, but without the greasy, heavy feeling afterwards. My wife’s salad had a light, fresh, and cool taste to it. They prepare it with fresh avocado, cucumber and jicama on top of romaine lettuce and quinoa, and serve it with currants and a mango-​lime vinaigrette. It was very good.
We all left happy, and liked it so much that we talked about going back the next day.

My wife and I make an annual visit to our CPA in Rancho Mirage for tax preparation and, given the somewhat somber occasion, try to cheer ourselves up by finding a new place to eat in the area. My wife is generally vegetarian and I eat almost anything so I looked for a place with vegetarian choices. I came upon Native Foods Café and found there was one in Palm Desert in the El Paseo area (Rodeo Drive of the Coachella Valley, CA). I checked out the Unilocal reviews and, even though our CPA was less than complimentary in his comments regarding Native Foods Café, we decided to give it a try.
One reviewer mentioned it was a bit hard to find and they were right. Basically, you use the Bank of America on El Paseo as your guide, tuck into that parking lot, and just past the B of A (on your left as you enter the parking area from El Paseo, you turn immediately right and park. The restaurant is tucked away in a hallway. There are about 10 or so tables indoors and 4 or so outside. There is a bar which seats 6 or 7 by my estimation, and you can eat there as well. The place was busy when we arrived but seating was immediately available. As it turns out we got there just in time as it filled up quickly after we sat down (shortly after noon).
Drinks: We heard and read a lot about the Lavender Lemonade but opted for the Watermelon Fresca instead. Delicious and refreshing, it was made all the better for the free refills. I believe I had 4 glasses myself.
Really good and highly recommended.
Entrees: I had the Portabello and Sausage Burger minus the «Sausage,» which is a native seitan (wheat gluten) meat substitute. I ordered a side of the lemon-​dill potato salad. My wife had the Scorpion Burger, a tempeh-​based sandwich. The Scorpion Burger happened to be the special of the day so it was accompanied by a side salad (you can choose other sides if you wish). You can get the particulars here:
The flavor and texture of both our sandwiches was excellent. They are served on whole grain buns «made fresh daily,» per the online menu, and they tasted like it. Really, the combination of flavors were among the best I’ve had in a Portabello sandwich, including those I’ve made for myself. The caramelized onion and sweet roasted garlic were perfect with the other ingredients and made for a tasty sandwich that left me wishing it were bigger (not because it’s small, but because I just wanted more of the great taste). The lemon-​dill potato salad was new to me and I will definitely have that again. There is something distinctive and unique about the taste of those two ingredients together which joined with the starchy potato for a phenomenal experience. My wife was very happy with her sandwich as well, but I’ll let her describe it in her own Unilocal review.
We don’t usually eat dessert at restaurants but I was tempted by the apple cobbler as cobblers are a particular favorite of mine. With an oatmeal crisp topping and some type of white, creamy sauce on top, we both dug in and thoroughly enjoyed a bit of decadent pleasure. I highly recommend this dessert to cobbler lovers; don’t forget to ask for it heated up.
The staff are very friendly, attentive, and move about quickly to get food served. It took a little longer than I would have expected to get our food, but it wasn’t anything off-​putting and my wife and I enjoyed some nice conversation while sipping (in my case, gulping) our Watermelon Frescas. Our waitress was very helpful and answered any questions we had. When we told her later that this was our first visit she apologized for not chatting with us more and explaining the offerings further. Frankly, she did an outstanding job and no apology was necessary. The Native Foods Café has a frequent diner program of sorts and, for signing up, we got a free drink with our meal. During the meal I checked-​in to the restaurant via Unilocal and when I got home there was a nice Tweet from Native Foods thanking me for our visit. Very nice!
There are really no complaints to be had here. If anything, I was slightly disappointed that the Sweet Potato Fries listed on their website menu aren’t available at the El Paseo location as they do not have a deep fryer there. Our waitress explained that they are available at all of the other locations so I’ll just have to try them in Palm Springs.
My wife and I agreed that this is a place we’d like to try again soon. I would add it to your «definitely try» list when visiting Palm Desert or El Paseo’s shopping. Well done!

Watermelon fresca… hmm.
Anyway, Native Foods is basically vegetarian comfort food — healthy yet hearty. There is so much on the menu to satisfy all your cravings. I love how everything from wraps, salads, burgers and bowl, each dish is FILLED with a wide variety of ingredients. I had the hardest thing choosing !
I finally decided on the enchilada bowl. I liked it, but maybe you can request for the corn tortilla to be toasted because it was too soggy from the steamed kale. Also the pepper popper was too heavily battered… eek. Then about the oklahoma cheeseburger, quite sloppy and strange with its imitation-​ness. I would skip it, unless you’re not too concerned about your health.
Overall, culinary part isn’t 100% but what it has to offer is good.

AH! My favorite restaurant!
Healthy and delicious food and a great atmosphere.
Service is always friendly and Chef Tanya (the owner) even came out and chatted with us after our last meal. She is so sweet and genuine!
Everything is good! My favorites:
Oklahoma Cheese Burger
Ruin Chicken Run Wrap
Twisted Chiken Wrap
Azteca Salad
I could eat nothing but Native Foods all day!
Even my FULL MEAT eating boyfriend picks this restaurant!
Oh and you have to try the Lavender Lemonade! You won’t find that anywhere else and it is perfectly refreshing!

This is definitely one of my stops when I’m home visiting my family there in «the desert». Unfortunately there isn’t anything like this here in Colorado Springs. :(
I’d say my all time favorite items are the Reuben and the BBQ «Chicken» Pizza.

I really like this place! Vegetarian/​vegan place and the service is really friendly. I was surprised at how tasty it was. I got the mushroom burger which was packed with shredded lettuce, onions, and mushroom. Came with edamame beans. There were a lot of people there for lunch and it was a little hard to find since the place was kind of tucked away in the plaza, but if you see Bank of America, you’re in the right place. It seems like everyone got this red/​magenta tea which I wished I got.
I’d definitely come back here again!

Why do these places all try to imitate other food instead of just making great vegetarian food? Am I missing something? I am not a vegetarian so maybe I Just have a different expectation.
I had the Oklahoma cheese burger. The bun didn’t add anything and the bacon was not much like bacon. Overall I thought it was too sweet; like everything we had. The watermelon fresca was extremely thick, like a milk shake. It was pretty good after I added water.
Overall the food was OK but not outstanding. The soup was good and I suspect that the chili is good as well. Bad choice not going with the chili. Unfortunately I am not sure it would be sweet also.
Healthy — yes. Excellent — not so much.
I don’t think I would go again.

Now here’s a place I can go to without feeling guilty about what I eat. I found this place randomly as I was walking around in the 110 degree weather at high noon in Palm Desert waiting for my boyfriend to be finished with his hour long massage by Yesi. Yes, I know, I’m a genius. It was nicely tucked in this plaza full of pilates studios and optometry offices.
My bf and I first enjoyed our refreshing Jasmine Lemonade and Watermelon slush. It went down our pipes like heavenly thirst quenching gold in this ridiculous hot weather. Then came our foods! I got the soy amigo salad and it was soy good (har har har). Nice combination of crunchy, crispy and soft textures, it was hard to believe this salad was good for you. The bf got a burger, which he loved! This is now one of our staples to eat at when we come to PD.
Native Foods = All Vegan = All healthy = All good to me!

Wow!!! This place was AMAZING!!! This was my first experience with Vegan food and boy… what an impression?!! I LOVED IT!
FOOD-​GASMIC!
We had the nachos, Oklahoma Bacon Burger and the Fajitas. All in all came to only $ 30! And we sucked down every last little morsel because it was just that darn good!
If you are in Palm Desert… YOU MUST TRY IT!

Hmmm,…loved this place for a long time going back to the mid-​nineties. Tanya is very nice and I really love what she is doing but noticed that the portions have shrunk considerably, a recent trend at places since the economic meltdown. $ 1.95 for a ramekin of potato salad? A $.95 size serving at best. Was expecting a bread plate full. The cheesecake is at least a third smaller than before. Felt like I was sampling the taster’s menu.
Unless they’re using only organic ingredients, it’s hard to justify the prices for the shrinkage. It would be nice if the «aware» businesses that tout being green et al would throw a bone to their customers as a token of appreciation and understanding of how the tough times are affecting us all.

Holy vegan cow. I brought the family in because fellow Unilocal-​ers gavfe Native Foods Café a thumbs up –and we were not disappointed. We were AMAZED.
The endless refills of hibiscus tea/​lemonade ‘Native Palmers’ alone revived the entire family after a long morning — refreshing, delicious, and sweetened with agave, they really hit the spot.
One of our two kids is gluten-​free, and he laid into the nacho plate like mike mulligan and Maryann. The other inhaled the ‘cheese’ pizza, while my wife had the ‘mecca azteca salad’ (jicama, lettuce, quinoa, avocado and an incredible mango-​lime dressing) and I downed a ‘scorpion burger’ (tempeh burger with nice flavor/​texture and a little kick, topped with shredded veggies and an addictive dressing).
We were SO HAPPY. KIDS = so happy.
Best: while we were there, chef Tanya, Native Foods founder, happened by and chatted with us a bit before she headed to LA. So nice –engaging and dynamic.
We went for lunch. The café is in a minimall type place, which put us off initially, then charmed the pants off us. The place is next door to palm desert Bikram, just off El Paseo.
Please go. You’ll be glad you did. We loved it so much we went for dinner again to the Native Foods Café in Palm Springs two nights later for dinner.
Again — AWESOME. Kids had same, but gluten-​free had the chili, and I tried the BLT-​ease.
Our 8 year old Kid’s quote, re: chili (and BEFORE he got the chocolate pie dessert): ‘i have to tell you, mom and dad: this may be the best thing I’ve ever had.‘
Yum.
Winner.

This was my first experience with Vegan food. I must say it was not as bad as I thought it might be. I got the hummus and pita plate as an appetizer and this was tasty. The hummus was very liquidy and tasted great. Likewise for the salsa that came with the plate.
For my main course, I had the mushroom and sausage burger, which came with a corn chowder soup, which was the soup of the day. I did not care for the soup too much but the burger was good. The flavors were full and the bun delicious. The person I was with said it was the best Vegan place they’d ever been to.

I loved it. I would go all the time if it was close to me. My meat eating wife liked it alot also. My toddler wasn’t so into it. If only they had tofu dogs all three of us would have been happy. I think if we go back we’ll try getting her the chicken nuggets.
It wasn’t just the food either, the service was really good. They were very nice and kept refilling our watermelon agua fresca.
Hmmm… just thinking about it all is making me really hungry.

Awesome menu — great selection! My non-​veghead mom loves Seitan now!
Service could step it up a bit but being hungry makes me a little impatient. Even I know I need to Zen out a little.
I think I had the Mojo y Rojo and it was delish. I can’t wait to go back.
And the peanut butter dessert is everything I’ve heard it was! Worth the trip from the PNW!