Native Foods Cafe

I LOVE Native Foods and this location has a special place in my heart as it is the first location of Native Foods ever.
As someone who loves discounts, I feel the need to share a few tips. First off, make sure you sign up with an account. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it gets you all kinds of discounts. They send out regular emails offering deals. Just be sure to read the fine print as some offers will require buying a drink or side.
Other vegetarians probably understand how amazingly overwhelming it is to go to a place where you can order anything on the menu. It is always a hard decision when looking through the menu. Honestly though, you couldn’t make a bad decision. Everything I’ve had is amazing. A few latest favorites include: the BBQ Chicken Salad, the Oklahoma Burger and the Meatball Sub.
A MUST HAVE is the oatmeal crème cookie sandwich for dessert. No matter what meal I get, I always have to get this cookie. It is amazing and I wish I had the recipe. Unfortunately, it isn’t in their cookbook. Their drinks are also amazing — lavender lemonade and watermelon fresca. I’m not even a drink person and I get them here.
Definitely somewhere to go regularly — enjoy it!

Really delicious! It is also very affordable. Great staff and you must try the watermelon drink!

The prices are decent for what you get, the service is fast (you order at the counter, and they bring it to your table). I would have given them a 4 – 5 star rating 10 years ago. It seems like when they started moving past multiple franchises, they cut back a little on the quality. The drinks are still really good, but it seems like everything has just a little less umph than it used to. The food is still good, especially if you are a vegan, but personally, I don’t like so much fake meat. I will come back in the future, but keep my expectations reasonable.

It’s just delicious. I drag everyone I can here, unless they have nut allergies.
Everything is wonderful, the closest to a complaint I’ve ever had is their chai tea, while AMAZING is also the thing that will arrive last on the table.

It was THAT good. I’m coming back lol. The gentleman who helped us was super patient because it was our first time, & he didn’t mind some couple altercations to the entrée we where getting. I tell everyone about this place now :)
¹⁰⁄₁₀!

I really do love the food at Native Foods but the service and menu certainly isn’t what it used to be compared what I was introduced to nearly 10 years ago; back when they had friendly table service and menu items such as pizzas, the Buddha bowl, the pultz (or something like that) burrito, etc.
The menu items they do have now are delicious. They kept their amazing lavender lemonade. I love the sliders they have now and I love to build my own portobello burger, but hate the actual process of customizing a burger at one open register with people waiting behind me. I think I’ll try ordering ahead online one of these days just to make the visit easier on everyone.
My husband loves the chili and the Baja tacos. The portion sizes for these menu items are very generous.
I was torn between giving a three or four star rating and I settled with three stars for the following reasons:
— When I added caramelized onions to my burger for .99 cents, they didn’t give much. I’ll attach a photo below. My husband paid for a side of cheese for his tacos and they gave him a small condiments cup worth.
— The cheese shouldn’t have been extra for my burger, but they charged us .99 cents anyways.
— They, so far, have always forgotten to bring something out. Always. Even when it’s not busy.
— The staff aren’t exactly rude, but they aren’t nice either. I’ve felt more welcome at a gas station. I don’t need them to put a big show on about it, but a friendly «hi» could go a long way. Maybe I keep visiting at off days? I can appreciate that we all have our off days so I hope I can visit on one of their good days in the future.
I’ll certainly keep visiting for the food if I happen to be nearby. But I can’t help but to feel that this place as a whole is a shadow of its former self.

Great place to go eat and enjoy with a friend. Great service. The watermelon water is good I tried one of their bacon hamburgers and it was amazing! Definitely will go back with family! Great prices we even got free dessert.

So happy to have this place in Palm Springs. While fixing up house, we’ve eaten a lot of lunches here. Everything is fresh and yummy. My fave is the Ensalada Azteca, and the lavender lemondae. All the sandwiches are good, and sweet potato fries too.
Service is always friendly.

Good price, great food, amazing drinks.
I enjoyed my burger, fries, and buffalo wings greatly, but they didn’t compete with my favorites. I like the buffalo wings more at veggie grill (about the only thing I like there mind you) and I’ve had better fries and burgers, but: everything was great. Nothing was bad. And that is pretty awesome too. The thing I liked the most was the watermelon water. It just made everything even better. I’d highly recommend this place, especially if you are vegan, but even if you aren’t.

Lovely lunch here with my parents at the original Native foods location!
In fact this was their favorite meal during their visit with me so i have to give NFC props as they are super picky eaters.
My mom loved here chicken sandwich, tasted better than real chicken honestly, loved the fries as well.
I really enjoyed my veggie burger and my dad loved his tofu curry bowl.
Service was exceptionally nice, you can tell they really care about their product and want you to be well informed and enjoy it, greatly appreciated.
Prices and portions are fair, quality is great, all around perfect, glad we stopped here while in Palm Springs!

Disclaimer: I am not vegan in any sort of way. Fact: I am a carnivore.
BUT! I love everything I have tried here over the past few years. Their iced tea is refreshing, especially in 115 degree summers and their staff is always fast and friendly. Their online ordering is great when I don’t have a lunch break. Don’t dismiss this place just because it doesn’t serve meat!

If you go to Palm Springs, and you don’t go here, then you’re doing something wrong.
1 star = The staff are super friendly and helpful.
1 star = The food is delicious AND healthy (I know, usually those 2 things don’t go together).
1 star = There are positive messages on the tables that make you feel good about eating an animal-​free meal (mine informed me that ordering an order of chicken-​less wings from Native Foods instead of from a restaurant serving actual chicken wings saves the lives of 3 chickens!).
1 star = All of the things we ordered were delicious, and I’ve never had a bad meal here.
1 star = The food comes out quickly.
I will never come back to Palm Springs without visiting Native Foods.

Food is tasty for vegan. Had the Moroccan bowl. Can’t say it’s a great value, kind of skimpy on the tofu which costs, what, $ 1 for 8 oz? And the service was slow, not friendly, no ‘thanks for waiting’.(Never did get the cup for water that I requested. If I have to wait in line to ‘order at the counter and get a number a la McDonalds’, I expect pricing and speed of service consistent with a ‘fast food’ model.
They had to come out of the kitchen to tell several parties that one of the ingredients they ordered wasn’t available… like 10 minutes AFTER they ordered.
Given the poor value and poor service, I probably wouldn’t return. The food isn’t good enough to make up for that.

the original We tried their locations in LA and SD, but the original Palm Springs location is certainly one step up. The Portobello sausage burger with sweet potato fries is our favorite.
As mentioned in other reviews not all managers help to enhance the experience, but lately staff has been super nice.

This place is hit or miss.
PROS
— I am allergic to dairy so I love that I don’t have to worry about that here!
— Love the desserts, chicken run ranch burger is always safe, sometimes the nachos are bomb (see cons for the rest of the story), and the sweet potato fries!
— Rewards program is awesome. It’s about $ 10 off every $ 200, plus free desserts and promos in your email.
CONS
— Here’s the rest of the story on the nachos: at least 50% of the time they HUGELY skimp on toppings, most especially the «meat»! And if you point it out to them they very begrudgingly acquiesce and give you a tiny pinch more. It’s to the point where I don’t even come here hardly anymore since it was my favorite thing to eat, and I really got tired of the gamble and the resulting unpleasantness if I decided to say something.
— Customer service could use some work. One time we were in there a woman (the manager maybe? or a shift manager?) was soo rude to the employees. Often the people working there are impersonal. Not always. Sometimes they’re great. But at least half the time I’m left sorely unimpressed.

I absolutely love this place! Dragged my meat eating brother along and he was amazingly surprised at how delicious the food was. He ordered the chicken avo club (recommendation from the worker for a meat eaters first time) and the chicken literally tasted like real chicken. So flavorful with a very crunchy texture (breaded)
I ordered the twister wrap which was also the workers recommendation. It was to die for! Literally (ok a bit of an exaggeration) you can choose from three different types of chicken. Grilled, breaded, or buffalo. I had him pick for me an I honestly can’t remember which one he chose. I think it was buffalo with chipotle sauce. The chipotle is not even close to what I’ve tried at other restaurants. I’m not a chipotle eater bcz I never think it’s really good but this restaurant has made the best I’ve ever had. You have got to try it!
For sides you can choose really healthy sides like steamed kale, or side salad. We chose to be bad and get a side of seasoned fries (don’t judge me!)
For drinks you get unlimited refills
I tried the lavender lemonade. Oh my gosh! So delicious! They literally seep the lavender bulbs right in the back kitchen to make this drink. Everything is made from scratch. My brother had the fresca or something like that. If you want to try both try the fresca first because the lemonade is much sweeter and stronger so if you do it vise versa and try the fresca last it will taste so dull. I made that mistake.
Now for the price of this amazing place
Definitely restaurant price. Our meal with drinks came out to around $ 28 and we left tip. We wanted dessert after so two carrot cream cheese cupcakes came out to around $ 7
If your coming for their cardamom rose cupcakes they no longer make them (so bummed)
But everything was definitely worth every penny!
Anyways enough chit chat!

Etwas unscheinbar in einer Art Laden-​Park gelegen, liegt das Original der Native Foods Cafes.
Die Burger waren mega lecker, die Stimmung sehr entspannt und locker.
Gegönnt haben wir uns den Chicken Run Ranch Burger und den Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger. Beide waren sehr lecker und sehr zu empfehlen ;).
Der Nachtisch (Strawberry Parfait) war leider etwas zu mandelig. Wer also Mandel zwar mag, aber nicht Marzipan und weder Mandelmilch noch Mandelcreme je probiert hat, dem ist davon abzuraten.
Für unseren privaten Mitternachtsnack haben wir uns noch Nachos mitgenommen. Das waren zwar ganz handelsübliche Nachos, aber mit leckerer Guacamole und Salsa.
Ganz schön ist auch die Getränkeauswahl, da man u.a. einfachen Melonensaft oder leckere (für den ein oder anderen etwas zu süße ;)) Erdbeerlimonade zapfen kann.
Achtung an alle, die Zimt verschmähen: Die Crispy Sweet Potato Fries sind überhäuft damit. Ist eigentlich né schöné Idee, aber wer nun mal kein Zimt mag…
Einen anderen schönen, etwas hipperen Laden kann man auch in Orange County @TheCamp besuchen.

I wish I could give this 6 stars. Amazing all natural vegetarian and vegan food. Great environment, amazingly friendly staff here, awesome food for a great price. I got the Reuben and I enjoyed it more than an «actual» Reuben. I love cashew cheese! My friend got the nachos and they were very good! One of my favorite parts of this place — free refills on lemonade, tea and watermelon Aqua Fresca!!! So refreshing!
I cannot remark enough about how awesome the staff was. People who care about what they do is way too rare nowadays. This is a great place! So great!
On a side note, my friend wanted me to stop writing this review to watch his video, I was friendly at first, but his persistence was unacceptable. Sure, he’s an alright guy, but I wish he would have just let me write this Unilocal review. If he would have just let me do me, then you would be done reading this…
Love this place!

Great Food & Scotty was very nice & helpful! So was the gentleman that brought me my yummy Moroccan Bowl… :-)
It’s my recommendation that you must try the Moroccan Bowl! So many wonderful flavors & textures dancing around in my mouth (haha…ok, now you can click the FUNNY as well when you vote for this review {winky face}) The flavor had a nice spicy depth! Yum!
I had Watermelon Fresca & Strawberry Lemonade (in my to go cup)… Thanks for recommending that option Scotty! Ok, so I thought the Lavender Lemonade was gone… But it’s not… YAY! It just has blended up strawberries in it & is also known as the Strawberry Lemonade… YUM
Nice seating inside with hardwood tables & stone holders to advertise their specials/​events & colorful murals…
There is a nice outside patio that is shaded & the weather is still good for outside dining… Take advantage before it becomes an OVEN outside! {sweating at just the thought, ugh!} Ok, I’ve returned to my happy place in the present… beautiful day, aromatic food…

Quite possibly the WORST Native Foods I’ve ever been to. We stopped in on Sunday evening to have dinner. Every table was filthy and they were out of watermelon Fresca. When I asked the cashier that was taking my order if they were out completely or just restocking. She looked in a reach in refrigerator and said she wasn’t sure. Another employee walked by and she asked him and he gave her a very snippy response «did you check?!? I don’t know».
The man ordered their nachos but made with fries. The girl was perplexed on how to ring it. She disappeared into the back for a few minutes and came back and said she’d just tell them. I know it’s a special item but it’s pretty common at native foods.
Needless to say the watermelon Fresca was never restocked the entire time we were there. The food came out in about 15 minutes. The fries with my order were cold when they arrived. The tables surrounding us were never cleaned. Also several people who arrived after us received their order before us.
Well a couple days later I decided to get a take out order for lunch. I chalked up the other visit to a fluke. I ordered a burger and fries off the special menu and picked up the sesame kale bowl for the man. The same employees were working with the same snippy attitudes. After about 15 minutes my order came out. When I got back to the hotel, my fries weren’t in the bag. Womp womp… Just an overall disappointing experience. Not what I’d expect from their original location.

Dined at Native Foods during both of our visits to Palm Springs and very happy with the food and experience. Fast and friendly service, large portions and reasonably priced. Hubby and I shared the soul bowl and it was the perfect sized meal (we had a late lunch so we weren’t super hungry). The side of cornbread had a hint of lemon flavor and was very moist. The chicken skewers were perfectly crispy and the beans and rice made it filling. The lavender lemonade isn’t too sweet like typical lemonade drinks – a must try!
During Thanksgiving, they also have a «Wellington» made if seitan, kale, yams, inside a puff pastry thing with gravy. It comes frozen and you just bake and serve. This thing is so delish and very, very filling. Definitely getting it again for the holidays.

Un endroit sympathique pour manger végétarien. Les plats sont délicieux et très innovants!