Shortly before opening day, Adam and I had the pleasure of dining at Lenox Square’s True Food Kitchen during their pre-opening event. True Food is an interesting concept opening right next door to the recently-opened Zinburger, and a few doors down from yet another Cheesecake Factory. Parking can be challenging if you are coming just for this restaurant, but if you’re already at the mall, then I guess you are already there. If you’re meeting someone, add some extra time.

Here’s what True Food has to say for itself: “At True Food Kitchen we celebrate simplicity. We practice sustainability. We believe that simple, fresh, pure ingredients create the most memorable and satisfying meals. And while our healthy menu is packed with nutritious, good-for-you vegetables, whole grain and proteins, we never sacrifice flavor. You may not notice the difference. But it’s there.”

As you can see, the interior design is very current modern american: open spaces, wood and metal, bright colors and angular shapes. There were nice big pieces of art with great quotes on them – the kind of stuff I really go for! Unlike Zinburger next door, they have a nice, deep covered patio which looks like it would be great to sit out on. This time, though, we sat indoors. Oh yeah, the chairs are made out of recycled plastic bottles.

I’m happy to see that True Food has a similar food philosophy as I do. Now, I don’t talk much about my personal beliefs, research, and experiments with personal nutrition here, and I’ll try not to get into it now, either. But! A Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory diet/food pyramid/philosophy is prominently featured, and while I’m not sure how I feel about that, I’m still appreciative that True Food has a thoughtful food philosophy in the first place – caring at all is always the best first step towards quality products. Still, it is pretty rare and always super-nice to see locally-sourced, whole foods served in a restaurant (especially in one this size), and it’s even more gratifying for me to see gluten-free items marked on a menu. So overall, I am still down with what True Food has goin’ on. It seems heads-and-shoulders over what most other places do, anyway.

We got started with a Spontaneous Happiness ($9) cocktail for me, and a Fence Post Session Ale ($5.50) for Adam. The cocktail is ginger and vanilla infused shochu, St. Germain, and fresh lime. It was tasty, and I would definitely had another if I didn’t want to try two things/am far enough out of college now that two-drink lunches are not a thing that I do, haha.

Next, we chowed down on our tasty Salmon Dip appetizer. An understandably small but delicious portion of salmon smoked in-house in a tasty dip. The salmon is the star of this, as it should be. Because it is chunky, you can tell it was quality salmon, not some crappy processed might-be-salmon. It’s not a crappy mayo-heavy dip to mask low-quality ingredients.

At this point, we re-upped on drinks. Adam switched to a Terrapin Hi-5 IPA, and I went for a drink off of the Natural Refreshments menu: the pomegranate limeade (with chia seeds). For our main course, we split a grassfed bison burger and penang/panang/phanaeng curry.

I had the curry first, and thought it was pretty good. The shrimp in particular was not overcooked, which is so easy to do, and so often seen in hot soups. It did have some kick to it, though obviously not as much as you’d see on Buford Highway (and good on them for it, obviously they are catering to a more diverse crowd).

Adam liked the curry, too, and points out that we got an above-average number of shrimp. Overall, he feels that the curry is just kind of average, and I agree. The burger, too, was an average burger. It was nice – cooked medium and juicy. The toppings and all went pretty well together. You can certainly get a bison burger cheaper at Ted’s Montana Grill, but this one is grassfed and of a higher quality. For his part, Adam was more impressed with the sides than the burger. The parmesan kale was fresh and crispy and the sweet potato hash was a really interesting presentation.

We finished off our first look at True Food Kitchen with flourless chocolate cake. It was a wee bit small, but incredibly moist with ooey-gooey caramel filling. Yum. Adam says, “How did they do that?” He points out that while the cake was less fluffy than a traditional flour chocolate cake, it still tasted great and was very moist.

Overall, this place looks promising. It’s certainly the most health- and environmentally-conscious thing floating around the Lenox Mall area. If that’s what you’re into, then True Food Kitchen is the obvious choice. Above-average quality for more or less average foods and intriguing drinks. Based on this very early, first-impressions experience, we’d give it 3.5 stars.

This was a pre-opening event, and our meal was entirely complimentary. Our thoughts and words, however, are our own.

True Food Kitchen
3393 Peachtree Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30326