Vegan Eats: Native Foods Café, Palm Springs

Round The World Magazine

7 years ago

Native Foods Café Palm Springs Review

In the desert resort paradise of Palm Springs, California, known for it’s elegant setting and home to many celebrity retirements, we were a little worried about finding plant-based food in the area. With its isolated location, approximately 107 miles east of plant-based mecca Los Angeles, we were a little worried about finding a vegan restaurant in Palm Springs.
Outside Native Food Cafe, Palm Springs, California
Our worry diminished when we found Native Foods Café in the heart of the downtown area. Founded in 1994 in Palm Springs itself, Native Foods Café have since expanded internationally across the USA. They pride themselves on bringing harmony and passion to fresh food and compassion for animals and the environment.

Native Foods Café has grown to become America’s premier fast-casual vegan restaurant and their cafés span coast to coast.
All of the food in Native Foods Café is made-from-scratch and they serve seasonally updated one-of-a-kind dishes, delicious desserts and homemade beverages inspired by their innovative culinary team.

The chefs use their homemade tempeh and seitan in most of their dishes and ‘Native Cheese’, accompanied with special sauces and dressings as well as delicious desserts. The Native Foods Café is 100% plant-based so no need to worry about what you’re selecting if you’re a vegan in Palm Springs.

Native Foods Café Location

The vegan Native Foods Café is located on the western edge of downtown Palm Springs.

Palm Springs itself is only 9 miles squared and traveling is affordable to almost anywhere in a taxi or an Uber. There is also a free BUZZ trolley that stretches end to end across the city throughout the day and night.

The Native Foods Café Menu

The extensive Menu at Native Foods Café has options for just about everyone.

They have a mini plant based menu for little people:

The ‘Hand Helds’ section is sure to have something for everyone:

And the Seasonal Specials at Native Foods Café vary throughout the year. All items are subject to change, check the full menu here.

What We Ate

Step up, the $10 Big ‘Ol BBQ Burger. A delicious signature savory patty with seitan bacon, melted vegan cheddar cheese, crispy shallots, a drizzle of tangy BBQ sauce, creamy ranch, lettuce and vegan mayo, all packed into a whole wheat bun.

Seriously filling, bursting with flavour and all burgers at Native Foods are served with a free choice of one $1.99 side(Seasoned Fries, Side Salad, Lemon Dill Potato Salad, or Steamed Kale).
Or pay $0.99 towards a premium $2.99 side (Sweet Potato Fries, Super Slaw [GF], Lemongrass Broccoli [GF], Grilled Veggies, Mac & Cheese, or Sriracha Slaw).

We also devoured the Avocado Crunch Wrap, one of the best sellers, stuffed with plant based goodness which we ordered after suffering from a terrible hangover during the Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs.

During our second visit (so good we came back for more) Native Foods gave us the whopping ‘Meat’ball Sub, a toasted baguette lined with spicy seitan meatballs, marinara, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, pumpkin seed pesto, creamy ranch and vegan Parmesan. This plant based monster sub is under $10.

Keeping the selection of the biggest and boldest of the Hand-Helds, we polished off the delicious Native Chicken, Bacon and Avo Club slathered in crunchy, herb-crusted Native ‘chicken’, seitan ‘bacon’, avocado, chipotle sauce, romaine, tomatoes, red onions and carrots. All slopped on to a multi-grain ciabatta.

We also picked up two freshly baked chocolate chip cookies to take away and we have to say, they’re the freshest, softest and chewiest cookies we’ve ever had.
The extensive dessert menu varies throughout the stores and there’s always something fresh on the counter. Like the Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes.

Or the delicious Date and Walnut cake. Everything is available to take away and some stores offer local delivery.

The Palm Springs Native Foods Café didn’t offer delivery at the time but told us it would be available in the near future (as of March 2017).

Native Foods Café in Palm Spring is perfect for travelers on a budget. Not only will you be able to buy a main dish for around $10, the portions sizes could potentially take you into a second meal if you take it away.