Friends, Romans, unvegans…what is true food to you? Is it gluten-free? Is it meaty? Is it kale? The answer is likely all of the above, because true food is what you make of it. Yet, a growing restaurant chain is trying to change all that. Calling itself True Food, it already has an air of pretension about itself. True Food tries to follow Dr. Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet, which actually isn’t as bad as it sounds. Yes, it mistakenly loads a ton of vegetables into foods, but at least the menu at True Food had some remotely meaty options, even a Bison Burger.
But despite the burger, I was in the mood for their Shaved Turkey sandwich, which the menu claimed to be served with tomato, onion, grape and yogurt dressing. All this was said to come in pita, with the choice of kale or sweet potato hash on the side. As always, I ordered without the sandwich usurpers known as tomato and onion, then (surprise) I chose the hash over that strange weed known as kale.
When it arrived at my table, I was shocked to find the sandwich has sprouted lettuce and cucumber. Neither of these had been on the menu, yet there they were. It seemed that True Food had a liar of menu. Damn you, Dr. Weil!
After getting over my initial dissatisfaction at True Food’s menu, I cleansed my sandwich of its vegetables and was happy to find a far amount of meat with none of the residuals that pickles or tomatoes would have left behind. Then I got down to eating and found myself with a pretty good sandwich. The shaved turkey was definitely top grade quality and had both great flavor and juiciness. The yogurt dressing added an additional juiciness to keep the sandwich from getting dry and the grapes threw in a little sweetness to keep me in balance. The pita itself was also great, being both soft and firm at the same time.
But realistically, while the unvegan-approved components of the sandwich were good, I didn’t feel as though I was eating anything really special. The same went for the sweet potato hash, which was a good concept, but poorly executed. All at once, these chunks of potato were dry, undercooked and under salted. Needless to say, True Food and I did not part as best buds.
