Restaurant Review: LYFE Kitchen

LYFE Kitchen: Grass-Fed burger, Sweet Corn Chowder 

and Hibiscus iced tea

LYFE Kitchen is a concept that focuses on healthy choices, organic locally-sourced ingredients and menu items that are all under 600 calories. The rapidly-growing concept was developed by a group that includes a former McDonald’s executive and Art Smith, a celebrity chef known for his fried chicken.  Oh the irony! Not judging, just saying!

The modern restaurant is beautiful with bright colors of orange, white and green, and an herb garden right near the order counter, which I think is super cool. There’s a menu board at the register and actual menus, categorized by type – everything, vegan-vegetarian, gluten-free, wine & beer – near where the line forms. So you order at the counter and receive a buzzer, pick up utensils and water – tap or sparkling – before seating yourself, then have your food delivered to your table…not sure why I needed the buzzer. The half self-serve, half full-serve was a bit confusing, but not overwhelming.

I ordered from the “everything” menu: Sweet Corn Chowder and the Grass-Fed Burger with a Hibiscus tea. Not really healthy, per-se; but I absolutely adore a good burger and anything with corn!

The Grass-Fed burger was good, not great, but good enough. It was served on an oatmeal bun, with lettuce, tomato, pickles and an aioli sauce that was quite tasty but I should’ve asked for more of it because there really wasn’t enough of it. For me, the size of the burger was perfect; although I know many folks would look at it and think “where’s the rest?” LYFE’s burger comes with a side of marinated kale salad.  Meh!  I am all for kale, I actually enjoy it, and I really try to get my veggies in at every meal.  However, the kale was very very lightly marinated and I actually thought I was eating leaves, maybe herbs or something.  The salad had no flavor whatsoever and the quantity of it was so small it could’ve been mistaken for the lettuce on the burger.

Fortunately, I ordered the Sweet Corn Chowder and thought it was yum!  Even with its red pepper, carrots and potatoes, it was the right consistency - not too thin, not to thick. The temperature on the soup was also on point, warm not hot, perfect for a hot Dallas day.  Though now that I think about it, my burger wasn’t piping hot either, but I didn’t seem to notice at the time.   

As I left LYFE, I was full, but for whatever reason I wasn’t satisfied and figured a little Ben & Jerry’s would do the trick!  

So, LYFE was just ok.  Some people have complained about the price point but I thought it was comparable to other fast casual restaurants (Pei Wei, Zoe’s, Chipotle etc). Overall, the food was not memorable and while they offer healthy options, there are other places I can go when I’m eating clean and want to eat out. 

I hate to rate LYFE, but it’s kinda what I do, so I’ll give it a 3/5.

Xoxo,