The Natural Cafe

Very serviceable healthy food in the main commercial district. Healthy, quick, and tasty. They execute basics really well.

I wanna know what they put in those buns for the Burger! Being a meat eater I was thinking oh no, but the turkey burger Kelly Burger was so good.
Where do I get those buns?
What are the ingredients for zen Burger Patti, tasty! If I can get the recipe: p

The food is great and employees are friendly. But the best thing you could possibly get there is the Lemon Bars and apparently they are no longer making them… *sigh* won’t be coming back as often now

Casual restaurant with tasty, healthy, and fresh food!
Fast service at a good price
Both the Santa Barbara and Goleta locations have great outdoor seating with umbrellas for shade.
Very dog friendly, the always give my dog water when we come :)

My friend and I got the vegetable stir fry with tofu for take out as wanted something on the light side. The portions were huge but thought the dish was just ok — it needed a kick so added lots of red chilli pepper flakes. The guy who took our order was nice though.

Love this place! Came here with a large group of 20 & were in and out with our food in 15 minutes. Great sandwiches & kind staff. Would definitely go back when in the area!

This is one of my go to places in SB. I get the Old Town Salad with grilled chicken and avocado instead of guacamole. Hits the spot every time!

I’m a really big fan of the Old Town Salad and Gobbler Burger. Both delicious items from the restaurant… just BE CAREFUL & double check when you order something TO GO because they are not always on top of getting the whole order correct. I’ve had TWO instances (in the past few months) where I’ve been really excited to eat my favorite salad with the best dressing ever (Tahini) and so I ordered the Old Town Salad To Go (because I work downtown and only have a quick 30 minutes to pick up my food) and came back to work only to find out that I have a box with chicken on the side, and a box with my salad (with rice, carrots, feta cheese, tomatoes, etc) but NO DRESSING which is just really disappointing because I swear I order the salad mainly for their delicious dressing and I can’t even go back to get the dressing because of my time crunch. And now the salad tastes super dry and I’m not sure if I’ll be back to this specific location because I’m not happy with them forgetting to put dressing on my to go salad multiple times…
On a positive note, I love that they put the chicken in a separate box so that it doesn’t make my salad soggy. In addition to this, I don’t think that some of the employees have enough training here. An example of why I think they may need more training is because every time I order something on the phone (more often than not), I tell them that I would like no onions and they usually always tell me that «they aren’t sure if there are onions and that they’ll just write that in the order notes»… In my eyes, I feel like they should know what each menu item contains rather than just guessing and writing it in the notes. Anyway, food is good, service isn’t bad, just make sure you double check any to go orders before you leave their location.

I opted for the turkey burger. This is a cute place with outdoor seating and a organic yogi feel. The burger was grilled perfectly and came with blue corn tortilla chips. Thats not what I would have chosen to go along the side of a turkey burger but it worked.

Love this place. Can we get one in San Diego please? I like the Fuji Stir Fry. Get it every time.

The food was pretty good, but they have limited gluten free options, and as a gluten free vegan this was a major negative. Almost every health food place I have been to has gluten free bread and is very gluten conscious. My boyfriend liked his food and so did I but it was a little bland. I would go back but it is not my first choice, there are definitely better vegan/​veggie places out there.

I stopped there on my way to San Francisco. I had the Old Town salad, half portion. It tasted good, but there was too much feta cheese. My friend had the Good Karma burger, which was awesome! Seriously, I took a bite and wished I had ordered the same.
This is a good place for vegetarians, and close to the freeway if you want to have a break on the road.

The food here was really good! To be honest it was much better than I thought it would be. My husband is vegan and we are pretty limited in were we can eat but this place had a little bit of everything, they even offer soy mozzarella.

The Natural Café is A-​OK. Located on State Street, we stopped in here on a Friday afternoon as we were strolling down to the beach. It’s order-​at-​the-​counter, and there wasn’t much of a line, so the wait was quick. I ordered the fish tacos (I’m from North Texas, so any excuse to eat fish in a coastal town I’m going to take). My boyfriend ordered the tuna fish sandwich with a side salad. My mom ordered the cup of vegetable soup, and my dad ordered the nachos.
Only my boyfriend was truly wowed by his food. If he were writing this review based on his experience of the food alone, I think he probably would give them 5 stars. He loved the sandwich and the salad, and I tasted both and have to say they were great. The rest of us were okay with our meals, but not all that impressed. My fish tacos were a little strange. They were smothered in tomato sauce and cheese, and topped with lots of shredded carrot. It wasn’t bad, just a little odd. It was served with blue corn tortilla chips and salsa, which were pretty good.
My mom found her soup to be too salty, and the bread served with it tasted stale to her. My dad’s nachos weren’t too warm when they arrived, and quickly got cold as he ate them. He found it odd that there was so much salsa and no beans at all.
Overall, not our favorite spot, but a good option for a healthy meal. The place has lots of vegetarian options, which is awesome. Come here for a sandwich and salad!

I went for lunch with the girlfriend as she had her heart set on dining outside.
I’ve never been to Santa Barbara before so I was happy to soak in some local charm and people-​watch as I ate my vegan meal.
I ordered the black bean burritos and asked for no cheese or sour cream. The cashier was an extremely nice gentleman who asked me to be certain: «so it’ll be vegan?» To which I replied «yes, please.»
The girlfriend had «The Local Favorite»: avocado, lettuce, tomato, red onion, sprouts, and garlic mayo on nine-​grain bread. We also had a large veggie juice consisting of carrots, beets, and celery.
Our food was served very quickly which was great. The Local Favorite was pleasing to her but she let me have the entire veggie juice as she discovered the taste of beets aren’t really her thing.
My plate looked amazing; two burritos with a lush green salad on side. The only problem was that when I took a bite of the burrito, it was loaded with chicken. Luckily for them, I’m what they call a «flexitarian» so I wasn’t gonna fly off the handle like some ass-​monkey who acts as though he’s been served a plate of fresh baby instead of a chicken burrito.
Still, when the guy who takes your order confirms you want a vegan entrée and then they bring you a chicken burrito, it’s the sort of the thing most people care about. The chicken was pretty delicious though ha ha.
It’s a great place and I highly recommend it but I couldn’t quite give it five stars.

Para um almoço rápido de execelente custo benefício, este é o restaurante!
Sempre estamos nele!

Thank God for successful Unilocal finds! I found this little restaurant on my day trip to Santa Barbara. Looking at the menu I realized it was up my alley, considering the healthy choices and wet burrito option! I chose the Baja Burrito which is served wet style with a side of salad topped with alfalfa sprouts and cherry tomatoes. The Burrito comes with rice, beans, shredded chicken (juicy and not dry), and topped with delicious avocados, and sour cream! I was no longer «hangry» (hungry and angry). This Burrito was super flavorful and the smell made my mouth water! I will for sure be coming to this place again. I liked the music here too and the ambience was nice and sunny. I loved it!

I haven’t been to this place for a long time and went with a friend I hadn’t had lunch with for many months. Arrived at 12:15 and there was a line of at least 15 approaching the door. I elected to pick up menus, pick up napkins & silverware, water w/​lemon slices and peruse the menu until my lunch companion arrived.. Found a table in a quieter corner. To start with the unpleasant, I have an AXXESS card which I actively seek to use for 10−15% discount on individual meals after dining with a companion for one meal or ½ meal off. I know many establishments are added to the AXXESS after their initial publication date so it pays to call … so I called Natural Café in the morning and explained that I wanted to use my AXXESS card and would they accept it… Enrique (I wrote down his name for future reference!) said YES they accept AXXESS so I went for my lunch date at 12:15PM. Well, surprise, surprise… when my companion ordered our meals, he was told AXXESS is NOT accepted and would not honor our card… «Enrique» denied ANY knowledge of my inquiry! This is unacceptable to me on many levels … here they are: AXXESS acts on good faith in listing their establishments and is taken advantage of those who CLAIM to honor AXXESS cards but do not. That is unethical.
It is also unethical treatment of the people who have purchased the AXXESS card and may have carefully researched different dining establishments based on their companions’ preferences and the state of their own pocketbook. Today’s fraudulent activities on the part of «Enrique» have denied me the opportunity to eat at Natural Café at a reduced rate which is one of the reasons I spent MY MONEY purchasing the AXXESS book… a fundraiser for students at my place of employment. Now, my companion wasn’t too upset because he is rather well-​heeled as they say but my primarily objections to the perpetration of this fraud was the PRINCIPLE. SO we start our meal with a bad taste in our mouth…
I ordered the fish tacos and he ordered … sorry to have forgotten … but he made several modifications to it … all plant based… and he seemed to enjoy it. My black beans were only
barely warm… the fish was subdued in seasoning but overall pretty good! Only when I hit a strand of melted cheese… it occurred to me that I had spent too much time eating in D.F. and not enough time in So Cal! I considered the cheese and decided it was an integral part of a delicious dish and I couldn’t hold it again «So Cal» since I live here now… … had enough to bring home for a second meal… so 3.5 overall for food, 3.5 for service, 3.5 for price and 0 for ethics.

Serves Wholesome Organic healthy food! And it tastes good too!
The Natural Café is on the busy State street!
Portobello Mushroom sandwich–
Marinated, grilled portobello mushroom with jack cheese, grilled onions, tomato, sprouts, pesto and garlic mayo on 9-​grain bread. This is SO GOOD!
Grilled Chicken Pita–
Fresh natural chicken tenders in a light marinade with lettuce, tomato, sprouts, and red onion in a whole wheat pita with Dijon mustard. Chicken was tender but it tasted kind of bland so we had to add seasoning and sauce.
Cabo Fish Tacos–
Fish fillet sauteed in chunky salsa on corn tortillas with cheese, topped with shredded carrot, cabbage and lime. W/​chips & salsa. This is not battered! Tasted kind of funny at first but it’s pretty good.
Primo Pesto–
Pasta of the day tossed with fresh homemade pesto sauce and feta cheese, served with a salad garnish and garlic bread. Doesn’t that just sounds delicious. Well it was! The pasta of the day was bow-​tie. I would love it to try it on penne or fettuccine.
Next to this healthy restaurant is also a healthy mini mart. They have little groceries and little gifts item. Kind of like a «little» Whole foods market. Kind of cute.

Had the spinach salad with chicken. It was very good, fresh veggies fair portions. I had the lemon dressing in the side sweet and delicious a little goes a long way.
Staff was great and friendly.

Been coming here since they first opened… first with my father, then sister & now it tends to be my BF & I’s current salad spot.
Always filling, yet healthy and satisfying!

Excellente adresse. Assez surprenante !
Service en mode «help yourself», mais super carte, très sains, très bio, très Californien…
Les hamburgers et quesadillas sont excellents et copieux !!! Heureusement, on peut demander des box pour emporter.
On recommande aussi le guacamole !!!

De la cuisine Californienne, une grande première pour moi.
J’ai adoré ce restaurant, aux allures de fastfood old School. Bien sur on y retrouve une forte influence mexicaine, dans tous les cas c’est un vrai régale, frais et diététique on a pas l’impression de ce gaver. Le petit milkshake tout frais qui vas bien est parfait.
Un bon restaurant pour y déjeuner.