A few weeks ago I was in Atlanta for a friend’s wedding and decided to extend the weekend one additional day to spend some time exploring Atlanta. So I cashed in some Starwood points and landed at the W in the Buckhead neighborhood – which is largely the place you want to be if you’re into shopping. Me? I’m not a big shopper. I may or may not have undiagnosed ADD or ADHD, but basically I get super overstimulated in malls and big grocery stores. So when I found a place for lunch after checking into our hotel that was basically in the mall I was really skeptical. But I thought I should at least give it a shot.

True Food Kitchen is a small-ish chain of restaurants spread across the south, west and southwest. The idea behind the restaurants is to serve an anti-inflammatory diet focused on vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free foods. I was tired and it was a really great place to go and not worry about what I could or couldn’t order. There was not a whole lot of thought involved in making decisions of what to order – and it was exactly what I needed at that moment.

My friend and I started with some fresh juice as a post-wedding celebration detox help. We had one green juice and one beet juice that was as delicious as it was beautiful. I needed even more of a health fix and so I decided to go with the Thai peanut salad, it’s one of my favorite dishes to begin with, and then I added a bit of tofu for some extra protein.

It was perfect. The Thai salad could have been a bit spicier, but then again, I love pretty much everything that leaves a burn in my mouth. The tofu itself was pretty darn delicious and surprisingly filling. I couldn’t even finish the whole dish. The tofu was really flavorful and had a great spongy texture. It was definitely a great add to the salad, though I’m sure the salad would have been wonderful – and just slightly less filling – without it.

We also went with the TLT – the tempeh, lettuce, tomato sandwich. It was perhaps even more delicious than the Thai option. And had I not felt like I really needed to eat a salad I would have tried to have eaten even more of it. The tempeh was out of this world. So so full of flavor and it was perfect with the vegan mayo and crunchy lettuce.

Instead of coming with French fries like any other BLT – or TLT for that matter – this sandwich was served with a heaping helping of roasted sweet potatoes and kale. It turned the simple sandwich into a totally full meal. There’s just something so delicious and simple about this entire meal that ended up being just perfect for lunch.

All in all, it was a perfect lunch and I didn’t even have room for any dessert, so I didn’t even look at the dessert menu lest I be persuaded to try anything. And even though the restaurant was technically at the mall, it didn’t feel that way at all. Maybe space is a luxury I’m not used to having after living in NYC for so long, but the restaurant was so big and roomy it was easy to forget you were attached to a mall.

There was a big outdoor space for dining when it wasn’t cold out, and the larger main dining section was extremely  bright and sunny and offered a glimpse into the kitchen. Well, actually, there wasn’t much of a separation between the dining area and the kitchen, which was actually pretty cool. There was a guy chopping a bunch of veggies and shredding a huge block of cheese for most of our lunch.

If you’re ever in Atlanta, or Denver, or Houston, or Santa Monica, or anywhere else there’s a True Food Kitchen, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s so vegan friendly and you’ll leave feeling detoxed and uber healthy.