True Food set to open Aug. 2

NEWPORT BEACH — True Food Kitchen plans to open a 7,200-square-foot restaurant Aug. 2 at Fashion Island.

The restaurant, which will be at 451 Newport Center Drive next to Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, is backed by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Fox Restaurant Concepts and author Dr. Andrew Weil, who pens healthy-living books.

The restaurant will seek to encourage health with vegetables, grains and proteins from local sources. There will also be coffee drinks, natural juice blends, teas, sparkling wine cocktails, organic and low-calorie beer and sake and organic wines.

True Food, which is a member of the Green Restaurant Assn., is planning an environmentally friendly interior that features stone quartz countertops, low voltage LED lighting, organic paint, white oak butcher block tables and countertops.

The menu was developed by Executive Chef Michael Stebner and features Mediterranean, Asian and Californian influences. There will be soups, appetizers, salads, pasta, rice and noodle dishes, wood-grilled dishes, sandwiches and burgers, brick oven pizzas and desserts.

True Food Kitchen will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays.

From staff reports