The Tasteful Kitchen: A Review — William Charleton

Before I travel anywhere, I look into the food scene. I like to know what I’m getting myself into. I was just in Tucson for the Gem and Mineral Show and stumbled into an amazing restaurant, The Tasteful Kitchen. I actually hadn’t heard of this place before arriving. My new friend Sunshine took Sima and me there for dinner. And it was so good we went to nights in a row! It’s a mostly vegan restaurant that uses the best ingredients. Two sisters founded and own the restaurant. And you can tell it’s their passion. The Tasteful Kitchen is only open for dinner 5 nights a week, and every day before they open, the owners do the grocery shopping. That speaks to their dedication and also the quality and freshness of the ingredients they’re using.

There's wine in this picture, but it's BYOB

The first night, we ordered a sampling. We got spring rolls, BBQ cauliflower, a vegetable platter, fried cauliflower steak and finished everything off with chocolate and walnut covered dates.

While everything was amazing, the spring rolls were my favorite. They were huge and filled with the freshest ingredients, paired with a great dipping sauce. The second night we each got our own, but we added avocado. To die for.

The BBQ cauliflower was perfectly cooked and seasoned, served with a side of house-made kimchi. I don’t even like BBQ sauce, but these were dope.

Sorry about the image quality, I was hungry!

I had ordered the cauliflower steak. It came with sweet potatoes and a mushroom gravy. The flavors were great and the portions were perfect. I ate it all and was satisfied, but not overly full.

I didn’t even want dessert, but when I saw the dates I couldn’t hold back. They were so good, stuffed with walnuts. The second night we got a berry crumble or something like that. It was very good. But I preferred the chocolate lava cake.

All in all, our meals at The Tasteful Kitchen were the best meals I’ve had in Tucson. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend you check it out.