Lots of healthy, tasty choices at Community Cafe in Community Natural Foods
Hey, I’m hitting the road for a trip down the U.S. west coast (you know, Washington, Oregon, California), and the beast must be fed. If you have any good eatery/drinkery suggestions of places I “must” hit, please let me know. In the meantime, one last healthy Calgary meal.
I don’t know why, but I hadn’t eaten at Community Natural Foods in a number of years. Maybe it was the oh-so-serious vibe I was getting, at Calgary’s flagship health food outlet, about what people were putting in their bodies. But when I glanced into the store’s busy Community Café the other day, there were lots of relaxed-looking, regular folks (okay, there was one guy with dreadlocks) filling their lunch plates from the cafeteria-style stations. Better yet, there was a diverse selection of fresh, healthy food at reasonable prices. It all passed my eye test, to the point where I couldn’t decide between a $3 small slice of pizza, an $8 meat sandwich (yes, MEAT), wild rice cabbage rolls or one of the best salad bars you’ll find in the city. Both the hot dishes and salads are $2.49 per 100 grams, so there’s some incentive to not overeat, which is kind of the point, I guess, at a health food emporium.
I settled on a hearty chicken burrito ($8), which server Evan loaded with brown rice, mozza, spring mix lettuce, avocado, salsa, hot sauce and anything else my heart desired. It was a fine medley of flavourful food rolled tightly enough inside a large whole-wheat tortilla to permit only minor seepage down my wrists. My only criticism was the single cashier, causing a slight delay that could cool one’s food off during lunch rush hour. The only other problem was all the other dishes I could have eaten, like the pumpkin lasagna. Guess I’ll have to start making up for lost time.
It’s by no means all vegetarian at Community Cafe, witness this hearty chicken burrito. The fact it’s not swimming in cheese and sauce may make it less photogenic, but my heart appreciates the restraint
The Community Cafe at Community Natural Foods
1304 10 Avenue SW, Calgary
Weekdays 9 am-7 pm, Saturday 9 am-5 pm, Sunday 10 am-4 pm
Marathon Mouth 
Bill, you have to give the cafe a try on Saturdays when the hot buffet serves up some of the best curries outside of Indian restaurants anywhere in the city. Very popular so come early. And yes, there are quite of us ‘normal’ folks eating there regularly – well, ok, my dreadlocks -are- getting a bit long now.
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Thanks for the good advice, Mike. Remember the old days when we’d never be in town on weekends?
Sent from my iPhone
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Great post Bill, thanks for stopping by and writing about us! We’re glad you liked the burrito and that the atmosphere is more to your taste now, we hope it isn’t another couple of years before you come and visit us again.
Have fun on your roadtrip and thanks again for the mention!
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Oh you’ll like the pumpkin Lasagna too, yum yum.
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