So many wellness advocates and consumers will emphasize the importance of eating clean, of making vegetables and lean meat the foundation of the human diet, of knowing what goes in your body and avoiding (or at least limiting the intake of) the starches, grease, sugars, processed meats, deep-fried foods and white bread that happen to make up a large portion of the menu of many of America’s quick and affordable restaurants.

CoreLife Eatery goes a different direction. This restaurant, located on Medical Center Parkway, serves salads, grain bowls and soups all loaded with veggies, along with steak, grilled chicken and tuna.

Most items found at CoreLife, other than the sauces, are a single ingredient, grown from the ground or cut from an animal—not frozen, breaded hunks of something to drop in the fryer, or highly processed foods containing hard-to-pronounce mystery chemicals and additives.

CoreLife offers various combination suggestions on the menu to select, or as Kelcie Lyn Daniels, a local customer, said, “You can customize anything you order. Every time I go I try something new because it’s so much more diverse of a menu than your typical sandwich/salad place.”

CoreLife “brings a flair to healthy food, which is good so that it doesn’t get boring,” she added. “Tuna poke is the bomb.”

For diners looking for a healthy and quick (well, depending on how many are in line at the popular spot) meal focusing on natural ingredients, CoreLife is the choice for many.

“Plenty of options for meat eaters and vegans alike,” another patron, Shauna, said following a meal. “Everything was very clean and healthy, which I really appreciated. Their drinks were also very natural and delicious. I was impressed with the wide array of food.”

Sides include sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, mac and cheese

The restaurant offers a bowl with items from this wide array, such as various salad greens, cheeses, peppers, carrots, avocado, cucumbers, tomatoes, grain, broth, sauce and protein selections, along with a soup or a side for $8.95.

“They not only have one of the healthiest menus in town, but great value,” Tracy Miller said.

Many diners say CoreLife is the place to come if someone is on a strict diet, whether that is vegan, keto, low-carb, raw, Atkins or otherwise.

“If you want to eat healthy, try it out,” Angela Jackson said. “I got the Spicy Ginger Steak and Rice Noodles with beef broth, grass-fed steak, rice noodles, shredded kale, broccoli, carrots, scallions, sliced almonds, ginger, cilantro, sriracha . . . it was good.”

After diners pick up their food, they may notice the absence of something found in almost every other restaurant in town—CoreLife does not have a soda machine.

The eatery does offer an array of cold beverages to try, though, including some lemonade varieties, tea, iced coffee and juices.

The bright red beet lemonade makes an interesting, vitamin-packed substitute for carbonated sodas; the taste of the beets certainly comes through.

“Who knew such a lemonade could be so tasty?” Thullin Kestner said. Other customers called it “surprisingly delicious” and “refreshing.”

For a lighter taste, the berry juice with apple cider vinegar tastes great. It’s not a thick and sugary juice but a fruity refreshment, sweeter and more exciting than water, but nowhere near as sweet as a cola or even some bottled juices.

“The raw tuna was wonderful,” a local Yelper, Steven, posted after trying CoreLife. “It is also a place to bring my wife who complains about restaurants that don’t have a good salad selection.”

The indoor dining area is spacious and usually has upbeat music playing and CoreLife also has plenty of patio seating outdoors.

In the past the store has hosted some Saturday morning workouts in the dining room, as well as other wellness activities and seminars.

As far as the side items, CoreLife will offer a few warm items each day, such as Brussels sprouts and bacon or some tender roasted sweet potatoes.

The coconut curry chicken soup has a little spice to it, but the broth is not heavily seasoned or salted—maybe a positive thing for those on a low sodium diet, but some don’t find the broth as flavorful as they would like.

“It’s basically $10 for a bowl of soup . . . I can’t overlook the lack of flavor. Both soups were bland,” another customer posted after giving CoreLife a try. “I ended up having to add a lot of spices and so did my friend. In my experience, broth tends to be flavorful and that simply wasn’t the case.”

With the steak pieces found in a $9 combo deal, well, as a steak enthusiast may imagine, it’s not a fine filet mignon and sometimes can be tough.

One diner said pieces of steak in a salad were so tough and gristly they could not be chewed.

“The meat was a little more rare than we would have liked,” another patron noted in regards to the steak.

Others point out some inconsistencies with how the dishes are made, the tenderness of the side items and how the dining room is kept.

Plenty of others, though, have positive CoreLife experiences to report.

“I had the chicken Cobb bowl without eggs and substituted blue cheese sauce. It was super-fresh and delicious,” one patron said. “The combinations they have here are very West Coast, and I love it . . . try the ginger lemonade.”

Another customer said she enjoyed the bit of spiciness in the Southwest grilled chicken bowl

“If you’re wanting to eat healthy and still wanting it to taste good, then go here,” a diner named Sandra said after a meal.

It’s probably not for everyone, but for healthy, natural eating in a casual atmosphere, and as a place to get to know others in the local fitness community, come in to CoreLife.

“The watermelon feta bowl is amazing,” Gina Lennon said.

CoreLife Eatery
2330 Medical Center Pkwy., Ste. E
10:45 a.m.–8 p.m.
615-956-0150
Combo with a bowl and soup, side or drink: $8.95
corelifeeatery.com