Eating Healthy in Sedona

Aside from the new adventures that come with visiting a destination discovering new restaurants and cuisine are a favorite part of vacationing for us. An added twist is finding organic and healthy food since we like to take our healthy lifestyle on vacation with us! Sedona supplied a great variety of restaurants, cafes and stores to support our nutritionally focused appetites. As with so much of our vacation-planning ahead is an important key to success. I started with www.visitsedona.com for a list of all the restaurants that were currently open and checked out their websites, menus and stories. For those that looked in line with what we like I then checked their reviews on TripAdvisor to see what others had to say about their food and service. If the reviews were good, I put the restaurant or cafe on our list of places to eat. Just having a list of options gives us the flexibility we like so depending on how the day plays out we can pick the restaurant that fits our schedule.

Our favorite and most frequented restaurant was the Local Juicery. Open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm daily they offer everything from cold pressed juices to entrees you can eat in or grab and go. Twice we ate breakfast there and five times we went for coffee and usually came out with something extra for snacking later on. All their menu items are made fresh to order from organic ingredients designed to support good health! Here’s the list of all the selections we ordered and there was nothing we didn’t love!

• Local latte
• Superfood latte
• Golden latte
• Bulletproof coffee
• Turmeric shot
• Protein toast
• PB and cocoa waffles
• Superfood oatmeal
• Forever young bowl

After one of our hikes we wandered into Oak Creek Brewery and Grill for lunch. Situated in historic Tlaquepaque there is seating inside or outside on their patio. Be sure to bring your appetite because their portions are big whether you order an appetizer, salad, burger, sandwich or special; you are guaranteed not to leave hungry. You can order one of their brewed on premises beers or order the Seven Dwarves-their version of a beer sampler. We were good and hungry after hiking Brins Mesa Trail so we started with the Vortex Platter and a Hazy IPA (so good). After eating half of the Vortex we split a burger and fries and left full! You may be thinking a burger and fries do not represent best healthy eating and I would agree but we live by the 80/20 philosophy-at least 80% of the time we make healthy best choices and no more than 20% of the time we make good or better food choices.

We found two restaurants that featured organic menu items-Golden Goose American Grill and Picazzo’s Healthy Italian Kitchen. Golden Goose was absolutely fantastic from the time we stepped through the door and were warmly greeted until we left fully satisfied. Fried calamari appetizer, pecan crusted trout and halibut pizazz entrees were all fantastic paired with the perfect wine creating a memorable meal. The service was excellent leaving nothing amiss. Picazzo’s was delicious-everything is made from scratch, lots of choices on the menu making it hard to pick just one thing. For us we started with the Italian Herb and Polenta Mushrooms followed by eggplant parmesan for me and chicken parmesan for hubby. Even though it was a bit chilly we ate outside and were warmed by one of their many heaters. For both these restaurants if we had stayed longer we definitely would have gone back to enjoy more of the delicious meals!

We tried two different Mexican restaurants both of which were good-we especially appreciated the fast service. Javelina Cantina located in the Hillside Shopping Center has an extensive food and drink menu, lively atmosphere, yummy food and good staff. Chips and salsa to start our dinner and then chicken burritos topped with creme fraiche for me and chicken and steak fajitas for hubby. The portions here are very generous and we both took home half our meals-they made great leftovers! The other Mexican restaurant we ate at was Fiesta Mexicana, a family owned, locally operated eatery in Basha’s Shopping Center. Bright and cheery definitely describes the atmosphere, service was fast and efficient. My margarita was delicious as were the chips, salsa, and our meals. All their menu items are made in house from scratch every day from the freshest ingredients-I could smell and taste the freshness!

In addition to the restaurants, we visited a few other coffee shops, a winery and one brewery. Whether you sit inside or on the deck, Creekside Coffee has the best view to enjoy while you drink your cappuccino, latte or other beverage of choice. ChocolaTree Organic Oasis has coffee, a variety of other drinks, food items and chocolate creations that are not to be missed!! Synergy Sedona serves coffees, tonics, teas and elixers along with chocolates. 

Oak Creek Brewery is a great place for hanging out and sampling their craft beers. Indoor seating with the bar and brewing tanks and an enclosed beer garden out back are your seating options. You can bring your own food or order for delivery to the brewery if you want eat while you drink. Page Springs Cellars is a great vineyard to visit just minutes outside of Sedona. They have indoor, outdoor and patio seating available while you savor a tasting, a bottle or one of their delicious menu items. You can wander around the vineyard, walk down to the creek and enjoy the landscape. Page Springs also has facilities for yoga classes, massage, private events and tours; a great place!!

During our one week stay in Sedona I think we shopped at Whole Foods at least three times-they have a fantastic selection of organic produce, grocery items, healthy snacks and anything else we may have needed. Most days we made smoothies for breakfast and salads for lunch at our room at Sedona Summit Resort. One of my favorite parts of vacation is having a flexible schedule. We would get up, have coffee, read, make our smoothies and head out for a hike. Whenever we were done we would go back and make lunch, nap and then go out for an afternoon activity and it didn’t matter what time it was-when we wanted dinner-we would go-no particular schedule to stick to-love it!!