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    Home » Travel » Food Travel

    CoreLife Eatery (Lexington, KY)

    Published: Mar 25, 2022 · Modified: Jan 3, 2023 · Leave a Comment

    CoreLife Eatery offers grain bowls, wraps, tacos, and more, all made fresh to order with an emphasis on healthy, whole ingredients! We visited their Lexington, Kentucky, location to try out the menu.

    By: Alisha Trenalone
    Exterior of CoreLife Eatery with outdoor dining area.

    I heard a while back that Lexington’s newest shopping center, The Summit at Fritz Farm, included a café with plenty of healthy and gluten-free choices. And it immediately went on my list of restaurants to try!

    (The Summit is full of great restaurants. Condado is another favorite!)

    CoreLife Eatery, as it turns out, has three locations in Kentucky. It’s quite a new restaurant chain (established 2015) that started in New York and has spread from there.

    Indoor dining area at CoreLife Eatery.
    Dining Area

    According to the official website, CoreLife Eatery’s goal has always been to use whole, clean ingredients, including meat that’s sustainably sourced and free of antibiotics and hormones.

    That being the case, it was a pleasant surprise to see how affordable the menu is, especially considering the generous portion size! It’s also very easy to customize most items, depending on your personal diet or preferences.

    Looking for local Lexington eats? Check out Athenian Grill, Han Woo Ri, Pietana, the Luna food truck, or The Local Taco! And Crank & Boom Ice Cream, European Delights bakery, and La Petit Delicat have amazing desserts.

    Building Your Meal at CoreLife Eatery

    Most of the space on the menu is devoted to salad or grain bowls, but there are also a few taco options and some hearty sounding broth bowls.

    Menu board and fresh ingredient stores at CoreLife Eatery.

    When I visited (spring 2022) nearly all of the regular-size bowls were under $10, and for basically the same price you could actually make it a combo by adding a soup, side or drink.

    Want to build your own bowl from the foundation up? You can do that too: just start with your choice of plant-based, chicken, steak, pork, tuna, or tofu, and add ingredients from there.

    Southwest grilled chicken and purple rice salad bowl.
    Southwest Grilled Chicken + Purple Rice Bowl

    The tacos can be made in naan bread, a flour tortilla, or a lettuce wrap. I ordered a Greek chicken taco and a steak fajita taco, both on naan, and they were delicious!

    Steak fajita taco and Greek chicken taco in foil.
    Steak Fajita Taco, with Greek Chicken Taco in Background

    The others in my group went for the Steak, Bacon, and Blue Cheese option, but one ordered it as a bowl and one had it as a wrap.

    Steak, bacon, and blue cheese salad bowl.
    Steak, Bacon + Blue Cheese Bowl

    The wrap was massive and very full, but it held together!

    Steak, bacon, and blue cheese wrap in foil.
    Steak, Bacon + Blue Cheese Wrap

    There’s a large outdoor dining area, so we headed out to claim a table and enjoyed our fresh food in the fresh air.

    Specialty Beverages

    One of the most exciting things at CoreLife Eatery was the beverage selection.

    The specialty juices, lemonades and teas are provided by Tractor, a company that makes organic drinks for a handful of restaurant chains across the country.

    And with all those beautiful colors on display and the ingredients helpfully listed out, they’re all just begging to be sampled. (So I did.)

    Specialty juices and drinks at CoreLife Eatery.
    Specialty Drinks by Tractor

    Beet lemonade, regular lemonade, cranberry cayenne lemonade, mandarin cardamom, fig + vanilla, berry patch haymaker, and hibiscus tea were all lovely in their own way.

    But if I had to pick favorites, they’d be the fig + vanilla (it had a honeyed sweetness and just a hint of apple cider vinegar) and the mandarin cardamom.

    Mandarin cardamom and cranberry cayenne lemonade drink dispensers.

    I’ve already made a return trip to CoreLife Eatery, just a couple weeks after my first visit, and I suspect it will make it into my regular rotation of places to eat in Lexington.

    And while, yes, I love seeking out the little independent local restaurants, there’s something to be said for a well-run, dependable chain restaurant too. (Especially when you’re traveling and want a quick meal that’s not just your typical fast food!)

    CoreLife Eatery is still a fairly young restaurant chain, so they’re not all over the place. Yet. But there’s enough of them out there that now I’ll be on the lookout for them!

    About Alisha Trenalone

    I’m Alisha and I live in eastern Kentucky. Discovering good food is one of my joys in life, but you will also find me doing lots of reading and dreaming of travel. Having worked at a local newspaper for several years, I’m avidly interested in the written word and the art of sharing stories. Now I help Sarah out in various ways here at Champagne Tastes!

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    Hi, I'm Sarah! I'm a traveler who loves to eat.   Follow along to join me on my next adventure-- in food or on the road.

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