America's Healthiest Chain Restaurants: Lyfe Kitchen

This is part nine of a 10-part series highlighting the healthiest chain restaurants in America, along with the efforts they're making to promote healthy eating. Find part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, part five here, part six here, part seven here, and part eight here. 

With 17 locations in California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Tennessee, and Texas, Palo Alto-based Lyfe Kitchen was founded in 2011 and has been quietly gaining steam (and investors) since then. Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. daily, and items include quinoa buttermilk pancakes; a spinach and avocado frittata; and a Greek yogurt bowl with blueberries, pomegranate, chia seeds, and toasted almonds. Lunchtime items include a barbecue chicken flatbread with grilled chicken sweet corn, caramelized onion, barbecue sauce, and mozzarella; mahi fish tacos with chayote slaw and cilantro and chipotle aïoli; a grass-fed beef burger with Cheddar; "unfried" chicken with roasted Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, and cashew cream sauce; roasted salmon with tomato and fennel; and a Thai red curry bowl with broccoli, eggplant, peppers, peas, wheatberries, and Thai basil.

It all sounds healthy and delicious, right? Well, guess what? Every single item on the menu, even the burger, contains 600 calories or fewer. With a wide assortment of smoothies, and beer and wine on tap, Lyfe Kitchen is a chain that's easy fall in love with.