Walking into Natural Cafe in Moorpark feels like walking into a Pacific island paradise. Pictures of shores and waves act like windows into a mysterious land, big fans shaped like palm leaves circle over small wooden tables and the staff greets any customer with a welcoming smile.

This feeling is often achieved by a small family owned place with a large and attentive staff. Natural Cafe, however, is not like this. There are nine Natural Cafe locations throughout Southern California, each of them feeling out of this world.

The Moorpark Natural Cafe is highly cared for and almost spotless. As in any restaurant, there is some daily mess hiding under tables. However, the staff run from place to place, constantly cleaning.

The Cafe staff seems to never stop moving. They are either bringing food to the tables, cleaning, or interacting with customers.

This is the first indication of a flaw in the atmosphere. The restaurant would be a calm and relaxing getaway from daily life, but the constant running of the waiters jerks any guest back into the fast pace of reality.

The restaurant splits the difference between a sit down, high class place and a fast food joint. Customers order at the counter, much like fast food, but the service is more similar to that of a restaurant. Waiters bring food to the table and are eager to help with anything else, some even check in during the meal.

The location itself seems slightly less welcoming, as it is too small to accommodate their demand. Two person tables are cramped together in an almost random pattern, leaving the chairs to barely scoot by each other.

During the lunch rush, enough people pack into the space that their murmur turns into a small uproar, disturbing the peace and serenity otherwise achieved.

Natural Cafe’s food achieves a certain taste not shared by many other dishes. Their food is filling and busy at first taste, with multiple flavors that hit at once.

A couple of bites in, however, the food acquires the same problem as the atmosphere. It wants to be a door into another world, but it falls just short. The sauces and spices bring out a special blend not often explored, but the main ideas of Natural Cafe dishes do not stand up to its details.

A typical dish is often a combination of rice, chicken (for the dishes with meat) and veggies. This seems like a reasonable combination, if the amount of rice was comparable to any of the other ingredients.

In certain dishes, the rice overpowers each bite with a strikingly bland flavor. This forces all the excitement into a barely noticeable corner.

There is one detail that always saves these dishes, the side salad. Every Natural Cafe entree is served with a small side salad and a choice of dressing. The salad is always fresh and crispy, bursting with exciting textures and full flavor.

Natural Cafe’s food, as well as their ambiance, rests on a great foundation of wholesome, healthy and relaxing, they just need to figure out some details. At a glance, there is nothing to say against such a carefully looked for place, and even closer looks only provide dissatisfaction in small doses.