A much-anticipated healthy eatery has opened its doors in Johnson County.
Whole Harvest Kitchen, a plant-based eatery, opened its doors in Leawood on Tuesday.
This opening marks the company’s first brick-and-mortar restaurant, after starting out as a meal delivery service in 2018.
Whole Harvest Kitchen operates at 4853 W. 117th St.
- The restaurant moved into a space on the east end of the Town Center Plaza shopping center in Leawood.
- It neighbors vitamin and supplement store GNC at the shopping center.
- Whole Harvest Kitchen currently operates from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Whole Harvest Kitchen offers plant-based meals
The restaurant’s menu features “whole food” items like hummus bowls, Mediterranean salads, jackfruit pizzas and vegetable dumplings.
The restaurant also offers sweet treats like chocolate fudge cake, dark chocolate truffles and “nice cream” (made from bananas) — and it intends to add grab-and-go offerings like wraps and salads.
Every item on the Whole Harvest menu is plant-based and oil-free, replicating the typical Blue Zone diet — and several of the ingredients are locally-sourced from Kansas and Missouri.
It’s personal for Will Harris, executive chef at Whole Harvest Kitchen, who underwent his own journey by going primarily plant-based and quickly seeing the health impacts that often come with working as a chef remedy themselves. (His personal favorite menu items at Whole Harvest Kitchen are the sourdough pizzas and the mushroom dishes, including the K.C. Barbecue Plate with jackfruit and barbecue mushrooms.)
“That’s something that a lot of chefs don’t talk about —you eat standing up and you eat during stress,” he said. “I reversed it all with going clean and going plant-based.”
Whole Harvest Kitchen plans to open more locations
- Whole Harvest intends to expand with more brick-and-mortar restaurants in Johnson County and across the country.
- Ultimately, Harris said, the aim of the restaurant is not to be an explicitly vegan restaurant, but a restaurant that serves great food — and just happens to be vegan.
- “That’s kind of what this restaurant is all about, he said. “We’re not trying to change the way anybody eats. But if you do this once or twice a week, maybe it’s a gateway for you to like to change or get better to get healthier.”
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