Restaurant Review: Native Foods Café

            I apologize yet again for another gap in posts!  My wife’s family recently visited us from Vancouver, British Columbia, so I was unable to post for a while.  I was too busy drinking, eating, and being merry.  It was also the week of my wife’s birthday and since she’s the talented one when it comes to baking, she really wanted to go nuts and she baked several pies, a cake, and even ice cream.  To say that I’ve spent the last few days trying to recover is an understatement.  I thought that I would update with yet another restaurant review to get back into the swing of things.  Besides, I’ve been meaning to update about Native Foods Café for a long time.

            I absolutely love Native Foods Café and if they are reading this (HI!), I hope they know they should make a new restaurant out in the Chicago burbs.  My stomach would quite appreciate it.  I might be able to make it to one of their restaurants more than once every other month if that was the case.  For those of you lucky enough to be near one, Native Foods Café is a very cool chain restaurant that is popping up in more and more locations.  They serve what they call “fast-casual” vegan food, which basically means you get to a counter, order your food, and sit down until they bring the food to your table.  Usually, the food arrives within minutes of you ordering.

The ones in Chicago all opened up within the last few years and we’ve been to all three locations.  Each one is a bit different in style but the staff, food, and atmosphere are all equally great.  I’m partial to the one on Clark Street, which also has outdoor seating, since it’s easy to get to from Union Station and the lakefront.

            Our most recent visit took place this last week when we wanted to grab lunch with my wife’s mother and stepfather.  They are omnivores but are pretty open to most of the vegetarian or vegan places we take them.  Native Foods was on the top of our list of places we knew that all of us would enjoy and nobody would leave hungry.  Their ingredients are homemade and their dishes are made fresh each day.  Their homemade seitan and tempeh are both quite delicious!

            This trip was a bit lighter than usual.  Normally, as many of you readers are aware, my wife and I try to starve ourselves before we go out so we can stuff ourselves on the food at the restaurant.  However, this time we had to limit our meals because we had plans to eat dinner with my family for my wife’s birthday.  Such a shame because since Native Foods Café changes their menu every so often, there were a few items I would’ve liked to have tried.  At least what I did have on this visit was fantastic!

            My wife had the Ancho BBQ Brisket, which looked really good.  That’s a possibility for me on our next visit.

            My wife’s mother and stepfather both had the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger, and they both really enjoyed it!  As my wife’s mother said, she gave the meal two thumbs up.  It kept them full for most of the day, too.  If you were planning a day of walking around the city, this would probably be a good meal to fill up on before continuing on your journey.

            As for yours truly, I had the Twister Wrap with sweet potato fries.  The wrap had salad greens, avocado, cucumber salsa, chipotle sauce, and Native Chicken (which you can get either blackened, grilled, or crispy).  It was amazing!  I’m a sucker for sweet potato fries so it’s no surprise I liked that part of the meal.  As long as they have this on the menu, I would highly recommend ordering it.  Omnivores would like it because it’s hardy but doesn’t contain anything too “weird” for them.

Twister Wrap!

Since I didn’t take a lot of photos for this visit, I thought I’d add on the meal we had at this same location during our previous visit.  My wife and I split a polenta appetizer.  Unfortunately, since the menu changes, I forgot the specific name of this dish.  It was also quite delicious and I hope it comes back on the menu.  Just look at how good that looks!

I had the Philly ‘Cheese Steak’ for my main meal.  Now, I have to admit that I’ve never had a Philly Cheese Steak when I was an omnivore and I had never been tempted to eat one before.  It looked disgusting and like a heart attack on a plate.  So I’m not sure what possessed me to try this dish but I am quite happy that I did.  It was surprisingly good – if not a bit messy!  The portion – like everything at NFC – was large and worth every penny.  It’s not currently on the menu but if you see it when you visit, get that, too!  Heck, order one of everything.

            They also have a customer loyalty program, which can come in handy if you go there with any sort of regularity.  For our last visit, for our two main meals we were able to save ten bucks off our order because of it, and like I said, it’s not like we go there every week.  It’s free to sign-up for it so there’s no reason not to get it.

Artwork hanging up at the Clark Street location.

            So, with that, I will let you go back to salivating over the pictures I posted.  If you have a Native Foods Café in your neighborhood or in a location you plan to visit, I highly recommend stopping in for a quick bite to eat.  If you’re an omnivore or someone who is veg-curious and are looking for somewhere to eat-out at, check this place out.  You can load up on food for a decent price.  And for us broke vegans, what more could you ask for?

            Until next time, keep calm and vegan on!

You can check out Native Foods Café HERE to find locations near you and to see their current menu.  You can find them on a few sites including Twitter at @nativefoodscafe

The 3rd Annual Veggie Pride Parade

            It’s been quite the last few days!  For starters, we just got back from my cousin’s wedding in Indianapolis yesterday.  What a fun time and unlike the experiences of a few vegans and vegetarians out there, we ate like royalty.  We were expecting a meal to be created especially for us but we kind of screwed up once we were able to eat.  The food was set-up on a few tables and since we weren’t told any differently, we just joined everyone else and looked through the various dishes to see what was vegan.  Surprisingly, quite a bit was.  We had pasta (not cooked with butter), salad, fruit, rolls, and grilled veggies.  I walked back to our table with two plates in my hands, as did my wife, and we proceeded to eat our meals.

            That’s when my uncle walked over and asked if we had been served our meals.  With a bit of a confused look, we told him we thought that the food we had gone up to grab had been the meals we were supposed to have received.  Turns out we had been wrong. Whoops!  A minute or two later and we were brought out individual plates that were set down in front of us.  What was presented was a plate of potato wedges with herbs, grilled veggies, and a pastry that was filled with mushrooms and some sort of sauce (which was amazing!).  That by itself would’ve been great.  Three plates!  Since I wasn’t going to waste good food, and since I am a bottomless pit when it comes to food, I nearly finished everything.  Which helped since I needed the food to soak up all the liquor I had.  We had a great time!  It was such a beautiful wedding.

            HOWEVER, the real reason I am writing this entry is to discuss the third annual Veggie Pride Parade that was held in Grant Park in Chicago last Saturday.  It was our first time going and I would’ve missed it again had I not seen Dr. Oppenlander send a tweet out about the event. (I’ll be discussing Dr. Oppenlander in the near future)  We had been meaning to go to the last two but just could never go with the way our work schedules were.  With much excitement, we headed out on a wonderful Saturday morning and arrived at the lakefront with plenty of time to spare.  How sad is it that I’ve lived in the Chicago area for most of my life and I’ve never really been to Grant Park before?

            The event was held across the street from the famous Buckingham Fountain with a tent and stage with music playing in the background.  On one side of the stage there were a few tents up for sponsors and on the other side a few tables up for various groups and activities.  We walked up to the registration table and signed in so we could walk along the parade route and we received our nametags.  After walking around the area and taking pictures for a few minutes we were asked to form a line behind MissChicago, Marisa Buchheit, and a few others who were leading the parade.  That’s right.  There’s a vegan Miss Chicago.  How rad is that?

Can't beat that background!

            I must say that I enjoy the vegan/vegetarian community.  I like it in all of its shapes and sizes.  I love the hipster vegans in all their stereotypical glory.  I love the wacky and wild vegans that wear anything that’ll draw attention to themselves.  I love them all.  It’s always fun to see who shows up and wears what.  Outsiders might see some people at these events and go, “What was he/she thinking when they wore that?” but I quite like it.

            We started the parade by going north on Columbus Drive, around the Art Institute of Chicago, down Michigan Avenue, up Roosevelt Road, and then back down Columbus Drive to where we began.  It was a longer walk than it appeared to be on the map, that’s for sure.  However, it was fun!  There was a lot of chanting, waving of signs, various noise-making, and a whole bunch of good vibes flowing.  Since I’m a bit of an introvert, I felt a bit odd drawing attention to myself as we chanted random vegan slogans (“Go vegan, go veg!”) but the more we walked, the more relaxed I became.  Plus, it helps that my wife was there to wave the metaphorical vegan flag.  There were plenty of cars driving by with people honking their horns, waving, or taking pictures as they passed.

            Who knows how many people were actually curious to find out more about a vegan/vegetarian life just by seeing us but it was fun being around people who had the same interests as me.  It’s kind of the same feeling I get whenever I go to vegan or vegetarian restaurants.  There are so few of us out there that it is nice when you get the opportunity to surround yourself with others that are like you, enjoying the same things as you.

Hope Bohenac

            After the parade, we listened to a few speakers including Karyn Calabrese, Marisa Buchheit, Hope Bohenac, Mikael Nielsen, and Vadim Moskalin. Dr. Terry Mason, the Chief Operating Officer of the Cook County Department of Health, was supposed to speak but I didn’t see him on stage.  So I can’t say for certain if he was there or not.  He may have appeared when I went to grab a falafel. Bummer.  I was really excited to see Karyn Calabrese speak since we’ve been to every one of her restaurants here in Chicago.  Every one of her restaurants has something unique about it and each has delicious food.

Karyn Calabrese!  Gives sixty-year-olds a good name, eh?

            I enjoyed listening to Mikael Nielsen, the national volunteer coordinator for Mercy For Animals, because the organization he’s apart of does such amazing work (more on them in the future).

Mikael Nielsen

            I also liked hearing Marisa Buchheit since it is cool to have a local celebrity who is vegan and can talk about her lifestyle to groups other vegans might not reach.

Miss Chicago, Marisa Buchheit

            All were entertaining and interesting speakers.  It was great listening to other compassionate vegans speak out about topics they love.

The winner of the costume contest:  a block of tofu!

            There was also a vegan fashion show and a costume contest after the speakers were done.  They even had a raffle that I had entered when we first arrived at the parade.  I didn’t expect to win anything because I have the worst luck.  It’s just nice to support the cause, either way.  However, I was quite surprised to have won a few cool prizes!  I got a $25 gift card to The Chicago Diner (anyone who has read my restaurant review entry knows how much I love that place), a $10 gift card to FlatTop Grill (not a vegan restaurant but it has several vegan options), and – the best one of all – a $50 gift certificate for a produce delivery service (basically, a week’s worth of groceries).  How cool is that?  We are definitely going to be eating well in the near future!

I especially like the fact that FlatTop Grill was there to promote their vegan options.  I think that’s SUPER important!  They’re not vegan but they know that vegans like to eat. D’uh!  Just be being there and raising awareness in the vegan community, they just increased their business.  If more businesses promoted vegan options to the world, imagine how much more money they would get, too?  And you know what?  I have never been there and I don’t know if I would’ve ever gone, but because I have a gift card, I’m definitely going.  And what if I like the food?  They just got themselves another repeat patron just by showing up to some event the majority of other businesses ignored.  And that’s not even taking into consideration the fact that I’d clearly tell others and would promote the restaurant to other vegans or vegetarians who might not have known about them.  They were the ONLY ones there who weren’t 100% vegan or vegetarian.  Bravo, FlatTop Grill!

After the raffle, we pretty much packed it in for the day.  It was a fun event and I would urge everyone to make it out next year!  Show your support for all things veg!  Even if you don’t walk in the parade or are vegan or vegetarian, GO.  You’ll have a nice, fun afternoon near Chicago’s lovely waterfront.  Did I also mention it’s free?  You can check out the Chicago Veggie Pride Parade’s site HERE.  You should also join the meet-up group while you’re at it and meet other vegans and vegetarians in the Chicagoland area.

I want to send a thank you to all the volunteers that worked to put this thing together.  Your hard work paid off!  And to everyone else – keep calm and vegan on!

You can follow Karyn Calabrese on Twitter at: @KarynCalabrese

You can find Marisa Buchheit on a number of places but you can follow her on Twitter at: @marisabuchheit

You can follow Mikael Nielsen on Twitter at: @MikaelRNielsen

You can find Mercy for Animals on a number of places but you can follow them on Twitter at: @MercyForAnimals

You can follow FlatTop Grill on Twitter at: @flattopgrill

You can follow Dr. Richard Oppenlander on Twitter at: @DrOppenlander

Restaurant Review: Loving Heart

            Another restaurant review?  Yes!  Because everyone loves new places to eat and pictures of food seem to lure people to read blog entries.  I know how to market to my audience.  But an important part of all of these restaurant reviews is the fact that a lot of these places are relatively inexpensive.  For these cafés or restaurants that we go to, we are just as full leaving after a meal as we would be leaving a typical omnivore restaurant (Olive Garden, Red Robin, etc., etc.,).  It’s good info to know since everybody and their mother seems to ask vegans, “Oh, I’d go vegan but it’s sooooo expensive to do!”  These are typically the people who also eat out 4-5 times a week because they don’t feel like making meals at home.  So, do you love to eat out but have only $20 left to last you until tomorrow?  Go to one of these places for a filling meal and you’ll go to bed with a happy stomach.  This entry featuring Loving Heart is no different.

            My wife and I went to Loving Heart last week to celebrate her graduating a 2-year college program.  Out of all the places we could’ve gone, Loving Heart was at the top of her list.  I’m super glad it was, too.

            Once we made it past the endless expressway traffic and the side streets that were no better, it was a matter of locating the actual building the restaurant was in.  If you blink, you’re going to miss it, but maybe that has more to do with me being blind than not seeing the sign. Hm.  The restaurant is a hop, skip, and a jump away from Lake Michigan and it’s just a few blocks away from Urban Vegan.  Go to Loving Heart in the afternoon, walk around the lakefront, and then hit up Urban Vegan for dinner!

            Anyway.  The interior is pleasant, warm, and inviting.  Once you directly go inside, there is a wall on the right that has a bunch of famous vegans and facts about going vegan.  Directly next to the posters is the counter and across from the counter, against the left wall, are a few tables.  There is a small divider after the tables that somewhat separates another dining area.  After scanning the menu we placed our order and waited for the woman behind the counter to call us for our food.  At 5pm, it wasn’t that busy so we were able to order and eat pretty quickly.

            It was nearly impossible to decide what to eat because everything sounded so good!  I hate it when that happens.  And like most of our trips out, we pretty much starved ourselves so we could gorge on the food there.  We ordered two appetizers, two drinks, and three main meals all for about $40.  If you’re going alone, it’ll probably be about $20 – less if you don’t order a drink.  How sweet is that!

            I ordered a banana mango smoothie, which is both gluten and nut free and quite good.  My wife had a hot cinnamon and ginger tea latte.  For you fellow coffee drinkers, they do have both hot and iced coffee drinks available.  The iced coffee comes with soymilk.

Look at that amazingness!

            The first appetizer we ordered was a rice roll (it comes with two rolls for the order).  I really enjoyed this one and it’s a roll version to a salad version that’s available.  It comes with a ginger pesto sauce, avocadoes, spinach, their house special soy-beef slices (very good!), seaweed, onions, red bell peppers, and cilantro.  I don’t know how Asian restaurants do it but I’ve always had the best ‘beef’ and ‘chicken’ options at these restaurants than anywhere else.  I really liked this and I’m not even a huge pesto fan.  This can be gluten free if needed.

            The second appetizer we ordered was an order of pot stickers that were steamed.  They were stuffed with zucchini, cabbage, carrot, tofu, sweet potato noodles, onion, and mushroom.  The order is nut free for those of you who need to know.  They were also very good.

            My first main meal I ordered was the order of BiBim Noodles.  It’s basically a salad mix on top of noodles but it is so good because the sauce is a blend of spicy, tangy, and sweet.  Fantastic!  It comes with avocadoes, their house special soy-beef slices, carrots, zucchinis, carrots, lettuce, red bell peppers, and wheat noodles.  It’s nut free and there is also a gluten free option available.  Good god was this so good!  Check it out if you go.  The combination of salad with noodles and their sauce was perfect.

There really is truth in advertising!

            The second main meal, which I shared with my wife, was their Heaven Wrap.  This, too, was very good!  It comes with raw red bell pepper hummus, spinach, their house special soy-beef slices, red bell peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, and onions.  The hummus contains cashews incase that’s a concern.  This was really good and if you want something a bit lighter than a noodle dish, then get this.

            They have a bunch of desserts available, from which my wife was going to order something, but the two options my wife wanted were out.  Bummer.  I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything else.  I didn’t want to explode.

            Part of the fun of going to these vegan or vegetarian places is getting to talk to the people who work there (or who happen to own the place).  Outside of the big, major vegetarian/vegan restaurants (i.e. – The Chicago Diner), when you express how you really enjoyed the food or show your excitement over their establishment, they seem to truly love what you have to say.  You can see the joy right on their faces and what’s a better way to bring people together than to share in food?  And since there aren’t a ton of vegans out there, any feedback and patronage is probably quite appreciated.

            As a funny side-note, since my wife and I tend to order so much whenever we go out, a lot of servers seem shocked at the amount of food we order.  When we were at the Loving Heart, our server was almost going to walk away after we ordered two appetizers and two meals but stopped short when we placed an order for a third main meal.  I wonder if she doubted our ability to scarf all of that food down?  Either way, it was all fantastic and I highly suggest you spend your money there.

            Until next time, keep calm and vegan on!

Loving Heart is located at 838 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60613

Their phone number is 773-561-5399

Restaurant Review: The Chicago Diner

            If you haven’t been to The Chicago Diner or heard of it, then you are missing out.  There are many times when I regret not having gone vegan sooner.  That is particularly true whenever I think about how The Chicago Diner has been in my backyard nearly my entire life and I never once went there until a few years ago.  They’ve been praised left to right, been featured on television segments, and even have their own cookbook out.  Located on North Halsted, The Chicago Diner is basically THE place vegans and vegetarians seem to go to whenever they’re in town.  Once you go there, you’ll probably see why.  Every time my wife & I go there, we can’t help but stuff ourselves full of food.

            We try to make it a point to stop in whenever we’re in the area.  We usually stop in either before or after seeing a movie at Landmark Theatres, which is just a few minutes away.  That was the case last Thursday.

            My wife has begun working overnights and since I had Thursday off, she suggested we see The Grand Budapest Hotel (an amazing movie that has skyrocketed to my top 10 movies of all time) and get brunch at The Chicago Diner.  I’m often slow and reluctant to wake up before 9 on my days off, so since I’d have to be up anyway to pick her up from work, I decided this would be an acceptable idea.  Truthfully, it wasn’t that hard to convince me.  Even now, my stomach is grumbling just thinking about the food at The Diner.

            Jump to Thursday and we showed up to at The Diner twenty-minutes before they opened.  Yes, we’re just that intense when it comes to our food.  No, we don’t consider ourselves ‘foodies’ (an abhorrent word if ever there was one – it just elicits such snobbery.) but we just love to eat.  Plus, with Chicago’s incredibly crappy traffic no matter what time of day, I figured it’d be a good idea to leave earlier than needed.

            We parked across the street from the three-story building that The Diner is located in and headed inside.  The interior is designed like any diner-styled restaurant with the usual decorations hanging from the walls, booths lining one wall, bar stools at the counter across from the booths, and small, square tables lined up in the middle.  It’s really a fun and cool place to go for a meal.  It’s also fun to people watch, whether that’s the other patrons or the employees.  You’ll find your share everything from hipsters (at a vegan place? NO WAY!) with their beards and black-rimmed glasses to your punk rockers sporting all sorts of piercings, tattoos, and hair colors.

            After getting our much-needed coffee with soy milk, we dug into our appetizers:  cinnamon buns.  Good lord.  That is one thing I never get enough of as a vegan.  I used to eat so many cinnamon buns from Cinnabon that I am highly surprised I never got diabetes a long time ago.  I’ve had a few cinnamon buns as a vegan but a few just seem to be mediocre.  The best ones came from a recipe my wife made but The Chicago Diner’s were nearly as good.  At the very least, they were the best ones I’ve had that weren’t homemade since going vegan.

            We were so hungry and had such a hard time making up our minds that the two of us ordered three meals.  My wife had her own meal – the ‘STK’ & eggs (seitan ‘steak’ and tofu eggs), I ordered the Big Bang Breakfast, and we shared an order of ‘biscuit & sausg gravy’ (made with seitan).  I do not know how I finished everything I ordered.  I could’ve exploded had I had another bite!

            The biscuits & gravy were good but not my favorite veganized version of the meal.  The gravy was good but overall nothing mind-blowing like I’ve come to expect.  Don’t let that give you the impression that I didn’t wolf down my half of the plate, because I did.  I also used the excess gravy on my ‘sausag’ patty and seitan ‘bacun’ that came with my Big Bang Breakfast.

            The Big Bang Breakfast was really delicious!  It came with tofu ‘scrambled eggs’, toast, fruit, potato hash, and – as far as their menu states – either the ‘sausag’ patty or the seitan ‘bacun’.  However, either they messed up or changed things because I received both.  I was not going to complain at all!  Both were really good and tasted good in the gravy.  The potato hash was probably my favorite on the plate.  I could eat platefuls of that stuff.  The tofu eggs were good but I prefer my wife’s because she makes scrambled tofu eggs and throws in a ton of ingredients – really jazzes things up and adds a lot of different flavors to the mix.  As always, I did douse my tofu eggs in ketchup, which helped give it more flavor.  (Damn, I just realized all of that made me sound like the food snobs I loathe.  I’m not, I swear!  I’ll eat anything and enjoy it!  I just have different levels of likes.)

            My wife somehow managed to finish her meal off with a shake.  How she was able to finish a shake after all of that food is beyond me.  I really wanted one of their shakes but I just couldn’t bring myself to have one.  It really bummed me out because they have THE BEST vegan shakes in the world!  We always seem to get a shake whenever we go there – it doesn’t matter how cold or hot it is, either.  If you go there, you MUST order a shake.  I love the mocha and despite wanting to try others, I tend to order that whenever I’m there.  It’s just too good to pass up.

            All in all, brunch was a fantastic idea!  Plus, parking was super easy that early in the day and it wasn’t as crowded as it always is in the afternoons and evenings.

            The Chicago Diner also recently opened up a second location (not in the suburbs, however.  Do you hear me, Chicago Diner?? Hmmm??) in Logan Square, but we have yet to go there.  That may have to be rectified!

            Well, that about wraps things up.  Has anyone else been to The Chicago Diner?  What are your favorite meals or drinks?

            Until next time, keep calm and vegan on!

The Chicago Diner is located at 3411 N. Halsted, Chicago, IL, 60657 & now at 2333 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60647

You can follow The Chicago Diner on Twitter at @chicagodiner

Restaurant Review: Urban Vegan

            Happy Pi Day!  I feel like I should do a pie-themed entry today.  Alas, that will not be happening.  However, I do have something else for you that you might find equally enjoyable:  another restaurant review!  I know, I know – two restaurant reviews back-to-back.  I wanted to avoid it but I thought I’d post about it before my poor memory skills erase most of what I wanted to say about the restaurant.  Besides, who doesn’t enjoy pictures of food?

            Monday, my wife and I went to Urban Vegan in Lake View on W. Montrose.  I only mention the exact location because they have another location in Lincoln Park.  Urban Vegan serves Thai food, which I love.  Hell, I love Asian food, period.  You can also order pick-up and delivery so if you’re nearby I highly recommend you get something from here.  I wish I lived closer than almost an hour away.  Bummer.

            The Lake View location was relatively small (only about a ½ dozen tables) but it didn’t feel like you were crammed into a phone booth with others elbowing you in the side as they ate.  The lighting and atmosphere was pleasant enough and the service was really quick.  And as with most days we go out to eat, we were pretty hungry by the time we got to the restaurant.

            Before our appetizers arrived we received two bowls of miso soup (I love that stuff).  It’s one of the things I look forward to the most whenever we go to Asian restaurants.  It’s like the Asian equivalent to breadsticks at Italian restaurants.

            The appetizers were amazing!  The first one they brought out was our order of steam curry dumplings.  I could eat dumplings everyday of the year.  The curry sauce made them a bit spicy but nothing most people couldn’t handle.  I’ve gotten used to my wife making some spicy meals but I still can’t handle anything above mild.  Typical white person problems, eh?  I had a cup of water nearby so I made it through the dumplings just fine.

            Our next appetizer was an order of chicken satay.  I think these were my favorite despite how much I enjoyed the dumplings.  I didn’t eat the peanut sauce that they came with but they tasted really good with just the sauce they had drizzled on them.  The ‘chicken’ they used was that same soft, tear-able feel that I vaguely recall chicken having had.  I don’t know why but outside of Beyond Meat (a company I’ll try to delve into in another post soon), Asian vegan restaurants have the best chicken-meat alternatives around.  If you’re going to Urban Vegan, I recommend checking out this dish!

            The only complaint I have about the appetizers (and the dessert) was that they were a bit smaller than I would have liked.  Oh well.

            For our main meals, my wife ordered Pad Thai and I had the Curry Spinach Noodle.  My wife loves Pad Thai and she has ordered it at every Asian restaurant that serves it.  Ever since she had Wok ’N Fire’s Pad Thai, she has been on a quest to find somewhere that could top it.  Up until Monday she had yet to find a restaurant that could make a better Pad Thai.  That changed once she had Urban Vegan’s Pad Thai.  When I asked her if she was now going to stop ordering Pad Thai everywhere, she laughed and smiled before saying no.  I guess, however, that is pretty big praise because trust me when I say she’s ordered Pad Thai EVERYWHERE.

            My dish was amazing but I didn’t think my meal choices through.  I had already had an appetizer with curry in it and now I was having another dish with curry in it.  Besides being a little spicier than I was expecting (for my tastes.  Again, most people won’t really be bothered.), I really enjoyed it.  I had been worried the portions were going to be small since the appetizers were but I had plenty of food to eat.  The vegan shrimp felt like and even tasted like the animal.  I don’t eat a ton of alternative meat products so I enjoy getting to see what’s out there as far as alternatives go for vegans.  With shrimps and bacon and a whole host of other omnivore foods becoming veganized, it is even easier than ever to go vegan.  It’s great!

            Like I mentioned earlier we also had coconut ice cream for dessert.  The ice cream was served in a coconut shell and had chocolate drizzled around the coconut.  My wife and I shared one coconut but I probably could’ve eaten one all by myself.  It was relatively small for a portion.  Although, looking back on it, I probably would’ve exploded had I had my own full coconut.  I tend to overeat.

            Overall, it was a really fun experience!  The price for two appetizers, two main meals, and a dessert was under $50.  Not too shabby since meals with vegan meats can be a bit more expensive than meals without them.  I’m still amazed at how many vegetarian and vegan options are popping up all over Chicago.  I just wish I could have a few more out in the burbs (you hear that, restaurant entrepreneurs?).

            Ok, next entry will be a real post with real thoughts other than “om nom nom nom”, I promise.  Until next time, keep on vegan on!  (Still trying to work on a catchy ending.  Does that qualify?  Should I keep that one?)

Restaurant Review: The Original Soul Vegetarian Restaurant

            For my first restaurant review on my blog, I thought I’d start with the restaurant my wife and I went to today – Original Soul Vegetarian Restaurant.  Soul Vegetarian is an amazing little place located on 75^th Street in Chicago’s south side.  This place has been fueling residents with amazing vegetarian southern comfort foods since 1980.  Vegetarian in Chicago for over thirty years?  WHAT??  It’s true.  Eat some of their food and you’ll see why they’ve been open for that long.

            I say it’s vegetarian but it’s basically vegan.  They may use some honey in a few dishes but otherwise it’s vegan.  (A quick side-note to non-vegetarians: some vegans consider honey okay to eat and some do not.  It’s an animal by-product so I try to avoid it whenever I can.  However, if I learn something had it after I consumed it, I’m not going to have a breakdown.)

            The first time we went to Soul Vegetarian was back when my wife was first transitioning over to a vegetarian diet.  I was still an omnivore but she came across the restaurant’s listing on the helpful website Happy Cow (seriously, you cannot be a vegetarian and not use this website).  That first trip was mind-blowing!  The food was delicious, those working there were super friendly, and the pricing was definitely worth it.

            But for whatever reason, we just never got around to returning.  We would always make it a point to eat something from their booth at vegetarian or vegan events but today was the first time we made it back to the restaurant.  We were originally going to try out a different vegan restaurant just down the street but we were surprised to see it had closed down without a word about it on their site.  Soul Vegetarian was definitely an okay second choice, however!

            This time, I came with a palette that was more open to vegan food.  I wasn’t looking at the menu and grossed out by things that had words like “collard greens” or “black-eyed peas” in them necessarily.  The first time I might’ve looked at the menu and thought, “Man… what might be good?” because I was limiting myself to the items that seemed familiar to me.  This time I was looking at the menu and thinking, “Man… what might be good?” because EVERYTHING looked good.  How was I going to prioritize what was good, better, or best??

            The restaurant is relatively small but open and relaxed, just to the side of the main counter where people can just order take-out.  To the opposite side of the main counter is yet another section that serves as a juice bar/deli called Eternity.  We sat ourselves and poured over the menu.  We usually like to starve ourselves before going out to eat so we can order a bunch of plates to eat.  Today was no exception!

            For appetizers, we ordered a basket of onion rings with barbeque sauce and a plate of Buffalo wings with blue cheese.  The barbeque is really good with the onion rings.  Their BBQ sauce isn’t that spicy and not overly sweet.  I don’t usually like to eat a lot of Buffalo wings because I find the sauce the wings are lathered in a bit too much.  However, these were delicious!  I guess it’s because my tastebuds have grown to tolerate blue cheese, too, so I could balance the Buffalo sauce with the blue cheese.  Hizzah for expanding my horizons!

            I ordered a basket for my main meal that came loaded with seitan steak pieces, thick and soft tofu squares, battered and fried mushrooms, and fries.

            I loved all of it but I think the mushrooms are my favorite out of the seitan, tofu, and mushrooms.  The seitan was good because they were tough like steak and went well with the BBQ sauce.  I liked how soft the tofu was even though they were fried.  I guess I’m just a big mushroom fan so they always win me over in the end.

            The main meal also came with a vegetable noodle soup (that seemed to have ‘chicken’ pieces shredded up in it) and cornbread.  I enjoyed the soup since it was pretty cold outside and I’ve grown to love cornbread since going vegan.  Their bread was really warm and soft and would break apart in my hands.  Eat their cornbread over your soup bowl so you can scoop out the remaining parts.  You won’t want to leave anything behind.

            We finished off by walking over to the Eternity side and getting smoothies.  What kind of super geniuses order smoothies when it’s still 30° F outside?  That’d be us!  The berry smoothie I ordered hit the spot after all the tofu and seitan that I ate.  It helped me convince myself that I wasn’t a complete slob.

            So, if you’re hankering for some comfort food, definitely check out Soul Vegetarian!  If you look online, you might see it listed as the Original Soul Vegetarian Restaurant, Soul Vegetarian Restaurant, or Soul Vegetarian East (the last one since it’s on east 75^th Street most likely).  Parking is relatively easy (just right out front on the street) but that’s probably because both times we went were during the day.

            Has anyone been there?  Let me know what you thought!