Restaurant Review: Healthy Sins Vegan Cafe & Naked Sprout Organics Market in Lockport

            Hello, one and all!  Sorry for yet another delay but since I’ve returned from my cousin’s wedding, I've been working constantly up until this last Friday.  10 days in a row sure can fly by when you’re not looking.

            Since I last left you, a lot has happened.  First of all, I booked a vacation for this fall to Ecuador and Peru!  It’s going to be amazing.  Or at least I hope it will be amazing!  It’s the first time my wife and I have been to either country but it’s part of our world domination tour.  We’ve been to Ireland (nearly all of it), Northern Ireland, London, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica (to name but a few) so far.  I’m really looking forward to finding new vegan places in each country and reporting back on them.

            You’d think that’d be all, but you’d be wrong.  We also booked our (last major) vacation for 2015.  Brussels, Amsterdam, Bruges, Paris, various cities in Luxembourg, and wherever else we can manage to visit are all on the list.  This will mark the first time we’ve been to all of these places.  I told you: world domination tour.  I say it’s our last major vacation because after that, we might stick to small trips here and there.  We just wanted to go out with a bang.  It might seem a bit crazy but we generally live like misers for most of the year.  Plus, my wife never uses her vacation time so that helps to pay for our tickets.  I just didn’t want you all to think that the title of my blog was a bit misleading.  I still wear the same clothes I’ve had for over a decade.  See? Broke.  With that being said, I may be posting fewer restaurant reviews in an effort to save money.  SAD, I know.

            Anyway!  Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get to the heart of the entry.  I wanted to get to a restaurant we went to in Lockport, IL a short while back.  I just never got around to mentioning it thanks to all the craziness going on in my world.  It’s a shame because the restaurant in question is quite good and worth the trip if you’re even remotely close-by.  You see, we went to Healthy Sins Vegan Café for a raw lunch.

            I’ve never been to Lockport despite the fact that I’ve lived about 45 minutes away for most of my life.  I wish I had visited it sooner because it looks like nothing has changed since the 1930s.  You half-expect Bonnie and Clyde to run out of a bank at any moment.

I found the speakeasy!

            It’s got a small but cool main street and you can walk along the Illinois and Michigan Canal that runs next to their main street.  It makes for a peaceful Saturday if you’re looking to get away.

            The restaurant itself was very cool and unexpected given the 1930s vibe from the town.  The restaurant has artwork hanging up along the walls and the tables themselves are in the shape of leaves.  I’ve felt that the one problem with raw restaurants tends to be that the meals look smaller than you would want for the price you pay for them.  Don’t get me wrong – I love raw restaurants and Chicago has/had a few that are quite good.  But, as the Broke Vegan, it’s not a type of restaurant I’d go to each week.

            That being said, this restaurant’s portions were decent.  I did spend quite a bit but that’s mainly because I wanted to make sure I had enough variety to give a decent review.  We ordered two appetizers, two main meals, and two desserts for about $60.  By comparison, we ate at the Loving Heart (see the review further down the blog) for about $25-30 and ate like kings.  If we were just going there any other normal day we probably would’ve only spent about $45 or so.  That being said, we went for lunch and were full for most of the day.

            Our first appetizer was an order of bagel bites.  The ‘bagels’ were dehydrated bread slices (probably made of a combination of flax and some sort of seeds if I had to guess).  There were six slices and each slice had its own topping.  There was a pesto, a pumpkin seed cheese, a taco ‘meat’, an egg salad, a tuna, and a ‘sloppy joe’ topping.  I would have to say that my favorites were probably the taco meat, the egg salad, and the sloppy joe.  I loved the variety and the unique ways they were able to create raw, vegan toppings.

            The second appetizer was an order of nachos that featured dehydrated chips.  The dish came with taco meat, guacamole, salsa and onions, and sour cream drizzled over it all.  These. Were. Fantastic.  The menu says it’s a meal in itself and that’s no joke.  We probably could’ve just had the two appetizers and two desserts and been content.

            My wife ordered the pizza after much debate and was really impressed with it.  It looked delicious and I probably would order that the next time we went.  The waitress had recommended it to her and said it was a popular choice.  So if you’re new to the raw scene and don’t know what to get you might want to check that out.

            I ordered the sloppy joe’s because I grew up addicted to sloppy joe sandwiches and whenever I see a sloppy joe option on a menu, I have to give it a shot.  It wasn’t too bad but not my favorite raw dish.  I was originally going to go with a raw pasta dish and probably should’ve because I think after eating all that other raw taco meat, I was on raw vegan meat overload.  It was an interesting take and I dig their attempt at it but by the end of the meal I was about ready to explode.  The dish also came with a small side salad and a small fruit salad.

Why can't I eat the picture?!?

            The dessert I had was a raw apple pie, which – and I cannot stress this enough – was amazing!  It tasted like it was cooked and was probably one of the best raw desserts I’ve had (not counting homemade).  That was worth the trip to Lockport alone.  Just look at the picture!  I’m drooling even now.

            All in all, I would definitely return here and I recommend it to anyone who wants good food and is looking for a little indulgence (as far as spending a little cash goes).  The staff was super friendly and the décor and vibe were cool.

Just down the street is Naked Sprout Organics Market, which makes its own juices and smoothies.  I would also recommend stopping inside to grab a drink before you head back home.  I had an oatmeal cinnamon smoothie, which might sound odd but was pretty good!  It had a bit too much nutmeg for my liking but was tasty none-the-less.  My wife, however, had the strawberry-lemon cheesecake smoothie and – hot damn – it was so, so, so good!  It was like I was really drinking a mashed up cheesecake.

            I promise not to be gone for as long as I have been for my next entry.  I have a few things lined up to talk about.  Hope everyone is well!  Until next time, keep calm and vegan on!

You can check out Healthy Sins Vegan Café HERE.  They are located at 928 S. State Street, Lockport, IL, 60441.

You can check out Naked Sprout Organics Market HERE.

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!