Native Foods Cafe
Danger Danger!
An entirely vegan restaurant (Native Foods Cafe) opened across the street from my office. This… could be bad. Vegan cupcakes, only a 2 minute walk away? Vegan chicken wings? Vegan Mac and Cheese?!
Ahh! I must be good. I must be good. I must be good. (Ironically, I have a post scheduled for tomorrow about willpower. Hmm).
It’s really rare for me to find a place where I can walk in and order anything off of the menu (and I recognize it’s my own choice to live this way). It’s actually overwhelming.
Today, I went with a bowl – tempeh on rice with kale, veggies, curry sauce, cranberries and green onions. The presentation was stunning.
My coworker went with a different bowl – tofu, veggies, quinoa, currants and almonds. We agreed hers was better! Mine was very good too.
We grabbed a menu so we can mark all the things we’ve tried. Ha!
Chicago bloggers – if you are looking to meet-up… let me know! Let’s just get there early. There was quite a line!
Themocracy
Interesting! I’ll have to look this place up next time I am in the city to race!
Both dishes look delicious! –> say that 10 times fast…
Oooo, looks yummy! It must be a foriegn feeling to NOT have to scrutinize a menu for something you can eat…YAY!
Put this on the list of places I want to try!! You should just tell yourself you’ll only eat there once a week.
I had the faux fish tacos there once and they were pretty tasty. They also had a really great watermelon beverage over the summer, I think it had cucumbers in it too. It was funky but tasty.
My husband would never eat there, but I think it looks yummy!
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten at an all vegan restaurant before but that place looks delicious. I’d definitely try it. I have been to an all veg place before and loved the food (falafel).
That sounds awesome, I’d love to give it a try!
My husband grabbed us food here on Friday. I had the “gyro” plate but the “pita” was thinner than a tortilla and there was no cucumber sauce for dipping (I imagine it would be hard to make this vegan anyways). Their hummus was the best hummus I’ve ever eaten in my ENTIRE LIFE. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. He ordered for me while I was working so I didn’t get a chance to pick my own meal, and I’m not sure I would have went with the gyro.
I assume you get this question a lot being a vegan in Chicago, but have you eaten at Karyn’s Cooked before? I used to Yelp a lot more, but I put together a vegetarian/vegan list when my husband and I lived in the city. Even though you’ve probably heard of or already tried a bunch/few of these places before, I thought I would pass it on!
I will have to try the hummus! I love hummus. I bet they could get creative enough to make the cucumber sauce vegan. There are so many specialty vegan items out there now!
I have not been to Karyn’s! I know what it is, but we never come downtown. I just come down to the Loop for work a few days a week then go home. Thanks so much for the list!!!!
If you ever drive to work or something, Karyn’s is totally worth the detour! Their pizza is so good and their bread pudding is AMAZING!!!! Some of their stuff isn’t worth the price (guacamole appetizer), and always ask for extra sauce on the side for the sandwiches, but it is really delicious (coming from your common omnivore that has no plans on being vegan)!
Where in the loop do you work?? I’m at Wacker/Lake!
Bread pudding! Quit teasing me! I want some now!
Ooooh. I’m not vegan (I don’t really follow any kind of restrictive diet) but I like to eat healthy and often going with a vegan option is an easy way to do that. Unfortunately I don’t work downtown 🙁 I miss the days when I did, even with the long commute (40 mins on the train then 20 min walk or bus ride across the Loop to my office).
I hope you get a chance to try it sometime! It will show you how unrestrictive the vegan diet can be… when you are in the right restaurant. LOL 🙂
If you’re ever in Downers Grove, check out Borrowed Earth Cafe (if you haven’t already). It’s raw-vegan and everything there is SO GOOD. Even my husband liked it and he is always skeptical about trying new things food-wise. That’s one of the things I really miss from when we lived in Downers Grove.
My husband and I went there not knowing it was a raw food restaurant, until we took a bite of our entrees. I think we would have ordered differently had we known (don’t as me how we didn’t figure this out ahead of time). Lasagna at a raw restaurant when you’re expecting something cooked makes for an interesting meal! Haha
That would have been a surprise – especially if you ordered lasagna! I bet they make some good raw soups!
Ooo, thanks for the recommendation! Even I am a bit skeptical of raw food. But it would be fun to try. Just not the lasagna I guess, as Kelly said. Ha ha.
Haha. Well we’ve had their eggplant parmigiana and it was delicious. But we were expecting cold/raw food. Everything we’ve tried there was delicious! As long as you know it’s cold 🙂
Everything looks delicious and so yummy!!! I would take the fact that an entirely vegan restaurant opened across the street from work as sign 2012 is going to be fantastic!!!
=^..^=
Ooo, I like that attitude! Yest! It must be a sign. They just opened this year too!
Whaaaaaaaaaaat? How did i not know about this?! Should we have our lunch date here? It looks AMAZING!
Ooo, I was hoping you might see this and ask that!!! 🙂 We should!
i need a healthy option by my office!! i cannot be relied on to bring my OWN food most days, and then there’s a bagel place right across the street… mmmmmm carbs… 🙂
That is awesome it is across the street! We used to be right across from this great grocery store at my work, but then we moved to a different building 🙁
Your face radiates pure joy! I would also love such a place, just not too conveniently located to me!
I want to eat there!
Those bowls both look wonderful! I love eating that kind of food.
OMG! This sounds awesome (and yes, dangerous)! Is this a chain of restaurants or only one location?
I am working on the picture you requested of the necklace rack – which means every time I go upstairs and see it in my room I think, “Oh, I need to bring my camera up to take a picture” and then when I go downstairs again, I forget! Be patient with me, please!
There are a few locations, one other in Chicago, one in CA… maybe more? 🙂 If you come to Chicagoland this year you will have to try it!
Ha ha. Don’t worry. I am patient! 🙂
I love this place! I moved extremely close to the place and if I had the money for it, I would go there all the time. One thing that I like about this place is that they provide specialty menus…nut, soy, and/ or wheat free for people with food allergies like me. The entire menu is dairy-free as well.
They offer free cooking classes which I still have yet to attend… sometimes they fill up quickly!
Ooo! I didn’t know about the cooking classes! Are you by the one on the north side?
I am by the one in Wicker Park. The next class is Jan 15.. a Super Bowl cooking demo.. the WP one is full but I believe there is still room at the Lake View location. http://nativefoods.com/events/