Vegan Restaurant Review!!!

My fiance and I have traversed the world (mostly the greater Chicago Area) in search of delicious vegan food. Here is our ranking of vegan places. Note that the perceived quality of a restaurant can depend heavily on the specific entrees ordered and picking the right entree can be a matter of luck. For this reason, we seek to be specific about what we liked and didn't.


#1: Old Abe's Coffee Shop (Rochester Mn)

Believe it or not, the best Banh Mi of my life was in Rochester Minnesota. Old Abe's ribwich, banh mi (with jalapenos and vinegar chilli) and their (PETA approved!) spicy salmon bowl are some of the best vegan entrees I've ever had. Other entrees we tried were also great, though less-so. The Springrito, seasonal leftovers sandwich (December), Korean BBQ bulgogi, and citrus ribs, and banh mi bowl were also very good (and I would rank them from best to worst in that order). And we could get an entree for eleven dollars, which is frankly heroic in this economy.

The most exciting thing about Old Abe's though is the donuts. They have a fantastic line-up vanilla bourbon, Reese's, eggnog, lemon, springfield (like the donuts in the Simpsons), maple, and cinnamon sugar. All of these were fantastic and put the usual vegan donut scene to shame. Sometimes they rotate flavors in and out as well, and they have seasonal themed donuts. Their vegan cinnamon rolls are also really good.

They also have coffee. We like their Zumbro Coffee and Chai Latte a lot.

#2: Quesadilla La Reina Del Sur (Bucktown, Chicago)

The best and most economical tacos in Chicago. Their Alambres dish is fantastic and we really liked the vegan bacon in it. We also liked the flautas and pretty much every taco: the Barbacoa de Soya, Pastor de Soya, Asada de Soya, Tinga de Soya, Chicharron, Carnitas, and Pollo de Soya tacos were our top ones.

#3: Alice and Friends (Edgewater, Chicago)

Alice and Friends is an asian fusion vegan restaurant, and one of the few restaurants with vegan crab rangoon. Its crab rangoon is extremely good — I consider it the single best vegan dish I've ever had although everything here is incredible. We have been here so often, we have created our own personal rankings of each entree:

  1. Thanksgiving Roast: Thanksgiving only, but delicious.
  2. Golden Yuba Rice: The crispy yuba is very satisfying
  3. Bip Bim Bap: Best bip bim bap we've had in Chicago. Places like Bloom charge twice as much for half as much food.
  4. Tom Ka Soup: Great flavor profile and vegan shrimp is impressive
  5. Walnut Shrimp: Vegan shrimp and flavor is good but a little understated for us
  6. Burmese Noodle Salad: A delicious noodle salad
  7. Run Away Potato: Spicy curry vibes and very filling (due to potato)
  8. Spicy BBQ: Good plant-based meat but not uniquely impressive
  9. Mushrooms Wonderland
  10. Tonkotsu Ramen
  11. Laksa
  12. Golden Breeze
  13. Chow Mein: Too mild and not flavorful enough for us

Aside from that, Alice and Friends offers some of the best vegan desserts in Chicago. Their tiramisu (not raw) is amazing and tastes exactly like non-vegan tiramisu. Their strawberry shortcake is delicious.

#4: Urban Vegan (Ravenswood, Chicago)

Urban Vegan is a vegan Thai restaurant. Their curries are unique and delicious, even among the many Thai places we eat at and this also goes for any entrees that have a curry-based sauce like the Panang Spinach noodles. Their vegan shrimp, like Alice and Friends, is impressive. We also like their stir-fries, where their plant-based chicken and steak are both delicious. Their orange chicken is popular but not as flavorful as we personally would like. The serving sizes for all these entrees are massive and we always have leftovers. Drinkswise, their Thai Iced Tea is delicious.

One warning though: their soups are very liquidy / thin / water-based. They aren't bad they feel more like drinks than like entrees to us. Some may enjoy them but they are not our thing.

#5: Fresh Mint (Scottsdale Az)

Fresh Mint serves vietnamese vegan food and their entrees are some of the best we've had. Their fresh mint tomatoes, soy fish in clay pot, and vegetarian black pepper steak were fantastic. Their fried imperial rolls were good as well and we had a strawberry mango smoothie which was nice. Ultimately though, they earned their high position on the merits and uniqueness of their entrees.

#6: Vegan Plate (Lincoln Park, Chicago)

Vegan Plate is another Thai vegan place. While we go to Urban Vegan for curries, we go to Vegan Plate for the less-curry Thai options. Our favorites are the Chicken Katsu Curry (which has really nice breaded chicken) and Kung Pao Chicken along with their stir-fries. They sometimes offer vegan Shumai as an appetizer which is fantastic and they make a good Thai Iced Tea. Their banana spring rolls are fantastic and beat Urban Vegan's banana spring rolls in our opinion.

#7: Qiao Lin Hot Pot (Pilsen / China Town, Chicago)

Qiao Lin Hot Pot is a renowned hot pot place in Chicago. They are not a vegan restaurant but wind up on this list because going full vegan (tofu skin, noodles, taro, etc) on their hot pot ingredients list still results in a fantastic meal.

#8: Blue Sushi Sake (Lincoln Park, Chicago)

Blue Sushi Sake offers a variety of good vegan sushi offerings. Our favorite eight piece offerings are the Vegan Black Dragon and Shiitake To Me. The Up In Smoke sushi and Cow Girl are also delicious but only come with six pieces at similar prices and are therefore somewhat more expensive per piece. We found the Thai Hippy sushi to be pretty mid. The sweet-potato based sushi was also pretty good and the most economical of the options we might want.

They also offer delicious and well-presented vegan mochi balls for dessert, though they are frankly too expensive for a normal night out.

#9: Veggie House (Chinatown, Chicago)

Veggie House is a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. Their house fried rice is fantastic (albeit a bit pricy) and their mongolian beef is delicious. We also really enjoyed their Wonton Soup and Crispy Tumeric Oyster mushroom. The first time we went we tried the plant-based seafood kimchee noodle in soup and the Taiwan noodles. These were pretty good but did not impress us. We also really enjoyed their sesame rice balls.

#10: Jibarito Stop (Pilsen, Chicago)

Jibarito Stop is a Puerto-Rican restaurant with many good and unique vegan options. Our favorites are their mofongos, loaded tostones, jibarito, vegan alcapurria, and empanada.

#11: Fancy Plants Cafe (Lakeview East, Chicago)

Fancy Plants is a small cafe-style restaurant. Most people go and get their coffees (our favorite is the Cherry Amaretto). Foodwise, we love their mushroom and truffle brie puff pastry and their lox bagel. They recently came out with Fancy Grilled Cheeze. We aren't big grilled cheese people but if that's your jam, we've had it and it's good.

Fancy Plants also offers croissants. If you want a vegan croissant, this is the place for them. We got some of their other pastries (coffee cake, banana bread, brownie, raspberry matcha muffin) via Too Good To Go and they were all pretty mediocre.

Less exciting options for us were their croissant sandwich and their Smoked Lentil Lasagna was pretty good. We tried their Aztec Mocha Latte and Lavender vanilla latte, which were good but not as good as Old Abe's.

#12: Pick Me Up Cafe (Andersonville, Chicago)

Pick Me Up cafe is a diner style restaurant with some unique vegan options. We like their vegan eggs benedict the best and their sloppy joe sandwich. Their mocha milkshake is also good.

#13: AO Hawaiian Hideout (South Loop, Chicago)

AO Hawaiian Hideout has plenty of vegan options and extremely fun themeing. We really liked their Panang Poutine, Spicy Tropical Cyclone Sushi and mini vegan lumpia. We also has the Nasi Goreng which was good but not as exciting.

#14: Le Colonial (Gold Coast, Chicago)

Le Colonial is an elegant French Vietnamese place that can make vegan food if requested. We had a curry with mango there that was delicious along with a delicious stir-fry, which were so good they justified the somewhat higher price. Be careful though. We think there might've been some kind of fish-sauce in the stir-fry.

#15: Silver Spoon (Streeterville, Chicago)

Silver Spoon is just a pleasant Thai place that makes some really good and economical food (especially during their lunch special). Their drunken noodles and Mussuman Curry are stand-outs for us (though all their curries are good). Their fried tofu and spring roll appetizers are also fun.

#16: Art of Dosa (The Loop, Chicago)

Art of Dosa is a fast casual Indian place in Revival Food Hall that mainly sells wraps. And, to the trauma of my Indian friends, the wraps made of dosa. And you eat them like any wrap. We liked the masala wrap and Ramen wrap the most and its plenty of food for the price.

#17 Cava (Wicker Park, Chicago)

Cava is a chain restaurant with good vegan options. They're like Sweet Green but good.

#18: Dimo's Pizza (Wicker Park, Chicago)

Their Mac and Cheese Pizza is really good. Lizzo was right.

#19: Chicago Diner (Lakeview East, Chicago)

The Chicago Diner used to be a restaurant for strong diner-style vegan food and good portions. Their food can be hit or miss but the ones that have hit for me — the dagwood (seasonal) and special recipe wings with buffalo sauce — really hit. Nevertheless, much of their food — the truffle mushroom lentil loaf, the cuban sandwich, gyros, the country fried steak, and Buddha's karma burger (ranked from best to worst) — was pretty good but not exceptional. Their main strength here was their portion size. It is still all these things but since a near 20% price-hike in 2024, we cannot justify eating here given the quality of the food.

Our experience has also found their breakfast offerings to be pretty mediocre/boring — mainly because scrambled tofu is pretty boring. Their cinnamon rolls were alright, but a pale immitation of non-vegan ones.

They offer good milkshakes (pumpkin pie milkeshake and chocolate chip cookie dough milkshake are great) but given the price hike and availability of delicious vegan ice-creams in most grocery stores, cannot say they are worth it anymore.

#20: DAO Thai (Streeterville, Chicago

DAO Thai is another Thai place. They have great panang curry that distinguishes itself by being heavy on peanut butter sauce (which we like). We usually order the panang curry with tofu and vegetables to give more substance to an otherwise high-liquid-to-stuff food. We also get the pad khee mao, which is very good. Beyond that, their Mussaman curry is also delicious, satisfying and potato-ey. We have also tried DAO's noodle delight and Cashew sauce stir fry, and while both were good, they weren't particularly exciting/flavorful.

Nevertheless, they have gotten a little pricier and Silver Spoon is better in all of those categories.

#18: Ramen San Deluxe (Streeterville, Chicago)

They have one vegan ramen option (tantan-san) and we like it.

#21: Madame Zuzu's Plantbased Emporium (Highland Park Illinois)

Madame Zuzu's has some frankly baffling entree options (tacos? for brunch?) but the entrees we tried were very good. We tried the Shanghai Rice Bowl, Carrot Lox Toast, and S'mores Donut for dessert. All were fantastic. In the background of the emporium was a live performance by an old-timey band. The food was great but everything was pretty pricey given the small portion sizes. If not for that, it would be higher on this list.

#22: Can't Believe It's Not Meat (Gold Coast Chicago)

Can't Believe It's Not Meat has a broad range of vegan offerings with hit-or-miss entrees and solid portion sizes. Their Philly CheeseSteak eggrolls was fantastic; their Fried Chik'n, Gumbo with Garlic Bread, and Churro Chicken and Waffle were pretty good; and their pizza poofs (too much poof, not enough pizza) and Greektown Gyro (lacking in flavor) were mediocre. Their french fries are also very good.

They also have a number of good drinks / shakes. Their cookie monster shake and strawberry lemonade is great (though I think the Chicago Diner beats it in terms of shakes). Nevertheless, they do not provide complimentary water which we would appreciate quite a bit — especially given how spicey some of their food is.

Overall, Can't Believe It's Not Meat has some very good entrees but we've often ordered things we did not find very exciting. Still they've earned a pretty high ranking on the quality of their entrees.

#23: Veggie Village (Phoenix Arizona)

Veggie Village is a south-east Asian vegan place. We tried the salt & pepper eggplant, jab chae and something we frankly forgot about. The salt & pepper eggplant was delicious but the other two dishes were only decent and not very memorable.