Restaurant Review: Urban Vegan

      Today, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The secret is, Chicago has some of the greatest vegan/vegetarian restaurants ever! So, this year, I have made it my mission to try every single one of them. So today's review is on Urban Vegan.

      First off, we (my friend Delia and I) went there and it kinda looks like a hole in the wall kind of place. DO NOT let that fool you, there is greatness inside! We walked in and were told to seat ourselves. The place is kinda small with only about 6-8 tables in it and you can see directly into the kitchen (which I LOVE). Each table has soy sauce and Bragg's liquid amino's on it and from that point on I knew I was in heaven!

      The menu itself is huge, and here's the thing, it is ALL vegan, every single dish is vegan. So there is no asking to take this out or what's in this. (Well, I still have to ask, because of the celiacs and all.) They have lunch/dinner specials that include salad and spring rolls, and they have gluten-free specials!  Also, you get complimentary miso soup when you sit down, how cool is that? So we got our miso soup first, and it was good and since it's still winter in Chicago, this was very much appreciated! We also got tofu satay as a starter. The tofu satay is very much like chicken satay, or unchicken satay which they also have, but the tofu satay is GF (not sure about the peanut sauce though). This was absolutely amazing, the coconut curry it was dipped in was fantastic and the peanut sauce was to die for! My friend didn't finish all of it and put it to the side to put on her main course it was so good! For our main dishes, I ordered the spicy noodles dinner special with extra broccoli and my friend ordered basil fried rice.  First off, the spring rolls (not GF, I cheated, oh well), were fantastic, they were crispy and crunchy and filled with deliciousness, the dipping sauce they came with was good as well. So those were definitely a hit. The salad that came with mine had, honestly, THE BEST, vegan salad dressing I have ever had in my life. I do not know what's in it, nor do I care. I want a whole bottle (or two) of it to put in my fridge. Maybe I will ask them to do that when I go there next, there's an idea... Either way amazing. So then I start eating my main dish, and you know that point when the food is so good you stop talking?  That's where I was, actually that's where everyone was. There were 3 other tables there aside from us and once people were eating, there was very little talking going on. Now, I don't know about you, but when people are so busy eating that they aren't talking, that means the food has to be down right fantastic, and it was. My food was even hot (temperature wise), and that did not stop me from continuously trying to shovel more of it in my mouth. The spicy noodles (aka drunken noodles), were spicy but not too spicy, had a great vegetable, noodle, to sauce ratio and blew my mind. My friend's basil fried rice was the same, now, the brown rice is really vibrant, so don't let that freak you out, it tastes really good. Also, I don't think they have white rice in the place, so yay! White rice isn't healthy anyway. 

My delicious dinner!

      So food wise, I love this place. I'm pretty sure it has become my new favorite, and that place was held by The Chicago Diner before, but since The Chicago Diner's GF menu is kinda lackluster (I try so hard to like it, but their GF menu is like 3 items, and once you have had all 3, you get extremely bored). Also, the location is easy to get to, and though seating is limited, it wasn't a problem when we were there. It has street parking, so it was easy to find parking. The waitstaff was so nice, kept up with water refills, answered questions, really helpful, and it isn't expensive, it's actually very reasonable for the amount of food you get and the quality of the ingredients. So, I suggest you try it. Also this is one of the only places I have seen that has like 5 different choices of mock meats, they have soy chicken, soy pepper steak, seitan, tofu, soy fish, soy shrimp, it kinda blew my mind even though I'm pretty sure everything but the tofu has wheat in it. I'm not sure on that though and will definitely have to ask next time I go there, because let's face it, with food that good, there is no way I'm not going back there!

Also, my friend sent me this goldmine today! Thanks Kelly!