Edible Chicago

Leap of Faith.

This vegetarian loves Chicago, and the Blind Faith Café in Evanston (immediately north of the city, for you out-of-towners) is one of the many reasons. Ladies and gentlemen, here is a fully vegetarian fine dining establishment WITH A CASUAL CAFÉ STOREFRONT attached to the more nuanced ambience of the full-service restaurant next door. I’ve eaten in both, and the experience is great either way.

Plate tour clockwise from the top left: we started off with tofu “crab” cakes amazingly seasoned (they don’t taste like crab) and served on a sweet pepper sauce swirled with balsamic reduction. Look good, don’t they? They’re fantastic.

Next up is Christa’s selection, Santa Fe salad with BBQ seitan. An unbelievable portion size forced her to carry it most of it home after those crab cakes. She also ate the rest of it later.

Those noodles were crazy and fun to eat and they topped my Mongolian BBQ seitan (a different sauce than the salad seitan, to be sure), which I can’t believe I finished. Okay, yes, I can, and so can everybody else. Shut up.

Observe, if you will: a high quality vegetarian chili served with what was reported to be a very fine vegan corn bread. This from Louisiana-lover Colleen, our friend and my colleague (why didn’t we get a picture of her?).

Take my advice and finish (or start) with a bottle of China Cola (I love the stuff) or a cup of Mighty Leaf Tea—the best on earth, as far as I know (not very far).

Is it cheap? Not as cheap as we’ve seen, but not as expensive, either, and definitely affordable by Chi-Town standards. We’d love to go again sometime. Who’s game?

posted by Dan and Christa @ 10:06 PM