Evanston's Zoba Noodle Bar needs a little more polish before it shines. more ›

Jan. 16 - 20 is Veggie Week at Grubwithus. All you have to do to enjoy one of these delicious, family-style, sitdown dinners is sign up! more ›

Or at least give up meat for a month. Dr. Terry Mason went on Fox Chicago to argue the health benefits of the meat-free lifestyle. more ›

This veggie wrap, which includes a veggie burger patty and many other goodies, has made us into regular customers at Grill Inn. more ›

Seats are already going fast for the Goose Island Beer Pairing Dinner slated for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, December 16. more ›

Apparently, it's falafel day here at Chicagoist! We love the sandwiches (and everything else) at Taza Cafe. more ›

Chicago's Dog House is an ideal location for the vegetarian with a hot dog craving. more ›

In their grand tradition of quantifying everything around us, U.S. News and World Report ranks the efficiency of popular diets. more ›

If you aren't, here are some great places to start. And don't worry - it's not all quinoa, tofu and kale. more ›

The Counter's veggie burgers have gotten rave reviews, and now they are giving them away for free on World Vegetarian Day. more ›

Quinoa. You might not know how to pronounce it, but you have probably seen it on a menu or two or in the health food section of your local grocery store. To the untrained eye, it looks like a grain . . . almost like rice. But cooks and healthy eating aficionados know that it is something more. Quinoa is an ancient and nearly perfect food, as good for you as it is good tasting. As the fight against obesity and unhealthy diets ratchets up, we think you are going to be seeing and eating a lot more of it in the days ahead. more ›

This week, we bring our staff picks a little more down to earth. After telling you about restaurant bathrooms and the best eateries in which to avoid having your brains eaten, now we weigh in on a more mundane topic: sausages. Chicagoans love their encased meats, and the city boasts some amazing places to buy them. They're cheap, come in infinite variety and can be made in any season. Even vegetarians can have them! more ›

It is no mere play on words to say that something must be cooking up in Rogers Park. Every time we think we have wrapped our lips around the last tasty morsel this neighborhood could possibly offer up, something new catches our eye and our fancy. Recently, we have written about everything from Thai cuisine to comfort food to coffee. Who knew Rogers Park had so much to offer diners? With our recent discovery of Act One at the Mayne Stage, we can even say that they have a gastropub. Make that a good gastropub! more ›

Any illusions we ever had about Chicago not being a great city for vegetarians have slowly been cast aside. It seems that the more we explore the culinary highways and byways of the Windy City, the more superb meat-free fare we find. It seems that there's a nice vegetarian surprise around almost every corner. Our latest came from a little place on Devon in Rogers Park. Blue Elephant is a little Thai restaurant that is small on space, but big on fresh vegetarian taste. more ›

There are many ways a watering hole can work its way into the hearts and psyches of a city and its denizens. Sometimes it is an atmosphere or a vibe that reflects the soul of its environs. Others, it is the characters in the crowd that call themselves regulars. Schubas may lack the quaint, hokeyness that was everyone's favorite sitcom bar, but it is every bit as representative of the Windy City as Cheers was of Boston. It's got our grittiness, our gregariousness, and our lust for life and good time. As this is a restaurant review, we are also happy to say that it offers some damned good food too. more ›

Hold the Beef is a monthly series exploring Chicago's vegetarian burger scene. If you know any veggie burger joints that we should check out, post them in the comments! more ›

Some things were simply meant to go together. Take for instance, peaches and cream, gin and tonic, or even Starsky and Hutch. To quote the old Reese's commercial, they are "two great tastes that taste great together". But what about curry and pizza? It may not sound like a match made in heaven, but then again we neither eat with our ears nor our eyes. If this combination strikes you as even the least bit intriguing, then head on down to Curried in the Loop and get a little taste of something divine. more ›

Vegetarian fast food. It may not be an oxymoron, but it is also not a phrase that usually elicits excitement - especially among vegetarians. For us, "grab and go" usually means a handfull of celery or carrot sticks. For those with a little more time, you might be able to get a salad made to order. Then again, it is probably going to be the same salad you ordered last time. Truth be told, though, things are better than they have been in the past. Thanks to greater acceptance of the meat-free diet, most places now have some kind of vegetarian offering on the menu. Then there's Hannah's Bretzel. These little shops have eight! more ›

Vegetarian food is not exactly hard to come by in Mexican restaurants. It does not take a whole lot of effort to throw some standard non-meat ingredients on a tortilla or taco shell and label it vegetariano. It takes more talent and a better understanding of the veggie palate, however, to serve up meatless meals with real south of the border flare and authentic Mexican taste. The folks at Los Portales in Rogers Park possess that skill. more ›

We searched high and low for a good vegetarian hot dog and wound up finding a plethora of them at a popular national chain. more ›

From the generous size of the dishes to the big, bold flavors, Andersonville's Little India is a giant among Chicago's more petite Indian outlets. more ›

Most sushi places offer some form of vegetarian sushi. But not all veggie sushi is created equal. more ›

Hold the Beef is a monthly series exploring Chicago’s vegetarian burger scene. If you know any veggie burger joints that we should check out, post them in the comments! more ›

One of the biggest issues for people on the go is finding delicious, healthy fare that is fast enough to fit their hectic schedules. This is especially true for vegetarians. Luckily, purveyors of health foods are stepping up their game and healthy fast food joints are popping up everywhere. One of the latest to open is Lincoln Park’s Shift on Sheffield. A cafe and natural goods store rolled into one, it is a welcome addition to the city’s health food scene. more ›

One of the things that makes exploring independent coffee shops so much fun is the unique twists they are able to bring to what they do. From menu, to decor, to the additional treats they put on their menus, indie shops are not governed by the cookie cutter standards that make the bigger chains so homogeneous. Sure they may look like your standard coffeehouses from the outside, but you never know what is waiting for you until you step through the door. Imagine our delight then upon visiting Royal Coffee in Rogers Park for the first time to find out that we could get a tasty Ethiopian meal with our joe. more ›

We have said it before, but some things simply bear repeating. Living on a vegetarian diet does not have to be boring or bland. All you need is an adventurous spirit, a palate to match and either a good dining guide or map of the city. Chicago is a food-lover’s oyster, and for the vegetarians among us it is literally stuffed with pearls. If you are craving good, authentic Mexican food, you can satisfy your hunger and your budget with a trip to Taqueria Mi Guadalupe in Rogers Park. Bland and boring step aside. The food here is excitante y caliente. more ›

To highjack a line from Elle Woods, the laws of burger alternatives are simple and finite. A restaurant will either make its own or dress up someone else's. Neither option in and of itself is better than the other. We have had some awesome non-beef burger made from scratch on the premises and have been delighted by a restaurant's presentation of a third-party patty. As any good vegetarian will tell you, it is not the nature of the sandwich but rather the magic ... er, taste (you get the picture) ... inside that counts! It is with that bit of veggie wisdom in mind that we set our finicky tastebuds to take on Hackney's Black Bean Burger. more ›

"I'm passionate about home cooking," says Meez founder Jen Moore. "So if someone takes my recipe, that's good for me. I got someone who wouldn't cook dinner to cook at home." Meez Meals, named for "Mise en Place," the array of pre-chopped and prepped ingredients chefs have at their disposal, is trying to make home cooking faster and easier - and possibly inspire some cooks to try new things. Customers order from a weekly menu of delicious dishes, and all the ingredients, portioned and prepped, are delivered to their doorstep. If you're busy, but still love to cook interesting food, Meez Meals is a great service for you - and Chicagoist readers get a discount on their first order. more ›

Due to its heavy reliance on lamb, beef, and chicken, some diners might think Middle Eastern cuisine isn't vegetarian-friendly. Sure, there are staples like hummus and baba ganoush that are popular and made without meat. But these alone are hardly enough to satisfy a hungry herbivore. A recent trip to Lincoln Park’s Fattoush, however, dispelled our misconceptions and reservations. Their Lebanese stylings opened up a whole new world of meat-free flavor for us. more ›

Wrigleyville's Pick Me Up Café is best known for three things. It has tons of vegetarian options, you can order breakfast any time the café is open, and it is open almost all the time. We stopped in on a Sunday afternoon to give it a try and find out if the Pick Me Up Café would live up to its name. more ›