Restaurant Review - Two Chicago Eats - Flying Saucer and Native Foods

Periodically I will be throwing some restaurant reviews on the blog....here are a couple that I hit up this week.....

Flying Saucer....delightful. A great breakfast place! It feels like a small little diner with the long, low bar counter with stools and small booth tables around the walls with the old vinyl chairs. So cute! The food was delish. They have breakfast bowls with brown rice, greens, mexican fixins and tortillas; pancakes both buttermilk and vegan; breakfast burritos; and several lunch items that I didn’t get a chance to check out. I will absolutely be coming back. Thumbs up to the UFO on 1123 N California Ave!

Native Foods...not so impressive. Although I like the thought of having a “clean food” place to eat, this vegan eatery boasted nothing but dishes with fake (housemade) meats of seitan and tempeh and not even spiced to perfection. I mean, I can get down with GOOD tempeh or seitan every once and awhile but it definitly has to have a good sauce to flavor it up. One thing that really drives me crazy in a place like this is that vegan DOES NOT HAVE to mean you have to replace all meats and dishes with tofu and pho-meats! They didn’t even have a regular bean burger; they had maybe one bean option; and most everything consisted of one of the fake meats. Come on! The “chain” feel was very evident as well and made me feel a bit like I was at a glorified vegan Quiznos. AND its in the middle of Wicker Park...one of the most hipster parts of Chicago. One thing that it did have going for it was the “boxed water”...Love it!

I couldn’tresist the picture. Overall, even though I appreciate the effort to be environmental conscious, the supposed attempt to use local and organic when possible and the mission of being healthy and fun, I was not impressed and will probably never make my way back. Sorry Native Foods....Thumbs down from me.