Alice and Friends

Alice and Friends is a vegetarian restaurant on the north side in Edgewater. I've been there several times and have never had a bad meal. I'll go as far as saying that it's not only my go-to veggie spot, it may be my favorite restaurant in Edgewater. It's also almost entirely vegan.

The un-meat selection consists of beef, duck, chicken alternatives and my dinner companion questioned how it was possible for someone who doesn't eat meat to make food that tastes like meat. How can the chefs be vegetarians? Who knows but the bottom line is that the different pseudo-meats are disturbingly close to the genuine article.

I complained about Karen's Cooked trying to make veggie alternatives instead of dishes that played to the strengths of the ingredients. Here it actually works, partly because they all taste so specifically like what they're impersonating and partly because the differences are appealing. Some ingredients have a surprising sweetness. Though the duck tastes like duck, etc.

The spicy "run away potato" dish and the Golden Harmony special were both very stewey. The Golden was a sweet curry dish that reminded me of kare risu a Japanese curry rice that I have enjoyed at Ginza, and the spicy potato had a somewhat Korean flavor. The barbecued chicken leg appetizer is tofu served on a stick and looks and tastes like chicken. Why certain vegetarians would want to eat something so representational of what they find appalling is beyond me. Personally I think if you can make something that tastes as good as a meat product without the meat you should. That being said my surprise was for dessert.

It's vegan cheesecake and it rocks. It's so good that I would consider it over the genuine article almost every time. They were tight lipped about their recipe but I figure the soy-cream cheese would be the key ingredient. It's by the slice and is terrific.

At previous dinners I've had the Himalayan bento-box with great ingredients like chestnuts and  beautiful fruits and veggies.  A nut sauce tops rice and un-meat skewers. The duck entrée is well... basically duck. Every dish I've had has been better than just good. There are very hearty options and I can see enjoying a fall/winter meal easily.

If you're a vegan drag your carnivorous friends. They'll like it.

Alice and Friends
5812 N. Broadway

Comments

[Maht]

Re: "Why certain vegetarians would want to eat something so representational of what they find appalling is beyond me." Okay, here's the deal, omnivore scum. Us veggies can usually find 1-3 things on an average menu, not counting your shishi city places where the chef's name is listed on the menu and it isn't Johnson, Bateman or Mc-something. For years we've subsisted on mushroom dishes or wraps, salads and steamed veggie platters, greasy fries and blooms and baskets of lukewarm bread. Now they're making fake meat products that actually aren't totally disgusting to let us use forgotten tastebuds in a new and improved way, because, um, well someone stumbled onto the fact that meat tastes good. Like it or not, that IS why animals are made from it, it's just that some of us are just too self loathing to put our own lives before those of the animals. My life coach told me so. So we wear leather and eat plants and the occasional chicken period (vegans aside), give me a hot beef injection of grief-free veggie meat!

[Meg]

Wow!

The vehemence of your comment leads me to believe that you need to get a life.
He was merely stating that it seems odd that people who refuse to eat meat would want to eat meat imitations. And while it is understandable, because meat is delicious, it is still strange.
Do people with peanut allergies spend so much time and money trying to create and consume peanut-imitation products? No.

Regardless of your opinion there is certainly no reason to call someone "scum" just because of their eating habits.

[Maht]

Ha, you're very right, and I had no such right to do so, or to have my note taken as seriously or as sinisterly as it seems it has been. My apologies for the caustic tone. Please change the word "scum" to "princess" and insert these emotes, and up to 3 "lol"s, until it reads with more of a sense of humor:
:D ;) :->) ;D :) :D :) :>)

[Maht]

Ha, you're very right, and I had no such right to do so, or to have my note taken as seriously or as sinisterly as it seems it has been. My apologies for the caustic tone. Please change the word "scum" to "princess" and insert these emotes, and up to 3 "lol"s, until it reads with more of a sense of humor:
:D ;) :->) ;D :) :D :) :>)

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