We went to dinner at
Karyn's Fresh Corner in Lincoln Park. We have seen this restaurant featured on Check Please and on the Hollywood Mom's Club.
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| Nachos |
Karyn's is a vegan and raw restaurant. We don't know how they make this food but it tasted good for being vegan and raw (not cooked over 104 degrees). Nick was very hesitant at eating here and figured he would be eating a lot of salad and beans but the food was overall really good and of course guilt free.
Nachos - corn tortilla chips, with guacamole, sweetened sour cream, black olives, marinated red onions, caramelized jalapenos. The chips weren't as crispy as a traditional corn chip but that didn't matter. They were thick and sturdy enough to hold all the tasty topping. The sauces had a bit of a kick to them and overall the dish was large enough to share. Since the chips were presumably slow baked and not fried it felt much lighter than regular nacho platters and we felt a little "healthier" partaking of them.
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| Empanadas |
Empanadas - flax and corn masa pastry dough stuffed with three pepper chorizo and house blend chili spice. Served with a side of authentic raw chocolate mole and a salsa verde. Nick thought he would miss the meat in the empanadas but the flavor was dynamic enough without it. The mole had a slow build-up of heat. The salsa verde and the pepper chorizo was a little spicier than Natalie usually prefers. The exteriors of the empanadas weren't as crisp as we are used to but that wasn't missed at all.
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Portabello Napoleon
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Portabello Napoleon - thinly sliced Portobellos layered with scented vegetables, fresh herbs and a cashew blue cheese, drizzled with homemade primavera sauce. This was probably more of a dish you might expect from this restaurant because of the emphasis on the mushrooms, but we don't understand how they make their "cheese". Nick was happy that the blue cheese wasn't too powerful. The dish was served warm and layered the mushrooms with other sauces.
Caramel Fig Crepe - sweet crepe with citrus essence creme, fresh figs, candied pecans, caramel yacon syrup. Thsi was light and tasty and who can refuse figs and caramel.
Really rare and raw shake - nutmilk, dates, banana, vanilla. The shake was nice and sweet and you felt like you were in a tropical location Nick wants to try and make this at home.
Mint Julep - usually we don't drink mint juleps because of the alcohol (the only non-alcoholic version Natalie has come across was in New Orleans Square in Disneyland). The juice was tasty, but it needed to be drunk quickly after stirring it so it didn't separate.
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| Beverages |
Final thoughts on Karyn's:
Food - If you hadn't told us we were at a vegan/raw food restaurant we wouldn't have been able to tell. By using fresh ingredients and a lot of spices the flavors were all really nice and left nothing lacking in terms of taste. If we could figure out how to cook like this we would definitely incorporate this into our diet more. The idea of vegan food doesn't seem that exciting but we could definitely subsist on dishes like this without feeling like we were missing out on anything.
Service - there is a sign to seat yourself. We wished the waitress had explained a little more how they make the foods because we don't really understand it all. A weird thing about the bill is that you can pay with a credit card but they only accept cash tips.
Atmosphere - this is located in Lincoln Park and suprisingly they have their own adjacent free parking lot. In addition to the restaurant, they have a store, a greenhouse and a classroom as part of their entire complex. The restaurant is small but assuming it was full there is ready to eat food available for purchase at the store.
