Spirit Elephant — Restaurant in New Trier Township

i saw this place on the veg out chicago instagram page and was shocked that i hadn't heard of it before. i had to try it out as soon as i could and to be honest it surpassed my expectations by so much! the restaurant is super clean and well kept, as well as the bathrooms, and the overall atmosphere of the place was very welcoming - definitely somewhere you'd want to eat ! also seemed very kid friendly, i noticed they have a cute kid's menu with several options.

for how busy they were i'd say the service was really quick! the dessert took a little bit longer but the place was packed and i saw tons of orders coming out of the kitchen. the staff were all super friendly and took away empty plates really quickly, which isn't required or anything but i just thought it was pretty nice!

we ordered the bbq pulled mushroom sandwich with a side of potatoes (recommended by our waiter- great choice!), spirit salad, and for dessert the caramel apple crumble since they had run out of the brownies for the warm brownie bliss the previous day. the sandwich definitely blew any expectations i'd had out of the park! i'm usually not a fan of cheese (even vegan) on anything but i found no faults at all with this burger. the sauce was wonderful, the mushrooms were wonderful. i would warn that it's definitely a messy one to eat, but it's so worth it! the potatoes were recommended by our waiter and were definitely something i'll be ordering next time i stop by. the spirit salad was delicious and had this light lemon-y dressing that went perfectly with these amazing pickled grapes (i have to say, i'm quite a fan of those grapes) and brought the whole salad together. it definitely wasn't one of those salad options at a restaurant that pretty clearly doesn't serve much salad- this was a plant based beauty! the caramel apple crumble was so good, and the cool gelato (which tasted delicious by the way) contrasted perfectly with the warm apples and crunchy oat crumble. the caramel really tied it all together for what i would consider a world of flavors and textures!

overall, i was delightfully surprised by every aspect of this restaurant -from the prices to the delicious food- and i will be back pretty much as soon as i can to try more menu items! thank you so much for...

My first visit to Spirit Elephant after seeing Tabitha Brown’s post about her visit was everything I hoped it would be. I was giddy with excitement when I woke up Saturday knowing we had a reservation at Spirit Elephant to celebrate my BFF’s birthday. 🥳She’s no longer on Instagram so she hadn’t seen Tabitha’s post. She and her husband were trusting me with the recommendation. The restaurant is beautiful and the patio is comfortable and quaint. The patio was especially pretty when lit up with lights after the sun went down. It made for a beautiful summer evening. 🌿

First, we had drinks and cauli wings. The drinks were pretty and delicious. My favorite was the peach martini.🍑I think I can say it was my most enjoyable drink ever. It was so yummy. We had half buffalo and half chili mango cauli wings/bites. Amazing!!!! I could seriously order one serving to eat for my meal. My favorite was the chili mango. They were crispy, crunchy and full of flavor. I was sad when they were gone. They were THAT good. We also had the 3 taco starter. Warm, tasty and satisfying. 🥰

For dinner I had the eggplant parmesan, my girlfriend had the crab cakes and her husband has the meatloaf. All three meals were so so good. However, my girlfriends crab cakes were the BOMB 💣! They were crunchy on the outside and warm and flavorful on the inside. The sauce that came with them was delicious. I need to go back and get that dish to eat all to myself!!

For dessert, I had the strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla gelato.🍓The pie was so yummy. The flavors took me back to my summers as a child in my babysitters kitchen devouring her warm strawberry rhubarb pie. So good. My girlfriend had the triple threat chocolate cake with vanilla gelato on the side and a candle to blow out for her birthday. Her husband had the raw brownie ala mode. All three of us were thrilled with our desserts. There were no leftovers to take home. But boy were we stuffed. 😳

I cannot wait to go back. None of us are vegans but wholly appreciate a great vegan dish, or even better, a great vegan restaurant. 🌱 We vowed to take our one vegan friend there for dinner one night. We also admitted the desire to return...

Went here last Thursday 11/11 for my mothers birthday. With most of my family either vegetarian or fully vegan we figured this would be the perfect place. We were expecting to have a great time but that was prematurely cut as soon as we walked through the door. Unfortunately, I was not able to place an order for a full cake of theirs on time so decided to bring a vegan cake. Walking in we were greeted by friendly hostesses and asked if the cake we brought was vegan. I began to explain yes, it’s from a vegan/vegetarian restaurant then was abruptly cut off by the manager. He stated there’s absolutely no outside food allowed in the restaurant and very rudely dismissed me. He didn’t even wait for my response he just walked away in front of everyone. I didn’t want to fully ruin the night for my family so I decided to keep it cordial. I totally understand the no outside food policy but the way the manager handled it was not professional. The hostess apologized for the inconvenience and asked if we wanted to keep the cake in fridge storage while we ate dinner. Didn’t make sense to me but I paid $80 for that vegan cake and didn’t want it to get ruined, so I kindly accepted that gesture.

During the dinner we told the waitress that one of our family members was allergic to eggplant. After the food was already brought out & we all began to eat the waitress informed us that the fries were cross contaminated with eggplant! after it was already consumed by the one with the allergy. Luckily nothing happen to that individual after consuming a few fries. I understand it’s a challenge to accommodate everyone but when it comes to someone’s health and well being that’s important as a customer.

Overall the food was great and even some of the non vegans in my family thought the food was tasty. Our waitress and the rest of the staff were very professional and kind the rest of the night. The manager could definitely learn from the staff about customer service 101. I’m not the type to leave negative reviews and I would rather leave a much more positive one especially on a plant based restaurant but unfortunately this night did...