Alice & Friends at the Glen — Restaurant in Northfield Township

I want to start with - this place is worth the visit. It’s great to have a vegan option in the northern suburbs.

TLDR review - Get any of the bao flavors, they are amazing and why we come back again and again. Consistency between dishes varies between visits, if you have a bad first visit, I’d recommend to try again. Overall this place is good and worth the visit.
I'm really between a 4-5 star review, just the lack of consistency between visits is what bring it down a star.

Full Review: Starting with the very best - the Bao. This place has their bao’s done perfectly - the dough is perfect. I grew up eating bao several times a week, and it’s amazing having an option of this quality nearby. My only complaint about the bao is that the flavors rotate, I wish I could order all the bao flavors at anytime, because they are all so good and this is still a bit of a drive for only 1 flavor options most of the time. Also it would be amazing in the future to see baked bao here. So these are real non complaints. Best Bao Flavors in order: Char Siu (my fav - childhood heaven here) Ube Bao - best dessert! Red Bean Bao The Bao (kids menu) Custard Bao (it’s not bad, just not quite the same as what I grew up with)

As for the Entrees, specifically sweet and sour sauce, kung pao sauce, and honey walnut sauce - Most of them are good, they taste good. It’s just most of them don’t really taste like those sauces to me and my partner. Most are delicious, but they aren’t quite right and the consistency in the flavor of the sauce has varied a ton between visits. Ranked in order: Honey Walnut Shrimp (This is sweet, but still the closest one to what I remember) Sweet and sour (I did seitan no cauliflower. This one was just a little heavy on the sour portion each time.) KungPao (honestly this wasn’t good in our opinion. But, the sauces vary each visit as I said, so maybe we got a bad day when we ordered this.)

The fried rice and chow mein are decent, and the veggies usually are properly cooked unlike many places which is nice. Only once was the fried rice ever not good, it was like they didn’t season it as all, just oil. Other times delicious and flavorful.
The yuba is great.

I liked the tom ka soup, my partner did not care for it. it was quite heavy on the lemongrass and didn't have the kick I was looking for.

All the desserts are good (I can’t speak to the raw ones though, as we’ve never tried.)

Oh and the crab rangoons and drumstricks are great. The wonton soup is...

The owner & their staff of this location have been extremely friendly & the owner’s ambitions for this business & restaurant are well warranted & deserve a reward to match. The food they prepare is not only quite healthy, but tastes outstanding in comparison to the many different restaurants & locations I have ever been to. The fact that they did so while remaining vegan & provisioning the healthiest of ingredients in their food makes this a far superior restaurant to eat from.

I had friends & family who had poor experiences elsewhere with vegan food, absolutely love the vegan food here at Alice & Friends, so much so, each one vowed interest in returning again in the future, especially myself as I have four times within a month!

Every single time myself & those I brought along come to eat here, we can’t help but share portions of our meals with one another, as the food here is astoundingly above par & beyond simply delicious. This is NOT something we did at any other restaurant, ever.

There is definitely a truly remarkably noticeable culinary skill that the owner & their employees have honed, both the visual representation & especially the taste of the food definitely truly shows it.

Everything on the menu is genuinely crafted extremely well & tastes just as well, as I have practically tried almost all of their options within such a short time frame; it goes to really show just how flavorful the food here really is!

I could honestly go on & on, so in conclusion, you simply can not go wrong with eating at this location when it comes to the food. You are kindly encouraged to support their business & give their food a try. If you enjoy it, I too hope you invite family & friends & share your experience as I have. I kid you not, I haven’t had vegan food that tastes as good as Alice & Friends’ anywhere else. Versus non-vegan, nothing could genuinely top Alice & Friends.

Would have taken pictures of meals to share, but each & every single time, got too caught up in how delicious everything was to remember to share the visual experience! If I somehow break this cycle, I will be sure to update the review...

Coming here was a great experience. I have had this place on my 'places to go' list for a long time, and I'm so glad that I went. The theme of the restaurant is adorable, I loved all of the suspended teacups and saucers that were mounted on the counter. When we came there were a lot of seats already reserved but there were a few that were still open. We were seated rather quickly but in the future I likely will reserve a seat to make sure I don't miss out on great food.

As far as what we ordered, we got the walnut shrimp, kung pao, the drumsticks and tom ka soup. We also got a slice of chocolate cake to go.

The walnut shrimp was creamy and the side of broccoli was seasoned well. The brown rice was perfectly chewy and the walnuts were candied & crunchy. The kung pao dish was also a delight. There was a sweet and smokey flavor to it that I absolutely loved. While I would usually personally prefer to have kung pao more spicy, I still wouldn't change anything about this dish. The drumsticks were pretty good and it was nice to have the 'eat chicken off of a bone' again experience. The tom ka soup was umami and flavorful and is better than others that I have had at Thai restaurants. Most vegan cakes I've had have a crumby and dry texture, but that wasnt the case with the chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was rich, moist and decadent.

The staff was incredibly friendly and our server JoJo was fantastic. She was very attentive and checked in with us a few times. She really added to the enjoyment of our visit. She also was truly sweet.

This place, hands down is the best vegan restaurant that I have been to and I have been vegan for 8 years. My non-vegan family...