The Chicago Diner, Logan Square — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Vegan Can Be Delicious!

This was our first time visiting The Chicago Diner and we were pleasantly surprised. They've been around for a long time for good reason. If you've never had vegan food before you need to know that you can't expect the same texture as you'd get with non vegan food- particularly with proteins and cheese. There were 4 of us on this visit and we began with the Thai Chili Wings appetizer. Made with a Spicy chili-lime marinade and served with Sriracha-ranch, and garnished with sesame seeds, this was delicious! No, it didn't taste like or have the texture of "real" chicken and I'd totally have it again! Good is good!

The Country Fried Steak was good and the portion was large. The texture of the potatoes and gravy left a bit to be desired. The gravy didn't have much flavor. The potatoes tasted like a baked potato that was mashed. No creaminess at all, and not much flavor. The gravy didn't help, which was disappointing. The vegetables were good, though a little more on the raw side that we would've liked. On the plus side, they weren't overcooked and mushy either.

The Philly Cheese Steak is a hefty sandwich made with seitan that looked like shaved slices of tender beef topped with sauteed peppers, onions, and vegan cheese sauce. The vegan cheese sauce was a swing and miss for me. There was no cheesy flavor to it at all. It reminded me of the gravy on the mashed potatoes. I make a pretty good vegan cheese sauce at home so I expected more flavor. Still, this was a good sandwich.

The Caprese Burger is made in house. It is a tofu and seitan patty that reminds you of a mild chicken patty, is topped with mozzarella, tomato, a Very mild pesto and served on a grilled ciabatta roll. It was good but could've been great, if the pesto had flavor. We ordered their sweet potato fries as our side- they were very good!

Their Titanic Blt Burger is also a house-made seitan patty. It's topped with bacon-style seitan, french-fried onions, lettuce, tomato, and Chipotle sauce. It was thoroughly enjoyed.

We also ordered their strawberry and cookies and cream vegan milkshakes. They were great! Creamy and flavorful, you'd never guess they were made without dairy. You should definitely give this place a try. I would...

Dude I’m so bummed about this one. I was SO EXCITED to eat here again- I visited Chicago years ago and my sister took me here and I was blown away so I insisted we get food from here again! Oh my god I was so sad. Last night we ordered food for delivery (since we couldn’t get down there and Covid is popping off right now. )

I got the chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries and I was extra pumped to have the vegan cookie dough milkshake. When I opened my sandwich to put the ranch sauce on I saw the two tomato slices were so unripe that they were an orange yellow with rock hard middles! I thought oh well, it IS tomato season but I can survive without just that… and when I took them off I saw the three sad lettuce slices underneath were ROTTEN! Like brown and slimy rotten! Since I was starving I took those off and it was the same for the onions. So at this point I just had the chicken patty and bread and I thought surely the patty would be good? Dude… I wish it was just a frozen/microwave fake chicken breaded patty because those taste better than whatever this was. The sweet potato fries were also limp and soggy? From what I have no idea! I can’t believe I got vegan food and the VEGETABLES were inedible?!

I thought oh thank god I still have that milkshake! It’ll make it all worth it.

….. it was so watery and had a metallic taste. Like had the consistency of oat milk! I literally go to fast food places in PDX and get vegan milkshakes that are thick and tasty for cheap… why can’t a fancy vegan place get the basics right?!

I am so disappointed because I couldn’t wait to go back- it was so delicious years ago (and so much cheaper then…) I have no idea what happened to make this vegan spot go waaaaaaasy downhill. Bar is on the ground at this point.

Also I spent almost $40 on just these items! I can’t afford to spend that much and not even get to eat it!!! This was supposed to be a celebratory treat for us and it turned into me tossing and turning all night because I had to go to bed poorer...

i've had my eye on this place for quite some time and i was really excited to finally be able to stop by and grab lunch. i had pretty high expectations based on the reviews and my expectations were totally surpassed.

we were seated right away and the staff were all very kind and helpful if we had questions or concerns. our food came out quickly (around what would be expected on average at any restaurant).

we ordered the harvest salad, which i would definitely recommend to anybody who enjoys a fall themed salad with a citrusy vinaigrette. there were quite a few onions which i wasn't the biggest fan of but they are easy to avoid if one wanted to and it's all up to preferences. we also ordered the buddha's karma burger and a side of balsamic brussels sprouts which were a very tasty choice!! i also really enjoyed the buddha's karma burger - the pineapple and sweet potato/tofu patty go really well together and all the flavors mix perfectly!! i absolutely loved the patty; safe to say i will definitely be ordering this again.

the s'mores brownie sundae was delicious. the graham cracker, chocolate chips, marshmallow, whipped cream, rich brownie, and vanilla ice cream with the chocolate sauce all create this wonderful dessert that i could eat any day - especially when i could get a little bit of each on my spoon!! i'm not a huge chocolate lover, but this dessert alone may change my mind. i would definitely recommend ordering this to all my chocolate fans out there.

overall, this restaurant had excellent service and tasty food. i would recommend this place to vegans, vegetarians, or even meat eaters wanting to try some vegetarian cuisine!! i really will be coming back as soon as i can to...