| Description: Karyn's Cooked is a Vegan, Vegetarian, and Soul Food restaurant where most Menuism users came for fun with friends, paid between $10 and $25, and tipped between 15% to 18%. | Tags: | |
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Karyn's Cooked
Reviews Write a review
tulips500
- 344 Reviews
- +1233
May 28, 2007
+63
+6
6 Votes
semi-fancy vegetarian
when one of my vegetarian friends came to town, i decided to take her here after reading some good reviews. i’m glad i did because the food was suprisingly good and hefty in portion size (for me at least, i’m not a big eater).
it’s a trendy-chic, borderline cafe style ambience, which makes it a nice place to go w/friends or family. it’s not too fancy, but not too casual…just right.
i’ve been to chicago diner too, and i think i prefer karyn’s.
Dishes I tried:
Fajitas
ooh, i wasn’t expecting it to be spicy, but it had kick! this dish was oily, but mighty flavorful. overall, i wouldn’t hesitate to order this dish, but w/so many other options on the menu, i’d probably venture off to try something new next time.
Coconut Cake
what a cake! i love coconut, so i had to opt for this cake. you get a hefty slice, and the cake itself is suprisingly moist. the coconut flavor wasn’t too strong, but you could taste a few coconut shreds here and there. most of the coconut flavor i got from the frosting, which was sprinkled w/coconut shavings.
May 18, 2007
+50
+5
5 Votes
Good, but confused
The decor at Karyn’s is very cute. It’s sort of like a semi-fancy cafe with tons of bamboo all over. It feels like the healthy and vegetarian place.
The menu uses some promising words when describing the pseudo-meat so I was pretty excited to put it to the test by going for the Slab of Ribs. I have to say that I was definitely impressed – the texture was the closest to meat than any other fake meat I’ve had but still not quite meat. All the other dishes were pretty good, but the dessert was by far the best. The only issue I had was with our sorta flaky server. She was a bit slow and absent and forgot one of our drink orders.
If I’m ever in the mood of vegetarian again, I’ll come back here in a heart beat, but I think I still stand by my vegetarian strategy of not ordering fake meat dishes….it’s less confusing for my stomach :)
Dishes I tried:
Combo Basket (choice of 3)
Fried veggies! Got it with broccoli, zucchini, and mushrooms. Some of the freshest fried veggies I’ve ever had and the batter wasn’t that thick. Some good dipping sauces too.
Slab of Ribs
Definitely an interesting experience. It came with 3 “ribs” that were slathered in BBQ sauce, coleslaw, some grilled bread, and a corn on the cobb.
The meat’s texture was surprisingly “meaty”. It had some resistence and some chewiness, but it was almost a little too chewy b/c my jaw was getting a little tired from eating. After the meal, I was full, but somewhat unsatisfied….I think I need a burger or something now :)
Grilled Polenta
I only tried a bit of it, but it was pretty tasty. It comes with lots of polenta and a few mushrooms on the side. If you like polenta, then order this.
Coconut Cake
The cake was really good. It was tasty, sweet, filling and had a real nice texture that was sorta like carrot cake. It wasn’t too sweet so you don’t feel too guilty afterwards.
smallfry
- 35 Reviews
- +109
April 10, 2007
+5
0
+5
5 Votes
comfort food indeed
Karyn’s is a mini-chain(?) of cafe/restaurants, beauty products, and well-being center with various health programs. Karyn’s Cooked, a restaurant, is just one entity of her “holistic health” program. I’ve been here a few months ago to entertain a vegetarian friend of mine and it was great!
The restaurant itself is the size of a small cafe – very cute/comfy. We went for a Sunday brunch and although the portions appeared smaller than most places, it was surprisingly satisfying. The cafe style of the place made it so leisurely that we spent 3+ hours there! They politely gave us the check in the end (cuz of other customers in line) but we were thrown off by the amount of time that had gone by! Very homey indeed. I definitely wanna come back to try the regular menu vs. the brunch menu.
Dishes I tried:
Mediterranean Scramble
Grilled vegetables including mushrooms, red peppers, zuchinni tossed with tofu and some couscous on the side. They gave us a platter of small, warm tortillas (we ended up getting a second platter) to wrap the scramble in – it was light and delicious!
Banana Stuffed French Toast
Soft and topped with warm syrup and pieces of strawberry – it was a breakfast lover’s delight.
annie
- 83 Reviews
- +299
May 17, 2007
+3
1
+3
3 Votes
best vegetarian food in the city
we all know the vegan punks with multiple piercings. and we love them.
but what if you’re the kind of vegan donald trump wishes he could afford? then you head over to karyn’s, where the decor is just pretentious enough. and i’ve watched enough “top chef” to know that the dishes are beautifully presented.
a shout-out to the friendly waitstaff — especially that cute guy who remembers me and my life story every time i come in.
Dishes I tried:
Carrot Cake
get this with a scoop of vegan ice cream. and bring a friend along to watch you eat it. it’s so big you’ll want it on the record.
Burger with Cheese
actually tastes like meat. in a good way. a very, very good way.
Classic Lasagna
even an italian would be delighted.
Falafel
pretty boring and oddly crunchy. look elsewhere.
Popular Dishes on the Menu
These are dishes contributed by Menuism users, either entered directly, as part of a restaurant review, or as part of an image upload.
This restaurant is located near the cities of Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, Austin, Lindenhurst, Gold Coast, and Bricktown.
People found this by searching for: Karyn's Restaurant, Vegetarian Restaurants Near Chicago, Vegan Restaurants Near Trump International Chicago, Karyns Restaurant On Wells, Karyn's Cooked Restaurant, Lincoln Park, Il, Grilled Polenta Karyn, Karyns Resturant Chicago, and Karyn's Restaurant + Chicago.
annie
05/29/2007i’m glad you liked it! i would’ve felt guilty otherwise, having given it a good review before.