Thanksgiving Dinner 2010 – Chicago Diner

We’ve visited the Chicago Diner a couple of times in the past when looking for food after a bike ride along the Chicago Lakefront Trail. The meal I have found the most satisfying is their gyros sandwich. They use seitan instead of lamb meat and it really is quite delicious.

What must be understood is that this is a rather small diner and yet they are able to market to the Chicago area through grocery chains like Whole Foods their line of bakery products which are really quite good. I like the fact that you can count on these pastries being dairy and egg free. The sweeteners used are things like Agave Nectar or Honey.

At any rate we made reservations a few weeks ago and eagerly awaited the dinner today. The menu offerings were as follows:

Entree selection:
Veggie Turkey	Roasted tofu, with herb seasoned multi-grain stuffing & country gravy
Beefy Wellington	Sliced seitan in a wheat pastry crust with mushroom-onion duxelle, drizzled with a madeira-shallot reduction.
Pumpkin Herb Gnocchi	Herb potato dumplings with a savory pumpkin sauce.
Included:
Starters Squash Apple Bisque Harvest Roll Field Greens Salad w/Cranberry Vinaigrette	Sides Ginger-garlic Green Beans Herb Stuffing Candied Yams Rosemary Redskins Cranberry Relish
Dessert selection: Pumpkin Pie Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake
Beverage selection: Hot Cider, Organic Coffee, Tea, Soda, Lemonade, Iced Tea
A LA CARTE
Peppermint Hot Cocoa Hazelnut Coffee Smores Shake Mexican Hot Chocolate	Champagne / Mimosas  Selection of Local Craft Beers Organic Wines Juices and more!

I enjoyed the Pumpkin Herb Gnocchi and Connie dined on the Veggie Turkey. Neither of us had room to finish these entrees so we asked for doggie bags to take the remainder home. We washed down the meal with hot apple cider (with a cinnamon stick) and with dessert we drank coffee. She had the pumpkin pie and I the pumpkin chocolate cheesecake.

I can recommend the place highly if you like vegan fare. In fact even if you are not a vegan you can still enjoy the food since it is prepared with the non-vegetarian in mind. The soup we had with our dinners would have been enjoyable to just about anyone who enjoys Squash Apple Bisque.

And of course the salads were very good. I really like the slivers of fresh beets that they included with the greens. The whole meal was a delight and the service was attentive and yet not overbearing.

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