3109 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago
(sorry, no train service nearby)
773-588-9140
Chicago is FULL of Thai restaurants, but this one is one of my favorites, and not just because they have fake meat options. The flavors are fresh and they understand the meaning of vegan better than the rest, i.e. you can be sure that if you order something from the veggie menu, it won't have fish sauce or other mystery ingredients in it, and no MSG. I think they'd like to be an all-veg restaurant but maybe can't justify it yet, so go there! (they serve seafood). Despite that, they have an enormous veg menu with all the usual Thai offerings and quite a few creative ones too, and most of them have either tofu or "imitation meat" (kind of seitan-y) as options. Unlike most restaurants, they serve a more wholesome reddish-colored brown Jasmine rice, which is nice to see and very tasty.
It's in kind of a random, isolated neighborhood compared to most restaurants on my list, but don't let that put you off because the food is great, the interior is cute and the staff is very nice. They also have a selection of teas and smoothies, so be sure to ask about those while you're there. One word of warning: Spicy here means HOT, so go easy on the spices if you don't have an iron stomach. We've ordered things mild before that were too spicy for Vanessa to eat, so I can't imagine what spicy must be like. If you don't like hot flavors, be very clear about that upfront to avoid a misunderstanding, as they have a good selection of dishes which aren't spicy.
Sample Dishes from Dharma Garden
Dharma Garden Steamed buns with greens inside, served with garlic garnish and great dipping sauce.
Dharma Garden Pad See Ew. A little more and thinner gravy than I'm used to seeing, but tasty.
Dharma Garden This was probably Crazy (or Drunken, depending on the place) noodles with the fake meat. Really good.
Dharma Garden Pad Thai, you're everyone's favorite "safe choice." Theirs has a good variety of veggies.
Dharma Garden The Pad Kraprow (Basil) vegetables w/ imitation meat were great, but SPICY!
Dharma Garden Potstickers filled with spinach, cabbage and carrots, topped with fried garlic.
Dharma Garden Spicy Imitation Duck with Mushrooms. Most dishes here are spicy and have a lot of vegetables in them, those are good things.
Dharma Garden Fresh tofu spring rolls. Dipping sauce is better than the roll, not enough fresh herbs and the sprouts weren't fresh enough. Maybe next time...
Dharma Garden Jungle Curry with mock chicken. Pretty good, mock chicken is like mock ham from asian market.
Dharma Garden Orange Sesame Tofu, tempura-d root veggies, mushrooms and tofu in an orange sauce. Great!
Dharma Garden This is a special vegan dessert. Rice pudding (fried!?) with pumpkin and coconut. Interesting mix of sweet and savory, kind of heavy.
Dharma Garden Strange but good little coconut dessert, kind of gelatinous or like a Japanese mochi. Sweet coconut flavor, chewy goodness.
Please note: My site is NOT any kind of official "Chicago Vegan" site. For a great restaurant guide from an excellent organization, visit VegChicago.com. With the proliferation of digital cameras and cheap web hosting, I encourage every vegan to document their own good-looking vegan food to share with the world...the more the scarier!
