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I’ve been to Karyn’s years ago and had a wonderful experience! I wasn’t raw at the time and noone else with me was either. Everyone was very satisfied with their meal. I remember it being a really nice atmosphere too. Let us know what you end up doing!
from what i gathered from the intro to “raw”, charlie trotter did that book with roxanne klein because it was a type of cuisine that he was getting good at… every time she came to his restaurant she’d ask for something raw. THUS, i would imagine you could definitely put in a special order. that would be great if you were with people who weren’t raw.
the rest of his menu looks very much cooked and non-vegan.
So, I wasn’t imagining it… it IS cooked! Hmmm, I may have to call them to see what they could do… I love their Raw book. The pictures are mouthwatering, but they are way too complicated or not exactly the ingredients I have in my kitchen often. Although, I did make their Pad Thai. Love it.
We’ve got directions for all 3… so, we’ll see. :o) We’re leaning toward Cousin’s right now.
I went to the Green Festival yesterday at Navy Pier and Karyn was there. She is very pretty and very, very thin. They had samples of raw cookies that were delicious. Cousin’s was there, they had a food booth for lunch. I didn’t eat there though. Sooo, sorry, not much help here. :o)
I’ve gone to Karyn’s several times over the last few years and was never disappointed. If you go, definitely get dessert…they are really outstanding!
If you’re coming from the southeast of Chicago, that’s the closest place. Cousins that’s raw is much further north. Whichever place you go, enjoy!
I would go to karyn’s. If you are going to be downtownish, you will have a hard time finding Cousins – it is way out of the way on the NW side. Karyns’ is on Halsted closer to everything. Cousins has mostly turned into a “buffet” bar (like all you can eat – lots of salads and such) from what I heard and not much of a sit down place anymore.
There are other reasons why I recommended Karyn’s over Cousin’s but they are mostly based on personal (negative) experiences I and others had at Cousins having to do with the owner – but probably not a good idea to go into to it. Very long story but they are important reasons.
Anyhow, Karyns is more gourmet and the cafe is really great – probably better than the restaurant part.
Wow… thanks for all the wonderful replies! I’ll keep you posted.
We went to both Karyn’s and Cousin’s. If we had to recommend one, Karyn’s wins!
Karyn’s has everything I would ever want in a raw food store. The store sells many products, from to-go raw food to raw food ingredients to supplements. They even sell gallons of rejuvelac and ice cream! The food we had was all delicious. We had the buffet and tamales. All tasted great. I was impressed with the tamales and the cabbage with walnuts, raisins, and dressing. Plus, we had a mango ice cream. The downside, customer service is not that great… well, when compared to Cousin’s. We ate at the cafe and not the restaurant next door (it was still morning).
Cousin’s has a smaller store, but the restaurant is bigger. Customer service is great, but they were short-staffed (on a Monday) that they didn’t have everything on the menu. That’s okay, it seems to be quite common with several of the raw restaurants we visited. The food was good, but at Karyn’s every bite I took was amazing… not so, at Cousin’s. It was just okay… or good. We had the popular falafel and kebabs… plus their brownie and truffles were great.