Vegan
American
Fast food
Delivery
Take-out
Catering

Vegan cafe est. 2013 by Upton's Naturals. Menu features vegan comfort foods like fried bacon mac, croissant sandwiches and Chicago-style hot dogs, plus a full ice cream menu, vegan donuts, and items from other Chicago vegan businesses available in the cooler. Dog-friendly patio. Donuts available earlier on weekends starting at 9am Fri-Sun. Open Wed-Fri 11:30am-7:00pm, Sat-Sun 9:00am-6:00pm.


107 Reviews

First Review by ·X·

littleduck

Points +326

Vegan
19 Feb 2024

Yes please!

Loved our time here! Super great staff, awesome (all vegan!) food, nice drink selection and some Upton's products that I can't get back home. The donuts are incredible.

My non-vegan partner loved the Italian beef sandwich. 😊

Pros: all vegan, eats and sweets, great staff

Cons: small space

Yvonne108

Points +96

Vegetarian
16 Feb 2024

Best Breakfast Sandwich & Donuts

The donuts do not disappoint and they are often doing charity with donut sales, which is a plus. Great staff! Ask for extra cheese and avocado in your breakfast sandwich.

Updated from previous review on 2024-02-16

Pros: Best Breakfast Sandwhich , Best Eclaire Donut, Quick cafe setting

Cons: Parking can be tough

Vegan Vagabond

Points +2659

Vegan
21 Jan 2024

Could be so much better, but not bad

This is a small cafe attached to the Uptons corporate building. They make good food, based on the Uptons products, such as fried "bacon" mac and "cheese", "Pastrami" sandwiches, etc. They also have soft serve "ice cream," and I have tried really hard to like it, but it's really not that great. 100% vegan.

Wow. Time flies. It’s been 10 years since my original review. So, the place has gotten bigger. It looks like they’ve opened up the first floor for more seating and for an arcade. The arcade was closed on this day, for a private event, so I can’t say anything about it. As far as the food, they seem to have mostly the same menu I remember, with a couple of additions and subtractions. The woman behind the counter told me that the Italian beef and the Up-dog are the most popular items on the menu. I got the Togarashi Bowl, which was tofu, kale, carrots, brown rice, pickled radish and a tahini dressing. I really enjoyed it. A fair sized portion, too. I finished with an eclair donut. A chocolate iced cake donut, split in half and filled with custard. Pretty tasty.

I’m updating my rating to 4 stars.

Updated from previous review on 2014-09-15

Pros: 100% Vegan!, Good Food

Samantha18

Points +475

Vegan
19 Dec 2023

I’m happy this place exists

As someone who loves a good donut, I can really appreciate an all vegan donut case. And the flavors we tried were the best vegan donuts we’ve tried thus far. The milkshake was good too - a bit too thick for my liking but still yummy. The surprise vintage arcade was a nostalgic cherry on top!

Pros: All vegan/many options , Friendly staff , Arcade

kellifer10

Points +110

Vegan
11 Nov 2023

Great Vegan Donuts

Ordered a dozen donuts online for pickup. The best one was the strawberry with whipped cream inside!!!

ApexHerbivore

Points +56

Vegan
22 Aug 2023

My favorite vegan place, hands down

Amazing breakfast, brunch, and lunch. Vegan and ethically sourced chocolates for sale as well. An amazing experience every time.

Pros: Ethical, Delicious , Staff paid fairly

Mmaarrss

Points +456

Vegan
24 Jun 2023

Do-nut want to miss out

We pre ordered a dozen doughnuts so we got to try every type.

We ordered pickup for when they opened. The food was fantastic and staff was nice. Big fan

vegan55

Points +108

Vegan
07 Jun 2023

Amazing Food!

Great food! The Chicago dog was amazing!

Pros: Delicious food

Cons: Kitchen is slow

lordofthestrings86

Points +596

Vegan
31 Mar 2023

Hail Seitan

Their seitan sandwiches are so good. Really loved the Italian style.

Pros: Very friendly service

jadaruss

Points +1525

Vegan
27 Mar 2023

So yummy

I loved everything I tried!! Will definitely be back 🎊

Updated from previous review on 2023-03-27

Cons: If you eat inside beware of the lighting, It’s so bright it hurt my eyes

SarahGibson

Points +134

Vegan
09 Mar 2023

Doh

It has been a few months and I am still dreaming of the donuts at Liberation.

Pros: So many options

Cons: Need to pre-order

UptonsNaturals

16 Mar 2023

So glad to hear you're a fan of our donuts, Sarah! Just wanted to let you know that we have donuts in the case every day, you don't need to pre-order them. We do offer some holiday boxes as pre-orders, or you can pre-order boxes but you can always pop in and grab a donut!

DavidDainko

Points +200

Vegan
04 Feb 2023

🍩 🤤 🍩

STOP BEING SO AMAZING. There’s not enough strawberry and whip cream donuts in the world. It’s not fair 😭 😭

Pros: Literally everything about this place

bvankampen

Points +551

Vegan
06 Nov 2022

Wish I lived closer!!!

Stopped here while passing through Chicago and everything was so good!! Got the sausage roll, donut holes & breakfast croissant 🤤🤤

Kallday

Points +301

Vegan
16 Sep 2022

Best Vegan Hotdogs

I’ve seen Uptons products in my local grocery store for quite some time but never tried it. Let’s just say I’ve been missing out & will be loading up once I get back home haha! For hotdogs, I’m usually a ketchup & mustard type of guy, but the Chicago style opened me to a whole new hotdog experience!

I didn’t try the doughnuts because they looked over priced & not that appetizing. Everything was great.

Eric_Alexy

Points +50

Vegan
29 Aug 2022

Yum

I’m sure there was a salad or something healthier on the menu but this is what I ended up with: donuts and hot dogs.

MichellePecoraro

Points +149

Vegan
13 Aug 2022

Delicious

I had the breakfast sandwich which consisted of tofu, vegan bacon and vegan cheese, it was delicious. If you’re a breakfast-lover like me, definitely give it a try. The nachos are also very good.

ChinyereNnaji

Points +26

Vegan
26 Jul 2022

Amazing 👏

The ppl here were so helpful and there are may options on type of food, breakfast lunch and product to take home to cook 👍

Pros: Helpful people , Delicious , Donuts 🍩

Olush

Points +75

Vegan
13 Jul 2022

Flavorful

Stopped here to refill before the Rage Against the Machine (who are also vegetarian) concert at the United Center.
Bahn Mi was just right on money. Mac’n cheese a little on the burnt side but still really tasty. Pineapple donut desert sealed the deal.

Pros: Lots of options, 100% vegan

madoublethew

Points +296

Vegan
11 Jul 2022

Tasty options for a summer evening

The name is a bit of a misnomer: there is not a room to eat, but rather some tables outside on the pavement. We went on a nice July night, but you wouldn’t want to be going for dinner in winter unless you were going to take it away. Regardless, the mains were good-sized and really tasty. The kale salad is a winner, and the gochujang bowl is pretty good, too. Finish it off with some tasty donuts, and you’re golden. M

kladams89

Points +140

Vegan
06 Jul 2022

Loved it!

Staff was very friendly during my visit. The vegan croissant was amazing! I got the croissant sandwich and cheesy broccoli which were both great

Pros: Different vegan options, VEGAN CROISSANTS

AnnaNicoleSmiths

Points +44

Vegan
28 Jun 2022

Nothing to rave about

The food is mediocre, the staff are unfriendly, and it feels like eating in a cafeteria when dining in. The only thing good on the menu is their fried bacon mac . I stopped going here to get this though because the staff is so unfriendly and unwelcoming. Definitely would not go out of my way to go here to eat.

Cons: Mediocre food, Unfriendly staff, Cafeteria-like

murphysm2342

Points +50

Vegan
27 Jun 2022

Great and unique donuts!

We got the dozen special ($25) and tried almost all of them. So good!

JenniferPooch

Points +239

Vegetarian
24 Apr 2022

Love

Love the variety of vegan options here, including vegan cake slices from Pie Pie My Darling, vegan ice cream, and vegan donuts from Liberation Donuts. Their "meat" alternatives are awesome and I cannot recommend the Bacon Mac n' Cheese enough. Had their Banh Mi sandwich, the Bacon Mac n' Cheese as a side, and two donuts from Liberation Donuts (the Liberation and For Greta). Everything was delicious and the service was wonderful.

Pros: Lots of vegan options, House other well-known Chicago vegan food brands, Delicious food

Cons: No indoor space to dine-in, Limited outdoor seating

woodlewis

Points +441

Vegan
06 Apr 2022

Best soft serve ever!

Nice menu, everything vegan! Uses a lot of their products that you can buy at the grocery store, and they have a small shelf of packaged items to take home, like their seitan and hotdogs. My bánh mì sandwich was decent, the roll was a bit soft, and the tofu a bit bland, but otherwise tasty. Soft serve cone, which I have tried everywhere I can get my hands on it across the country, was the best ever, chocolate on the day I went. We also loved the donut that they called an eclair, similar to Boston crème. Unfortunately no indoor seating with Covid, and it was freezing, though I did sit at the outdoor table.

VeganbyChoice

Points +1432

Vegan
14 Mar 2022

Vegan To-Go

1st time here. Easy to find street parking. I was planning on eating in and realized, nice I was inside, they didn’t have any eat in options. I thought I was going to get the Chicago Style Updogs, but changed my mind. The employee said “everyone comes for our side of fried Bacon Mac. I wasn’t in the mood for that either. He shared that the Bhan Mi was his favorite. I was sold in it. This sandwich comes with baked tofu and Upton’s Naturals Bacon Seitan with pumpkin seed pate’, jalapeño, carrots, radish, cilantro and mayo on a crispy roll.

Let me start by saying that it looked and smelled delicious. I was disappointed because it definitely was NOT crispy and my sandwich was not on a roll, it was on a hogie bun. I would have preferred crispy. The sandwich was packed with flavor and a good portion size. The Seitan bacon was very crispy - loved it.

I would come back and try a different entree. He also suggested the Gouchijang bowl.

I couldn’t leave without trying one of their donuts. I selected the Cousin Frida - chocolate donut with cookie dough ball. It was good - not great. I would try a different one next time.

Pros: Great taste, Good portion size

Cons: No seating available, Item not as described in menu

KBBorg

Points +22

Vegan
22 Jan 2022

LOVE in baked good form

Every single donut I had was amazing. And I bought alllllll of them.

jewelsthemonkey

Points +104

Vegan
22 Jan 2022

Charged for something I canceled multiple times

I'm really sad to be posting a one-star review (though Happy Cow only lets you do a minimum of 2 stars for veggie places! Oi vey!) for something that should be great (vegan donuts--hooray!). Unfortunately, the customer service at Liberation Donuts was atrocious. I accidentally placed an order for a wrong delivery date and contacted Liberation Donuts for a cancelation (in line with their policy). I sent an email as instructed, though no one replied. I then phoned and spoke to a nice man, who told me that it wasn't a problem and I would get the cancelation request processed by the evening. This also did not happen. In the end, despite multiple emails and calls, the donuts were delivered to a hotel where I was no longer staying. (I was somewhere over the Atlantic by this point!) Despite writing to them again, they still never replied. I've now had to involve my credit card company in a chargeback process. So frustrating....

Cons: No customer service




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