CLOSED: Holy Land Diner

We really enjoyed our lunch at this small restaurant during our recent visit to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. The owners are a delightful couple that made us feel like guests in their home. The buffet had many vegan options available for a very reasonable price of $8. I particularly liked their homemade hummus.

Even thought they served meat I believe this is of economic necessity in this mid-sized Midwest town. At their cash register they had a brochure on the benefits of being vegan and information on how to learn more.

We walked to this restaurant from the historic site - it was about 9 blocks - and stopped at the Elijah Iles House on our way back. If walking that far is something you rather not do and you parked in the lot on 7th St, directly across from the Lincoln Visitor Center, you may want to drive to the restaurant. There is plenty of on-street parking near it and with the pre-paid parking ticket you buy when you entered the parking lot, you can return after lunch. That's assuming the number of visitors are few enough that the lot will still have parking places when you return.

I visit Springfield twice a year for the running of the Springfield Mile, the world's fastest mile track motorcycle dirt track race. I look forward to dining at the Holy Land Diner almost as much as the races. The food is just like home made, many vegan choices and the owners go over the buffet and tell you exactly what is in each dish and if it is vegan or not. The last time I was in the owner baked special vegan sesame seed cookies and brought them to my table still warm and free. You will love the healthy food at this restaurant and the price is like a gift. The lady who runs this restaurant is very sweet and can't seem to do enough for her guests. It is a shame it is not open Sundays.

The owners are hardworking and knowledgeable about food. Fallafel and hummus are the best.

Holy Land Diner has the best vegetarian buffet on Saturday nights. It changes from week to week, but generally, they always have Mediterranean salads, olives, lentil soup, homemade hummus, homemade falafel, and a variety of entrees. The entrees are always some kind of grain (usually brown rice) and several vegetable dishes or veggies with pasta. They never use salt in their dishes either. The owners, Afaf and Jamal, are really sweet too. They use local ingredients when they can (produce, etc.). I leave MFA literature with them including Vegetarian Starter Kits and Vegetarian Eating brochures.

For a complete review, please see my blog here: http://veganmiss.blogspot.com/2011/08/vegan-springfield-il-part-two.html

Oh how I miss Holy Land's Saturday night buffet! I used to eat here every couple weeks with a friend a few years back and I looked forward to every visit. As I recall there were always 3-4 vegan options and the staff indicated what those options were. As mentioned below, the buffet is all Mediterranean food, and it's pretty good!

Holy Land Diner offers a Saturday vegetarian dinner buffet. All but two or three options are vegan and the owner happily showed me what to avoid. The buffet was inexpensive and filling!
Also, the diner supports local farmers and lists which ingredients on the evening's buffet are from the farmers' market.

The weekday lunch buffet is very good and a great value. Many great choices for Middle Eastern Food not normally available in most places.