Kitchen 17

Casual cafe. Super friendly staff. Chill vibe. Free wifi. Delicious food. Street parking out front.

Came all the way from Switzerland to have their delicious vegan deep dish pizza. Fantastic!

They had a chimichanga special that my husband says was delicious. I had their chicken sandwich which was soooo good. totally recommended. we'll be back!

I visited Chicago over the summer and couldn't wait to check out Kitchen 17. A vegan friend of mine had already been and said I had to try the pizza, and I am SO glad I did. I was looking forward to trying the deep dish but on the day I was there deep dish wasn't being offered, so I ordered the Sicilian and it was crazy delicious! Unlike any other vegan pizza I've had...soooo good. I absolutely loved the pepperoni seitan. Definitely one of the best vegan pizzas I've had. Ordered the spinach artichoke dip for appetizer and I was very impressed. Haven't seen this on the menu in any other vegan restaurant I've been to. For dessert I had a couple different types of donuts and they were very tasty. Wished I lived closer so I could try everything on the menu!

Kitchen 17 was on my list of places to try when I visited Chicago last week. I wasn't able to get there for the deep dish pizza, but the regular pizza we had (supreme) was amazing. One of the best vegan pizzas I had. We also had the nachos and I tried the cherry milkshake. I went with non vegan friends who were also impressed with the food.

I've been hearing about Kitchen 17 but never made the trip because it's a long drive from me. All I can say is wow, I'll be coming back again. I had the Sicilian pizza and it was the best pizza I've ever had. It taste completely different than your typical pizza you get at blaze or whole foods. Also had the artichoke dip and that was just as amazing.

I stopped by hungry and on my way to an appointment. Being in a hurry I didn't read the sign on the storefront window and all I saw on the menu were burgers and pizza, and saw a case full of delicious-looking donuts. I asked if they had anything vegan and was floored when he said, "Everything here it." Jumped for JOY!!! Delicious food!! Highly recommend to everyone, regardless of diet choices.

I'm a Chicagoland native currently living in the Washington DC area. On a recent weekend visit to my old hometown buddies, I asked them to bring me to their favorite Chicagoland vegan restaurants. Kitchen 17 was one of the two they chose - and this place totally lived up to my friends' recommendations! I ordered the Pizza Supreme with seitan pepperoni and soy cheese - and though a bit too spicy for my wimpy taste, it was absolutely delicious - best vegan pizza I have eaten to date. My friends had the gyro and BBQ sandwiches, and those were outstanding as well. Staff are super nice. The place is very simple and small, and my friends and I were thinking the organization of tables, counter etc. could be improved - but overall this dining experience was just amazing!

I absolutely love Kitchen 17. The owner/chef Don clearly cares so much about his food and creates awesome vegan dishes.

My favorites here have been the Philly cheesesteak and nachos, though their pizza is also really good--maybe the best restaurant vegan pizza I've had in the city. All of the dishes are creative and delicious. It's a small operation and the food takes awhile, so just make sure you leave yourself enough time to enjoy without rushing. (Also, they use a small oven for the pizza, so there's a good wait for it--but it's worth it.)

I can't gush about this place enough; it's a really special restaurant run by someone who seems to truly care.

(On top of everything else, too, I saw the owner give a free meal to man who looked like he really needed it, refusing to take his money, and doing it very quietly.)

Greek burger was delicious! Best vegan burger I have ever had. Wait was 10 min or so, perfect meal.

Delicious food but MAN, this is NOT a quick-service spot in any sense.

I ordered lunch at 1:27 and got my food around 2:15. A 50-minute wait is just not sustainable for most people to get lunch on a weekday. I had a meeting to get to and basically had to scarf down my food in a non-enjoyable way, due to the long wait.

Kitchen 17 was not busy, either. There were empty tables.

I hate to rag on a vegan business but I just want people to know that they should anticipate spending a *very* long time here.

Got there right when they opened. Don the owner was super nice. Made everything from scratch. Pizza is great. Spinach artichoke dip is great and the donuts are fantastic.

Also the cheese on the nachos was tasty too

Tried their artisanal cheeses at Vegan Vortex spring market. Truly delicious. Would be at home on any cheese tray, and quickly devoured. Pizza had sold out; looking forward to trying it next visit.
Updated from previous review on Monday April 18, 2016
So glad I visited restaurant before leaving town. Had the fresh from the oven fully loaded deep dish pizza - best I ever had! Hand made crust topped by a sausage base, loaded with freshly made cheeses, house made marinara sauce spiked with spinach, onions, garlic, olives, etc. was lovely to behold, smelled wonderful & tasted divine!
House made cheeses grace the cheese sauce topping the creamy, bubbly Mac & cheese. Vegan comfort food at its best.
Light, fluffy donuts were a hit for dessert. Only let down was the lemon custard filling could have been a bit more lemony; custard was creamy, not too sweet, yet just a bit bland.
Excellent service. Very clean, neat, quaint setting; compact. Available on street parking convenient during the day.

This place is a perfect gem. The spinach artichoke dip - I . CAN'T. EVEN. It's so good and garlicky and hot and gooey and salty omg. The pizza - ridiculous. Donuts - just incredible. I would live here, for scraps.

Very compact restaurant - fantastic vegan deep dish pizza - super friendly owner.

I just went there for the first time and it really feels like you belong there. The owner is so nice and genuinely cares about creating great food and a wonderful experience for his costumers. I had the (vegan) double bacon cheeseburger and it was delicious.

Tiny place, creative menu. Lots of unique things on their burgers and pizzas. I asked for a suggestion since I was only visiting and could get only one thing. I had burger that was recommended to me. I can't even remember which one it was but it was good! About 4-5 dessert choices. I got the german chocolate brownie which was awesome. Owner seems to be very involved cooking, which is cool. I told him how great the caramel sauce on his brownies is and that he needs to make more things with it! I didn't get the pizza, but a table next to me did, and it looked awesome and they said it was delicious.

I made a trip to Chicago and found Kitchen17 via happy cow and was so excited to try it! I was not disappointed! I ordered the deep dish pepperoni pizza (YES!!!) and while it did take a while to get it since they were so busy, it was worth every minute I waited! The owner was a delight to speak to and the peanut butter fudge bars were amazing icing on the cake! I will 100% come back the next time I am in the Chicago area!

Several of us tried this place on a recent evening and we all really enjoyed the food. It was comforting, laid back, and filling. It is BYOB, and the owner was friendly. All good things. A not-as-good thing was that the restaurant did not have a high chair or booster chair and there was a sign saying that because the restaurant was small, they did not want strollers in there after 5pm. There was also a sign saying something to the effect that children were welcome but should not be noisy. Kind of odd since there was very loud music playing and the atmosphere was fun and casual. I had brought my (well-behaved and un-noisy) toddler there after reading on yelp that it was child-friendly. This designation should probably be changed. Another notable feature of this restaurant was that it was tiny. Only 16 seats. This was fine, since we were able to easily get a table, but would be annoying if the place got busier. Overall, I liked this place. I may go back, though there are other good vegan options that are more kid-friendly, so I may go to those if the little one is in tow.

My fave? The vegan nachos. So decadent, so delicious. I ate waaaaay too many, but it was worth it.

This is a very small cafe with a great vegan menu. I had the bbq seitan sandwich. The seitan is made in house and is tender and delicious. It came topped with crispy Kale and a side of delicious spicy chili. The desserts look amazing..brought home a giant chocolate chip cookie that I haven't tried yet because I am too full from gobbling down lunch. I ate more than I usually do because it was SO GOOD! Can't wait to go back and try other items. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because of the small size (4 tables). And the temperature.... Very cold. Next time I'll make sure to dress warmer. The owner was really nice. Also complimentary hot tea and coffee. Vegans, rejoice!

I read a review that said this place was better than native foods and it's true, it's better than native foods! All the food made fresh and the owner came up with all the recipes himself. We had the Buffalo Greek Burger and the California Burger and both were amazing! They also have some great desserts as well, we had the cookie and brownie cause they were out of the cheese cake

I have eaten at a LOT of restaurants. I am vegan but I eat at vegan, vegetarian and traditional restaurants. I have know about this restaurant and wanted to try it. I have heard very good things about this restaurant from friends. I went here after prodding from a friend.

The menu has a good selection of items. There were several things that looked good. I was going to order one item and the owner suggested I try another. So I ordered a Pizza Supreme. It was CLEARLY the BEST pizza I have eaten since I have been vegan. The pepperoni, which is house-made was fantastic. It is the closest think to pepperoni that I have tasted since being vegetarian. (I am not foolhardy enough to say it was like meat-based pepperoni since it has been over 25 years since I have had that type. It very well may though. But, I can say that it is the closest pepperoni I have tasted that I can remember).
We also had a salad which was delicious. We wanted to try one other item so since he was so good with the pizza recommendation we asked what wrap. He suggested the falafel wrap. It was fantastic. He was able to spice it up for us.

I cannot believe the negative reviews. One clearly was negative because the reviewer felt harassed for her beliefs. Here is my disclaimer, I didn't want to go here or even like the food since I personally have gotten into so FB "discussions" with the owner and did not see eye-to-eye to say the least (didn't know he was the owner until later). But, I cannot confuse the food with the politics and cannot rate the restaurant less than it is (or better) for external facts. This owner has a creative touch and does an amazing job. Go there an enjoy the food, even if you might need to wear ear plugs! ;-) It is truly tasty and delcious food. I cannot wait to go back and try a few other items but my problem is that I loved the Supreme Pizza so much that it might be hard to order something else!

The prices are very reasonable. The pizza is a little expensive but I am guessing that is because of the cheese, but I am not sure. Still, the pizza was very good.

I also "revealed" myself to the owner and I must say, even though we do not agree on some things, he was very cordial and I would not hesitate to go back!

I also loved the vibe and the playlist was great for me too!

I have eaten here numerous times. I've never had a bad meal. It's a very laid back place, with the owner being the cook, waiter, janitor, greeter, etc, so you have to come in expecting to wait a little for your food. It's a very small place, with seating for about 16.

Today, I had the Buffalo Greek Burger, which was exceptional. The gyro is the best in Chicago, in my opinion. The desserts are also very good.

I know when this place first opened, people were impatient while the kinks were being ironed out. Remember people, this is not some chain like Native Foods. Kitchen 17 is independently owned by a local person, not a corporation (no offense, Native Foods-just making a point) who is probably relatively new at running a restaurant.

That being said, in my opinion, the owner and staff have done a great job getting up to speed and I can't wait to go to Kitchen 17 again. It has the great, unique vibe of an independent restaurant, which I really like. When I went, I had the shawarma (which I've never seen as vegan before-I was psyched) and it was super good. The people next to us got a pizza that looked so good! Next time, I'm going for the pizza...and probably one of the lovely looking desserts.

If you've never checked out Kitchen 17 before, I totally suggest you do. If you haven't checked it out in awhile, I'd say it's definitely worth checking out again.

I've gone here twice and both times I've been severely unimpressed. The first time I ordered a pizza, which was undercooked to the point of just tasting like raw rough.. and normally I would have returned it and requested it be cooked longer but I didn't have time. Even if it was cooked completely, the sauce was unexciting and the toppings were expected. My friend ordered a rosemary burger, which was okay except for the buns tasted super cheap. For a relatively expensive burger, I'd expect decent bread. I gave this place a second chance, I think I ordered a burger with different bread (obviously not very memorable), but again, I was really disappointed. I'm not coming here again. The restaurant itself has a bit of an uncomfortable vibe, and both times I was anxious to leave.

I've gone here a couple times and each time it was delicious. The food is all vegan so I don't have to ask about any substitutions.

The owner/cook is right out front, chatting and answering questions and asking if you want to change the playlist he has going.

The beverages are free (I think it's tea and coffee and lemonade and water?); you just grab a glass and help yourself.

Very reasonable prices for extremely filling food. I'm so so so so happy there is a new vegan joint right by my house. It is a bit out of sight, but I really hope that people will continue to go here because if it closes I will be a sad panda.

I hate to be the first person to give this establishment a 1 star rating (HC doesn't allow 1 star ratings for vegan places, but this place is a clear 1), but Kitchen 17 does not live up to all the 5 star hype. I understand a lot of people are upping the rating because the owner is really nice - he is, and that makes it hard for me to give a negative rating. But I wouldn't be fair to others if I just gave them 5 stars because of a nice manager when I clearly intend to never dine at K 17 ever again. Also, feedback is important to restaurant owners so that they know what works and what doesn't.

My dining partner and I ordered many things from the menu so I feel fairly confident that my rating is warranted. Also, when we finished our meals we both made the observation that nothing appeared to be made in-house, each entrée seemed to be thrown together with store bought ingredients.

The Food:
- Nachos: VERY average. The nachos were covered in black beans, TVP, canned salsa, vegan sour cream, and a tasteless vegan cheese (note, this is one thing we think was made in-house, but it seriously tasted like nothing). You could easily throw this together with a bag of chips, a can of black beans, a jar of salsa, and a tub of Tofutti vegan sour cream - which is what we think they did.
- Sloppy Joes: Not that good and not worth ordering. There was nothing sloppy about these Joes. The sandwich was literally bread and dry TVP. We asked the owner for BBQ sauce and since they didn't have any he whipped up something quickly. The sauce he made was good and made the sloppy Joes taste much better.
- Philly Cheesesteak: Vegan Philly Cheesesteaks are my vegan food drug of choice, so I've tried these all around the country. This one was among my least favorites. The sandwich/seitan was mostly dry, I didn't care too much for the ranch-like sauce on top, but I was happy there was Teese cheese on the sandwich.
- Potato Salad: Never arrived.
- Peanut Butter Cake: This was actually good and would be the only thing I'd eat from K 17 if I were to go again.

The Service:
- You order your food at the counter and they bring it to you. Although it's really confusing who to place your order with as the girl that was standing at the register (who we thought would be taking our order) kind of ignored us - but the owner wasn't, as he was the one taking our order. It was just confusing.
- This is BYOB, which is a nice feature.

My parents and I stopped in to check this place out. We tried a bunch of the desserts first, and the cake was amazing! Very rich. The proprietor was really friendly and shared his secrets to making incredible seitan. My omnivore father tried a sample of his home-made pepperoni and LOVED it. Will definitely be back for pizza. We also tried a cold chickpea salad (like tuno salad), which was delicious. Drinks are free with a meal, and they're fine with BYOB, so there's no excuse not to make an afternoon of sampling
e v e r y t h i n g .

This place is fantastic and cheap! Pizza, burgers, nachos, and salads!