Hello! I’ve been meaning to get this post up for a few days now…. on Saturday Mike and I took my younger sister, Laura out to eat for her 23rd birthday. I went to a restaurant called Green Zebra a few years ago when Mike surprised me by taking me there for our anniversay that year. This is ESPECIALLY sweet and noteworthy of him since this is a small plates, vegetarian restaurant!! What a guy 
I’ve raved about Green Zebra ever since, and I knew that Laura would love it since she has been a vegetarian for many years now. Mike was less than thrilled – he enjoys vegetarian food, but hates the ’small plates’ style – he would rather have a huge plate piled high with food to dig into!
So after a lovely evening of some Mag Mile shopping, we headed to Green Zebra. If you go on a Saturday, make sure to make reservations!! This place was crazy busy and though we had reservations, we still had a short wait.
The menu is all vegetarian, and the (V) denotes options that can also be made vegan. How accomodating is that?!? I love going to a nice restaurant that is so vegan-friendly 
The waiter recommended we get three plates per person, which is what we did… well, and Mike got four 
We were first brought out a complimentary bite of “jellied pepper”. I was a bit wary since I have recently self-diagnosed myself as having a bell pepper allergy/intolerance, but it seems to be most severe with green peppers (and this guy seemed like he was made from a yellow pepper), so I sucked it up and tried it.
It was very tasty! Next I had the “Warm braised artichoke and bread salad with olives and preserved lemon”
This was stunning!! Somehow the flavors melded together in an extraordinary way that seemed TOO delicious to be made from a simple dish of bread, artichokes, olives, and lemon, though I truly think there was little else in the dish. The only other strong flavor I detected was tomato… this must be the secret ingredient since tomato makes everything taste better!! I must try to recreate this at home!
I tried my sister’s “Thai-spiced sweet potato coconut soup with crispy rice noodles”…. she said that it was flavored with Panaang curry, which she loves! I liked the soup, but if I was making it I would have added about 10 times the spices!
Next I had the “Slow roasted shiitake mushrooms, crispy potato, and savoy cabbage”. This dish was quite good, but not my favorite. The veggies were in a light ginger broth, but again, it could have used even more flavor!
Lastly, I had the “Crispy soba noodles, roasted kabocha squash, and Chinese mustard“. I’m not gonna lie, I ordered this dish SOLELY due to the fact that I have never tried kabocha squash but have been dying to after reading about fellow bloggers (Maggie, etc) ’s obsessions with it!
This dish was phenomenal!!! The kabocha squash was both savory and also lightly sweet (I detected maple) and paired very nicely with the mustard-y noodles. Mike was crazy about the noodles, but I thought the kabocha made the dish! It was my first time having kabocha, and I can’t wait to buy my own…. any Chicagoans know where I can get my hands on one?!?!
Mike also got the “Crispy chickpea fries”, which I loved!! I love anything with chickpeas, and frying them was a great (albeit unhealthy, oh well!) move. It came with a lovely BBQ sauce that seemed to be made from maple syrup and cayenne. Loved this dish!
If you are ever in the neighborhood, check out Green Zebra! My only disclaimer, like I mentioned earlier, is that it is small plates style, and once you get 3+ plates each the price starts to add up.
Do you enjoy small plates/tapas-style dining, or are you like Mike and prefer getting all of your food at once???
I tend to agree with him most of the time (I am definitely a volume eater!) but when the small plates are of a high quality I can definitely appreciate that, too!
Gratitude Journal:
1) I had a good day at work today
2) I also had a lot of fun at an after school program I put together that I will share more on later… it involves teaching kids to cook, more on this later!
3) Today was a “rest”, no workout day, so it was nice to have a bit of extra time to get stuff done around the house
Goodnight!
I'm a school social worker who is also a newlywed (and had a Big Fat Greek Wedding, no less!) living in Chicago. I am starting this blog to talk about the training process I will go through to prepare for the Chicago Marathon, while also raising awareness for Ceasefire, a Chicago anti-violence program.
Now I want to go there even more after reading this post.
Now I want visit even more after reading this post.
I like small plates but only when the food is outstanding. I have yet to find the special occasion to visit Green Zebra but I’ve seen it featured on several Food Network vacation/road trip shows.
Everything you ordered looks like something I would want to try as well.
The vegetarian cookbooks that I own don’t include unique dishes like these. So, I’ll be interested to see which dishes you will attempt to recreate.
What a cool restaurant! I want to try everything, especially those chickpea fries. I love chickpeas any which way but we all know that when you fry something it becomes even MORE delicious.
I definitely like tapas style eating. I call it smorgasbord eating! It makes it feel like such a party to have lots and lots of little snacky treats on plates that you can just pick and choose from. It is my favorite way to eat!
looks delicious!!! i love tapas when i am feeling graze-y. But when I am hungry, just give me a massive plate of food!
i think if i brought my sister to a restaurant like green zebra she would not be amused- she’d probably go get a burger after. sigh. glad your sister is so cool!
Glad you had a good day at work
The restaurant looks cool! I love the creativity that goes into those smaller plates.
Hmm… I like tapas, but I feel like I end up spending and eating more than I would if I had just one big plate of food. There’s a place in my ‘hood that serves all of your tapas on one plate. They obviously had me in mind!
Ohmygod. I have to eat here.