Hungry Chicks

Hungry Chicks

Date Posted: May 06 2008

Written By: Hungry Chicks

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The Hungry Chicks headed to the Northwest Side of Chicago, Lula's Café, an organic restaurant in Logan Square. From the outside Lula's looks like a neighborhood diner, and you would never guess it offers a menu of unique organic and locally grown dishes.

Lula's does not take reservations, so we all met in the bar, which is a small intimate space with about eight barstools. At first it felt very crowded, but the hostess soon shifted some of the crowd into the dining room and we were able to get our drinks, which were moderately priced.

The restaurant is decorated with beautiful artwork from local artists (which are for sale—Lula's Café does not take a commission, the artist receives all the money). The night we were there a beautiful array of polished rocks bursting from a center point was displayed above the entrance, and in the dining room a metal piece of artwork hanging on the wall cast a strange shadow behind it, creating a spectacular display.

A couple of Hungry Chicks heard rumors that the servers at Lula's have bad attitudes, but the service we experienced was first-rate. The menu at Lula's Café listed a few unusual dishes we had never encountered before, but our patient server was well informed about the food and explained the uncommon types of grains and vegetables to help us decide on what to order.

Hungry Chick Laura ordered the Moroccan Chickpea Sweet Potato Tagine. The vegetarian dish was served in a bowl and had a unique combination of flavors and textures with chickpeas, arugula, Saigon cinnamon, sweet potato and couscous. The portion side was perfect and left a little room for dessert. Liz, a Pilates instructor, ordered the Gunthorp Roast Chicken with roasted red potatoes and sautéed spinach. The chicken had a hint of cinnamon and the taste was amazing.

Christine, a vegetarian, ordered two appetizers: the Shitake Quesadilla with spinach, queso fresco and chevre, and the Feta Cheese Plate with jalapeno-basil olive oil, kalamata olives, tomato, red onion, cucumber and roasted French bread. The salsa for the quesadilla had the unique flavor combination of enchilada sauce with cinnamon, which blended well with the quesadilla. The Feta Cheese Plate was generous and our feta cheese expert, Hungry (and Greek) Chick, Laura Mulopulos. claimed the cheese was fresh and delicious.

Erin, who is gluten sensitive, ordered the Artisanal Cheese Plate with artisanal honey, carmelized peach and candied walnuts, and the Spinach Salad with red onion, dried cherries, walnuts, chevre and balsamic vinaigrette. The Spinach Salad was a generous tasty combination of sweet flavors, but the artisanal cheese plate was "insulting," as Erin put it.

The appetizer was creatively arranged on a long plate, but the presentation could not hide the disappointing fact that you were getting only three apple and cheese slivers, four walnut halves, two clovers and one teaspoon of jam for ten dollars. Perhaps a smaller plate would have created the illusion of more food. To finish we ordered the Rocky Road Dessert and the Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting—both were amazing.

Many Lula's dishes contain a hint of cinnamon, so if that's not to your liking you may wish to enlist your server to help you find a suitable dish. Artisanal cheese plate aside, all the dishes were generous. If you are tired of the same old stuff Lula's is a unique variety of unusual flavor combinations. We will all be back, and definitely suggest you save room for dessert!

Lula's Café is located just south of the Logan Square "Circle," a circle intersection formed by Kedzie, Logan Boulevard and Milwaukee Avenue. Navigating through the circle can be difficult so we suggest taking Fullerton to Kedzie; go north and start looking for street parking when you approach the circle.

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