Earwax Cafe
Chicago, Illinois

I was tempted to give this place two stars instead of one, but I decided that, given its hipster location, and given the multitude of great vegan-friendly joints serving American food in Chicago, Earwax really fails vegans and makes food that is mediocre, at best. There is no reason to come here.

A friend and I shared a tofu scramble ($9) as well as a seitan chorizo burrito ($8). The tofu scramble was bland. It was basically onions, green bell peppers and un-cooked tofu doused in turmeric to make it look yellow. The dish had almost no flavor. The seitan chorizo burrito was also bland; it was predominantly refried beans, strangely fluffy soyrizo that had no flavor, and un-melted Teese mozzarella, which didn't enhance the taste at all.

The service was friendly and prompt. The decor is hip and crazy and the clientele is 100% Wicker Park, meaning no diversity and everyone's under 25.

But the food here was barely passable. I didn't have the willpower to eat even half my meal and my friend also was greatly disappointed with the food. Finally, to add insult to injury, Earwax is cash-only. Go to The Chicago Diner, Vella Cafe, Pick Me Up Cafe, Handlebar, Lakeside Cafe or Karyn's Cooked instead.

Earwax has a couple of good seitan sandwiches and tofu burritos. They are happy to leave out ingredients or make substitutions in order to make one of the vegetarian options vegan (although be forewarned that if you get the Tuscan seitan sandwich made vegan, they end up leaving out a lot of the delicious-sounding condiments and sometimes they don't have soy cheese so they just make it without).

The best part about Earwax is the cake. Thick, moist slices of delicious vegan cake. The service can be slow at times (particularly on weekends) but I usually just amuse myself by looking around the room at the bizarre circus decor while I wait. Also, Earwax has a video rental area in the basement that has a pretty nice selection of foreign films.