Midtown Global Market
Food Court or Street Vendor
Hours
Daily
- 7am - 8pm
The Midtown Global Market houses over 50 local and independently-owned vendors offering up a large variety of clothing, hand-made jewelry, organic groceries and food from around the globe.
They also offer an outdoor farmer's market every Thursday through October 12th from 3:30-7:30pm.
Tons of vegan and vegetarian food choices are offered throughout the market, so bring some friends and sample an array of food. There is something to please everyone.
Try the various vegan pastries at one of Midtown's newcomers, Salty Tart.
On the corner of Chicago and E Lake St in the Old Sears Building.
- Kid-Friendly
- Large Group-Friendly
- Live Music
Added by hungry_coconut on Apr 22 07 (updated Oct 2)
Reviews
I believe that hungry_coconut is mistaken when s/he states that La Loma's vegetarian tamales are vegan. For one, I believe that they contain cheese. Secondly, I am almost positive that they aren't even vegetarian, although they are advertised as being so. Last time I saw an ingredient list for these tamales (at that time listed as vegetarian as well), ingredients such as chicken fat were listed. It would be good to double and triple check the veg status of this restaurant. Most tamales are traditionally made with meat broth or fat, which is not considered meat and therefore is often labeled as being vegetarian. I have no reason to believe that La Loma's tamales are made any other way until an ingredient list has been checked.
That stated, the Midtown Global Market rocks. My favorite places are the produce market in the center and Holy Land Deli.
EDIT: Regarding the La Loma Tamales
1) Before I wrote this review, I asked if there was cheese in the vegetarian tamale. No, they do not.
2) I asked about chicken broth/meat broth. They told me no.
3) After eating a tamale at the MGM counter service restaurant, I purchased a 6 pack of frozen tamales which are made at the restaurant's other location and available at one of the little markets inside the MGM. The frozen tamales come with a complete listing of ingredients. I read it three times before purchasing. They use vegetable lard (aka shortening) and specifically list vegetable broth. Natural flavors are listed, so I suppose there is a *small* chance that some sort of animal-derived product is involved, but I doubt it.
I will dutifully grill the staff next time I am there and ask for a full ingredient list of the tamales, but I have a feeling they are the same as the frozen packages.
The Midtown Global Market is awesome! Lots of my favorite restaurants have their second location in the MGM, set up as smaller counter-service versions of the full sized restaurants.
Everest Cafe is the mini version of Everest on Grand, and they have tasty momos - steamed or fried veggie dumplings for fairly cheap. La Loma has excellent vegetarian tamales, perfect at 2 bucks. They're vegan, too. Holy Land is there with a mini buffet as well as a mini grocery store to pick up their goods. West Indies Soul, Andy's Garage, Safari Express -- just to name a few other counter service restaurants at the MGM.
I love to go to lots of different vendors and get my fill on a variety of foods. I also love to pick up a few groceries from United Noodles or an Asian Market or the Produce Exchange organic market.
There are also a plethora of little shops which sell everything from clothing to jewelry, spices to unique gifts.
I always have a fun time taking it all in and eating a ton of good food for great prices.