Hello there and thanks for checking out this guide to the best healthy food and restaurants in Chicago. We’ll do our best to cover all of the top locations near you to acquire nutritious foods so you will feel as good as possible when your next meal is finished.
The best vegan and vegetarian restaurants in your area will get things going and vegetable lovers have plenty of options in this town. Other local healthy restaurants will come next, as well as nice salad bars and soup restaurants.
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Buying nutritious things at Chicago health food stores and markets is a fantastic way to be in control of how healthy your diet really is. Smoothies and juice stores will follow, and then a few gluten free bakeries with lots of fresh baked low sugar sweets will wrap it up.
Towards the end there will even be a healthy foods map that will help you locate all of the places we mention throughout the article. If you’re interested you can also check out our other blogs about healthy living in the Midwest there.
Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants
Some of the best local vegan and vegetarian restaurants would be:
- Lucy’s Café at 2100 W Roscoe St
- Lyfe Kitchen at 270 E Ontario St
- Urban Vegan at 1601-1603 W Montrose Ave
- Kale My Name at 3300 W Montrose Ave
- Soul Veg City at 203 E 75th St
- Handlebar at 2311 W North Ave
- K&S Supper Club at 1904 Brookdale Rd #128, Naperville
Delectable French toast, pancakes, waffles, burgers, wraps, omelets, scrambles, salads, soups, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, eggs Benedict, and more with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options are available at Lucy’s Café.
Lyfe Kitchen makes some of the best healthy food in your area including flatbreads, smoothies, salads, bowls, tacos, and sandwiches. Urban Vegan specializes in Thai and Asian vegan dishes such as miso soup, tom yum, tofu satay, and more.
Kale My Name offers pita breads, nachos, lentil soups, salads, wraps, burgers, quesadillas, and desserts with plant based, gluten free, and no soy alternatives.
Handlebar prepares local vegetarian and vegan salads, sandwiches, fried avocado tacos, daily specials, and desserts.
Chicago Healthy Restaurants
You can also try other healthy restaurants in Chicago like:
- True Food Kitchen at 1 W Erie St
- SYRUP at 1961 W Galena Blvd, Aurora
- Poke Bros at 1147 N Eola Rd #103, Aurora
- Farmer’s Fridge at 333 North Madison St, Joliet
- Nature’s Best Café at 1904 Brookdale Rd, Naperville
True Food Kitchen provides selections of salads, bowls, burgers, sandwiches, desserts, refreshers, and more with keto and paleo friendly choices.
Poke Bros prepares gourmet healthy bowls near you with high quality fish and vegetables.
Nature’s Best Café sells fresh juices, smoothies, frozen yogurt, healthy wraps, and sandwiches with gluten free and vegan alternatives in Naperville.
Salad Bars In Your Area
There will be plenty of nutritious foods to choose from at salad bars near you:
- Sweetgreen at 623 N State St
- R.J. Grunts at 2056 N Lincoln Park W
- Salad House at 3176 N Broadway
- O’Malley’s Pub at 701 Hill Ave, Aurora
- Pomegranate at 55 S Commons Dr, Aurora
- Houlihan’s at 2860 Showplace Dr, Naperville
- McAlister’s Deli at 2911 95th St, Naperville
- Cafe Roma at 2175 Point Blvd #120, Elgin
Personalized salad combinations with a digital bar are provided at R.J. Grunts. Salad House offers nutritious wraps, soups, and grain bowls along with some of the best salads in Chicago.
Gluten free fresh salad alternatives are available at Pomegranate. Handcrafted sandwiches, salads, and teas are prepared at McAlister’s Deli.
Cafe Roma makes signature dressings for their salads with vegetarian and gluten free options.
Soup Restaurants
Great soups can be found at these restaurants:
- Zoup! at 62 W Adams St
- Soup & Scoops at 6701 N Olmsted Ave
- Nikarry’s at 1055 N Lake St, Aurora
Zoup offers twelve daily soups with low fat, vegetarian, nondairy, spicy, and gluten free selections.
Homemade soups, sandwiches, salads, frozen custard, coffees, and breakfasts are available at Soup and Scoops.
Health Food Stores & Markets
Pick out your own produce at these local health food stores and markets:
- Amish Healthy Foods at 1025 NW Ave
- Green Grocer at 1402 W Grand Ave
- The Natural Branches at 6027 W Belmont Ave
- Life Spring Health Foods & Juice Bar at 3178 N Clark St
- Whole Foods Market at 255 E Grand Ave
- Cermak Fresh Market at 1250 N Lake St, Aurora
- Nutrition Direct at 1736 Essington Rd # E, Joliet
- Fruitful Yield at 2378 Essington Rd, Joliet
- Fresh Thyme Market at 790 Royal St George Dr, Naperville
There are actually 15 Whole Foods near you in the Chicago metro area and more popping up every year, but we don’t like to fill our lists up with the same chains over and over.
Smoothies & Juice Shops
There are quite a few Chicago smoothie and juice shops too:
- HI-VIBE at 160 W Kinzie St
- JuiceRx at 1880 N Damen Ave
- Flourish Juice at 3000 W Jefferson St, Joliet
- Robeks Fresh Juices & Smoothies at 2936 Showplace Dr, Naperville
- Gooses Natural Juices at 19 Ziegler Ct, Elgin
JuiceRx offers probiotics, almond butter, blue green algae, CBD oil, elderberry, epic protein, and more as complementary to smoothies and bowls.
Robeks provides health supplements for local smoothies including flax, chia seeds, turmeric, cayenne pepper, matcha green tea, bee pollen, spirulina, raw honey, and goji berries.
Gluten Free Bakeries Near You
Gluten free bakeries in your area should have plenty of good things to try:
- Defloured at 1477 W Balmoral Ave
- Wheat’s End at 2873 N Broadway
- Ingrained at 108 W Chicago Ave
- Sweet Ali’s Gluten Free Bakery at 13 W 1st St, Hinsdale
Numerous assortments of gluten free bars, breads, cake pops, cupcakes, pies, cookies, and scones are available at Defloured.
Delectable donuts, scones, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and chocolate chip cookies with gluten free alternatives near you are prepared at Wheat’s End.
Ingrained offers cookies, cakes, raw bars, and donuts with vegan, plant based, gluten free, and sugarless selections.
Nondairy, vegan, and allergen free muffins, cakes, cookies, bars, pies, pizzas, and more are served at Sweet Ali’s Gluten Free Bakery in Hinsdale.
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Enjoy Eating Healthy In Chicago
After learning about all of those local vegan and vegetarian restaurants, other healthy restaurants, salad bars, places to get great soup, health food stores and markets, smoothies and juice shops, and gluten free bakeries in your area it shouldn’t be hard for you to grab a delicious and nutritious meal in the near future.
If you noticed anything incorrect on this page please let us know in the comments so we can keep our info as fresh as possible. Hopefully you enjoy eating healthy food at restaurants in Chicago.
