Manna Kitchen: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Manna Kitchen in Lisle serves a fully vegan menu. Nothing on it contains meat, fish, dairy, eggs, or honey, and the restaurant says so on its own website: all dishes are vegan, desserts, snacks, and drinks included. If you eat vegetarian or vegan, you can order anything on the board.

Shanti and Markus Schramm opened the family-owned restaurant in 2019 as an offshoot of their company, Manna Organics. The restaurant’s Instagram bio calls it the first plant-based restaurant in Chicago’s western suburbs. Cooks make every dish to order and source local and organic certified ingredients when they can. In October 2024, the restaurant’s press page says, Food & Wine named it one of Yelp’s Top 100 Vegan Restaurants in America.

The owners point to three best sellers: the Panang Curry, the Soul Bowl, and the Tower Burger. Panang Curry is a coconut curry with tofu, sweet potatoes, string beans, and napa cabbage over brown rice. It costs $18.99, contains peanuts, and comes gluten free. Soul Bowl stacks fried chik’n strips, steamed kale, brown rice, spicy baked beans, and sweet potato wedges, with ranch and BBQ sauce on the side. Tower Burger gets a soft, house-made fermented veggie patty with crispy fried onions, house-made mozzarella, BBQ sauce, pickles, lettuce, and chipotle mayo.

When the Schnitzel Platter is on the board, get the Schnitzel Platter. Cooks batter and fry house-made seitan schnitzel, then plate it with Bavarian potato salad, cranberry sauce, and a lemon wedge for $21.99. Righteous Reuben piles corned beef-style seitan, peppers, sauerkraut, and vegan mozzarella on rye. Creamy Cashew Mac ‘N Cheeze comes baked in a golden cheeze sauce and costs $14.99. For a starter, the cauliflower wings come in buffalo, barbecue, and sweet chili versions at $10.99, and most are gluten free.

Lighter eaters have options too. Happy Hippie Salad tops mixed greens with shredded carrots, beets, sunflower seeds, and alfalfa sprouts the kitchen grows in house. Crunchy Taco Salad adds black beans, corn, pico de gallo, and seitan chorizo. Breakfast fans can order the All-Day Breakfast Sandwich, which stacks a Beyond Sausage patty, Just Egg, and melted cheeze on an English muffin for $11.99. Coffee cake and brown sugar pecan cookies cover dessert, and you can order whole vegan cakes ahead.

Every ingredient in the building is vegan, so cross-contact with meat or dairy isn’t a worry. Allergens still apply. Cashews, peanuts, soy, and wheat show up across the menu. The menu marks gluten-free dishes, and the restaurant says it can modify many dishes to be nut free, gluten free, or soy free. A kitchen that makes seitan and bakes bread isn’t a gluten-free kitchen, so if you have celiac disease, ask before you order.

Doors open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday stay closed. You can dine in, sit on the patio, or order through the restaurant’s Square site, which also runs a loyalty program. Most entrees cost between $14.99 and $21.99. A private dining room seats up to 50 for parties and corporate events, and the kitchen caters.

Before you leave, check the retail shelf. Manna Organics sells its sprouted Manna Bread, nut butters, kale chips, and nut flours there, next to local kombucha and non-alcoholic beer.