Vegan Dinner in Madison

In late September I went to Madison, WI for client work. This is only my second trip to Madison and I have nothing negative to say about the city. It is the capital of WI and is a college town. It is easy to walk around and from what I could tell, it is relatively safe. I have heard a lot about Madison and from what I could tell, they have a lot of vegetarian places in the city (or at least places with a substantial vegetarian/vegan menu).


I arrived into Madison and to my hotel a couple of hours before dinner and settled into my room to catch up on work email. When I was in Madison the year before, I had tried a place that I could not remember the name, but it had a lot of vegetarian options. I just remember it had Nepalese food. So, I searched and I came across a place called Himal Chulli. The name did not sound familiar but, I wanted the cuisine again.

As I read the menu, my mouth watered and knew I had found my place. So, I called in my order and walked downtown to pick it up. I ordered the "Seiten Buff." Which was described as "stir-fried organic seiten with onions, garlic, mushrooms, broccoli, green pepper and mediterranean spices. Good in any season. Served with choices of rice or roti and dal or tossed salad." I love seitan, especially homade seitan and was excited to get back to my room and chow down.


The pictures do not do it justice, but the dish was just heavenly. The spices were perfect and it was some of the best seitan that I have ever had. The Dal (shown below) was also just lovely. The lentils were cooked perfectly and the broth was lemony, warm and plain delicious! I practically licked the container clean.


While walking back with my order, I noticed that there was another place that had Nepalease food (go figure!) called Chautara. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was the place that I had eaten the year before. In addition to Nepalease, it had Tibetan and Indian cuisine. I remember that my meal was also very good at that place.

When I travel for work, I so rarely get any time to explore. Even though I had a night ahead of me of work, it was nice to be able to take a walk downtown. It is even better when I have so many vegetarian choices!