In the days of vaudeville, health-conscious comedy duos would intentionally bomb onstage in order to get free fruits and veggies hurled at them by angry audience members. Today's Groupon offers veggie-friendly fare with minimal bad puns: for $10, you get $20 worth of food and drink at Blind Faith Café in Evanston. This offer is only valid toward dine-in, and does not include tax.

Blind Faith Café vaunts a vault of vegetarian cuisine with enough enticing eats to potentially convert even the most stubborn of steak-eaters. Starters on the spring 2010 dinner menu include roasted vegetable hummus ($5.50) and guacamole with corn chips and crudités ($8.50), while, sandwichally speaking, the barbecue seitan sandwich ($12.50) slathers the wheat gluten in sauce and sides it with Carolina slaw and choice of salad or fries. Blind Faith Café's entrees pull from global influences: the Kung Pao ($14) offers Szechwan-glazed gardein sautéed with ginger, garlic, and peanuts, and the enchiladas verdes ($14) roll up corn, potato, and sour cream in savory sleeping bags topped with jack cheese, guacamole, and salsa verde. For dessert, try the peanut-butter-chocolate cake ($7.50), or simply order another round of wine or beer as you regale fellow diners with yet another story about how you were raised by a pack of windsocks.

Blind Faith Café's interior boasts a friendly and relaxed atmosphere for all manners of meat-free mastication, with a staff of experienced chefs and servers committed to a pleasurable dining experience from the first bite to the last nibble. Do your part in quelling potential pepper and avocado uprisings with a vegetarian-friendly feast at Blind Faith Café.

Reviews

The Chicago Reader, Time Out Chicago, Centerstage Chicago, Metromix and Zagat all serve Blind Faith Café positive reviews:

• The Midwest's oldest and largest vegetarian place has an unusual knack for flavoring its food, which runs the gamut of global styles. – Centerstage Chicago
• Breakfast offers innovative takes on standards like a tofu and egg scramble with potato, onion, and pepper hash; huge portions of fluffy French toast; and nondairy Mexican scramble with tofu, soy cheese, and salsa. – Laura Levy Shatkin, Chicago Reader
• Evanston’s “child-friendly” “venerable vegetarian veteran keeps on keepin’ on” (since 1979) with “global flavors” (that are even “satisfying” to “meat eaters”), “great vegan options” and service that’s “generally very good for a half-hippie place” –Zagat

OpenTable diners and Citysearchers give it four stars, TripAdvisors and more than 190 Yelpers give it 3.5, and 75% of Urbanspooners recommend it:

• Although I'm not a vegetarian, I love this restaurant! …I know I'll always have a wonderful variety of tasty options, prepared well and with the bonus of being healthy and responsible choices! – Chris B., Yelp