Sweet Tomatoes hits the (vegan) spot

On a recent trip to Woodfield mall on a sunny day off a friend and I felt the need to do more eating than shopping. The restaurant of choice was none other than our favorite suburban lunch dining spot Sweet Tomatoes!

The one near the mall is the only one I've ever visited but there are locations throughout the U.S.

The salad bar buffet is what this place is known for, and its awesome! According to their website their buffet features over 50 fresh ingredients. The buffet also features already prepared salads such as ceasar and a sort of southwestern salad on my visit.

The Sweet Tomatoes site features a nutrition page that tells which of their many items are vegan and vegetarian. While at the restaurant each item is marked if it is vegetarian or not so there's no guessing if the salad contains bits of chicken or the soup a stock made from meat.

Speaking of soup the restaurant offers some delcious ones that are even vegan like their Indian lentil, ratatouille provencale, Santa Fe black bean chili, sweet tomato onion and vegetarian harvest. Of course each restaurant won't feature all these vegan soups on a single visit but they will hopefully have at least one.

Sweet Tomatoes also features a bakery but unfortunately there's no indication as to whether any of the baked items are vegan or not.

Although it's a bit of a trek from Chicago this place beats any foodcourt when it comes to lunch hungry shoppers.

The Schaumburg Sweet Tomatoes is located south of IKEA and north of Woodfield Mall at 1951 E. McConnor Pkwy and is open Monday - Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.