My Brother is headed to Spiaggia and Chicago Cut Steak house and was asking for recommendations on ordering, I don’t know much about the Chicago restaurant scene so I thought I’d ask the group. The steakhouse looks pretty straight forward but anything particularly must get at either?
Any other noteworthy bars ect worth checking out
I really like The Aviary, i wanted to go to Milk Room. both of these places require TOCK Reservations.
I’ll be there for a few days. Thinking Fat Rice, Girl & the Goat, Publican, Vito & Nick’s.
A friend from Chicago insists I get an Italian beef at Buona Beef.
Have you had the burger at Au Cheval? Seems to be getting very mixed reviews in NYC. I’ve never been but only heard good things at the Chicago location.
i really liked Dove’s Luncheonette in Wicker Park for their Chicken Fried Chicken with chorizo verde gravy
Funny place, an old Irish bar filled with old Irish that serves good pizza. Sort of halfway between Cheeseboard in Berkeley and John’s of Bleeker St. Old Style is quite good compared with national-brand industrial piss beer.
I was going to do a bang-bang with Pequod’s but didn’t have the appetite.
nice lunch at Purple Pig today. only went because work is in this very building
This grilled broccoli had a lovely dressing and was the first bite of veg I’ve had in a while
Duck bolognese (I’m not sure that’s a thing) garganelli was lovely!
Pheasant terrine was a nice starter.
No complaints
If you were going to Chicago with kids would you recommend staying in River North area or the Loop? We’ll be doing all the expected things - Navy Pier, Grant Park, Fields Museum, Aquarium, etc… We want to be close to good restaurants and local transportation.
Au Cheval
Girl & Goat
Smoqued
Rick Bayless trio
Chicago Beef Dip - Als Beef, Johnnies, Mr Beef
Not big fans of deep dish pizza
What else should we add to the list?
brunch at publican would be good with kids.
Good one. I ate there like 10 years ago.
Doing more research and adding Galit. Need to find a good Italian place for a birthday dinner too.
Hope its not too late to respond but Loop is probably better if you want to be able to do stuff and haver access to transportation. River North has a better restaurant scene though for sure though.
Also if you are still looking for recommendations:
if its open check out Dove’s Luncheonette
Roister
Parachute
XOCO from Rick Bayless is nice and far better than the airport variants (which are now called Frontera Tortas or something)
Haisous has nice modern Vietnamese food
and Birrieria Zaragoza has the best goat birria I’ve had in the states.
Thanks this is great info. The only place I had on my list was Xoco. Rositer looks great. I wasn’t aware that the Alinea team had another restaurant that isn’t prix fixe and affordable.
Dove’s Luncheonette looks like it might be closed when we go but will check back in later.
We ended up staying in River North because there were better hotel options and closer to a lot of the places we want to eat at. We’re close enough to the El to get around too.
Chicago trip photo dump. Weather for mid November was amazing. 65 degrees the first few days and in the high 50s otherwise. A few hours of rain before we left. Did all the fun touristy stuff with the kiddos.
Lou Malnati was light years better, lighter and tastier than any Chicago pizza we’ve ever had. But still prefer NY style.
Elinas is West Loop is a real gem. They start you off with salami, garlic bread, foccacia and pickled eggplant a la Carbone. Sorry for the dark photos. Chicken parm and rigatoni vodka were standouts. BYOB so we brought a nice Barolo from Eataly. The red sauce was out of this world good. Son saved the sauce from fritto misto to drink. Our favorite meal of the trip. Would highly recommend.
Eleven city diner had good lox and chicken noodle soup. An old school Jewish deli with a full bar. They were making egg creams. The bagels were very tiny but did the trick.
Sushi San was a nice neighborhood sushi spot that was pulling out food fast and playing great old school hip hop. Sushi was better than we expected and the place was packed on a Tuesday night.
Son wanted the Jaleo liquid olives for his 11th birthday. He said loquita in Santa Barbara were a bit better. The food was good to great. The favorites with the head on garlic shrimp, bikini sandwiches, pan con tomato, tomato/tuna salad and omelette. The chicken croquettes were weird. Tasted like chicken pot pie. Fun dinner.
Brisket from Smoque at Revival Food Hall. They have a smaller menu. The brisket was juicy and flavorful without being overly smoky. I think Heritage and old school Bludso is better.
Thanks for the reports!
We’re hoping to make it back to Chicago soon.
Small note, there’s an Eleven City Diner in LA!
Still closed, but will hopefully reopen.
If it weren’t for the logo, I’d never have guessed the place had any connection to the Rome original. Fine for a slice if you’re nearby but not to go out of your way for.
A friend from Chicago recommended the Italian beef at Buona, but to me it didn’t have much flavor.
So based on The Juicy History of Chicago’s Mr. Beef Started With Carl Bonovolanto - Eater Chicago we went to Mr. Beef and it was great. I recommend double-dipped with hot giardiniera (which is not actually very spicy). If I didn’t know it was the model for The Bear I wouldn’t have guessed. Maybe I need to watch some of the first season again.
I rewatched the first episode and the front room where you order and get your food is almost identical to Mr. Beef’s. The dining room in the show has a bunch of tables with tablecloths instead of one long greasy table with benches.
