There should be Filipino food and German restaurants in the Waukegan area ... I'm tired of going to Restaurant Row in Wheeling/Vernon Hills ...

HI,

There is a German restaurant in Kenosha on Route 50 going east just as you turn to 75th Street. I can't recall the name and haven't been there (yet), it is certainly closer than Wheeling. There is Miro's Charcoal House Little Europe restaurant visible from 94 not too far over the Wisconsin border. Read the linked report because there is a lot of German food offered here.

Just south of the main drag in Antioch is another German restaurant: Mark's Wunder-Bar Restaurant.

My feeling you already know of this place, but then again you may not. There is the Asian Store on Washington Street just east of Greenbay Road. They not only sell Filipino foodstuffs, they also do catering. A couple of times they let us sit in the backroom to eat our food. Not a formal polished restaurant, though take-out is very convenient. While they may not make a small quantity for you. They told us if they have a catering job and the food interests us, then they will make a bit more to accomodate us.

I once bumped into a Filipino caterer on Argyle Street who works out of Grayslake. About as quickly as I got his contact information, I lost it. If you know who this may be, then let me know.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:I once bumped into a Filipino caterer on Argyle Street who works out of Grayslake. About as quickly as I got his contact information, I lost it. If you know who this may be, then let me know.

On a recent trip to Tank, I picked up one of the Asian community newspapers in the front and was interested to note how many advertisements there were for filipino pig roast caterers.

Grab one next time you're down there -- if you don't find that caterer, you'll find another!

I can't recall which of the papers it was, but they're free, so hey...

On the north side of Lincoln Park (Diversey & Clark ish), the better question is what don't we need. There are so few good options it'd be easier to list off the decent ones we have (Select Cuts for burgers, Hai Yen for Vietnamese, Dunlays for great bar food, 100's of burrito joints)

Specifically though, I'd kill for a good Korean, deli, BBQ, Middle Eastern or Cuban place.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:On the north side of Lincoln Park (Diversey & Clark ish), the better question is what don't we need. There are so few good options it'd be easier to list off the decent ones we have (Select Cuts for burgers, Hai Yen for Vietnamese, Dunlays for great bar food, 100's of burrito joints)

Specifically though, I'd kill for a good Korean, deli, BBQ, Middle Eastern or Cuban place.

You mean the neighborhood doesn't need another "Irish Pub" or Starbucks?

I live in Evanston just south of "Downtown evanston" But we really need a great chinese place. We have lots of sushi and one decent chinese place but another would be perfect. We also have amazing deep dish places (giordano's and lou malnati's) but we need a thing crust place or a place where you can just get a slice. I would love a Home Run Inn. That would be amazing. I would also love a great little Mexican place. We have chipolte and las palmas (both in down town) but a small hole in the wall place would hit the spot!

If you're not talking walking distance, there's Lupita's on Main for mexican - not the same as the Rogers Park places, but servicable. There's Portofino's Pizzeria on Dodge just south of Main that has slices, as well as fair pizza for a delivery joint. For Chinese, I like delivery from Eng's on Western in Rogers Park. There is a lot of pizza near downtown Evanston, but there's a really wide range of styles, so it depends on what you're looking for : Carmen's, Dave's Italian Kitchen, Homemade Pizza Co., Trattoria DOC, Gigio's, as well as large chains like Papa John's, Lou Malnati's and Domino's.

Carmens Of Evanston Pizzeria
1012 Church Street, Evanston, IL 60201

Gigio's Pizzeria (I think they have slices as well)
1001 Davis Street, Evanston, IL 60201

Portofino's Pizzeria
843 Dodge Avenue, Evanston, IL 60202

Dave's Italian Kitchen
1635 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201

Homemade Pizza (cook it yourself - I still don't quite get this concept)
1301 Chicago Ave

Trattoria DOC
706 Main Street

Lupita's Mexican Restaurant
700 Main St. Evanston, IL 60202

Eng's Orient Express
7300 North Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60645

You folks in and around Chicagoland have it made. I'm downstate in Charleston and this place is barren when it comes to restaurants. Every now and then some brave soul tries to open a sit-down, non-fast-food place, but it inevitably goes under in 6 months or so. We just got a new Thai place (the only one within 50 miles). If it's decent, they'll get lots of support from us. Otherwise we have only Mexican and Chinese buffet places for ethnic choices. One Mexican place has good food, but the Chinese buffet places are all the same, like they get daily deliveries off the same truck. And none of them are very good.

Champaign is the closest area with a variety of restaurants. But even there we've run out of new choices. We look forward to our trips to Chicago for the restaurants more than anything else. If I lived near Greektown, I'd weigh 300lbs. I love the food there.

Mhays wrote:Gigio's Pizzeria (I think they have slices as well)
1001 Davis Street, Evanston, IL 60201

Gigio's definitely has slices; I'm not actually sure they deliver though. They definitely don't deliver to my corner of Rogers Park.

Mhays wrote:Homemade Pizza (cook it yourself - I still don't quite get this concept)
1301 Chicago Ave

Yeah, I was skeptical too, but we baby-sat for the neighbor kids a while back and the parents left us with one of these for dinner. It was pretty tasty. I haven't figured out a reason I'd go get one for myself, though.

germuska wrote:

Mhays wrote:Homemade Pizza (cook it yourself - I still don't quite get this concept)
1301 Chicago Ave

Yeah, I was skeptical too, but we baby-sat for the neighbor kids a while back and the parents left us with one of these for dinner. It was pretty tasty. I haven't figured out a reason I'd go get one for myself, though.

They are quite tasty, but very expensive for what you are getting (IMO).

Mhays wrote:Gigio's Pizzeria (I think they have slices as well)
1001 Davis Street, Evanston, IL 60201

Yes, as germuska confirmed, Gigio's does sell pizza by the slice. A few caveats, however: first, unless you're getting your piece from a pie fresh out of the oven, it might have been sitting behind the counter, cooling to a possibly unacceptable temperature by the time you order (though that might be preferable to getting a slice that's been sitting under a heat lamp -- I like the joints that'll throw a slice back in the oven to warm it up for you, to essentially bring it back to life, as much as that's possible); and second, that the intended style of thin crust is, I believe, that of New York (City), which means that the ground-on-the-premises meat could turn you off initially. As accustomed as I was to a certain type of Chicago-style sausage, this was a bit off-putting at first, but the taste slowly grew on me as the meal wore on. My lunch report on the pizza-by-the-slice experience at Gigio's (from back in September) can be found below:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=93931#93931

Hope everyone finds what they're looking for!

--Dan

M_Six wrote:You folks in and around Chicagoland have it made. I'm downstate in Charleston and this place is barren when it comes to restaurants. Every now and then some brave soul tries to open a sit-down, non-fast-food place, but it inevitably goes under in 6 months or so. We just got a new Thai place (the only one within 50 miles). If it's decent, they'll get lots of support from us. Otherwise we have only Mexican and Chinese buffet places for ethnic choices. One Mexican place has good food, but the Chinese buffet places are all the same, like they get daily deliveries off the same truck. And none of them are very good.

Champaign is the closest area with a variety of restaurants. But even there we've run out of new choices. We look forward to our trips to Chicago for the restaurants more than anything else. If I lived near Greektown, I'd weigh 300lbs. I love the food there.

Have you tried the Hunan Restaurant in downtown Mattoon? It goes w/o saying one must order off the menu and avoid the ubiquitous buffet. Last I ate there over Christmas they had recently added a page of Hunan specialties and some Thai(zoinks!) curries. I have a fondness for this restaurant detailed in other posts on this site, but caveat emptor...imo it's the best Chinese I've had in the area.

I saw the Charleston Thai place(Bangkok Thai?) which had yet to open when I was there...have you been to Nyro's Gyros in the barely-converted Wendy's? I'm moderately intrigued...

I live in Bucktown. We seem to have everything, yet, strangely, nothing (well, almost nothing) is actually any good.

We have enough "fine dining" between Scylla/Meritage/Hot Chocolate and the variety of "fancier" options at the damen/milwaukee/north intersection I lovingly refer to as "The Crotch". Bin Wine Cafe is the best of "The Crotch", imho, and though it is somewhat upscale is surprisingly affordable if you know how to work the menu.


We need: a dependable red-sauce Italian place. Club Lucky does not count, neither does the new Barcello's.

We need: a Mexican place that's somewhere in between a taqueria and the rediculousness that is Adobo Grill.

We need: A good sammich place. There are quite a few, but none are dependably good and not overpriced

We need: A coffee shop I actually want to hang out in that's open somewhat late. Filter makes me feel old and unhip and like I shower way too often. And I'm 26. Caffe DeLucca is nice but not open very late.


And we need:Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese...and so much else I don't even know where to begin...

bananasandwiches wrote:I live in Bucktown. We seem to have everything, yet, strangely, nothing (well, almost nothing) is actually any good.

What do you think of Sultan's Market?

We need: A good sammich place. There are quite a few, but none are dependably good and not overpriced

What are your thoughts on Cold Comfort or Red Hen..? They can't be more expensive than The Goddess and Grocer.

And we need:Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese...and so much else I don't even know where to begin...

I've never been, but I've heard good things about Thai Village.


Sultan's Market
2057 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 235-3072
http://www.chicagofalafel.com

Cold Comfort
2211 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 772-4552

Red Hen Bread
1623 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 342-6823
http://www.redhenbread.com

The Goddess and Grocer
1646 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 342-3200
http://www.goddessandgrocer.com

Thai Village
2053 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 384-5352


~GS

bananasandwiches wrote:options at the damen/milwaukee/north intersection I lovingly refer to as "The Crotch". Bin Wine Cafe is the best of "The Crotch", imho

Time Out Chicago recently dubbed that intersection The Crotch, so it seems you're not alone in calling it that.

bananasandwiches wrote:We need: a Mexican place that's somewhere in between a taqueria and the rediculousness that is Adobo Grill.

What about Las Palmas? That's one of my favorite spots in the city.

bananasandwiches wrote:We need: A good sammich place. There are quite a few, but none are dependably good and not overpriced

What about Milk & Honey?

Ralph Wiggum wrote:What about Las Palmas? That's one of my favorite spots in the city.

Ralph,

Mention of Las Palmas reminded me of the similarly named, and (somewhat) close by, La Palma, which is Puerto Rican.

La Palma is casual with cafeteria style steam table items and a table of self serve fried/baked meat, a must stop for me when in the mood for Puerto Rican style meats. I also quite like the veggies especially the wonderfully starchy malanga.

I should note it's been a few years since I've been to La Palma, but I don't imagine it's changed much.

La Palma
1340 N. Homan Ave
Chicago, IL
773-395-1075

Milk and Honey is more Wicker Park than bucktown, but it is the best sandwich place for a few miles. For someone living at Shakespeare and Oakley, though, it's a bit of a hike.

I'm really not a fan of Goddess's sandwiches, so it's not hard to be better, and I think both Red Hen and Cold Comfort are better. That's not saying that either is particularly great, just that they're better than G&G.

Greasy Spoon wrote:

bananasandwiches wrote:I live in Bucktown. We seem to have everything, yet, strangely, nothing (well, almost nothing) is actually any good.

What do you think of Sultan's Market?

I'm much more a fan of Babylon. One, they are really, really close to my house. Two, they are infinitely more consistent and dedicated to quality than Sultan's Market. And, I just don't get the Sultan's Market falafel sytle with jerusalem salad and sriracha sauce in there...I much prefer Babylon's falafel.

We need: A good sammich place. There are quite a few, but none are dependably good and not overpriced

What are your thoughts on Cold Comfort or Red Hen..? They can't be more expensive than The Goddess and Grocer.

Goddess and Grocer:Overpriced, overhyped, underwhelming, snooty counter service.

Cold Comfort is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes thigns seem fresh and well-assembled, othertimes it seems the lunchmeat is a bit past its prime. I got tired of playing lunchmeat roulette.

Red Hen is a great bakery with a small sandwich selection and, also, overpriced IMHO.

And we need:Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese...and so much else I don't even know where to begin...

I've never been, but I've heard good things about Thai Village.

I have also never been to Thai Village--it's really more Uk Village than Bucktown (I'm at Armitage and Damen, basically) but if I have a chance to get down there and give it a shot I will let you know.


Sultan's Market
2057 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 235-3072
http://www.chicagofalafel.com

Cold Comfort
2211 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 772-4552

Red Hen Bread
1623 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 342-6823
http://www.redhenbread.com

The Goddess and Grocer
1646 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 342-3200
http://www.goddessandgrocer.com

Thai Village
2053 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 384-5352


~GS

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

bananasandwiches wrote:options at the damen/milwaukee/north intersection I lovingly refer to as "The Crotch". Bin Wine Cafe is the best of "The Crotch", imho

Time Out Chicago recently dubbed that intersection The Crotch, so it seems you're not alone in calling it that.

bananasandwiches wrote:We need: a Mexican place that's somewhere in between a taqueria and the rediculousness that is Adobo Grill.

What about Las Palmas? That's one of my favorite spots in the city.

bananasandwiches wrote:We need: A good sammich place. There are quite a few, but none are dependably good and not overpriced

What about Milk & Honey?

Las Palmas is at virtually the same price point as Adobo Grill and too expensive for me to enjoy regularly. The few times we were there we felt the service was really, really rushed and that the food didn't warrant its price tag.


And, I've been calling that intersection The Crotch since before TimeOut Chicago existed as a publication, so methinks they are tyring to appropriate someone else's idea (not mine per se- got the expression from my boss, actually).

But of course TimeOut wouldn't steal other people's ideas and pass them off as their own. Nooo, that's impossible to believe.

bananasandwiches wrote:
We need: a Mexican place that's somewhere in between a taqueria and the rediculousness that is Adobo Grill.

Isn't one of the La Pasaditas just S. of Division on Ashland a sit down?
Don't know if you'd consider that a hike.
La Pasadita:
1132 N. Ashland Ave
1140 N Ashland Ave
1142 N Ashland Ave
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/dining/mmx-060518-chiccago-tacos,0,2081043.story

Don't think I've been to the "sit down" one, but I'd imagine it can't be too pricey at all. They really know their way around a char grilled steak taco and burrito (seems so easy, but so many other places get it totally wrong)
so maybe they take a little pride in their other food as well. If you've got NOTHING in the way of a cheaper sit down mex place near you, I'd give them a try. I used to be on Diversey and Milwaukee, and would make the trek to the Las Asadas (same as La Pasadita) on Western (around Fullerton) regularly. If las asada's was closed, I'd be on my way to La Pasadita to quench my taco jones. There was a GLUT of taco / Mex joints in my neighboorhood, but the quick trip was well worth it. Most of the other places were just horrible. After a while, you get tired of trying new places and weigh the options of:
trying new and being disappointed, or
taking a quick trip to the right spot.

Now that I think about it, I have been there before. The smaller la pasadita on the west side of Ashland WAS a sit down joint (stress the word joint.) It leaned more toward taqueria than full service tho. As I recall, they had all the taco/burrito stuff plus some of the standard mex offerings. Might not be the right place if you are looking for ambience, but it's a bustling, friendly joint. I can almost guarantee you if you're looking for some good carne asada, you'll be going there a lot, as it is pretty affordable, and probably better than most that cost a lot more. I'm not big on white tablecloths and mediocre food when it comes to standard mexican dining. That said, on the other hand, I'm a big fan of Frontera Grill. No prob paying up for higher scale mex food (if it's worth it.) For just
standard mex fare in this city, decent is few and far between, horrible is commonplace. Most of the mex places I think are banking on the fact that you are going to get hammered on margaritas during dinner. I'm pretty sure that's how Lalo's is doing so well. Their food is not that good, imo.

Just as a matter of comparison there's a similar thread on the CH Chicago Board. Two people are PLEADING for PF Changs to open Pei Wei's in their neighborhoods.

G Wiv wrote:Mention of Las Palmas reminded me of the similarly named, and (somewhat) close by, La Palma, which is Puerto Rican...

Nice call G Wiv. I have a special place in my heart for La Palma. My stepmother worked in their kitchen during the summers from about 1998 - 2003. We hardly cooked on the weekends because she would always bring no less than 4 or 5 to-go containers filled with food. Without fail she always brought me my own container filled with rice, beans, carnitas, asopao, and tostones. I haven't been there in about 5 years myself... Though I'm sure if the owners are the same the food is just as good as I remember it.

~GS

babyd28 wrote:I live in Evanston just south of "Downtown evanston"

...

I would also love a great little Mexican place.

If you're in downtown Evanston there's always that little Mexican cafe... I'm blanking on the name right now -- anyone know what it's called?

Anyway, it's pretty good. I haven't been in a while, but they did have a couple of relatively unusual items on the menu, such as duck taquitos; the specials were often more creative, as well. I remember a smoked salmon quesadilla that worked much better than you'd think. They also have a daily lunch biffet, I believe.

cilantro wrote:If you're in downtown Evanston there's always that little Mexican cafe... I'm blanking on the name right now -- anyone know what it's called?

Is this a set-up, or what?

That Little Mexican Cafe
1010 Church Ave., Evanston

gtgirl wrote:

ksbeck wrote:We live just off Damen in Ravenswood/Lincoln Square and sadly are just out of the delivery area of good Chicago-style pizza places.

Have you checked to see if Art of Pizza delivers to your area? I live in Buena Park and they deliver to us.

I am in Buena Park, too - though I never call it that.
I wish we had a good chinese place.

gtgirl wrote:

ksbeck wrote:We live just off Damen in Ravenswood/Lincoln Square and sadly are just out of the delivery area of good Chicago-style pizza places.

Have you checked to see if Art of Pizza delivers to your area? I live in Buena Park and they deliver to us.

I am in Buena Park, too - though I never call it that.
I wish we had a good chinese place.

I wish we had a good chinese place.

When I was in the area, we would hit up Egg Roll King.

Nothing spectacular, but I remember it being nice and cheap. Plus, while you're waiting you can run around the corner and have a beer at Bar on Buena.

4204 N Broadway St
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 883-2647

Christopher Gordon wrote:
Have you tried the Hunan Restaurant in downtown Mattoon? It goes w/o saying one must order off the menu and avoid the ubiquitous buffet. Last I ate there over Christmas they had recently added a page of Hunan specialties and some Thai(zoinks!) curries. I have a fondness for this restaurant detailed in other posts on this site, but caveat emptor...imo it's the best Chinese I've had in the area.

I saw the Charleston Thai place(Bangkok Thai?) which had yet to open when I was there...have you been to Nyro's Gyros in the barely-converted Wendy's? I'm moderately intrigued...

We've been having Chinese at QQ Buffet on the east side of Chucktown lately. It seems to be improving there. We used to eat at Hunan every now and then. I had a less than stellar experience there which I wrote about in one of my first posts here, but it violated a posting rule and got pulled. Fair enough. Let's just say I won't be going back there.

We finally got into the new Thai place after it had been open a couple of weeks. It's VERY small. Maybe a dozen tables at most. I was disappointed in the Ginger Chicken. It was ginger lightly seasoned with chicken. My wife had the curry and was not impressed either. On top of that, it was pricey without giving you much food. I hope they're just going through a phase and will improve with time. But I have noticed it's no longer crowded.

Nero's is like any other fast food place. If you need food quick and aren't too picky, it works fine. I thought the one in Chucktown was about half a letter grade below the one on University Ave in Champaign.

Ever try the burgers at Gunner Buc's?

whiskeybent wrote:

I wish we had a good chinese place.

When I was in the area, we would hit up Egg Roll King.

Nothing spectacular, but I remember it being nice and cheap. Plus, while you're waiting you can run around the corner and have a beer at Bar on Buena.

4204 N Broadway St
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 883-2647

Tried Egg Roll King - not so great. Plus Egg Roll King is closed on sundays, which is weird to me.

I love the Bar on Buena unfortunately their food is terrible.