White Palace - Is it Worth the Trip

My SIL is visiting us from Michigan and she wants to go to the White Palace for dinner. She saw the restaurant previewed on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and now she wants us to take her into the city for a meal there. We live way out west and when we get the chance to come into the city I want to get somewhere like Spoon Thai or Tank Noodles.

My question is will I be sorely disappointed by taking a 75 mile drive into the city only to end up at the White Palace? I saw the show and it appeared to be the type of place that you would patronize to calm the after bar munchies but not a destination type of place.

Mousec1,

Considering White Place Grill is the recipient of an LTHForum GNR a number of LTHers would say yes, it's worth the drive. Personally, I find WPG more than the sum of it's parts or, as Steve Z says here, While the food is certainly good quality diner fare, White Palace Grill is about more than just the food.

If your visit to WPG is about more than just the food, then sure, 75 miles to make your SIL happy is well worth the trip, if it's strictly food then I'd suggest you may be better served at Spoon Thai, Tank Noodle, which you mention, or any number of other places.

Enjoy,
Gary

White Palace Grill
1159 S. Canal St.
Chicago, Il
773-939-7167

Spoon Thai Restaurant
4608 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
773-769-1173

Tank Noodle
4953 N. Broadway St.
Chicago
773-878-2253

I'm with you, mousec, if I drive 75 miles I want something more unusual than the White Palace. But of course you also don't want to disappoint your sister in law...

Could you maybe combine this excursion with a visit to the Sunday morning Maxwell Street Market, for great Mexican street food? White Palace is right in the middle of the market, which is on Canal St north and south of Roosevelt Road. Parking nearby will be more challenging than on other days, and you'll have to deal with crowds to get to the food stands, but the food is excellent and the experience memorable. (If you search the board there are a number of threads that will help you find the really good food stands at Maxwell St.)

Or, if the trip in has to be for dinner, could you all go to dinner at a more interesting spot and then go to the White Palace for a slice of pie or something?

It's only natural to want to check out a place that was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I'll be heading south at the end of April and I've got my own list from DD&D, Bizarre Foods (Leatha's in Hattiesburg), World's Best Places to Pig Out (Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, MO), etc. The next time I end up at White Palace, I'm gonna order the turkey dinner.

Or, if the trip in has to be for dinner, could you all go to dinner at a more interesting spot and then go to the White Palace for a slice of pie or something?

Gotta agree with Amata here. I live in walking distance to WPG, and I don't go out of my way to visit. The atmosphere is about as echt-diner as you can get, and for that it's probably worth visiting once, but it might be worthwhile as suggested above to pair it with something else, like Maxwell Street on Sunday or (altho never on Sunday) how about Manny's (another GNR) for lunch (or dinner now that they're open 'till 8:00) and then walk over to WPG for a hunk of pie and some java?

I'm with Amata as well. If you want "good" diner food, try The Depot. If you just want to see WPG from the outside and then stay in that sector for your meal, try Manny's, Lao Sze Chuan, or Cuatro.

Piffle. Speaking as the original nominator, and an occasional habitue (when we can find parking, which is increasingly problematic with the explosion of retail growth in the area), I say don't disappoint your sister-in-law. My only caveat is that we always go for breakfast or lunch, usually on Sunday, or really late, after a concert or football game. But if she wants to go, go! It's a real slice of the past now, crashing head-on into the future.

Guy Fieri would love the GNR guide, BTW. Also, I'm waiting for the night that we're in Candlelite having a sausage pizza and garlic fries, and he and the FTV camera crew waltz in. Smoque, Paradise Pup, Hackney's on Harms, WPG - I swear Fieri is tailing us.

MrAndersen wrote:It's only natural to want to check out a place that was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I'll be heading south at the end of April and I've got my own list from DD&D, Bizarre Foods (Leatha's in Hattiesburg), World's Best Places to Pig Out (Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, MO), etc. The next time I end up at White Palace, I'm gonna order the turkey dinner.

We've been to Lambert's several times on the way to and from New Orleans over the years. An experience for sure, though the food itself is simply above average southern diner fare-fried chicken, ham, burgers, sandwiches, etc., albeit in gigantic proportions. And they will throw the rolls. Someone told me that Reeves' Boomland (a little to the east on 57) blew up, fire in the fireworks store.

Are there better places than White Palace? Yes.

Is it worth a trip? I've found upsetting a sister-in-law also upsets a wife.



I like WP. I'd rather take someone to Manny's given the area - but I don't think you'll go wrong.

I finally made it to White Palace and I have to say, if you are able to ignore the dirty setting, interesting people, etc.. then the food is only OK to me, at best. Now, this could be what I had. I had the club sandwich that had one slice of turkey in the turkey portion of the sandwich, which was disapointing. My brother had the chicken parm, and that was actually pretty good.

i'd have to think you're a bit nutty to drive 75 miles to go to White Palace ... if you do make the drive, at least do it because you're showing her downtown chicago, not because you're going to some diner...

It's worth the trip... but only if you're making the trip at four o'clock in the morning, when nothing else is open.

I've been to white palace grill once with a friend of mine. I've always heard good things about it. But to say the least, I was absolutely disappointed by my trip there. The food was subpar. The service was nice though. I find absolutely nothing to rave about for WPG.

Am I really missing out on something? Suggestions would be nice. I might consider going back, but currently it seems as though I will never return to Canal and Roosevelt for food.

Obit for Odysseas Liakopoulos,former owner of White Palace. Nice that the family took over the business and is apparently still there...

Host hit us with the schmooze bomb soon as we walked in the door, waitress patiently smiled as I worked through my misunderstanding of the toast/hashbrown/pancake/grits options and the flavor, both grits and eggs and city of big shoulders mid morning crowd, was a treat.

G Wiv wrote:Host hit us with the schmooze bomb soon as we walked in the door, waitress patiently smiled as I worked through my misunderstanding of the toast/hashbrown/pancake/grits options and the flavor, both grits and eggs and city of big shoulders mid morning crowd, was a treat.

Did it go anything like this . . ?

Five Easy Pieces wrote:G Wiv: I'd like an omelet, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.
Waitress: A #2, chicken salad sand. Hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?
G Wiv: Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?
G Wiv: I want you to hold it between your knees.

=R=

nsxtasy wrote:It's worth the trip... but only if you're making the trip at four o'clock in the morning, when nothing else is open.

White castle usually gets the call for me at this hour. The manager at the one on Addison once told me all the random places people would drive from just to kill the crave or try it for the first time.

Its weird but the only thing I like at WP and sometimes find myself craving for is the veal parm. The chicken is good too and I had no idea about this til I saw the DDD&D episode.

It seems that I’m alone in that I am totally put off by the “new” white palace. I guess I should preface my post with that I understand the owners have to keep the yuppies happy. So I guess I have to support of whatever changes the owners have to make. However that doesn’t mean I have to be a good sport about it.

If it’s a slice of the historic Diner that you’re looking for at white palace, you’ve missed that boat. For that, I’d recommend “Diner Grill”. I’m not sure what they said about white palace on the show, as far as atmosphere goes, it’s total Tchotchkes now. I found it really hard to believe it was really the same owners. The menu changed dramatically, and I went there for the charm which it now lacks. Well, I went for the charm and the side of grits for $0.40, hash browns for $0.80 and a burger for $1.75. After the remodel, it has about as much atmosphere as steak ‘n’ shake or Hollywood diner. I'm mostly sore that I can’t get a burger without the fries, and when you put fries next to a burger somehow the price quadruples. Then again maybe I’m being harsh, I have only eaten there once since the change. Maybe I should give it another chance, seeing as how it was nominated for GNR.

Here’s what it used to be like, and I don’t see no turkey club on that sandwich menu.

My suggestion:
Diner Grill
1635 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60613
773-248-2030