Palatine or Mount Prospect Dining recommendations?

Seems like we can never find any good restaurants in these towns full of chains. Any recommendations? Thank you!

luvtoeat,

LTHForum is truly a great place for restaurant recommendations, but it's always helpful to know where else YOU like to go (this is much more of a 2 way street than Chowhound). You may get better responses to all of your requests if you give a little.

Plenty of love goes to Flamingo's:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9965&highlight=flamingos

Anything special you're looking for? I work around the area, so I know of some good "joint" lunch spots, and a few coworkers know of some decent dinner spots since they live in the area.

Lunch haunts:
Salerno's on Kensington and Wolf. Cheap Italian Cafe/pizza/pasta/sammiches. Good Stuff. Real Value.
http://www.arniesalerno.com/

Little America Diner on Central a few blocks west of 83. Turkey sammiches and patty melts. Real in house roasted turkey for their sammiches. Standard diner fare. Get the turkey (Turkey club, turkey rueben etc)

Frankies on Rand next to the menards makes a killer Gyros if you ask me.
They char grill the meat. Siome will call this heresy, but I call it deeelish.

Luke / Tore's beef sammich with hot giardiniera is one of my top 5 beef sammiches in the chicagoland area. They have a location on Rand north of the Target. Across the street from Peeps, and next door to a bar called
"sports page."

I used to LOVE Fish One for sushi on Rand. I think it may have changed names. It was owned by some people who had a few of the better places in the city. I used to get some great sushi lunch specials from them. The quality was superb.

IMO, not very far away (rand and des plaines) is a location of one of the best places for steak tacos/burritos in the chicago area. It's an outpost of La Pasadita. One of the La Pasadita brothers opened up the Las Asadas mini chain. I will swear by this place as the best steak taco in town. They char grill their skirt steak. No ambience to speak of, but this place will have you very confused as to how most of the taquerias stay in business slinging out the garbage meat that they do. This place serves up scrumptuous, yummy, mouthwatering, char grilled steak.

Flamingo's is indeed wonderful, my favorite Mexican restaurant in the entire Chicago area. Vita Mia is a good place in MP for nice Italian.

You don't mention Arlington Heights, which is smack dab between the two towns. There's lots of good food in AH, including Alt Thai for Thai food, Walker Brothers with their delicious apple pancake for breakfast, and GNR nominee Le Titi de Paris for French fine dining. I've also eaten numerous times at La Chicanita, a reasonably good conventional Mexican restaurant in downtown AH.

I guess it's still a chain, but the chicken at La Granja sure is tasty, and unique for the area.

La Granja
1572 N Rand Rd
Palatine, IL 60074
(847) 202-9105

seebee wrote:Plenty of love goes to Flamingo's:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9965&highlight=flamingos

Anything special you're looking for? I work around the area, so I know of some good "joint" lunch spots, and a few coworkers know of some decent dinner spots since they live in the area.

Lunch haunts:
Salerno's on Kensington and Wolf. Cheap Italian Cafe/pizza/pasta/sammiches. Good Stuff. Real Value.
http://www.arniesalerno.com/

Little America Diner on Central a few blocks west of 83. Turkey sammiches and patty melts. Real in house roasted turkey for their sammiches. Standard diner fare. Get the turkey (Turkey club, turkey rueben etc)

Frankies on Rand next to the menards makes a killer Gyros if you ask me.
They char grill the meat. Siome will call this heresy, but I call it deeelish.

Luke / Tore's beef sammich with hot giardiniera is one of my top 5 beef sammiches in the chicagoland area. They have a location on Rand north of the Target. Across the street from Peeps, and next door to a bar called
"sports page."

I used to LOVE Fish One for sushi on Rand. I think it may have changed names. It was owned by some people who had a few of the better places in the city. I used to get some great sushi lunch specials from them. The quality was superb.

IMO, not very far away (rand and des plaines) is a location of one of the best places for steak tacos/burritos in the chicago area. It's an outpost of La Pasadita. One of the La Pasadita brothers opened up the Las Asadas mini chain. I will swear by this place as the best steak taco in town. They char grill their skirt steak. No ambience to speak of, but this place will have you very confused as to how most of the taquerias stay in business slinging out the garbage meat that they do. This place serves up scrumptuous, yummy, mouthwatering, char grilled steak.

I have to second the love for Salerno's

I also enjoy the chicken sandwiches at Photos, which is located next door to Salerno's. Photos usually runs some awesome daily and monthly specials. I beleive that for the month of Nov all Hot Dogs are .18 with purchase.

I'll third the Salerno's vote- great value for great food. Pizza that does not skimp on the ingredients, including cheese. Great homemade soups. Good-sized sandwiches with fresh toppings. Very flavorful tomato sauces (my favorite combination is the angel hair pasta with meat sauce).

jesteinf wrote:luvtoeat,

LTHForum is truly a great place for restaurant recommendations, but it's always helpful to know where else YOU like to go (this is much more of a 2 way street than Chowhound). You may get better responses to all of your requests if you give a little.

Sorry, I"m still new. Actually I like almost everything so didn't put any specs. I do prefer non-chain and non-greasy food and not into things like tongue, intestines, brains, etc. Thanks!

luvtoeat wrote:

jesteinf wrote:luvtoeat,

LTHForum is truly a great place for restaurant recommendations, but it's always helpful to know where else YOU like to go (this is much more of a 2 way street than Chowhound). You may get better responses to all of your requests if you give a little.

Sorry, I"m still new. Actually I like almost everything so didn't put any specs. I do prefer non-chain and non-greasy food and not into things like tongue, intestines, brains, etc. Thanks!

No apology necessary! Just want to make sure that you get the most out of the site as possible

Also: Retro Bistro at Golf/Busse,MP, a nice but casual bistro with bar.

Yanni's at Arlington Heights/Algonquin, AH-- a nice more upscale Greek restaurant. Real Greek, not diner Greek.

Pappadeux at Golf/Algonquin, AH--excellent fish with a cajun flair.

Wildfish Sushi--Sigwalt/Arlington Heights, AH --great sushi

David's Bistro--Central/Wolf, DP--also a nice, but casual bistro, haven't been there in a few years.

La Tasca--25 w Davis, AH--great tapas

Bowl House--Algonquin west of Wilke, RM--great Japanese sushi

Yanni's shares a parking lot with Mitsuwa, a shopping destination which is certainly worth your while from Mt. Prospect. You can also eat in the food court. If you are willing to go to that area, try a search for "Arlington Heights."

If you are willing to go to Milwaukee south of Euclid, you've got Periyali, a Pita Inn and Cafe Lucci, a fun Italian place with a good wine list. Plus a fairly expensive Korean restaurant that I think is called Woori at the moment and a new Mexican place I haven't tried.

I've had good lunches at Sakura in Mt. Prospect and I like a store called Dave's Gourmet or Dave's Catering or something on that road just south of Northwest Highway and kitty-corner from the train station. He sometimes has nice dishes to take out. Closed for the season now, except for catering, is Capannari's ice cream parlor which I highly recommend in the summer.

See this post for links to various Mount Prospect area spots:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=65724#65724

Also, there's Falafel Inn at the Des Plaines/Mount Prospect border. See Daily Herald review (pdf)

Here are a couple in Palatine:

Durty Nellie's
847/358-9150
www.durtynellies.com
180 N. Smith St.
Palatine
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=81666#81666

Christl's Inn
847/991-1040
http://christlsusa.com
45 W. Slade St.
Palatine
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=51407#51407

There's a lot of stuff in nearby Arlington Heights that you'll find mentioned here if you do a search.

And check out the NW dinners list

sorry - I did a search and didn't find much.

my company moved to Mount Prospect and I am looking for lunch ideas: indian, thai, chinese dinner anything good and reasonable would be apprectiated.

thanks

globetrotter wrote:sorry - I did a search and didn't find much.

my company moved to Mount Prospect and I am looking for lunch ideas: indian, thai, chinese dinner anything good and reasonable would be apprectiated.

thanks

You must not have asked the right questions -- check out, especially, The Suburbs are Not a Culinary Wasteland

I know lunch is often dependent on quick in-and-out.
If you're on the NE end, near the Kensington industrial district, there's not much asian within Mt Prospect, but on Milwaukee just north of Euclid/Lake, there's several Korean places including Seoul Garden, which was pretty good last time I was in there (but it's been a few years). Avoid Szechuan Kingdom: bland and gloppy.

If you're on the west end of Mt Prospect, there are even more Korean places on or near Elmhurst Road south of Golf such as Kim Ga Nae (I have not been to it, but reports are good).

For Chinese, a little outside of MtP, try Asian Bistro at Arlington Heights Road and Golf, quite good Szechuan, but maybe pricier than you'd like for lunch.
On the opposite corner is Kitikata, excellent Japanese, especially ramen. Also try Mitsuwa Marketplace at Algonquin and Arlington Heights Road, with a food court.
For Indian, there's Indian Cuisine at Elmhurst and Oakton -- technically Des Plaines, but just barely. Decent buffet for lunch or dinner. The same strip has a Thai place I've been to once (OK), and Kampai (teppanyaki house that used to be the only game in town, now is past its prime)

Sorry, but, La Granja closed about a year ago.

Also I would like to fourth Arnie Salerno's.

Sorry, Kim's Korean is also closed

David's Bistro -- closed, too.

I like Salernos too. Arrenella on Rand Rd is a bit more upscale and a bit pricier (but still very reasonable...big portions!!) but very good. Tacos el Norte on Rand Rd is pretty reliable Mexican fare.


http://www.ristorantearenella.com/Menu.html

Arenella is closed. They are looking for a new location, seems they lost their lease. There is a message on their answering machine that last time I called.

On the way to a show in Palatine tonight (Evita...it's at Cutting Hall for the rest of the weekend. If you have the time go see this show. The actress playing Evita will be famous one day), we stopped at La Rosita in Palatine. 3 carne asada tacos for the wife, 1 chicharon plus 2 al pastor for me. These were very tasty tacos. Nice corn tortillas, adorned with the requisite chopped onions, cilantro and lime wedges. Washed down with a couple bottles of Mexican Coke, it was a hard meal to beat for $15.

We tried to go to Sushi Para but they were full, which turned out to be good news for us.

La Rosita
1212 E Dundee Rd
Palatine, IL
(847) 202-0265

Lunch haunts:
Salerno's on Kensington and Wolf. Cheap Italian Cafe/pizza/pasta/sammiches. Good Stuff. Real Value.
http://www.arniesalerno.com/

Hi,

I went to Arnie Salerno's with two friends last summer, largely because of the Salerno reputation. We ate outside, though it was initially confusing if you ordered your food at a counter inside or if there was table service. If you are dining-in, there is wait service, but many who do take-out order and collect their food at the counter.

We began our meal by sharing a plate of fried calamari, which was cooked just right with a warm marinara dipping sauce.

We each had a bowl of a cream of mushroom soup that seemed to have dried porcinis and a nice shot of sherry in it. If I were paying a pretty penny for the soup, the sherry would have been a nice jesture. When paying something like $3 for a bowl of soup, it was very unexpected. That this soup also seemed to be flavored with dried porcinis was also a surprise at this price point.

I order their special of the day: Salerno's recipe for eggplant parmesan. It was what I had hoped to eat when I arrived and find it as a special was really a good omen. Unfortunately, my companions meals seemed fresh from a steam table after a long visit there. Italian sausage and green peppers were ghosts of their youth with dried sausage and dark, dingy peppers that needed to retire to the garbage. My other friend had an equally dismal dish the particulars I don't recall, though she barely ate any of it. Meanwhile, I am feasting on a really fresh and succulent eggplant parmesan, then skinned the cat with their house-made bread to catch the last drop. My friends are just picking at the food.

Largely due to location, I haven't been back since visiting last summer. If and when we do go again, I think we will more carefully question if the food is freshly made or held. If sausage and peppers, that I doubt we'd even consider, isn't made to order, then why bother? Keep running down the list or just skip to the specials, which seemed to work like a charm for me.

Regards,

The correct link for Arnie Salerno's is:

http://www.salernoscatering.com/

Note: The sign for Salerno's no longer says "Arnie."

Food is very good, but I rarely end up there: It's a little pricey for lunch (although probably on par with the also overpriced Photo's in the same center), I prefer getting table service for dinner, and for Italian I go two blocks south to Giacamo's.

JoelF wrote:Note: The sign for Salerno's no longer says "Arnie."

Food is very good, but I rarely end up there: It's a little pricey for lunch (although probably on par with the also overpriced Photo's in the same center), I prefer getting table service for dinner, and for Italian I go two blocks south to Giacamo's.

Although I haven't been back in about 6 months (office moved,) I kinda feel compelled to stick up for Salerno's here.
I find it nowhere remotely close to being on par with Photo's as far as value. I will stand behind Salerno's chicken parm sammich, and most of their cold deli sammiches (GET THE BASIL MAYO!!!!!!!!!!!) all day long. ESPECIALLY for a lunch value. Also, when they put their spaghetti with meatsauce on special, I'd say if the price is still 3.95 on that, it might be up there with one of the best values in the greater Chicagoland area. (When they started putting it out as a special, it was 2.95, and an absolute steal.) It wasn't just plain old spaghett with cheap sauce and ground beef -someone was slingin it out with care. It was actually GREAT. I will concur, however, that Photo's is just about the most overpriced, over rated, below average.....grr don't get me started on that place.

I've had a few disappointments at Salerno's (giambotta being a huge one,) but chicken parm sandwich, any of their cold deli (Again, basil mayo) never, ever disappointed.

Durty Nellie’s closed due to a fire.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html

With an eleven-year bump, there are WAY more closures of places mentioned here than just one.

True, but a mere restaurant closing in Palatine is not news, a fire is. Moreover, this could have a major impact on the sex lives of suburbanites.