Lunch in Park Ridge?

Trying to not push my luck, but I'm headed to Pard Ridge on W Dempster.

Little tired of eating Korean so looking for an alternative to Willow Tree, etc al.

Any suggestions for the Park Ridge area? We're willing to drive up Milwaukee towards Golf Rd too.

This is at Golf & Milwaukee.

MJ2 on Devon, in the shopping center with Morningfields, serves a steam table lunch of red sauce Italian, pizza and sandwiches that are quite good.

If you don't mind making the short drive to Edison Park, there is Don Juan which has been written about often. Just down the street is Tony's which makes a solid Italian Sub.

You have the Red Apple at Milwaukee and Devon as well as Superdawg. Both are relatively close to Park Ridge.

From time to time, if I have the time, I find that I can make it all the way down to Elephant Thai on Devon during a lunch break though it tends to be a little long on those days.

For Polish food, also on Milwaukee and in addition to Red Apple is White Eagle, which I recently noted shouldn't be only for after-funerals.

I have never been to Red Apple, so I can't compare...

White Eagle
6839 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Niles, IL
847-647-0660

Northeast corner of Dempster and Harlem, in a small strip mall, there is Lai Thai. Excellent Thai food for a very reasonable price. They earned four forks in a Tribune Cheap Eats column a couple of years ago.

Heading north on Milwaukee from Dempster: Within the first block and a half, on the west side of the street there is a Phillipino gorcery (sorry don't know the name. They're in a small strip mall and are the only Asian grocery store in that area. Tough to get it wrong) with a cafeteria style counter in back. There's only one sit down table so you'll probably want to get it to go. A nice variety of skewered meats, stews, and noodle dishes.

At Milwaukee and Ballard, northeast corner, you will find Burrito House. Never been to this particular location but, I very regularly frequent several of their city outposts and believe them to make the one of the best burritos in town. They serve a style of burrito that does not include onions or cilantro so, if you want them you'll need to ask. Likewise avocado.

Proceeding north you will find, on the east side of Milwaukee one of the many Los Camales Tequerias that are found throughout the city and 'burbs. Not my fave for Mexican but from what I understand, very authentic.

Finally, less than a half mile north of Golf, on the west side of the street, is the beloved Pita Inn. Is there anything I can say about P.I. that hasn't already been said on these boards? If you're continuing west on Dempster after lunch, simply take Greenwood south instead of Milwaukee and you'll wind up significantly further west.

Once you get west of Milwaukee on Dempster, it is little more than Fast Food Lane (the one exception being a NY Bagel & Bialy in the shopping mall across from Lutheran General). By the time you get to anymore real food you'll be all the way in Des Plaines on Miner Street.

Good luck,

Buddy