6 dinners on a budget -new to town

First time posting- doing a trade show @ McCormick Place, 4/14-20, staying @ Best Western Grant Park, all on my dime, so $ is tight. Have car to drive & can read a map, or use transit. Are exploring area on Sun. & Mon.

So tell me where can 2, 40 somethings eat affordably w/o going to the national chains in your town. Tired of opting for salad or grilled whatever. Ethnic is great, can't do wheat, shrooms (some places put them in everything) or dairy. He doesn't like fish or stinky cheese, neither drink. Used to getting around menus & know-nothing wait staff. & of course chocolate is a plus!

Dinners needed SSMTWT, Lunches SM. Good Close Bkfst. suggestions are welcome too for him.

My current enthusiasm:

Mundial Cocina Mestiza
1640 W. 18th Street
312-491-9908

More at: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=121788#121788

My suggestion whenever this question comes up is to check out the LTH Forum Great Neighborhood Restaurants. You can also download the Pocket Guide to GNR's from that link. Enjoy!

skate415 wrote:Have car to drive & can read a map, or use transit. Are exploring area on S&M.

Not sure how the locals will react to bondage gear, but Chinatown seems ideal for your budget, location, and dietary restrictions. As stevez says, check the GNR board for forum favorites like Lao Sze Chuan, Ed's Potsticker House, Little Three Happiness, and Mandarin Kitchen, which is my preference, although I'd be very happy eating at all of them. In fact, you seem to be in town long enough that you can hit several/all of them and compare -- they represent different styles of cuisine.

in addition to Chinatown - which y'all know is basically inedible - I'd seriously use Mr. Hammond's suggestion of MCM as a starting point to explorer Pilsen. Try walking into Tito's Taqueria on Blue Island and sitting in the huge back room for a drink. It's almost a twilight zone experience. And it's dirt cheap.

glad to see you guys have a sense of humor- have planned a boat tour on the S part of S(un)&M(on) from a suggestion from another forum. I did read a lot of the previous posts here, before I posted & you all have been very interesting & helpful. It is just a problem travelling w/ food restrictions & on a buget. Easier since everyone seems to get the "atkins" concept of wheat free.
Thanks

Given you're from B'flo -- I'd check out the Red Apple buffet on Milwaukee for Polish food -- inexpensive & abundant

Hi, my first post on this forum, which I've been enjoying quietly for a few days.

I live in the South Loop quite close to where you're staying so can offer a few nearby selections. There's a new restaurant called Yolk in the building next door to your hotel (1130 S. Michigan) that has a good breakfast, brunch and limited lunch menu (you can check it out on the web), it's quite popular at the moment so there may be a crowd weekend mornings after 9. Prices in the $8-12 range. You are also quite close to the White Palace Grille (on Roosevelt Road, less than a mile due west of your hotel on Michigan), a 24 hour diner that is quite inexpensive (under $10) and serves good breakfast, lunch and dinner (I prefer their breakfasts to dinner food, the steak and egg breakfast is huge, and very popular). For breakfast, you're also not far (driving) from Lou Mitchell's, where you'll receive free orange slice, prunes, milk duds and donut holes with your breakfast. I don't care for their food that much (huge fluffy omelettes), and it is pricier than the other two, but it is a Chicago institution - that may appeal to you. Of these three White Palace would be my pick on a best price/value.

I would recommend a place called Joy Yee's Noodle shop for an unusual Pan-Asian food experience for out of towners. There are two nearby, the original in the Chinatown mall and a new, more spacious location near the UIC campus, both fairly close to where you're staying. They have a bubble tea bar serving an enormous variety of bubble tea smoothies (mango, papaya, coconut, peach, strawberry, watermelon, lychee, Thai coffee, red bean, crystal jelly, etc. - my favorite is avocado with large tapioca) and fresh squeezed sugar cane juice, as well as a large variety of Pan-Asian dishes.

You're also not far from Manny's deli (just off Roosevelt Road), hang out of Chicago politicos, which is famous for it's corned beef sandwiches, potato pancakes and enormous portions. Open for lunch only (about $10+). Personally I prefer the corned beef sandwich from the AP Deli (7th and Wabash) to Manny's; it's a dive but their corned beef sammie is delicious, $6, and in walking distance from your hotel. There's a Jewel foodstore nearby too (Chicago's major chain, at Roosevelt and Wabash, 2 blocks away) which has plenty of prepared food (fried/baked chicken, sides, sandwiches and salads) if you need a quick grab meal.

Alouette, welcome to LTH!

Some of the places you list have been the subject of a decent amount of discussion here. Maybe you've seen 'em, maybe skate415 has too -- but I'll put some links in here anyway for whomever comes along and needs them.

Yolk

White Palace Grill: a recent thread and the discussion leading up to its awarding of "Great Neighborhood Restaurant" status

Manny's, another GNR, has been discussed all over the place, but this thread has a lot of links to those discussions. Here's one of the most long-lived.

Joy Yee's has not gotten so much love around here. The couple of threads with its name in the title aren't that rich, and I know a lot of people have strong preferences for other places in China Town... but I'm not going to stir that pot.

Also, if you haven't seen it, eatchicago created a Google Maps based guide to all of LTH's Great Neighborhood Restaurants, and I recently have had some luck doing Google Maps queries for LTH postings, as mentioned here.

Oh yeah, and regarding the no-wheat restriction, here's a thread on Gluten free Dining, and one active forum member has a family member with celiac disease and has made several posts about various successes and less-than-successes getting wheat-free meals. A google search for LTH/Celiac will probably get you a long way.

Buen provecho, etc...

glad to see you guys have a sense of humor- Wink have planned a boat tour on the S part of S(un)&M(on) from a suggestion from another forum.

We've been taking hints from Yelp.

Go to Tank for lunch on Sunday, go to Yolk for breakfast...whenever.

germuska wrote:Joy Yee's has not gotten so much love around here.

Hey, c'mon. I can state without fear of contradiction that Evanston's Joy Yee's offers by far the finest Chinese cuisine in the entire block of Davis Street between Hinman and Chicago Avenues.

Seriously, whenever I've been by, it's been packed with Northwestern students. No experience with the other locations.

Thanks so much - I could only get so far in the lists & looking @ maps - being clueless about the city, these replys are helping, especially w/ the "bottomless pit" to keep fed. I really appreciate the link to gluten free.

Hi Germuska. Thanks for the welcome, I appreciate it. No, I hadn't seen any of those discussions prior to posting but I'm looking forward to reading through them. Thanks for the links.

Since I live close to where the OP is staying I wanted to give him a heads up on a few easy-access choices that won't break the bank. Why am I not surprised Joy Yee's is controversial? Hope OP will enjoy wherever he visits.