Thanksgiving dinner in Northwest suburbs

Any one have any ideas? For the first time in my adult years, we are thinking of eating out instead of staying home due to elderly parents health issues. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!

Every year, the Tribune and Metromix do an article featuring a few of their top picks for Thanksgiving dinner. For this year's article, click here. For more complete listings of places doing something special for Thanksgiving, click here. Places listed there in the northwest suburbs include Wildfire and McCormick and Schmick's in Schaumburg, Birch River Grill in Arlington Heights, and Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse in Rosemont.

Personally, I've found that if you want to go out for Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving Day is a great time to go to one of the nicer restaurants in downtown Chicago that do a special dinner that day (as noted in the links above). Along with Christmas, it's one of only two days all year that you can count on there being very little traffic (getting downtown as well as once you're there), no crowds, lots of on-street parking available, etc.

Any recommendations for dinner without getting killed on price? It's a first venture for our family......

I cannot give you any Thanksgiving recs as we are ALWAYS out of town visiting the two families.

TWO THOUGHTS:

1) Always make reservations as there are tons of families eating out for the holidays these times.

2) A lot of restaurants close before 5 pm to sent their employees home. It is a lot more difficult to find a place serving in the evening.

One year, when I was in the business. I served a Christmas meal to all three shifts at the hospital and left work at 5 pm. We drove around St. Louis for THREE hours and ended up at Nougles (think Del Taco) - and then my car died and we got the privilege to walk home.

j-

Did you read the Tribune article referred to above? If those are too expensive, then you have give price range that you consider sensible.

You could also consider catered options where you pick up the turkey, side dishes and dessert. When you contact to order, find out how the food will be delivered or picked up by you. I had friends who collected their feast just before dinner was served. The frozen stuffed turkey still needed oven time, which was unexpected.

Regards,

jleblanc05 wrote:Any recommendations for dinner without getting killed on price?

Cathy2 wrote:Did you read the Tribune article referred to above?

I provided two links in my previous post. One was for the article, which only mentions about five places, and they're all fairly expensive. The other link was to the listings in Metromix of 54 places with Thanksgiving specials (some are only to-go, but most are sit-down restaurants). If you click on any of the listings there, you'll see details including price (if it shows a single price, that's probably for the complete meal without beverages, from their special menu; if it shows a range, they are probably offering an entire menu and you can choose specific items within that range). Some are more expensive than others; Avenues/Lobby at the Peninsula is $128 (I assume that is NOT a typo), lots of places are in the $30-40 range, which seems to be the "sweet spot" of the market, and Ann Sather's in Andersonville is $17.95. Some places have lower prices for children.

Just got an email from Maggiano's, it appears they are having a traditional Thanksgiving familiy style dinner. $32.95 per adult, 5-12 are $15.95.
Jamie

We had an excellent dinner at Zed451 in Schaumburg, recounted here.

Ruth's Chris in Barrington. Pro: the price is quite reasonable, considering: $37 per person. Con: The menu seems a bit chintzy: soup OR salad; turkey with stuffing, gravy and cranberry relish but ONE side dish; cheesecake and ice cream.