Your Chicago Bulls!! Best Record in the NBA & Great Nachos

Congrats to the Bulls and the Great Coach Thibodeau - the nachos at the game we attended were superb - crunchy with the most delicate amount of cheese sauce - the hot peppers on the side gave that extra bite - just trying to make this relevant to the forum.

Thank you Derrick Rose and team for an outstanding best record in the NBA season!

Hooray! This beats watching ESPN. I also like nachos. Were they the loaded type of nachos or just the chip-cheese-chile type you get at the movies?

I've seen UC "nachos" and they look, to me, like the same gawd-awful low-grade corn chips covered with not-even-good-enough-to-be cheez-whiz gloop that every other sporting arena food service sells. The only edible aspect of these things I've ever seen is the (usually meager) pile of pickled jalapenos that comes with it. The Bulls could go 82-0 and those things would still suck.

Kman, you need to get a grip. Enjoy junk food while you're there and GO BULLS!!!

bensmom9 wrote:Kman, you need to get a grip. Enjoy junk food while you're there and GO BULLS!!!

I'm not sure eating those nachos qualifies as enjoyable, at least to me. The Mexican stand in the main concourse is decent, as is the sandwich board.

I have never been to a live Bulls game so I can't comment on the food. Unfortunately, I have not planned any game-related food for my home watching, so I have failed.

I was a server at a party the other day for a kid named Jordan. He was a basketball fan and some tables had ice sculptures in the shape of a faceted J and others were basketballs with a J carved into them. When I heard they would be thrown out at the end of the night, I took one of each home and set them out on the lawn on either sides of our walkway.

The steak sandwiches at the Ironworks up in the 300 level are actually pretty good. It's a thin tenderloin, and the last one I had was tender and flavorful.

Otherwise, we tend to eat elsewhere before games.

jesteinf wrote:The steak sandwiches at the Ironworks up in the 300 level are actually pretty good. It's a thin tenderloin, and the last one I had was tender and flavorful.

Otherwise, we tend to eat elsewhere before games.

Good to know about some decent food options. I've had miserable dining experiences at the UC and have resorted to eating beforehand. (Eating prior to the game can be difficult to do with the 7:00 PM regular season starts.) I had found some of the specialty sandwiches to be unwieldy to eat while balancing it on my lap; a chicken parmesan (sp?) from a season or two ago comes to mind. I'll seek out the steak from Ironworks or look for the Mexican on the 100 level.

The GP wrote:

jesteinf wrote:The steak sandwiches at the Ironworks up in the 300 level are actually pretty good. It's a thin tenderloin, and the last one I had was tender and flavorful.

Otherwise, we tend to eat elsewhere before games.

Good to know about some decent food options. I've had miserable dining experiences at the UC and have resorted to eating beforehand. (Eating prior to the game can be difficult to do with the 7:00 PM regular season starts.) I had found some of the specialty sandwiches to be unwieldy to eat while balancing it on my lap; a chicken parmesan (sp?) from a season or two ago comes to mind. I'll seek out the steak from Ironworks or look for the Mexican on the 100 level.

There's also a Mexican stand on the 300 level. The tacos are pretty basic gringo tacos, but they're not awful. There's also a stand on the 100 level that has shrimp po' boys but I've never tried one.

bensmom9 wrote:Kman, you need to get a grip. Enjoy junk food while you're there and GO BULLS!!!

I'm no food snob - I indulge in a variety of junk foods without apology. However the so-called "nachos" served at the UC and many other sporting venues are, IMO, merely junk - not junk food. They are to food what Cheez Whiz is to cheese - except that Cheez Whiz is better cheese than that orange goop that's squirted over the top of those bad chips.

As a Blackhawks season ticket holder I've gotten to know the food at the UC pretty well. And, while I still morn the loss of the milkshake machine from the dessert station behind section 208, I will admit that some of the changes in recent years have been quite good. In particular, the pulled-pork nachos from the Stadium Club on the 200 level (club level seats required for access) are excellent for stadium food. There's a decent amount of pulled pork, BBQ sauce, jalapeño slices, cheese and sour cream piled on chips. I'm surprised more people don't opt for them over the standard issue tortilla chips and orange goo, but I imagine not everyone knows they exist, and of those that do, most don't know that you can get them to go. I also really like the fries from the steakhouse on the 100 level. They are the only place in the building that has those particular kind of fries, and they serve them with a garlic infused ketchup that is a definite step above what's offered throughout the rest of the venue.

They won again tonight, but just barely. They were really shooting lousy. I always joke that when a team is doing well, the coach will take them out for ice cream afterwards. No ice cream for them tonight!

Tried a couple of new items tonight as we didn't have time to go out for dinner before the game.

From the "Steak House" around section 117 I had an "Angus Steak Burger" and the wife had the shrimp po' boy. Warning: the line moves very slowly as most of the food is cooked to order. The po' boy was the better of the two sandwiches. Kind of a no brainer since how bad could fried shrimp be right out of the fryer. The burger was ok, thick and fairly well seasoned but (obviously) served very well done. You might be able to try to order it less cooked, but I didn't realize that until it was too late. Also, this was all fairly expensive. For the 2 sandwiches, an order of fries, and a bottled water I think I paid around $35.

My friend and I tried Sweet Baby Rays at game 4 of the Pacers' series. We were the 6th group in line and it took them 5 minutes to serve each group. We waited 30 minutes. The delayed seemed to be mainly caused by the fact that they couldn't get food prepped very fast. Pulled pork sandwich was drowned in sauce and pretty mediocre.

I had the chicken club from the Ironworks stand on the 300 level last week. (Would have had the steak but that required a wait. I was starved.) It wasn't a layered club sandwich, but it was tasty and quite sizeable. Still a bit messy to eat on one's lap.

I generally like the food at the UC, although I usually eat elsewhere before the games - often Avec. The bbq booth on the 100 level serves a pretty good turkey sandwich and I like the sweet potato fries. I've had the shrimp poboy and it's always fresh and hot but pretty expensive.

My seats are on the Club Level and one night they were offering a fish and chips special and I couldn't believe how good the fish was (my only complaints were the lack of vinegar and the lack of a proper tartar sauce). Last night on the Club Level I noticed for the first time a new hot dog stand selling funky dogs (funky as in the toppings). They had display dogs and it looked like one was topped with mac & cheese.

Overall, I was just happy to see the Bulls win game 2.

Darren72 wrote:My friend and I tried Sweet Baby Rays at game 4 of the Pacers' series. We were the 6th group in line and it took them 5 minutes to serve each group. We waited 30 minutes. The delayed seemed to be mainly caused by the fact that they couldn't get food prepped very fast. Pulled pork sandwich was drowned in sauce and pretty mediocre.

Game 4 . . . so in Indy, then? Friends went to the game there and were *barely* able to buy beer (one pair of beers for the entire game was all they had, and no in-seat service available) and it was impossible to buy food - one of their sons waited in line for over half an hour for a hot dog before giving up. It appeared that going from worst attendance in the league to being sold out overwhelmed the ability of staff there to serve anyone.

Sorry, I meant game 5 at the UC.