Ethnic recs near Wyndham Chicago?

Tomorrow night we're staying at the Wyndham off Michigan Ave. We'd like to try an ethnic restaurant, as we have so few decent ones downstate. Can someone recommend something within walking distance? A few years ago we ate a pretty good Thai place off Michigan Ave, but Indian or Middle Eastern would work well, too.

Thanks.

You're about a block and a half from Sayat Nova, a very nice Armenian restaurant.

Wow, that looks good. But we're planning on lunch in Greektown the next day, so maybe something not so Mediterranean.

Conversely, we need to be in the Lincoln Park area in mid-afternoon Monday, so we could skip lunch in Greektown and eat someplace interesting in the Lincoln Park area instead. That way we'd be free to eat at Sayat Nova Sunday night. Any Lincoln Park lunch recs?

For ethnic off of Michigan, my favorite is Star of Siam. I've been eatiing there a few times a month for the past several years.

www.starofsiamchicago.com

Enjoy!

That's it! That's the Thai place I mentioned we ate at. I agree, excellent cuisine there. We were impressed. Glad to see it's still there.

Other than Spoon Thai's offshoot Silver Spoon, the Thai food downtown is all good-if-you-live-somewhere-they-don't-have-Thai-food, not tops for Chicago's Thai food. However, the Indian buffet places around there all put on the dog on the weekends, for Indian folks shopping downtown I guess, and you could have a very nice Indian meal at India House, Gaylord or Indian Garden, all a short walk from Michigan Avenue.

Silver Spoon
710 N. Rush St.
312-944-7100

India House
59 W. Grand Ave.
312-645-9500

Gaylord India Restaurant
678 N. Clark St.
312-664-1700

Indian Garden
247 E. Ontario St.
312-280-4910

I used to work near the Wyndham, and we would go to the Indian Garden fairly often. They had a nice buffet and the restaurant had an attractive location on the second floor. I haven't been there a few years though.

Indian Garden
Chicago Downtown
247 E. Ontario Street, 2nd Floor
Chicago IL 60611
Phone: 312-280-4910

Lunch: 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Dinner:
Sunday-Thursday 5:00 PM- 9:45 PM
Friday&Saturday 5:00 PM-10:15 PM

We've eaten at Indian Garden, I believe. It was the same trip when we ate at Star of Siam. We were staying near Wacker and Michigan on that trip. We have an excellent Indian place in Champaign called Basmati. We'll probably eat there Monday evening on our way home.

It's going to be a very ethnic weekend.

So we ended up at Start of Siam. Very tasty meal. Sarah (my wife) had Massaman Curry with chicken and I had Almond Beef. It wasn't as sweet as I had expected, but it was delicious nonetheless.

One thing that could have ruined the evening was a group a few tables away with a fussy infant. For the most part they manage to keep the baby quiet with bottles and such, but it was getting pretty loud by the time we left. They were one of three groups who had come with infants. And by infants I mean less than a year old. I'm sure it's been discussed here before, but I was wondering how the more experienced diners here feel about going out to a nice place and having an infant cry or fuss during your meal. Do you take it in stride as part of life in today's culture? Or does it bother you? What about those of you with kids? What's your take on this?

Hi - I used to eat at Indian Garden relatively frequently but the quality went downhill and never seems to have come back. I would strongly recommend India House over Indian Garden and Gaylord.

Brady wrote:Hi - I used to eat at Indian Garden relatively frequently but the quality went downhill and never seems to have come back. I would strongly recommend India House over Indian Garden and Gaylord.

I agree. I highly recommend India House over the other options in the area.

Best,
Michael

I'm sure it's been discussed here before, but I was wondering how the more experienced diners here feel about going out to a nice place and having an infant cry or fuss during your meal.

I wouldn't take my kids, when I had a reasonable expectation of them being noisy, to a "nice restaurant." But I take that to mean Spiaggia or something-- "neighborhood Thai place" is exactly the sort of place I would take them, most of the time. If you don't want to see kids at that kind of place, just go a little later; but I think 6 pm at ethnic restaurants is family time. (I don't actually know when you went, I'm just assuming this didn't happen at 9:30.)

We were there about 7. And I don't mind kids, I just don't like it when they start crying and the parents do nothing about it.

Context: SofS, with 6-8 buck antrees, is cheaper than Chili's or Red Lobster; it is a middling neighborhood ethnic family restaurant. Young families, tourists and hotel guests with kids are everywhere in the area, which has few family friendly options that are neither suburban chains, expense-account spots, nor mind-numbing tourist traps. Parents should have some consideration, just like everyone else. Take the kid for a walk around the block, have your cell phone call on the curb, get your loud drunk frat brother a cab. But I don't see anything about the restaurant or its geographical location that is particularly important here. Same would go for a Friday's in Merrillville, I'd think.

I guess this is really a neighborhood family place to those used to the huge variety in Chicago. To us, being from downstate, this is a nice place. Our area is largely clones (Chilis, Fridays, etc) or fast food. A Thai place with a nice atmosphere qualifies as something special to us. But I see your point. Up here I guess it's a good place to go if you're on a budget or have a family. And as I said, I have no problem with kids in general and my annoyance with disturbances is not only with kids. I agree with your other points as well. My cell phone is on vibrate in a restaurant and even if I notice it ringing, I'll only look to see who's calling. I'll never answer it right away. If it's important, I'll go outside.

I may have poorly phrased my original question. I didn't mean to badmouth kids or parents. I just wanted to see what the general feeling here was toward disruptive kids in restaurants. I'm especially interested in the point of view of the parents.

I'm a brand new parent, and I don't hesitate to take the little guy to most places (either lunch or early dinner), but if he starts making any noise at all I make a beeline for a bathroom or vestibule or something. And if he just isn't going to cooperate and keep quiet that day, I'll drop cash, carry out what I can and bail. I may be on the conservative end of the spectrum, though.

M-Six -- I didn't think you were being too harsh on kids or parents, but I did wonder wether the context that Mike and I provided was lacking. We all experience the same kind of thing when visiting a (relatively) unfamiliar place.

I have little kids myself, and I think one of the great joys of parenthood in Chicago (and LA, NY, Miami, Toronto, etc. if that's where we are) is taking the children to an "ethnic" neigborhood for some shopping and a meal. But I'm still mortified if they go nuts, and will pull the plug when it happens. That said, certain cultures are remarkably indulgent with kids by Western standards, and said cultures also happen to have great restaurants where extended families tend to dine out often. In those places, my kids have a hard time standing out. Such neighborhoods make an especially good choice if you are worried about your kids, but maybe not so much if you don't want to hear kids yelling.

Last year, when one of the kids was three and my mother-in-law was on a long trip around China, the baby was convinced that we too had visited China by going to Chinatown. Kids are so naive.