Restaurant suggestions - First wedding anniversary

Hi guys,

Please could you suggest a few options to celebrate our First wedding anniversary with a romantic dinner. We are in Gurnee. I presume most good places will be down south in the city, evanston etc. Unfortunately, we don't yet have a car as we recently moved to this part of the world and will be catching a train towards the city. Preferable cuisines Indian, Italian, Lebanese.

Thanks

That is quite an interesting collection of cuisines to choose from - so, I'd suggest two things: The GNR list, and the Chicago Chow Map.

There are GNRs in the types of food you describe, Semiramis, Spacca Napoli and Khan's BBQ spring to mind - but to get more specifics, you might want to offer some more information as to your priorities: are ambiance or price point an issue for you?

You might want to make it easy on yourselves and choose a place that's walking distance from one of the train stations. From Gurnee, you don't mention whether you're taking the Milwaukee District North line (the one that goes to Fox Lake) or the Union Pacific North line (the one that goes to Kenosha). I know of lots of places near stops on the UP-N, not many near stops on the MD-N (except for Burt's and Pequod's for pizza, near the Morton Grove stop).

For Indian, the Curry Hut is a couple of blocks from the Highwood stop, and Mount Everest is a couple of blocks from the Davis St. Evanston stop. I think they're similar in most respects.

For Italian, Va Pensiero is two blocks from the Davis St. Evanston stop, and Campagnola is a block from the Main St. Evanston stop. I think the food and service is better at Va Pensiero, and it's more romantic, but Campagnola is pretty good too and somewhat less expensive.

You didn't mention French Bistro cuisine, but two good places are Cafe Central, a block from the Highland Park stop, and Miramar, across the street from the Highwood stop. Cafe Central is also next door to the Highland Park movie theater if you'd like to catch a show before or after dinner. (The Evanston movie theaters are also located half a block from the Davis St. Evanston station.)

For upscale contemporary seafood, Oceanique is a block from the Main St. Evanston stop. For upscale contemporary food, Chef's Station is in the Davis St. Evanston train station, and Michael is a half block from the Indian Hill stop.

All of these places have food that varies from very good to spectacular (the latter in the case of Va Pensiero, Oceanique, Chef's Station, and Michael), and all are nice places that could be considered romantic (although the pizza and Indian places are stretching that definition a bit).

It might help if you let us know whether or not price is an object. I like many of the restaurants suggested but if I suggested Khan BBQ for my "romantic" first wedding anniversay dinner, and it is one of my favorite restaurants in the world, my wife would have laughed in my face and/or divorced me.

That having been said, If you are looking for what is commonly known as "fine dining" I think you might need to expand your search beyond those restaurants in the GNR thread.

Considering your transportation conundrum, a stop in Highwood at Froggys, Gabriel or Carlos (in ascending order for price) are all withing walking distance from the metra stop and are all romantic-type places. You might also like Del Rio or Miramar, both a little more casual and probably livelier. Del Rio is Italian and the rest are either traditional french or more contemporary french/haute cuisine. Miramar is French/Cuban. There is also a the sage grill which has gotten a lot of press and serves contemporary american cuisine.

Good luck and congratulations

iblock9 wrote:a stop in Highwood at Froggys, Gabriel or Carlos (in ascending order for price) are all withing walking distance from the metra stop and are all romantic-type places.

Yes, these are all excellent recommendations too. With website links - Froggy's for affordable French dining across the street from the station, Gabriel's next door to Froggy's for contemporary food leaning towards Italian (but not as strictly Italian as the previous recommendations), and Carlos for splurge dining, a short block from the station. (Note - I believe Carlos is the only restaurant in the suburbs which requires a jacket for gentlemen.)

Vermilion is slightly more intimate than you would find at a lot of teh cuisines of the places you mentioned, and the food is actually pretty decent. Latin/Indian in a more fine dining atmosphere. check it out.

Vermilion
10 w. hubbard
vermilionrestaurant.com

iblock9 wrote:It might help if you let us know whether or not price is an object. I like many of the restaurants suggested but if I suggested Khan BBQ for my "romantic" first wedding anniversay dinner, and it is one of my favorite restaurants in the world, my wife would have laughed in my face and/or divorced me.

I dunno - I remember what our first anniversary was like...Khans would have fit the bill just fine (but then, nothing says "romantic" to me like "broasted":D )

But yes, OP, more direction please...

I'd recommend Tizi Melloul (http://www.tizimelloul.com/):

If you’re coming into the Loop by Metra presumably, you'll want a dinner that lasts longer than your train ride. You'll also want more than just a good dinner, but a dining experience. Tizi (my wife's favorite) offer both with top-notch service. I don't know if the Crescent room is still open, but if it is, that can easily become a 2+ hour dinner very quickly and doesn't include some drinking. Tizi also offers a hookah bar and an expansive pomegranate and exotic fruit cocktails menu. When dinner is done, you have the entire Wells street corridor to extend your evening.

I strongly urge you to avoid the GNR list. Let's be honest here, no matter how much of a foodie you and/or your wife may be, an anniversary dinner is more than finding the best food in a red rubber basket. The food here is always secondary to the experience you create for this kind of evening. Overstuffing yourself on really good greasy food is not the way to celebrate your marriage and future life together.

Isn't that the "paper" anniversary?
Find a place that serves something
"en papillote".

McClane wrote:I strongly urge you to avoid the GNR list. Let's be honest here, no matter how much of a foodie you and/or your wife may be, an anniversary dinner is more than finding the best food in a red rubber basket.

While some of my suggestions may only suit me, that's hardly a fair charactarization of the GNR list. It does include fine dining options, and as each restaurant is accurately described, one can be sure to find exactly the right dining experience for whatever the occasion.

The cuisines mentioned by the OP lead me to believe they aren't looking for an evening at Alinea.

McClane wrote:I strongly urge you to avoid the GNR list. Let's be honest here, no matter how much of a foodie you and/or your wife may be, an anniversary dinner is more than finding the best food in a red rubber basket.

McClane,

You have an odd perspective of the GNR List, which range across the dining spectrum.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary (and others)

I'm not bashing the GNR list. The point of my post, and from what I gathered from the OP, was that he is looking for a true "first anniversary" dinner [read dining event, one that requires a trip to the Loop, and should be more that a place with good food]. While the GNR list (and I've eaten at over half of the places) is a great list for a great meal, that is not going to help someone looking for the "first anniversary" dinner. I doubt anyone's wife would disagree with me on this.

Along the same line, MintPepper, look at the SignatureRoom, Bin36, and Shaw's (and jazz-club next door) for places that give you an event-dinner and reasonable location to keep the evening alive well after the meal.

Hmm I read the OP as asking more for a romantic dinner and not necessarily a dining "event." Now I'm not "anyone's wife" but as someone's girlfriend I counted at least five places on the GNR list that I'd find lovely enough for an anniversary celebration. Rather than generalizing about the GNR's would it be helpful to point out for the OP which ones we think might be considered romantic* and are also accessible without a car? My suggestions, with the caveat that I haven't been to all of them and didn't check on their proximity to a Metra:

Moto
Sweets and Savories
Vie
Volo
Sabatino's (the strolling musicians, the Cherries Jubilee!)

Maybe Katsu?

*Then again, one of our most romantic dates was late night at Honey1

Hi,

Sabatino's is closed after a recent fire. A friend drove by, there is signage they hope to be open soon. If it were open, it would have been a wonderful choice.

Regards,