Suggestions for this evening near Amabassador East

Not my stomping grounds and I'm meeting a friend for a combo business/pleasure early dinner.
Good and relatively cheap with an atmosphere conducive to sitting for a while without feeling guilty and quiet enough to talk without straining.
Anything from burgers to pizza to Asian, or anything else is fine, cuisine-wise.
I know it's a sea of choices but there's nothing there that I know specifically but Third Coast. (Which ain't a bad idea.)

How about French Bistro food? Not as touristy as other places in the area.

Bistrot Zinc
1131 N. State St.
Chicago
(312) 337-1131

I've always thought Jake Melnick's Corner Tap is good for burgers, fries and particularly the onion loaf.

How's Silver Spoon these days?

Silver Spoon
710 N Rush St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 944-7100

We were looking for dinner in that area last Friday and ended up at Bistrot Zinc, which I thought I remembered liking. Alas, except for some very tasty escargot, our food was all pretty bland and disappointing. Oh well.

"Disappointing" is my operative adjective also for Bistrot Zinc, although I occasionally wind up there because, given the location, I like the atmosphere and the prices. It's high on my list of restaurants in that immediate area and very low on my list of Chicago bistros. You might want to give Le Colonial a look:

http://www.lecolonialchicago.com/

As it happens, my friend wanted more time and relaxation, so we stayed in her room and ordered up, filling in with take-out from TI.

Interestingly the room service menu was damn near this side of sanity compared with almost all others I've ever encountered.
She had a basic turkey club which was very generously proportioned and came with quite good fries---lots of skin on and roasty potato aroma. Lost a bit of crisp under the dome on the way up, but still tasty.
I had a "pan-seared" chicken in a spinach tortilla wrap (nothing I would ever normally get, but I just didn't feel like a huge burger or the club). Again, relatively moist meat, quite large, same good fries. Sort of a sweetish treatment with arugula and "golden raisin capponata" and a fresh apple slaw inside. Very much a ladies-who-lunch dish, but good of its kind. The most surprising positive about it was that the wrap itself was actually supple and fresh tasting rather than the usual refrigerator stiff wall board.
Each of these was, I think, $12, which for room service in the Gold Coast seems like practically a steal. They told us 30 min., but food arrived in about 15.

Meanwhile, sorry to hear that Zinc disappoints these days. Way back when it opened on Southport we used to really like it. In particular a roast chicken (poulet grandmere?), that was luscious with lardons, pearl onions and a nice reduced sauce. The bar was good and they would have various libation "festivals" at which one could order flights of armagnac and the like. Pate plates were good too. I believe the original partners split early on and the current establishment is at least a 2nd generation of ownership if not 3rd or 4th.

There used to be another mid-priced casual French spot right in the same Dearborn/Divisoin area that we also liked. It had a bakery built in and was quite good for a while. Then not. Then gone. What was it? Yvette? Or was that something else?

mrbarolo wrote:There used to be another mid-priced casual French spot right in the same Dearborn/Divisoin area that we also liked. It had a bakery built in and was quite good for a while. Then not. Then gone. What was it? Yvette? Or was that something else?

Yes, Yvette's R.I.P.

I know it's a little corporate, but Big Bowl is always an option for me when I am in that area. Get the shrimp summer rolls, and make sure to ask for the soy-ginger dipping sauce. I also love their lettuce wraps, Vietnamese soup, make-your-own stir fry, salmon, and dumpings. And you can really sit, chat, drink, and eat with leisure--in a booth or open-air tables.


Big Bowl
6 E Cedar St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 640-8888

You should check out Rosebud on Walton for burgers. They ain't cheap, but the 12 oz., freshly ground (from steak trimmings) patty, cooked AS YOU LIKE IT and served on a pretzel roll will put a color of pink in your cheeks that you haven't seen since your first kiss.

Comes with a pile of thin crispy frites and all the trimmings. There aren't many burgers that scream for a glass of red wine, but this baby does, trust me.