Dining in at Whole Foods Lincoln Park

I checked out the new Whole Foods Lincoln Park (on Kingsbury south of North) the other day and was impressed by the number of prepared food options for people who want to eat at the store or take out. A few times a month I'll meet friends for lunch at WF, and can see us relocating to this location.

There is a food-court area (stand in line, buy prepared food, find a table) as well as a few "micro-restaurants" (table/counter service). These are spread throughout the store, though most are located in the back (south) end. Off the top of my head, they include:

Sit-down spots (selling things to go, too):
A bar in the NE corner serving beer on tap, with what looked like some prepared sandwiches
A seafood bar/counter on the west side toward the north end
A wine (and cheese?) bar just south of the seafood bar
A diner in the south part of the store
An Asian sushi noodle counter in the south part of the store

Fast-food type places (ie, stand in line and then find a table) all in the south part of the store:
Italian pasta & pizza
Mexican
Smokehouse
+ the typical prepared food deli counter & bakery.

Did I forget anything?

I bought a spicy tuna salad roll from the sushi place and it was excellent, even if it's not a traditional sushi item. They used something that resembled a Vietnamese rice paper wrapper, filled with lettuce, avocado, spicy tuna & maybe another veggie. A friend has complained that many of the WFs in the area have switched sushi vendors (and he doesn't like the new vendor). He confirmed that the sushi offerings at the new WFs come from the "old" vendor.

Edited to add: If you buy food to eat onsite and aren't sitting at a counter, you have a couple interesting options for seating. There is indoor seating upstairs. If you sit outside on the east side of the building, you're looking right at the "gentlemen's clubs." (Maybe a good place to sit during shift change?) On the west side, there's outdoor seating that overlooks the river. I was surprised to find that there is some tranquility in that crazy/busy neighborhood.

the beer sounds good,

maybe if I drank enough beer I would let down my guard, and pay Whole Foods ungodly prices. good marketing move.

RAB and I stopped in yesterday. It's an attractive, open store.

The prepared food we tasted, though, wasn't great. RAB declared the gelato pretty darn good. But, the taqueria was really sad. I was asked if I'd like to sample anything and said I'd like to try whatever's best. I was directed to the grilled steak - - peppery, chewy, and just not good compared to dozens of taquerias in the city. And the horchata was rather watery.

The beer list, though, at the beer bar looked really nice. Lots of local options, most priced fairly at $4/pint.

For anyone interested, here's an idea of the price points:
> brisket or pulled pork sandwich with side - $7.50
> rotisserie or smoked chicken - $8
> 3 tacos, burrito, or gordita sandwich -$5 (for tofu) to $7 (for beef)
> 2 slices of pizza - $5
> 5" subs - $7
> not-a-hockey puck veggie burger - $4
> crab meat California roll - $8.39
> beef fried rice - $9.39

We'll be back to shop. I don't think we'll be back for prepared foods.

I don't think I've ever had prepared food from WF that was anything but average or below.

My experience with prepared foods at Whole Foods is that, generally, the food looks at lot better than it tastes, and it doesn't look that good, either. Sounds like, although the LP Whole Foods has a wider variety, it's not much of an improvement over the other stores.

That's been my experience with their prepared foods as well. I tried to like them, really I did, but nothing ever really moved me to come back.

I realized long ago that I could walk out of WF with about $150 worth of cool, interesting stuff and then still have to make my normal trip to the grocery store. So I just stopped going there. Once in a blue moon we stop in for some vitamin or herbal product and I splurge for cheese and some fun organic snackies. That's it for me.

I second, third, fourth etc. what most are saying here. The prepared foods are mostly only adequate at best. At times I enjoy the two slices of Pizza for $5.00 (Chicken Alfredo with Spinach and Margherita) if I'm there at lunch time. They're not special, but could be a lot worse (ringing endorsement).

I went to the new store this past Friday, and was impressed at the parking, layout, size, variety and quality and volume of freebies. This location, like some of the more recent stores, has much wider aisles than the older ones. I was also really impressed that the Riverwalk didn't smell like ass (as may former industrial areas of the River often do); it made it easier to choke down a wretched attempt at an Italian Beef sandwich.

I was blown away by the size of the store, but I was pretty unhappy with my al pastor tacos. I don't know if I'll ever return wanting a meal, but I'm curious to try the dine. Also, the idea of shopping with a pint is a pretty appealing one. It's too bad LP is not my local Whole Foods.

With about 40 minutes to spare before catching a movie at Webster Place Friday and a real hankering to utilize the limited babysitter time as best we could, my wife and I were able to get sushi, a couple of beers and some desert in at Whole Foods and still have time to grab popcorn and a decent seat at the theater. Not only that, we got a little live music while eating. So overall we were actually able to make a trip to Whole Foods feel like a date. (After a few kids our standards have obviously lowered somewhat) The sushi was fresh enough, the lemon pie was just fine and the music was a couple of decent Stones and John Prine covers and it wasn't too loud. Best part was the nice, cold pints of Oberon and Dragon's Milk Ale for less than $5 each. The free parking wasn't too bad either. Not so sure I'll be able to convince my wife into a "Whole Foods Date" ever again but the novelty certainly helped. But definitely, being able to cram all that in so quickly, comfortably and for an affordable price made it well worthwhile.

As someone who works down the street, I can't help but rejoice for the sheer selection, even if much of the food is average - the previously available walking distance selections in the area are pretty dismal.

I've eaten there four times now. The taqueria was horrible - the tortilla on my burrito was stiff, even though they pressed it, and the pork was sliced rather than carnitas style, and too hard to bite.

The asian has been excellent for what it is, though the ordering/pick-up systems needs some work, and it's of course pricey. They have an express lunch special which lets you choose rice/fried rice/or noodles, 1 of about 8 entrees, and egg roll or sesame balls. The fried rice is excellent. I've had the orange chicken and the lemon chicken. The lemon was the better of the two (quite good), and the sesame balls are great.

Today I tried a made to order shrimp & vegetable tempura/unagi teriyaki combo. It was good, but not worth it for the price and the wait (a 2nd shrimp in the tempura would go a long way towards adding some value).

I was excited to see Homer's ice cream at the "diner", and had a milkshake that was a little disappointing in that the cup was 2/3 milkshake and 1/3 whip cream for $4. I've also had 2 different flavors of gelato. The texture just isn't right - gelato shouldn't be hard to scoop.

The sushi counter will do a spicy tuna bowl (a mound of spicy tuna in a bowl of sushi rice), if you ask. It's a nice light meal.

We went there a couple of nights ago to check out the place. I had a cheeseburger at the diner and my SO had the chicken spring rolls. The burgers are made from fresh ground beef and mine was good, but a little under seasoned IMO. The spring rolls were excellent. We then tried the gelato, which had good flavor but the texture was grainy. I like that they have a selection of microbrews available on tap at the bar.

jglynn makes a great point. there are certainly downsides to this megamarket but the variety, convenience, and at least average vittles make for a decent neighborhood option. unfortunately the salsa was the best aspect of all that we sampled at the tacqueria, however the homer's strawberry shake was both well constructed and tasty.

A friend has been doing research for a new cooking show, and I've been accompanying her on later night visits to the Lincoln Park store. The beer bar here is quite the hangout--people eating dinner, watching sports, studying, drinking. Kind of unexpected and bizarre. People take beer from the bar and drink while they shop, which is as fun as it looks. They even have smaller bottles of Duchesse De Bourgogne; unfortunately the person working behind the bar tonight wouldn't sell us one because she didn't know the price of a bottle. They also have full absinthe service. Drinks in hand, we eventually made our way to the bakery section, where the guy behind the cookie counter treated us to macarons and sablés. Quite the treat. I can't remember who makes them, but the marizpan macarons were particularly good. Funny place, this is.

I just wish they had drink holders on their shopping carts!

Chefcon wrote:I just wish they had drink holders on their shopping carts!

No kidding! I figured my friend and I would just take turns holding each other's drinks, but it did get tricky, especially at the cookie onslaught.