mary60614 wrote:Yes, this is thai but not crazy spicy - they would accomodate to your taste as well. This is one of the top restaurants of Chicago, unlike any other Thai restaurant.

Does that mean it's unlike any other thai restaurant in Chicago, or it's the only Thai restaurant in chicago that is one of our top restaurants?

I think you will find much agreement with the former and very little with the latter

Here's a thread on Arun's, with Vital Info for the prosecution and GAF for the defense.

Mike G wrote:Especially since many of the Maxwell Street places have full restaurants down in Pilsen or wherever, you could certainly roam that neighborhood or barrio and find lots of good food. Still, can't beat the food-court convenience of them being in one place plus the carnival-like atmosphere. If you can make it, you should, it's a one-of-a-kind.

Well we have our dinners locked down. I was planning on only going to 2 or 3 upper end places for dinner, but I just couldn't make a decision so we're doing 4 decadent nights.

Sat - Alenia
Sun - Blackbird
Mon - Trotter's
Tue - TRU

They're actually in the exact opposite order that I wanted to do them, but we settled on this for reasons I won't go into.

Some other places we plan on going, but don't have reservations for:

Orange
RL Restaurant
Hot Chocolate

Some other places we're likely to hit

The Park Grill
Phoenix (or some other Dim Sum place posted on LTHF)
Maxwell Street
Topolobampo (or Frontera Grill)
What ever else looks good in the area we're site seeing

So many places are closed for lunch that making this list was hard. Once again, thanks to everyone for their help and I will try to take as many pics and notes as I can before I succumb to a food coma

I'm always a bit puzzled about recommendations for Penguin gelato as I found it pretty grainy. Not at all the smooth dense clouds of gelato I had in Italy. Caffe Gelato on Division does come pretty close to the texture, though I think their flavors don't have as much depth.

For a gelato place not too far from your hotel, you may want to try Canady - Le Chocolatier at 824 S. Wabash. He also makes his own chocolates, which are lovely and tasty.

I'll agree with you on the Penguin grittiness, as will others.

This thread has some discussion about it, including a couple of us who find it gritty but still very likable:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1353

Best,
Michael / EC

snekse,

Excellent list. The only one I'd question is RL - I've never been there, but from others who have I've heard it's overpriced for what it is. Virtually across the street is NoMi, better food, great views, also open for lunch.

Hellodali wrote:For a gelato place not too far from your hotel, you may want to try Canady - Le Chocolatier at 824 S. Wabash. He also makes his own chocolates, which are lovely and tasty.

See here for a post on Canady, with pictures.

nr706 wrote:snekse,
Excellent list. The only one I'd question is RL - I've never been there, but from others who have I've heard it's overpriced for what it is. Virtually across the street is NoMi, better food, great views, also open for lunch.

To be honest the 3 main reasons we planned on eating at RL were:
a) It was on the Mag Mile where we knew we'd be spending some time shopping.
b) We heard their burgers were good and the ambience was nice
c) The *real* reason being the fact that we saw a Lobster Club Sandwich and immediately thought about the yummy Lobster Club at The Rotunda Restaurant located in Neiman Marcus San Francisco which in turn lead to my wife hoping they'd have something comparable to the famous Neiman Marcus popovers, though I just found the recipe for them today, so this becomes a mute point

So now that we know NoMI is located in the same area, who knows where we'll go. Might even stop at both! I did notice that NoMi is a little more $$$$ (Actually plus one $ according to OpenTable.com)

Amata wrote:

Hellodali wrote:For a gelato place not too far from your hotel, you may want to try Canady - Le Chocolatier at 824 S. Wabash. He also makes his own chocolates, which are lovely and tasty.

See here for a post on Canady, with pictures.

Thanks for the link. Looks good, fairly priced and right by our hotel. We'll likely give this spot a try as well, at least for chocolate, if not gelato.

That is a quite a list. I'm skeptical about RL, too, though.

I understand that RL became much better once the Gibson's/Hugo's folks started running it. Of course, Hugo's and Gibson's are real Chicago experiences, and they are a pleasant stroll right down the street. I would choose either before adding to the coffers of a silly old self-indulgent Anglophile and his Disney version of a London men's club.

For the popovers, you might try Neiman's, which is also very nearby. I'm not sure if they have them or how they stand up to the Dallas flagship, but it's worth a look.

There really are quite a few solid options very nearby, both on and off of Michigan Ave., Spiaggia and its caffe, for starters.

JeffB wrote:For the popovers, you might try Neiman's, which is also very nearby. I'm not sure if they have them or how they stand up to the Dallas flagship, but it's worth a look.

Can anyone confirm or refute if NM on Michigan Ave has popovers? This is going to be a hell of a trip!

We're already planning another trip back to Chicago in a couple of years to focus more on the local flair foods. We just won't have enough time this trip to do that task justice.

I've been following this thread but maybe I missed something. Be that as it may, I'm surprised about Orange. I haven't been there but I've heard enough negative comments about it that I'd look to a better bet, especially from among the neighbourhood ethnic choices: link to mixed thread on Orange

Again, though, maybe I missed something...

Have a good visit and pack a big appetite!

A

Antonius wrote:I've been following this thread but maybe I missed something. Be that as it may, I'm surprised about Orange. I haven't been there but I've heard enough negative comments about it that I'd look to a better bet, especially from among the neighbourhood ethnic choices: link to mixed thread on Orange

Again, though, maybe I missed something...

Have a good visit and pack a big appetite!

A

Orange is pretty good, although it used to be a lot better. I often take out-of-town visitors there and it gets a good response. For what it is (a fun weekend brunch spot), I like it a lot more then, say, the Bongo Room. I agree with you about neighbourhood ethnic choices, but (no pun intended) it's apples and oranges really...

Antonius wrote:I've been following this thread but maybe I missed something. Be that as it may, I'm surprised about Orange. I haven't been there but I've heard enough negative comments about it that I'd look to a better bet, especially from among the neighbourhood ethnic choices: link to mixed thread on Orange

Actually we were pretty aware of the mixed reviews of Orange, but we figured since we had 5 days to do breakfast, it was worth a try even if it was just for the novelty. Not quite Moto, but also not run of the mill and certainly nothing like it in Omaha.

So what would you personally recommend for our 4 other days of breakfast we need to fill

snekse wrote:

Antonius wrote:I've been following this thread but maybe I missed something. Be that as it may, I'm surprised about Orange. I haven't been there but I've heard enough negative comments about it that I'd look to a better bet, especially from among the neighbourhood ethnic choices: link to mixed thread on Orange

Actually we were pretty aware of the mixed reviews of Orange, but we figured since we had 5 days to do breakfast, it was worth a try even if it was just for the novelty. Not quite Moto, but also not run of the mill and certainly nothing like it in Omaha.

So what would you personally recommend for our 4 other days of breakfast we need to fill

Well, in light of LionRock's post and your awareness of the mixed reviews, I can see the argument for doing Orange, especially since you have 5 breakfasts to do. (I think I might have trouble getting excited about breakfast after a couple of days of your schedule!). I guess all I'd say now is definitely do a dim sum in Chinatown and either do Maxwell Street or maybe go to Pilsen and hit Nuevo Leon (or even the wonderfully quaint Polo) for chilaquiles, eggs, etc. A walk around Pilsen on a sunny morning seems to me a nice way to get a sense of what one of Chicago's great neighbourhoods is like.

A

Here are my b'fast faves: Marianao for cafe con leche, toast, and picadas from the van across the street; Nuevo Leon for chilaquiles, menudo, eggs with chorizo or chicharon (and Bombon across the street); Lou Mitchell's; Manny's (CB hash). For something near your hotel, folks seem to love Tempo, though it seems like a Greek diner with fancier decor to me. I have some greasy spoon, hash browns and bone-in ham diners I enjoy, but that would be bringing coals to Newcastle for someone from Omaha.

For breakfast I like Room 12 and Lula Cafe

Room 12 is a little hip, but it's on Michigan, just a ways south. Lula is in Logan Square, which has some beautiful old homes, is neighborhoody, and the food and service is always top notch.

Lou Mitchell's is the best of the Chicago Greek Diners. It's ok, but overpriced. It is legendary. It's the place the news crews go in the morning to interview the "common man". And they give you a free homemade donut and milk duds.

Room 12
1152 S Wabash Ave,
(312) 427-9972

Lula Cafe
http://www.lulacafe.com/
2537 N. Kedzie Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60647
773.489.9554

Lou Mitchell's
565 W. Jackson Blvd.
(312) 939-3111

Antonius wrote:(I think I might have trouble getting excited about breakfast after a couple of days of your schedule!).

It seems like a trek, but I'd like to stop at Ann Sather for some Swedish pancakes with lingonberries (we had a swedish pancake place 4 blocks from our apt in CA). Are the Ann Sather Cafes pretty much the same thing as the full fledge restaurant? It doesn't seem like it I also noticed Tre Kronor had swedish pancakes.

I've had excellent breakfasts at Flo (Reader Review here) in Ukranian Village.

Just a note: I believe that Room 12, one of the better venues for breakfast in the South Loop, is still closed, awaiting the repair of the water/sewer system in the building which it inhabits.

I was always a big fan of Lou Mitchell's, but in recent years I felt that it's quality had slipped considerably. I haven't been there for a while, but you might want to give it a try to experience something that used to be uniquely Chicago (it still draws a crowd Saturday mornings). Specialties: eggs served in the pans they were cooked in, feta omelettes, and French toast made with thick Greek bread. No ferns or fusion pancakes. I'd be curious if you and others think it's working it's way back up.

snekse wrote:My wife and I are taking a 4 day trip to Chicago in June with the principal focus of our time being on food.

Well I just wanted to thank everyone for their help and give you all a quick run down of where we ate. Let me just say 4 1/2 days in Chicago is not enough time. There is just too much to see and so much to do. Seemed like there was far more cultural things to do then in San Francisco. A cheap place to visit as well, aside from the sales tax that is. I'll through my blog link down at the bottom so you can see the pics.

FRIDAY:

We got in late and didn't make it to the hotel until well after 10:30. We were both hungry and tired, so we figured we just find the closest thing. Unfortunately since we didn't make it onto the street until a little before 11:00, everything was pretty much closed. We asked someone where a late night food place was and they pointed us to...

South Loop Club (http://www.cityinsights.com/slc.htm)

Honestly it was perfect. A great plunge right into a local hang out to throw us into the vibe of Chicago. We got a Chicago dog and headed back to the hotel to eat in our room and relax.

SATURDAY:

We had a lot planned for the day, so we were out the door by 8:00 (actually that was pretty much every day). Our first breakfast in Chicago...

Orange (http://www.cityinsights.com/chicago/orange.htm)

Well, I forgot about their 2 locations and I forgot to map everything out before we went, so we headed to the Clark Street location. I'm actually glad we did. We got to see a neat part of town and stumbled across an Ann Sather location - score breakfast for another day!

We both like Orange a lot. You'll find out how much later in this post. We went all out with Frushi, 2x juice, a flight of pancakes and French Toast kabobs. The frushi was so-so, the juice was what you made of it, but the rest was great.

We hit Hancock, Navy Pier and the Art Institute (snacking at the Pier and the Art Institute) all before we headed to dinner at....

Alinea (http://www.alinearestaurant.com/)

I'll save that for my blog post. Let's just say it didn't live up to my expectations. Wasn't bad, but wasn't extraordinary.

SUNDAY:

Well after I did some digging around in my maps, I realized the other Orange location was just 3-4 blocks from our hotel, so we ate downtown location Sunday morning. I had the Cinnamon Roll pancakes and my wife had the pan-fried oatmeal. She was in love.

We had plans to hit the Field Museum, the Aquarium and possibly the Planetarium all in the same day if we had time. The best laid plans.... Long story short - we left the field museum at around 1:00 with the idea of going to Manny's for lunch, then coming back and hitting the aquarium. Neither of those happened. As people warned me, look at the hours before you head somewhere. All I can say is I need a laptop. With Manny's being closed, we hit the joint on the other side of the parking lot. We decided to split an Italian Beef Sandwich then go to Little Italy to get a slice of Chicago Style Pizza and some Gelato. After much walking in some hot and muggy weather, those two things didn't happen either. Needless to say my wife was not happy. No aquarium, no pizza, no gelato - I would like to take this time to publicly apologize to my wife and say "I'm sorry".

Completely beat, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at...

Blackbird (http://www.blackbirdrestaurant.com/)

Again, I'll leave comment for the blog. Probably our least favorite dinner of the trip, but that's not saying much and it was 1/4 of the price

MONDAY:

Monday we were heading down south for the Museum of Science & Industry, so we decided to eat in Chinatown since it was sort of on the way. I would like to tell the city of Chicago that they need to get a GIANT fork lift and move that museum closer to downtown! Actually the trip home was more direct and not that bad. Taking the Red Line is a BAD idea. It took entirely too long.

Okay, back to the food. We almost didn't eat at the Phoenix. We were standing outside of what we *thought* was the Phoenix just dumbfounded at the Closed sign. CLOSED! I swear I read they were open for Dim Sum daily at 8:00 - it was now 9:00 - NOT AGAIN! We just stood there for a couple of minutes not saying a word. Then right as we were about to leave, a guy comes up and opens the door to the shop next to us (letting in a guy in a white dress shirt that had been standing there the whole time) and asks if we were there to eat. We were at the wrong restaurant! So yes, we got a chance to eat Dim Sum at the Phoenix. I certainly took care of any Dim Sum fix I might have had. Pretty close to what we had in Oakland.

We spent the day at the Science & Industry Museum which was awesome. The body exhibit, which I just saw on TV the week before, was absolutely enthralling. We ate lunch at the museum to conserve time. Luckily we were able to push back out dinner reservations so we were able to stay until they closed. So once again, back to the hotel to change and head out to...

Charlie Trotter's (http://www.charlietrotters.com/restaurant/)

Blog, blog, blog, blog...

TUESDAY:

Since we were going to be spending the day on the Mag Mile, I decided we should hit...

Ann Sather's (http://www.annsather.com/)

for some Swedish pancakes and make our way down the mile. I'm glad we went, but I wouldn't go back. The food just wasn't that good. The Swedish pancakes I had in the past were almost like crepes. These were weird and almost custard like. The Swedish sausage was disgusting and the potato pancakes my wife got were still on the plate when we left. But hey, at least I can say we went there.

We spent the day looking at all the shops on the mile, again, just so say we did. Nothing all that interesting. We did plan ahead though and made reservations for lunch at...

Ralph Lauren (http://www.rlrestaurant.com/)

Again, everything you guys said was pretty true. Again, I'm glad we went, but next time we will follow your guidance a little more. For this trip however, it fit very well into our theme. Wasn't bad, but not really worth the money.

We stopped at Vosges to pick up some fire bars which is one of my favorite chocolates. We also stopped at Teuscher and picked up a Dark Chocolate Champagne truffle. We tossed around the idea of stopping at either Neiman Marcus for a pop-over or the little Italian deli at the base of the Hancock center for Gelato. The Gelato won. Not bad - better then anything in Omaha. Back to the hotel, a bit of a nap, a change of clothes and off to...

TRU (http://www.trurestaurant.com/)

Okay, I'll talk briefly about this. We had the chef's table and we both thought it was the best meal of the trip, but didn't feel that way until about half way through the desserts. Stellar. More on the blog once I get to this one.

WEDNESDAY:

We had to leave our hotel by 1:00 to make our flight so we had a crunched day. We went to Orange one last time (we looked at the menu at the Peninsula hotel the day before and decided we didn't want to eat there like we had planned). Then, because I'm a little crazy, we went up to Trotter's ToGo to grab food to take back to Omaha with us (Yes, I brought a cooler full of ice and food on the plane). That took far longer then expected, so we grabbed lunch at CT ToGo as well. We were hoping to take another shot at getting a slice of Chicago Style pizza on the mag mile, but no go on that one.

So that was our trip. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting. We will do things a little differently next time, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us. If I didn't take you up on a suggestion, please don't feel hurt. There was a lot of factors that played into where we decided to go and we just didn't have time to make it to several places we had wanted to go including Hot Chocolate and Cafe Gelato. Next time though!

If you want to read more and see all the pretty pics, head over to our blog. Not everything is up yet, but it's coming soon.

http://gfc.snekse.com/

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your visit, and you're right. The next time you visit, you should definately explore some of the other board recommended restaurants/places to eat. For example, you went to Orange 3 times and missed an opportunity to have breakfast at Lou Mitchell's (located near Union Station) which is a Chicago breakfast landmark. Also, though your trip to Manny's was fruitless on a Sunday, you were only 1.5 blocks away from the Maxwell Street Market, which is only open on Sunday. In any event, glad you had a good time and please come back to visit more often. Now that you have tried most of the big name destination restaurants (no Moto?), your next trip should concentrate on visiting some of the many ethnic neighborhoods we talk about so much here on LTH forum.

Since I just linked to this thread I should annotate it to point out that Sugar and Pluton are closed.