Skokie Feedbag

Headed out to Northlight Theater & looking for a pre-theater meal nearby that ISN'T Old Orchard mall food. Or Panera-ish.

Any cuisine, as long as it's good.

Any suggestions?

Just across the street from the Northlight is Ruby of Siam. Ruby's been a longtime reliable Thai choice. Ten years ago, the Evanston location was our favorite Thai place (since been supplanted by TAC Quick, Sticky Rice, Thai Valley, and a couple of others).

They have an extensive menu. Some of my favorites include the one-bite chicken (lettuce-wrapped chicken larb), kaoman somutm kaiyang (bbq chicken served with papaya salad and coconut rice), and the cashew dish (I forget the Thai name, but they make it super-spicy if you ask.) The pad see iew there is a popular favorite. Some of their dishes tend to be on the sweet side, which happens to agree with my palate.

Though located in a strip mall, the decor inside is colorful and the waitstaff all wear traditional Thai garb (at least as far as I can tell!)

Ruby of Siam
9420 Skokie Blvd.
Skokie, IL 60077
847-675-7008

candyfreak wrote:Headed out to Northlight Theater & looking for a pre-theater meal nearby

Candy,

Couple of other good choices are EJ's Place for steaks and the bar at Don's Fishmarket

You are also not far from Akai Hana for Japanese or, if you stretch it just a bit, Hackney's for burgers on black with onion ring loaf or Meiers Tavern for bar burgers and tater tots.

Enjoy,
Gary

EJ's Place
10027 Skokie Blvd.
Skokie, IL 60077
847-933-9800

Don's Fishmarket
9335 Skokie Blvd.
Skokie, IL 60077
847-677-3424

Akai Hana Japanese Restaurant
3223 Lake
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-251-0384

Hackney's on Harms
1241 Harms Rd
Glenview, IL
847-724-5577

Meiers Tavern
235 E Lake Ave
Glenview, IL
847-724-0477

Just south is Edwardo's pizza, still the gold standard for overstuffed
9300 Skokie Blvd, Skokie

I'd second Ruby of Siam, it's also got a great lunch buffet, if you're in the neighborhood. The IHOP also across from the theater is to be avoided, though.

A lot of folks like Barnum & Bagel on Dempster just east of Skokie Blvd, I've never been a fan.

If you're feeling lucky, try the Charcoal Oven.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2445

If you are pressed for time and do not want to re-park, I have had several good dinners at the Daily Grill in the hotel right by the Theater. This is a pretty darn good chain-- in fact, IIRC, Saveur even endorsed them in a previous year-end issue. The atmosphere is kind of 40's supper club; the service is professional. Menu runs to classics and comfort food: steak, meatloaf, fish, cobb salad, good sides (though occasionally oversalted) and killer rice pudding. Reasonable, decent wines by the glass.

A better (and pricier) steak-house alternative is EJ's (North on Skokie Blvd.), suggested by GWiv. I've had one really good meal there and they have valet parking, which makes the in-and-out a little easier.

If you would like something a bit more adventurous, you could try LaBaraka at the intersection of Dempster, Skokie Blvd, and Gross Point Road. This is a Lebanese place with an odd coffee-shop atmosphere left over from the previous occupants, but the welcome is warm and the food is interesting. We had the meze platter, which was a broad selection of tapas-portioned Middle Eastern greatest hits as well as some rarely seen items like kidneys. I enjoyed it well enough, but would like to try their couscous dishes-- perfect for a cold winter evening if done well.

Unfortunately, I have not had much luck with Don's Fishmarket, so I'll have to humbly differ with GWiv on that. Perhaps I should give it another try, but we had a really disappointing meal there last winter. In our case, our less-than-hoped-for experience could be a matter of the weeknight staff being the B Team, as we usually stick close to home on weeknights and go into the city on the weekends.

Zhivago is always a good bet. It's on Gross Point Rd., maybe a mile from the mall. It's continental food with a heavy Russian hand. Everything is freshly prepared and they're really nice. Also, the dining room is hokey but pleasant, and they have a full bar. I love their borscht.

I like the Daily Grill, both for its handiness to the theater and its wonderful chicken pot pie.

Ruby's is also very good. Don't miss the chive dumplings.

Don's Fish Market can be very good if you ignore the chef's flights of fancy and order relatively simple seafood. The house-cured gravlax is excellent, as is the smoked-seafood platter that includes it. I'm also fond of the house salad with strawberries.

I haven't been there in a while, but Charcoal Oven has always been charmingly old world, with quite good steaks.

I have given up on E.J.'s, where I have always had truly terrible service. I certainly wouldn't risk going there before the theater -- not if you want to make the curtain.

Although it is in the mall, The Bagel is a perfectly decent deli.

I'll be in Skokie for a concert on Saturday and am looking for a relatively nearby spot that would be open late - someplace a group of 6-10 could arrive and eat at 9:30 and linger until 11:30ish or so. Interesting pub food and good beer would be ideal. Korean BBQ or even something down on Devon could also work, but I'd be happy to explore something in Skokie proper (or Niles / Lincolnwood / etc.) I value the good info above and just wanted to check on 2010 updates. Thanks for any recs.

Just for the record, Barnum & Bagel and LaBaraka (mentioned above) are both long gone--there may be others.

I recently had dinner with a group at Hackney's on Harms for the first time in years and was pleasantly surprised. I think the idea of what goes into preparing a really outstanding hamburger has evolved over the 80-odd years that Hackney's has been around, and their hamburgers still seem to be made pretty much the same way they were when I first had one back in the 1960s. But on our recent visit, everyone's burger was done exactly as ordered, the onion loaf was very good (crispy, hot, tasty, and not at all greasy), they had a good selection of imported beers on tap (and domestic brews in bottles), and the service was quick and very friendly. If the weather cooperates, their patio is a lovely place to relax with friends. They also had a jazz combo playing (softly) the evening we were there. (I would definitely opt for this Hackney's location over the one just a short distance away on Lake in Glenview.)

Since you're willing to go into Lincolnwood, L. Woods is also an option. A Lettuce Entertain You Restaurant, basically like Wildfire, but more north woods than 40's supper club.

7110 N Lincoln Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
(847) 677-3350

Zhivago is the only place in this thread that I can think of that would still be open at 11:30 on Saturday night. I haven't been recently, but in the past I have always enjoyed it.

http://zhivagochicago.com/index.php

I think EJ's is open late:
10027 Skokie Blvd.
Skokie
(847) 933-9800‎
http://www.ejsplaceskokie.com/

McCormick & Schmick's in Old Orchard is open 'til 11.

Santander wrote:I'll be in Skokie for a concert on Saturday and am looking for a relatively nearby spot that would be open late - someplace a group of 6-10 could arrive and eat at 9:30 and linger until 11:30ish or so. Interesting pub food and good beer would be ideal. Korean BBQ or even something down on Devon could also work, but I'd be happy to explore something in Skokie proper (or Niles / Lincolnwood / etc.) I value the good info above and just wanted to check on 2010 updates. Thanks for any recs.

So, Santander, where did you and your group end up? Any place worth adding to the list?

tarte tatin wrote:

Santander wrote:I'll be in Skokie for a concert on Saturday and am looking for a relatively nearby spot that would be open late - someplace a group of 6-10 could arrive and eat at 9:30 and linger until 11:30ish or so. Interesting pub food and good beer would be ideal. Korean BBQ or even something down on Devon could also work, but I'd be happy to explore something in Skokie proper (or Niles / Lincolnwood / etc.) I value the good info above and just wanted to check on 2010 updates. Thanks for any recs.

So, Santander, where did you and your group end up? Any place worth adding to the list?

Thank you all for the recommendations and for the followup - we had a great concert last night (Golosa at the Computer Systems Institute language labs for a Russian salon series), but lingered and mingled late enough that no place in the area seemed to be open for a full menu; unusually, we also had 12 very hungry choristers willing to stay, and couldn't think of anyplace in the central city (that the three drivers would know how to get to and agere upon) to handle a party for a 10:30 PM seating without a wait.

So of course, we ended up at Lao Sze Chuan. Excellent, and Tony himself was on hand. I will keep all of the other places in mind for future forays.

Santander wrote:So of course, we ended up at Lao Sze Chuan. Excellent, and Tony himself was on hand. I will keep all of the other places in mind for future forays.

So--South Skokie, then?

tarte tatin wrote:

Santander wrote:So of course, we ended up at Lao Sze Chuan. Excellent, and Tony himself was on hand. I will keep all of the other places in mind for future forays.

So--South Skokie, then?

You got it - can't wait for Christmas Eve.

Zhivago couldn't handle you? Building on the Russian theme and all ...

nr706 wrote:Zhivago couldn't handle you? Building on the Russian theme and all ...

Other than the sound file on the website - for which I'm sure they're paying appropriate royalties to Maurice Jarre's estate - I couldn't initially find anything Russian on the non-banquet menu. Looking at it carefully now, I realize I was reading the "lunch" section, and do see some pelmeni among the capellini, "sesami crusted seared tuna" and "strip del nonico." I should have called while I was trying Hackney's and the Devon spots for availability that night - our loss and Tony Hu's gain on the long road back to Hyde Park.