Rosebud's 10oz. burger is only five bucks???

just on weekdays. cheese, bacon, etc - all $1 each. fries are included.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/rosebud-trattor ... d%20burger

elakin wrote:Rosebud's 10oz. burger...

12oz

Kennyz wrote:

elakin wrote:Rosebud's 10oz. burger...

12oz

either or. it's decent. It was a few degrees past "rare" but way juicier than the Beagle.

Softshell crab at Renga-Tei for a birthday dinner.
They were out of Hamachi Kama and then gave me softshells that were dark brown from being left in the fryer way too long. Texture ruined and meat dry.
(To the restaurant's credit, I was given a full refund for the entree.)

Mister Beefhead wrote:

SandyR wrote: Horchata can't just sit----it needs to keep moving and mixing.

You sure about that? Some of the best horchata that I've ever had has come ladled from a five gallon bucket, the way they (used to?) do it at La Pasadita.

Maybe it's because they sell so much that it's constantly getting stirred.

I was referring to how the flavor and canela had settled at the bottom of my cup. If the horchata itself is good, I'm completely fine with the settling. However, that night the horchata was really lacking in flavor, even with my stirring, so on the whole it was not very good. So I guess that's why I mentioned the stirring. Of course, there are no absolutes. I've had amazing horchata---at restaurants and made at home---coming from a single jarro, so yes maybe the mixing is just to push the product.

I've been looking forward to trying the grape leaves on Dawali Kitchen's new menu. I've been there twice when they haven't had them and tonight they said they were available. I wish they hadn't been. A hard, gluey mess of flavorless rice inside of a grape leaf. These should not have been served.

"Beef Fajita Platter" at the Custer Street Fair in Evanston. Each of those words should be in quotations separately, as none of them really approached what they describe. I should have stopped as soon as I found out it came with a side of "paella," but they already had my money.

Truly, the most offensive cow meat I've ever put in my mouth. At first I thought it was seasoned hamburger meat, only to discover that it had some fibrous tissue in it and couldn't possibly be. If you've ever had the misfortune to eat a dirty-water hamburger, you've got the idea, but this stuff was coated in some kind of seasoning to brown it and then piled and held on the flat top. It literally smelled like canned dog food, and I don't want to say what it tasted like. The side salad wouldn't have been too bad, was actually comprised of green romaine and vegetables - but was completely smothered with "sauce" (I'd asked her to go easy, but then wasn't really expecting her to comply) which was some kind of thinned-out version of tzaziki. It came with aforementioned soggy, fatty rice, oily peppers and onions, and a flabby pita bread. Ugh.

I'd settled on this booth because I was looking for something with vegetables - all the rest of the booths were some kind of "Greek" food, "Asian" food or your typical county-fair type fare. Seriously - now that we've finally got a bunch of decent restaurants in Evanston, couldn't we showcase them instead of hiring in this garbage?

Posting a placeholder for later: I am going to Red Lobster tonight.

Seriously - now that we've finally got a bunch of decent restaurants in Evanston, couldn't we showcase them instead of hiring in this garbage?

Almost no street festivals actually reflect the streets they take place on; they nearly all bring in professional vendors. This explains why.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:Posting a placeholder for later: I am going to Red Lobster tonight.

Don't go hatin' on those biscuits!

Mike G wrote:

Seriously - now that we've finally got a bunch of decent restaurants in Evanston, couldn't we showcase them instead of hiring in this garbage?

Almost no street festivals actually reflect the streets they take place on; they nearly all bring in professional vendors. This explains why.

The only exceptions I've been able to find are Taste of Randolph (which I haven't gone to in a few years so maybe this has changed) and Halsted Tastes Better (which isn't really a street festival in the truest sense of the word).

Halsted Tastes Better is actually one of the more underrated events of the summer. Along with the Green City Market BBQ, I do everything possible to attend every year.

The big exception, where everything's homemade (or small restaurant-made), is Taste of Melrose Park. I loved this fest last year, and highly recommend it (with a hat tip to Hammond, its primary advocate).

As I recall, the Ukrainian Fest was pretty good in that regard as well. And I think the Korean one up on Bryn Mawr at least had some Korean places mixed in, along with the expected pork skewers.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:Posting a placeholder for later: I am going to Red Lobster tonight.

You might be pleasantly surprised. Of the massive national chains, I rank Red Lobster in the top 10%. You're not going to have a jaw-dropping culinary experience, but you might just walk away feeling ok. Stay away from gimmicky sauces and big baskets of deep-fried food from frozen. If you've got a competent grill man who's awake, you might be fine.

When visiting my in-laws in south Florida sprawl-country, we are often subjected to horrible "early bird" restaurants that serve half-warmed cafeteria food. Some years ago, we adopted the strategy of pre-buying a gift card to a restaurant that we consider to be an "acceptable known", that is, a restaurant where we know that we'll survive and get a plate of food that we won't have to fight our way through. The presence of the gift cards forces the in-laws in that direction.

Red Lobster is one of our "gift card restaurants". I always order a simple grilled fish fillet as unadorned as possible. I've had perfectly good fillets of trout with lemon and sides of steamed vegetables and a side salad at Red Lobster. Perfectly reasonable food there is possible if you order carefully and have a little luck on your side.

Best,
Michael

jesteinf wrote:

Mike G wrote:

Seriously - now that we've finally got a bunch of decent restaurants in Evanston, couldn't we showcase them instead of hiring in this garbage?

Almost no street festivals actually reflect the streets they take place on; they nearly all bring in professional vendors. This explains why.

The only exceptions I've been able to find are Taste of Randolph (which I haven't gone to in a few years so maybe this has changed) and Halsted Tastes Better (which isn't really a street festival in the truest sense of the word).

Halsted Tastes Better is actually one of the more underrated events of the summer. Along with the Green City Market BBQ, I do everything possible to attend every year.

Don't forget the Taste of Melrose Park.

D'oh! Beat me, Mike G!

I forgot about Taste of Melrose Park. I definitely want to check that one out.

eatchicago wrote: I always order a simple grilled fish fillet as unadorned as possible. I've had perfectly good fillets of trout with lemon and sides of steamed vegetables and a side salad at Red Lobster. Perfectly reasonable food there is possible if you order carefully and have a little luck on your side.

They're always overloaded with salt. If you can, tell them to go easy. Otherwise Michael's right, the fish is usually cooked well. But the pièce de résistance is always the biscuits.

eatchicago wrote:You might be pleasantly surprised. Of the massive national chains, I rank Red Lobster in the top 10%. You're not going to have a jaw-dropping culinary experience, but you might just walk away feeling ok. Stay away from gimmicky sauces and big baskets of deep-fried food from frozen. If you've got a competent grill man who's awake, you might be fine.

That's reassuring. I haven't been in years, but I don't recall it being any good; I'll keep it simple this time. I wouldn't be going there at all, except that my husband has frequently expressed a desire to go there, but always manages to talk himself out of it. So his belated, early Father's Day gift will be some fried fishes and biscuits

"crispy" rice noodles with bbq pork @ LTH

when these noodles are crispy, it is among the best dishes i've ever had. when they aren't, its just standard chow fun that i usually avoid. its a 50/50 shot when i specify crisp noodles @ LTH. it kind of deters me from going knowing that i may or may not get the dish pictured in all the LTH threads. i don't know how much more i can specify "crispy" rice noodles--i drop that word at least a few times and always specify light gravey. its almost like they have two different cooks and one of them doesn't know how to make the crisp chow fun.

not the worst meal, just disappointing.

Mike G wrote:

Seriously - now that we've finally got a bunch of decent restaurants in Evanston, couldn't we showcase them instead of hiring in this garbage?

Almost no street festivals actually reflect the streets they take place on; they nearly all bring in professional vendors. This explains why.

The sad truth is that the Custer Street Fair is produced locally, and not by one of the two listed festival companies (the arty performances on the smaller stage are a testament to the producer, a local theater owner) but I imagine they have farmed out all the stuff they find logistically difficult, and it shows.

Yes it is too bad about the food at the Custer Street fair, the food is pretty bad. I go every year and it is one of the nicer kid friendly festivals in the Chicago area, and I go to a lot of neighborhood festivals. You don't have the rowdy bands and drunk 20-30 year olds you get at the bigger ones in north Chicago.

This festival could support a section of local restaurants stands for all those hungry parents and grandparents.

jesteinf wrote:I forgot about Taste of Melrose Park. I definitely want to check that one out.

I recommend Pierogi Fest in nearby Whiting,Indiana
http://www.pierogifest.net/

Red Lobster was...interesting. I had planned to follow the sage advice on keeping it simple, but once I got there and was confronted by the menu I lost my mind a little. I decided the best course of action would be to go balls-to-the-wall and order the most ridiculous, baroque things on the menu. Naturally I decided on "lobster" (actually langoustino) pizza and nachos. And now I am posting in this thread.

Never, Never let Moe order at Red Lobster.

Corner Bakery's "Lemon Poundcake": OMFG! Yuck, ptuii, gack, rrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh, hechhh, hechhh, blecchh, fechhh....

Usually I bring my own coffee and a NY Bagel to work and toast it myself. Sometimes the store is out, and I have to hunt for something sweet with my coffee. Owing to the vagaries of taking son to camp instead of school for the summer, I approached my office from the north rather than the south, putting Corner Bakery rather than Starbucks on my direct route.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of either, but I like SB's lemon pound just fine. Nice crumb, moist, and decidedly lemony. CB, I never go to at all, but I figure it's a big chain, surely a piece of lemon cake is not so exotic, and I've had other baked things from them that were acceptable. "What could go wrong?" 1

Sweet Lord. The texture of this revolting slab is somewhere between cold mashed potatoes and over-ripe brie. It's yellow like lemon cake, has white icing like lemon cake, but has no discernible lemon flavor at all. It's like some kind of calk or fixative you buy in a 10 gal. plastic tub at Home Depot that's been 'lemon scented' on top of it's natural toxic odor.

Whew. OK. Got that off my chest.
Now if I could just scrape the residue off my tongue.


1 Hayward, Tony, "Disaster/Contingency Planning for Deep Sea Drilling Ops," Internal Best Practices---Protocols and Planning, Spring 2010: pg. 57

It saddens me to say this, because it was one of my all-time favorite dishes, but Tank's Raw Beef Salad was just gross last night: stringy beef, wan green stuff, no peanuts, and an odd cracker-like replacement for the rice puffs. I had always argued that the outrageous price of the dish--at $14.95, double what most others on the strip charge--was justified given the harmony of flavors, but no more.

My first trip to Smoque was not as great as I'd hoped. The mac & cheese was outstanding, the brisket was quite good and very tender, the beans were just okay, but the pulled pork made me sad. It had a weird mushy texture and no substance.

I didn't think I would ever post anything in this thread, but I ate the worst thing I have eaten in months (maybe a year too) at Sable Kitchen and Bar last night...the corn scallion hush puppies covered with paprika was inedible. Paprika is fine, but it's the Kathy Griffin of seasoning...tolerable in very small doses. There was no corn, no scallion, just salty paprika and oil flavors in that dish. Terrible.

fusionfan wrote:Paprika is fine, but it's the Kathy Griffin of seasoning...tolerable in very small doses.

Banner quote!

Sorry to hear about the paprika ... we just had a brilliant lunch at Sable and can't wait to go back.