Jeez, now we can't complain about things we eat. If I'm hungry I'll eat just about anything, including airplane food.

Airplanes still have food?

nr706 wrote:Airplanes still have food?

Yeah. If you're unfortunate to fly enough they reward you with food.

teatpuller wrote:

nr706 wrote:Airplanes still have food?

Yeah. If you're unfortunate to fly enough they reward you with food.

You have a funny way of spelling "abuse"

'Crispy chicken strips with salt and pepper spice' at Saint's Alp Teahouse. Funky shreds of chicken sinew breaded with Twinkie crumbs, cinnamon, and a disturbing amount of broken eggshells, sort-of-fried in warm oil. The accompanying lemon slice was excellent.

shotzy wrote:The Cochinita Pibil from Zapatista in Lincoln Park. Devoid of taste and excessively salty. We also had some of the worst service I've encountered in a long time.

Thanks for saving me a trip. Will Lincoln Park ever get a decent restaurant? Ok, well they do have Nookies and Del Seoul. Both are not mind-blowing or anything, but real God sends for the neighborhood.

chezbrad wrote:The Black Oak Arkansas @ Kuma's. If I really wanted to experience the McJordan Burger again, I would have just invented, you know, time travel.

Burgers at Kuma's mystify me, quite frankly: the patty is way too big, its ground bland, the toppings heavy and flavorless. Good news: by assenting to my girlfriend's wish that we try this place just once, I'll now never have to go here again.

Thank you. For all the hype that place gets I could never understand why. Huge patty, flavorless, far too lean, and what's up with that overly dense pretzel bun? I felt like all I was tasting was the bun. Also the fact that places need to hide their burger behind a bunch of "toppings" is unfortunate. A good burger doesn't need a hundred different things on it. One other thing that may have influenced our experiences is that they sold out as restaurants here tend to do when they get some press. They used to serve hand cut fries, now they buy them frozen off the Sysco truck. It's a general trend, that when a restaurant gets some press they lower their quality on everything since people will be driving in from the suburbs and waiting for 2-3 hours to get whatever it is they serve. So it doesn't actually have to be good, it simply has to create the perception that it is good. A dozen and half topping laden "creations" with clever names and risque artwork will do the trick.

sr1329 wrote:Huge patty, flavorless, far too lean, and what's up with that overly dense pretzel bun?

One other thing that may have influenced our experiences is that they sold out as restaurants here tend to do when they get some press...

They used to serve hand cut fries, now they buy them frozen off the Sysco truck...

Have you seen the Sysco truck? The fries I had there not two weeks ago were certainly hand-cut and excellent. And frankly, I find their patty juicy, beefy, and well-seasoned. The burger of the month I had last time was not overloaded with toppings, which let the bovine beauty shine through. And the pretzel bun has the perfect structural integrity for their burgers, especially once the juices are flowing. Dense is not a word that has ever come to mind while ingesting any of their burgers.

Kuma's went from hand cut to waffle a few years ago, and went back to hand cut within the last month.

I do agree that their burgers aren't particularly great these days, and certainly not worth a wait.

sr1329 wrote:

chezbrad wrote:The Black Oak Arkansas @ Kuma's. If I really wanted to experience the McJordan Burger again, I would have just invented, you know, time travel.

Burgers at Kuma's mystify me, quite frankly: the patty is way too big, its ground bland, the toppings heavy and flavorless. Good news: by assenting to my girlfriend's wish that we try this place just once, I'll now never have to go here again.

Thank you. For all the hype that place gets I could never understand why. Huge patty, flavorless, far too lean, and what's up with that overly dense pretzel bun? I felt like all I was tasting was the bun. Also the fact that places need to hide their burger behind a bunch of "toppings" is unfortunate. A good burger doesn't need a hundred different things on it. One other thing that may have influenced our experiences is that they sold out as restaurants here tend to do when they get some press. They used to serve hand cut fries, now they buy them frozen off the Sysco truck. It's a general trend, that when a restaurant gets some press they lower their quality on everything since people will be driving in from the suburbs and waiting for 2-3 hours to get whatever it is they serve. So it doesn't actually have to be good, it simply has to create the perception that it is good. A dozen and half topping laden "creations" with clever names and risque artwork will do the trick.

I with you on this trend of tasteless beef with a bunch of toppings. A good juicy beefy tasting burger can be as good as a nice steak, would you pile on a bunch of weird toppings on a decent steak? At home If I have good quailty ground beef I'll just use salt and pepper on a nice fresh bun (I like bakery fresh potato buns).

The fish tacos at Lupita's in Evanston. When they were first placed in front of me, I thought they'd accidentally left out the fish. But after I raked aside the haystack of lettuce, I found some little logs that looked like something the cat left behind a couple of weeks ago--dry and hard and sort of pebbly on the outside. Bill had a ground beef taco that wasn't much better. Then we went to see "A Servant of Two Masters" at the Piccolo Theater in the Arts Center and it was pretty dreadful, too. Did I mention that it was raining? And my birthday?

Oh well, if you're going to be disappointed it might as well be so horrible that you can make a story out of it!

Lupita's is dreadful - and the tragedy of this outing is that there are easily half-a-dozen wonderful resto options within a five-minute walk of that hellhole! So sorry.

Happy birthday, anyway!

EvanstonFoodGuy wrote:

sr1329 wrote:

chezbrad wrote:The Black Oak Arkansas @ Kuma's. If I really wanted to experience the McJordan Burger again, I would have just invented, you know, time travel.

Burgers at Kuma's mystify me, quite frankly: the patty is way too big, its ground bland, the toppings heavy and flavorless. Good news: by assenting to my girlfriend's wish that we try this place just once, I'll now never have to go here again.

Thank you. For all the hype that place gets I could never understand why. Huge patty, flavorless, far too lean, and what's up with that overly dense pretzel bun? I felt like all I was tasting was the bun. Also the fact that places need to hide their burger behind a bunch of "toppings" is unfortunate. A good burger doesn't need a hundred different things on it. One other thing that may have influenced our experiences is that they sold out as restaurants here tend to do when they get some press. They used to serve hand cut fries, now they buy them frozen off the Sysco truck. It's a general trend, that when a restaurant gets some press they lower their quality on everything since people will be driving in from the suburbs and waiting for 2-3 hours to get whatever it is they serve. So it doesn't actually have to be good, it simply has to create the perception that it is good. A dozen and half topping laden "creations" with clever names and risque artwork will do the trick.

I with you on this trend of tasteless beef with a bunch of toppings. A good juicy beefy tasting burger can be as good as a nice steak, would you pile on a bunch of weird toppings on a decent steak? At home If I have good quailty ground beef I'll just use salt and pepper on a nice fresh bun (I like bakery fresh potato buns).

Amen sir.

I am a big fan of Longman & Eagle, Ive been 3 times, once for brunch, once for an early dinner, and for drinks.

Really bad:

1) Tete du cochon... not good, bitter tasting pork(creosote), the mustard smear does not work at all with this dish, and even a runny egg yolk couldnt fix this dish. Flavors were off, and not balanced at all. Really kind of muddled imho. Comparing apples to oranges perhaps, but the cochon dish served @ Cochon in NOLA blows L & E's version out of the water. Similar as far as the porks place on the plate, way better execution.

jimswside wrote:I am a big fan of Longman & Eagle, Ive been 3 times, once for brunch, once for an early dinner, and for drinks.

Really bad:

1) Tete du cochon... not good, bitter tasting pork(creosote), the mustard smear does not work at all with this dish, and even a runny egg yolk couldnt fix this dish. Flavors were off, and not balanced at all. Really kind of muddled imho. Comparing apples to oranges perhaps, but the cochon dish served @ Cochon in NOLA blows L & E's version out of the water. Similar as far as the porks place on the plate, way better execution.

Given the number of folks here who've raved about this dish, myself included, it sounds like you should have sent it back...I don't think what you're describing is what they intended to serve.

Had an awful lunch - if you can call it that - at Susie's Drive-In. It was my first time there - so maybe I didn't order the right things, but I have no desire to return.

My lunch consisted of a pretty good but over-priced chocolate banana milkshake, the sorriest pile of cheese fries I've had in quite a while, and unquestionably the worst patty melt I've ever eaten.

The fries were underdone and greasy, drowned in a cheese sauce that tasted one notch below what's served at Wrigley.

The patty melt consisted of two frozen, overcooked patties of startling poor quality (reminiscent of the middle school cafeteria), a scant few onions, one slice of food service cheese, on two slices of under-toasted bread.

And the princely sum owed for this sad, sad lunch? $15.00!

I didn't feel good about this when I saw how much it was, and then even worse once I realized what the $15 bought me...

I love burgers, fries, and local family-owned dives - this was none of those.

Susie's Drive-In
4126 W Montrose Ave
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 283-6544

I don't get the Susie's love, either..

gleam wrote:I don't get the Susie's love, either..

Neither do I. About two years since my last Susie's, well after midnight, I'd had a few drinks and not eaten dinner. Picked up two dogs and fries from the drive-thru. When I unwrapped, about 15-minutes later, fries a soggy greasy mess, limp skinless dog with the bun glued to outer wrapper. I tossed 90% and had a bowl of cereal.

My Easter desserts, unfortunately.

I made Mama's Lemon Pie, a Baking Sheet recipe that for some reason I cannot find online, and it was a runny, shapeless mass by the time we ate it. Pretty tasty, though; very lemony and not too sweet. I'll try this again for myself. Perhaps it was the traveling that ruined the texture.

My strawberry rhubarb crumble, on the other hand, was attractive and probably would have been delicious had I not used Splenda. I made it sugar free for my dad and that's all I could taste; just that biting, phony, chemical sweetness.

Mom bought a "bunny" cake, too. It was basically two halves of a pound cake held together with too much gritty, shortening-based frosting and coated with coconut, but it hit the spot. Although it was clearly a lamb cake that they stuck a bunny face on.

I went to a bachelorette party last night, which started the night off at Caesar's, "Home of the Killer Margarita"- I was the D.D., so no killer margarita for me, but what I did have was what I'd imagine is upscale Mexican food for people who think Taco Bell is authentic.

Salsa seemed to be canned stewed tomatoes with a little cilantro and onion tossed in. The nachos (ordered by someone else at the table) consisted of about 10-12 tortilla chips, with a schmear of refried bean (probably out of a can) and a sprinkling of some sort of white cheese on each of them. They were in a ring around three little bowls with pickled jalapenos, guacamole and sour cream, respectively.

I ordered enchiladas, and they don't mix the fillings, so I settled on just steak. The enchiladas were filled with cheese, then had a handful of steak bits on top. Very weird.

Caesar's
3166 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60610
(773) 248-2835

Since there's not a thread entitled "worst thing you've eaten in the last few years," I figured this is the best spot to post about my brunch at M. Henry today. Everything ordered, as described more fully in this post, was awful - mealy shrimp, almost none of the promised lobster, overcooked eggs, undercooked potatoes, and terrible under-ripe avocado.

Beef Brisket at Weber Grill in Schaumburg...

Shredded tire treads, albeit in decent sauce

The roast turkey dinner--Thursday's special at the Pittsfield Cafe in the Pittsfield Building. Cute place. Nice waitresses. The turkey, greens beans, and cranberry sauce were edible. The mashed potatoes were not. The gravy and dressing were a mucilaginous mess. A vaguely celery-flavored mucilaginous mess. Dreadful.

sr1329 wrote:Will Lincoln Park ever get a decent restaurant? Ok, well they do have Nookies and Del Seoul. Both are not mind-blowing or anything, but real God sends for the neighborhood.

These places might be worth a shot:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4925
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9414

In the mid 80’s I had a 16 oz T-Bone complete steak dinner for $1.99 at Binion’s in Vegas. I appreciated that meal, because it was the worst piece of meat I have ever had. And I think one should be able to remember that type of knowledge. So as I said I did appreciate them.

However, this weekend I was in Peoria. I went to Jim’s steakhouse. I had their large cut prime rib for $36. It now has taken that T-Bone’s place in my heart. The prime rib was ordered and delivered medium rare. It was huge and looked fantastic. But it was cool to cold and no matter what part of the meat I picked it was tough. Not just ordinary tough, but tough, that I thought I could drive nails with it. I really had a hard time putting my knife and fork to it.

As I explained in the “Beyond Chicago” tab I didn’t complain. I am really depressed that Binion’s T-Bone has been replaced.

D.

Jim’s Steakhouse
110 SW Jefferson
Peoria

P.S. maybe this thread should be reduced like the comings/goings thread. Make it an annual with 2010, 2011, 2012 postings separated.

Pie Lady wrote:...probably would have been delicious had I not used Splenda. I made it sugar free for my dad and that's all I could taste; just that biting, phony, chemical sweetness....

Pie Lady, when using Splenda, try reducing the amount by about 1/3 (e.g., use 2/3 cup Splenda if the recipe calls for 1 cup sugar). Sometimes I even reduce it by half. It seems to really help avoid that overly sweet taste that artificial sweeteners impart. Keep in mind that you may need to reduce the liquid in the recipe slightly, or increase another dry ingredient slightly, to make up for reducing the amount of Splenda.

Sunday started as a chilly, wet, gloomy day.

Irish Coffee at North Pond--it took me twenty minutes or so to get my cup--at least fifteen minutes after my partner had received hers and after our shortbread ... . It arrived on a slopped saucer with no garnish (whipped cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, espresso foam, a fried mint leaf?) whatsoever. The coffee was fine, the Tullamore excusable, but the time lapse, sloppiness and lack of execution provided a poor entry into the fine (decent, but not great) dishes that followed.

Breakfast flatbread at Subway. I deserve it for even trying to eat it.

Made a lovely veg. casserole topped with cheese. Slide it into a 350 degree oven and forgot about it for 3 hours. I "caramelized" the crap out of those veggies, but they still didn't taste so good.

Chile relleno taco at LP Express on Elston. I selfishly took a non-meat-loving friend here so that I could have carne asada tacos (which, sadly, had overcooked meat). I recommended the chile relleno taco, even though I had never tried it. I will likely not hear the end of it soon.

This taco is best described as bell-pepper-in-a-blanket. Bland, pancake-thick breading and rubbery cheese. Breading + tortilla = starch overload.
And the 20-minute wait made the restaurant's name seem oxymoronic.