Amelia's in forest park

We went there on Saturday for lunch. I checked to see if there where any other postings on this place and I can not seem to find any. This place is located on Harrison near the forest park pool. The food is really good and they make almost everything homemade including their mayo. I had a bowl of clam chowder and oh my was it good. This is a GNR type of restaurant that I encourage those in the oak park area to try.

Amelia's
7330 Harrison St
Forest Park, IL 60130
708-366-6633
http://www.ameliasforestpark.com/

I had dinner there a couple of weeks ago and was not blown away. Minnesota Pork Loin was very overcooked and dry. The potatoes with (as I recall) cave aged cheese were unremarkable, not very cheesy. Servings were very small.

And since when is Minnesota noted for its exceptional pork? Walleye, yes.

Minnesota is the second largest pork producer in the country, second to Iowa.

Plenty of good pork up there.

Third place according to http://stuffaboutstates.com/agriculture ... k/hogs.htm with about 12% of the US total v.s about 41% for the top 2 (Iowa and North Carolina).

Still higher than I expected but I was raised in the Red River Valley never saw a pig farm. All the pigs must be down in the southwest, near Iowa and the Spam museum.

99.99% of hogs are raised by the 10,000s in big sheds. They are all the same across the country. Same genetics, same feed, same sheds. They taste the same. Unless you get one from a specialty producer.

Planning to stop by Amelia's soon, but not encouraged by lack of comments here..or the menu, which reiterates some of the by-now tired standards of Dining in America, circa 2012: mac n' cheese, chipotle chicken, diver scallops, salmon. I guess this stuff is unavoidable. I am encouraged, though, by hot n' spicy salami sandwich.

Would appreciate any recent intel...

I hadn't seen this thread and almost stopped by the other morning but they are not open for breakfast.

Homemade can be good.

I imagine the 'Minnesota Pork Loin' and the 'The potatoes with (as I recall) cave aged cheese' were specials of the day as they do not appear on the menu.

We ate here for the first time about a month ago. Very good quality ingredients but almost everything we ordered was underseasoned. I couldn't tell if they were holding back or if they didn't get it. The pie/cobbler dessert was very good, as was the service. I would encourage you to give it a try - we're going to go back again. This is the kind of place that could be a real solid local go-to place if they can find the salt and pepper (and shallots, and butter, and lemon, ...)

We hardly ever order calamari because it seems to taste pretty much the same everywhere. It’s usually fine, the kids like it, but it seems a repetitive and not very interesting appetizer.

The calamari at Amelia’s was probably the most satisfying I’ve had. It’s listed on the menu as “Port Judith, R.I., Wild Calamari,” which sounds very exotic, and so made me, for some reason, suspicious – but it was fantastic.



The calamari clusters were almost lobster-like in their white seafood density, not in the least bit rubbery (a common problem with squid), and lightly breaded. They were served with rings of pickled banana pepper, which picked upon the circular theme of the seafood and also added a pleasant piquant note.

I did get the fried salami sandwich, and the salami was fine but I was a little disappointed by the squishy white bun from Turano (a place that offers some decent breads; this wasn’t one of them). The menu said “toasted baguette,” but it was more like a mushy roll, the kind you’d expect from Subway. The sausage seemed a little thicker than I’d expected, making it hard to bite through, which resulted in me gnawing the sandwich until it submitted, awkward.

Amelia’s is an interesting restaurant with ambitions. On the current menu they have duck pasta, grass-fed hangar steak and a few other items that bespeak a vision that goes beyond bar food. They source bacon from Dreymiller and Cray, ground chuck from Ed’s Way, fruits and vegetables from Nichol’s.

And they have a fine selection of beers and bourbon.

Though it’s located on a somewhat depressing stretch of Harrison, Amelia’s is good bet for casual dining and the menu promises to get better over time.

My wife and I went to Amelia's on Saturday night. I started with a mixed green salad and my wife had the bosc pear salad. I was really happy with the mix of fresh greens and cherry tomatoes that made up my salad. I had it with an onion vinaigrette which was tasty. My wife said her salad was very good.

We also ordered the calamari since I checked this thread right before heading out the door. Truthfully I think David got a better serving of this than we did. It wasn't bad by any means but it was fairly run of the mill for fried calamari. It was a bit rubbery but not too much so. I really liked the pickled banana peppers that came along with it. I've never had that combination before and the crunch texture really worked well with the texture of the calamari. It wasn't real greasy like it can be in some places so I'd say they do a good job with it.

For our entrees I was extremely limited in my choices as about every entree had some kind of butter or cheese in it which I can't eat at all.

So, I opted for a burger and my wife had the "Stuffed Illinois Organic Kabocha Squash:
Pickled pearl onions, braised greens and roasted root vegetables in a saffron broth served in Kabocha squash cups with whipped parsnips and potatoes."

My buger was good though a little overdone. I wanted medium rare but got what was more like well. I did like their choices of toppings and on top of the standard lettuce, tomato and onion that they include I also added bacon and mushrooms. I was only able to eat half of this and about half of my fries as the salad and calamari portions were both decent sized.

The fries were really a stand-out for this place. Perfectly crispy on the outside with a soft, creamy inside, not greasy at all. I don't eat fries often but these were hard to stay away from. Very tasty.

My wife said her Squash was really good as well.

They have several good bottled beers and 4 taps. They had a couple of beers by a Wisconsin brewery called Oso. I had this



If you are into beer and you see this somewhere I highly recommend you try it. I'd put it up there with Hopslam and there's very few beers I'd compare to Hopslam. Really hoppy, florally, tasty beer. I had 2 before we walked home. Definitely one of the best new beers I've tried in a while.

So, overall we had a really good experience. Our waitress was extremely nice and helpful. She seemed to know about the beers they had and was very helpful with asking the kitchen about dairy in their dishes.

We'll return but hopefully the menu will go a little more dairy free in a few dishes so I can try something other than a burger or wings.

Just got delivery from Amelia's. We all had medium rare burgers, and they were cooked properly and were tasty. It was definitely a solid burger, nothing ethereal, but for delivery, it was good. My only complaint was the bun, which wasn't well-toasted and seemed awfully bready. I think a different bun might work better on this burger. I also tried the Golden Lentil soup. It was very good, though a bit salty. We'll order from them again.

We had a yummy brunch at Amelia's on Sunday. We start with fresh and hot beignets. My husband had a breakfast skillet with chorizo and home fries. I had the burger with home fries. Both were good and cooked to our specifications. They were extremely accomodating of our 14 month old twins, one of whom has an egg allergy - looking into the ingredients of a couple menu options for them. Luckily our first choice was egg-free and they enjoyed some delicious four-cheese mac and cheese that had a really flavorful bechamel. Definitely not typical kids-menu quality. It was enhanced with pulled chicken, carmelized onions and tomatoes. The babies won for best dish - yum! But all the food was really solid. It's a great option for the area. The beer/spirits selection leans toward craft. I managed to suck down two of the spicy bloody mary's which I recall were made with an house-infused pepper vodka - a steal for $5. We'll be back.

I went to Amelia's with a friend on Friday night. We sat at the bar and had food and drinks. I started with their mixed greens salad and a cup of their eggplant soup. It was my first time trying the soup and I really liked it. It has kind of a refried bean flavor to it which was pretty tasty.

My buddy had the bosc pear salad which he really enjoyed. For the main course I had their BBQ pork belly which was new on the menu since the last time I was there. This was served over a bed of rice with black beans (that were a bit el dente but I thought that texture really worked with this dish) and Andouille sausage. I gave a bit of this to my friend and I still had enough left over to make tacos with the next day. I really enjoyed this dish quite a bit and plan on getting it again real soon.

Business seems to have picked up a bit here lately I think. I walk past here when I'm out with our dog sometimes and a lot of evenings their parking lot looks to be pretty full. So, I think they're doing pretty well at this point.

The fish (cod) po' boy I had at Amelia's last night really hit the spot.

My wife and I called ahead to see if they would let us have our dog in their outdoor seating area. They were fine with that and it turned out that we were the only ones seated out there.

My wife had the bosc pear salad like she always does and I had the mixed greens salad per usual. We split a bowl of the eggplant soup which came with their balsamic drizzled over the top like they always do. Except this time it looked like a caligrophy "A." So, when the server set it down in front of us I said "Oh, that's cool with the "A." He said that he didn't think that was intentional but he was going to tell the chef he should do that all the time. Kinda curious if they actually implement that.

Anyway, my wife had a salmon dish which she said was fantastic. My po' boy came with a choice of sides so I opted for the fries which were great as usual here. I'm not a big fry guy typically but they really make some good ones here.

I also enjoyed a couple of Flesk breweries Front Towards Enemy IPA which is very good on tap. That's something I really love about this place, I can walk over there and pretty much be guaranteed they'll have some quality IPA on tap. They seem to change it up pretty regularly too so I get to try different/new options most of the times we go there.

It was pretty much a perfect night to sit outside there and I noticed that the planters they have around the seating area have various herbs growing which is kind of cool.

We have dined here twice in the last month and really enjoyed the food and beer selections. It was the service that has totally turned us off. Several tables around us were voicing the same opinion. From the servers not knowing the menu, not washing their hands after smoking outside (while they have tables) and horsing around with each other, the customer suffers. We ordered bloody Mary's not spicy and they added their housemade peppar vodka, which is extremely hot. I questioned this and was told the bartender likes them this way. The service is the reason we will not be returning. It's a real shame because the food is good, not outstanding, but good with fair prices. The last visit was so ridiculous I asked for a manager but none was present, on a busy Saturday afternoon.

The food is not the issue with this restaurant. We had salmon spring rolls, mac-n-cheese, butternut squash soup, turkey pot pie, hanger steak and apple pie. We liked it all.
The problem is everything else. 7:30 on a Saturday night, a few people in the bar plus people at three two tops and a four top, so 10 people in the dining room. It took us three requests to get some flatware and napkins. And the flatware, this is a pet peeve of mine. The army probably uses better stuff. You're a restaurant for goodness sakes, provide us something decent to eat our dinner with. The wrong food was brought to our table. How is that even possible with so few diners? They only carry one kind of vodka. I had it the last time we were there. Didn't like it then, still don't. Food takes a very long time to make it to the table after ordering. Dinner at a place like that shouldn't take almost 2 1/2 hours. Lastly, it was like a morgue in there. I like a quiet dinner but sheesh, no background music at all. Maybe they had it turned off so the five people at the bar could listen to the basketball game?
Will we go back? Probably not.