New Arlington Heights/Northwest Suburbs Recs

After nearly 30 years in the city, I'm moving to the suburbs.
I'm completely out of touch with the dining scene in the new area.
I know I can search things like "great suburban restaurants" but after all my years on the site, I know I can trust recommendations of those here.

So, can anyone recommend worthwhile places for a great meal in or around Arlington Heights, or the northwest suburbs generally?
No limitations on this. My wife and I will eat whatever kind of food might taste good, from the most casual and on up. Thanks in advance for a post I know will seem extremely broad.

There's a lot of good Asian out there: Asian Bistro at Arlington Heights and Golf is some of the best Sichuan outside of the city. Chef Ping in Rolling Meadows is a top notch Chinese. And don't forget Mitsuwa Marketplace has a diverse set of Japanese and Korean food stalls including some outstanding ramen. Misoya n nearby Mount Prospect is another outstanding ramen source.

There's some top notch cheap eats including Johnnie's Beef on Arlington Heights South of Golf and Big Ange's at Rand and Euclid.

There used to be more higher end places, a couple favorites that are no longer there. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, let me know what you're interested in.

Thanks.
We will definitely check out Asian Bistro.
I was wondering about Johnnie's Beef. While we get the house ready for move in (a lot of painting and some yard prep) I've been doing Portillo's for lunch pretty often, but I wanted to check out other placees too.

In downtown AH, Salsa 17 is excellent for creative Mexican (great moles), and altThai is a good choice for Thai. Head to Schaumburg and Shaw's Crab House for seafood (and an incredible AYCE buffet brunch).

Good food in AH, as noted above, but a stunning range of great options within a five or six mile radius. For example, in Des Plaines, you have Mehanata, Kusina de Manila, Balkan Taste, Istanbul Market and Cafe, and Boston Fish Market-- and that's just the places I've eaten in Des Plaines -- there are many more. In Rolling Meadows (which shares a border with AH), try Penang for Malaysian. And then do a search on LTH for Des Plaines -- and probably one for Niles, one for Mount Prospect. The NW suburbs are crammed with great food options. And great shopping opportunities -- Mitsuwa mentioned above, and Super H Mart, and Tony's, Valli Produce, Garden Fresh. One eats well in the 'burbs.

Oh -- and La Unica Café in Schaumburg is fabulous -- modest, but great range of Cuban, Colombian, and Peruvian specialties.

And Artistic Cuisine in Palatine offers pretty good Argentinian food.

And in Palatine (which shares a border with AH), you can shop for meat at Haybeck's -- all prime. https://heybecks.com/

You will not go hungry out here.

Three AH-proper gems IMO. You'll get to them one way or another.
- Toscana Restaurant, Italian
- Via Arenella Ristorante, Italian
- Sun Shui, Chinese

For weekend BBQ early in the day you are lucky to be near Chicago Culinary Kitchen at Quentin and Northwest Highway in Palatine.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=43775&start=0

I recommend:

Johnnie’s beef, terrific, much better than Portillo’s.

Chicago Culinary Kitchen great BBQ.

D.

A couple of additional Italian options:

Osteria Truli
http://www.osteriatrulli.com/web/

Cafe Luci
http://cafelucci.com/

Thanks again for everyone's help.
My wife and I will have a good time exploring these places.

Over in Wheeling, which is just one suburb over, you've got a stretch of Dundee Road that offers Sunrise, a large Indian grocery store with an in-house café, Carniceria Jimenez, a large Hispanic grocery store with an in-house café, and KD Market, a Polish grocery store that offers lots of house-made food for carry out.

(And welcome to the suburbs.)

Nice tip, Pre Flop Raise---

Dined at Osteria Trulli in A.H. on Friday night. Branzino and Sea Bream grilled fish were good, but the star for me was the house-made orecchiette with rapini, and because I had had it this way at a Pugliese joint in Rome (still haven't traveled to Puglia yet) I had the chef add some clams. A little clam broth with the chewy 'ear' pasta & the bitter-but-perfect greens...I could easily place this in the 'best things I've eaten lately' category. An awesome dish. Nineteen bucks a la carte plus only $6.00 for all those bi-valves.

Washered it down with a red Sangiovese from Puglia that reminded me of an old vine Zin from Northern CA.

As Gary the Wiv says...Osteria Trulli, count me a fan!

Osteria Trulli Cucina Pugliese
1510 E. Hintz Rd.
Arlington Heights, IL
(224) 347-1010

That looks awesome. We will have to check it out.

We've been busy with moving in, so we haven't actually been out to eat yet.
Yesterday, we did order pizza and a salad from Via Arnella.
It was very good. I preferred it to the city options, like Giordano's and Lou Malnati's. The sauce and sausage were more interesting. It was like they were going for a good tasting pizza, rather than one that will appeal to a lot of tourists.

One sort of funny thing that I will have to remember for future deliveries is that the "Caution Protected By German Shepherd Dog" sign by our front door freaks out delivery people. I will have to be more clear when I open the door that the dog is under control.

In something of a contrast, I also love great coffee, so I checked out Around Cafe, which is supposed to have great coffee. It was good but not great, and unlike a lot of coffee places, few decent morning bakery options to go with it.

It will be a nice option when we run out of coffee, but it won't match the experience of La Colombe or Intelligentsia.

Similarly, we tried The Bakester for bakery. It was OK, but not what I was hoping for. It is a French bakery. However, while the pastries should be light, everything seems really heavy, as if it was sitting too long or someone had left it in the oven too long. We might not have noticed, but the last time we were at a French bakery was Le Petite Columbe in St. Barth. The food looks the same, but the taste is not remotely close. I will travel to Lorient in part to enjoy morning bakery (and sandwiches and bread).

When we do get settled in and have time to actually go out, I look forward to trying other selections noted above.

DML wrote:Yesterday, we did order pizza and a salad from Via Arnella.
It was very good. I preferred it to the city options, like Giordano's and Lou Malnati's. The sauce and sausage were more interesting. It was like they were going for a good tasting pizza, rather than one that will appeal to a lot of tourists.

Glad they came through with a good first impression for you. I don't plan on moving to Arlington Heights, but I do wish I was closer to Via Arenella. Great value, non a la carte place too.

DML wrote:
In something of a contrast, I also love great coffee, so I checked out Around Cafe, which is supposed to have great coffee. It was good but not great, and unlike a lot of coffee places, few decent morning bakery options to go with it.

It will be a nice option when we run out of coffee, but it won't match the experience of La Colombe or Intelligentsia.

Oddly enough, while not offering the cozy ambience of a café, they have very good coffee at Mariano's (Vero) and Whole Foods (Allegro). There are tables and chairs, so you can sit while you drink, but the traffic volume is a little higher. And WF sells Intelligentsia (among others). But if you want a really elegant, upscale café, Jolane's in Glenview serves Julius Meinl coffee and pastry.

Jolane's
1100 N Milwaukee Ave
Glenview, IL 60025
(Near Abt Electronics, if you like fantasy electronic shopping.)

jnm123 wrote:Nice tip, Pre Flop Raise---

Dined at Osteria Trulli in A.H. on Friday night. Branzino and Sea Bream grilled fish were good, but the star for me was the house-made orecchiette with rapini, and because I had had it this way at a Pugliese joint in Rome (still haven't traveled to Puglia yet) I had the chef add some clams. A little clam broth with the chewy 'ear' pasta & the bitter-but-perfect greens...I could easily place this in the 'best things I've eaten lately' category. An awesome dish. Nineteen bucks a la carte plus only $6.00 for all those bi-valves.

Washered it down with a red Sangiovese from Puglia that reminded me of an old vine Zin from Northern CA.

As Gary the Wiv says...Osteria Trulli, count me a fan!

Osteria Trulli Cucina Pugliese
1510 E. Hintz Rd.
Arlington Heights, IL
(224) 347-1010

trulli.jpg

I have had that dish less the clams, next time I will request the clams to be added. Glad you had a nice meal!

My go to for pizza in the area in Nino's. Really good thin crust, great fried chicken, most everything on the menu is made well, and an army of drivers for fast delivery.


Nino's Pizzeria & Catering
960 South Buffalo Grove Road
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
(847) 947-4111
http://www.ninos4pizza.com
Monday - Thursday: 10:30am - 11pm
Friday & Saturday: 10:30am - 12am
Sunday: 10:30am - 10pm

I like Bistro Chen (Arlington Heights) or MingHin Cuisine (Arlington Heights) for Dim Sum, ClayOven Tandoor for the lunch buffet (Long Grove), Sake Sushi & Grill for the all you can eat sushi (Lake Zurich), Ambrosia Euro American Pâtisserie for French desserts (Barrington), and Mont Blanc Pastry for French desserts (Arlington Heights). For tamales and tacos I like going to Mexico Uno (Palatine). If you like Thai food, try out the Gumrai Thai lunch specials (Arlington Heights).

Ambrosia has live jazz playing once a month on a Sat. morning. These events are announced on the Ambrosia Facebook page.