"Best" Brunch places in the city

Okay some further categorization before this gets ugly.

I think of brunch places as beingin two categories: "Buffet" brunches and ala carte brunch spots.

In the category of "Buffet" brunch spots I would offer this list as a starting point:

Riverside Café - Cortland, just west of the Expressway in Bucktown. Extremely good (and very large) mexican influenced weekend brunch buffet

Hilary's Urban Eatery - Division, just east of Ashland. 2nd floor has the buffet, for about $15/person, very large and tasty selection

In the category of ala carte places I would list:

Albert's Café - One block south of Division, just east of Clark (across from Treasure Island. A small oasis in the Gold Coast with recently expanded outdoor seating. Very tasty - menu is essentially similar to a diner's but significently more upscale in presentation and preparation. Pastries and desserts will tempt. [edited - thanks Amata for the correct name]

3rd Coast Café - On Dearborn at Goethe. On the weekends it is smoke free for Brunch, removing my only objection to the coast as one of my favorite spots in Chicago. Try anything with their bacon, it is possibly the best I have ever had anywhere.

Home Café - Just off the Franscico Brown Line stop, this restaurant is only open for Brunch (Sat & Sun). Everything is great, but especially try their version of eggs benedict over a crab cake - each element is exactly right and the combination better still.

Lovitt - (just by reputation, trying it today) This seasonally influenced restaurant on Ashland, just south of North Ave is a great spot for dinner but is even more known for their weekend brunch.

Hilary's Urban Eatery - the downstairs (and outside) seating offers a chance to order off their ala carte menu which is great, large portions and great prices - don't miss the jelly beans on every table as well.

Bongo Room - Millwaukee just south of North Ave. Sure it is always crowded and the lines are long and the prices somewhat high - but it is for a very good reason, great and interesting breakfast dishes with unusual ingrediants. Is it worth the wait? Probably depends on how long you have to wait, but certainly worth trying a few times.

Uncommon Ground - Wrigleyville north of the ballpark at Racine & Clark. This large café serves up a great brunch (and great food at any other time as well). Notable in part because they have a liquer license, but also for the creativity of their food (and beverages).

North Pond Café - Pris fix brunch menu - $35/person ( I think double check this). In the park just north of North Pond. Stellar city views accompany a selection of courses prepared in highly innovative ways. The best local fresh ingrediants. Clearly not for every weekend, but perfect for a special occasion. If you like mimosa's theirs is, while not a bargain, well worth the over $10 price tag.

Chicago has likely hundreds of other brunch spots - please add to this list any of your favorites.

Shannon

Shannon Clark wrote:
Allen's Café - One block south of Division, just east of Clark (across from Treasure Island. A small oasis in the Gold Coast with recently expanded outdoor seating. Very tasty - menu is essentially similar to a diner's but significently more upscale in presentation and preparation. Pastries and desserts will tempt.

Shannon, do you mean's Albert's? (Or is there another place around there that I don't know about?)

I agree that Albert's is a nice spot.

Albert's Cafe & Patisserie
52 W. Elm St.
Chicago, IL 60610
312-751-0666

Amata - thanks for the correction - you are correct, I was wrong with my name (will fix it in my post so as not to confuse people)

thanks,

Shannon

I would add Tweet, Let's Eat to your list. The chef formerly worked at Charlie Trotter's then paired up with the owner of Big Chicks, the bar directly next door. Tweet focuses on organic produce, features art from locals and makes one of the best eggs benedict in town (housemade english muffins) that are paired with an unbelievable shredded potato cake.

Another good brunch is at NoMi, offered both on Saturday and Sunday. Also a terrific eggs benedict, slightly more luxurious as it substitutes lobster for the canadian bacon.

Thank you Shannon, that list will be a great resource.

I think Albert's just closed, alas.

I have been sitting on a post and some pictures of Tweet, waiting for some other stuff to go in the same post (actually I keep meaning to go to Lutz, which has a wonderful backyard patio, very old school German, for their weekend brunch). But short version, nice menu in that Flo-Orange-Toast kinda way, easier to get into on a Sunday morning, they do their hash browns right! (Though I'd still ask for 'em well done, but that's just me.)

Mike,

If Albert's closed, it closed just days ago, we ate there last weekend and just a few days ago (when I posted about Biggs closing) Albert's had a sign out on the sidewalk promoting themselves.

They also expanded this year from previous year's 3-4 tables outside to this year over 8 tables outside, in two sections.

I will double check later this week however to be sure.

Shannon

I thought I saw something to that effect in the Trib on Friday, or somewhere. Very possibly I'm wrong.

If you like Bongo Room, but hate the wait....check out Room 12 at Roosevelt and Wabash. Same restaurant, different locale. Last weekend's wait on Saturday at noon was only 10 minutes.

What is the difference between an a la carte brunch place and a breakfast place?

Anyway, I will say it again - Healthy Foods on south Halsted in Bridgeport. Darn good breakfast in an atmosphere I like.

That reminds me of another good brunch place, also "healthy", but certainly "healthy" in a different vein: Victory's Banner in Roscoe Village. While vegetarian, the brunch is quite enjoyable, and I do so like my meat. I particularly recommend the french toast, one of the best in the city.

Salpicon also has a very nice brunch. I am a big fan of the chilaquiles verdes, good fish as well.

dicksond wrote:What is the difference between an a la carte brunch place and a breakfast place?

Anyway, I will say it again - Healthy Foods on south Halsted in Bridgeport. Darn good breakfast in an atmosphere I like.

I was mostly using the phrase to contrast with a "buffet" place - and sure while breakfast places works, my interest was in brunch places which can often be somewhat different from a standard breakfast place. As well many people assume "buffet" when you ask about weekend brunch spots, that's all.

Shannon

Anyone prepared to comment on how the various higher-end hotel brunches fit into this topic. I've had a couple (most notably the Westin and the downtown Hilton's) but it's been years.

It seems to me that hotels have the resources (at least theoretically) and do enough volume to man all the different stations (carving, omelets, crepes, stir-frying, etc.) and to keep things fairly high quality, ingredient-wise, if one is in the mood for an over-the-top sort of splurge. Obviously you won't get intimate surroundings or anything daring - but you can get all you-can-eat of some fairly tasty things if you choose carefully.

If you don't go on some nightmare day like Mother's Day, it can be quite pleasant.

MAG wrote:Victory's Banner in Roscoe Village. While vegetarian, the brunch is quite enjoyable, and I do so like my meat.

Agreed. I like the food here a lot, especially the goat cheese pesto omelette, but I'm always more surprised at how much the strange sari-wearing, New Age-music playing, Sri Chimnoy-loving atmosphere is greater than the sum of its (to me somewhat goofy) parts and is such a delightfully pleasant place to breakfast.

I think Flo on Chicago Avenue east of Ashland is pretty solid for brunch. The Eggs Flo, a modified benedict with poached eggs, light lemony hollandaise, grilled turkey bacon, on brioche over a bed of spinach is one of the best dishes for Chicago mornings.

I also echo the sentiment that Room 12 is Bongo without the wait.

As far as hotel brunches, I went to the 4 Seasons Sunday brunch with my wife and parents a few months ago, and honestly it was a feast of the imagination.

They literally had everything, fresh beignets, omelettes, eggs benedict, crab claws, shrimp, sushi, satay, prime rib, roasted ham on the bone, fresh squeezed juices, potato pancakes, chocolate souffle, creme brulee, roasted goat cheese in a tomato sauce, risotto etc.

These were not cheesy run of the mill versions either. Everything was prepared fresh and well. Worth at least one trip.

A few breakfast/brunch favorites....

Milk and Honey Cafe
1920 W. Division St.
773-395-9434
* we seem to go there almost weekly now; great little restaurant that serves good brunch and lunch offerings; outdoor seating, too.

Sweet Maple Cafe
1339 W. Taylor St.
312-243-8908
* we USED to go here ... until the place was featured on "Check, Please" and the wait for a table suddenly became a good 45 minutes. great pancakes, eggs, biscuits and grits, too.

Jane's
1655 W. Cortland St.
773-862-5263
* great upscale brunch fare in Bucktown

Tempo
6 E. Chestnut St.
312-943-4373
* it's not glamorous, but good omelettes; nice outdoor dining, too.

Wishbone
1001 W. Washington Blvd.
312-850-2663
* a mainstay on the Chicago brunch scene for its southern-style offerings; expect a healthy wait, too

MOD
1520 N. Damen Ave.
773-252-1500
* more upscale brunch offerings; servings are on the 'smallish' side -- for American standards.

Room 12
1152 S. Wabash Ave.
312-427-9972
* carbon copy as Bongo Room; pancakes that resemble a dessert dish.

Shannon Clark wrote:If Albert's closed, it closed just days ago, we ate there last weekend and just a few days ago (when I posted about Biggs closing) Albert's had a sign out on the sidewalk promoting themselves. Shannon

Alberts is not closed, I pass it every day on my way to work - it is Biggs that was in the front mansion that closed. Biggs was having "problems" paying their rent and landlord locked 'em out. But Alberts has a completely different owner than Biggs.

leesh

Leesh,

Thanks! Good to hear that. I think there is a relationship between Biggs and Alberts however I do not know all of the details. The Biggs website contained a link to Albert's and I seem to recall some connection between the two places, I think Albert's is the source of desserts and pastries for Biggs (or more accurately - was).

thanks!

Shannon

Anyone prepared to comment on how the various higher-end hotel brunches fit into this topic.

I have tried a number of them over the years, and while I do not generally like brunch (see below), they have their place. In my experience, Seasons offers the best brunch by far, because of the variety, including an entire Asian breakfast section. Good, cold, fresh seafood and some soups are things that work well in a buffet, IMO.

Le Francais in Wheeling also offers a decent, sit down brunch at times.

If you will indulge me - a brief anti-brunch rant.

Brunch buffets are buffets. Like all buffets, they have these characteristics: large volumes of food are prepared indifferently and then held in a manner which guarantees they will not be at the right temperature, have the right texture, or generally taste very good. To receive this wonderful treatment, one pays a high price (usually close to as much as a regular meal), and is served in a much less-gracious manner. Of course, the offset is that one gets at least one glass of a mediocre champagne that you would never buy on your own (though I like a Mimosa pretty well, especially if the OJ is fresh squeezed), and the opportunity to have an unlimited amount of mediocre food. For me, this usually guarantees I overeat, at least because I want to try everything in the eternal hope that some of it will be pretty good, and at the end have eaten nothing really good aside from a few cold items.

I also find the proliferation of the Breakfast Buffet at hotels to be an appeal to my base instincts: I am often enticed, but always regret it when I give in to the temptation.

Sit down brunches are a completely different story, and can be quite pleasant, though I do have objections. The prices often seem to be higher than they should be and the offerings to be a strange amalgam that is not completely satisfactory. They also draw inexplicably large crowds, so I avoid them. Give me a good breakfast or dim sum, a good lunch or a good dinner,and hold the Brunch, please!

Rant over, thanks for your patience. Please dismiss me as a curmudgeon.

Thanks for all the breakfast ideas.

I consider myself a curmudgeon of the first water, but even more than that, a contrarian from the DNA on up (or out, or whatever direction one proceeds from DNA). So let me offer the following.

Buffets CAN be mediocre (or awful), but I don't think they are intrinsically so. Excellence is rare in anything, by definition.

Theoretically, at least, one ought to be able to design and execute a brunch wherein the dishes are matched to the serving conditions and patrons get at least as good, if not better food than in a sit-down situation. Especially in the hotel situation where, I imagine, the costs are somewhat subsidized by the rest of the hotel operation so they can afford to have individually staffed stations.

For example: the carving station; if they roast a beautiful joint of beef and the guy is carving it in front of you, asking exactly how pink, and from what side you would like your slice, there is nothing about the brunchness of the situation that should prevent one getting as nicea plateful as you might get at a churrascaria. Order the meat from a kitchen and you get what they carve for you, but at the carving station, you can say, "I'd like that beautifully charred corner and then some of those really rare slices on the other side, please."

Omelets: odds are you can get as good or better here also. The eggs are going right into the pan in front of you and you carry it back directly to your table. No chance of it congealing for even 90 secs. under the heat lamp before the server picks it up. You can also scope out the fillings: which veggies look freshest, is the cheese processed or real, etc.

Poached or smoked fish and seafood: no reason they shouldn't be the equivelent of anything you would order elsewhere.

Various grain salads etc.: same as above

Baked goods/dessert: same as above.

Additional soups, stews, etc. : if they choose thoughtfully, they will only have things in chafing dishes that can do well there. Even if they don't, if one just keeps an eye out, you just wait till they replenish and get up there for the freshest batch. (I find this particularly effective at Indian buffets for samosas, chicken tikka, etc.)

For these reasons I actually like a good hotel brunch. Not that they always come through, but neither does your average restaurant kitchen.

On a clear day, nothing beats the brunch at the Signature Room at the 95th. It's a hotel-style groaning board buffet, not the equal of that at the Four Seasons or the Ritz-Carlton, but very good nevertheless, plus you get that wonderful view. The web site has the menu.

I want to add a Saturday/Sunday brunch spot to the list of Chicago's best brunches. Today I went with my family to Harmony Grill on Southport just south of Belmont. The brunch menu was varied but had a New Orleans tilt to it. The beignets were authentically outstanding. I had the Mardi Gras omelette with andouille sausage, onion and cheese. The hash browns could vie for the title of Chicago's best with a slight amount of red pepper blended in for color.

The menu also included quiche lorraine, eggs benedict, various omelettes, a variety of pancakes, including pumpkin.

To sum up, the decor is attractive, the service efficient, the food interesting and tasty, and the prices reasonable.

It was crowded but no lines at 1 pm.

Harmony Grill
3159 N. Southport
773-525-2508

Lula on Kedzie

There is another thread with Lula complaints (mostly) but they have a fine brunch if you can get a seat. Good breakfast drinks too.

I enjoy Moonshine on Division. While their brunch menu is not very creative, they do have a dish with eggs and chorizo, served with corn tortillas, rice and black beans, which has so much flavor throughout, I can never get enough. With some of their green chile salsa on the side, you cannot go wrong on a Sunday morning.

The small parking lot and relatively short waits are a bonus too.

Moonshine
1824 West Division Street
773.862.8686

As a lover of old school diners and cholcolate chip panacake, I would have to go with Sally's on Harlem. For this reason, I sitll frequently lament the loss of Granny's on Diversey (cross Pine Grove?).

In the newer school of brunch, however, I have been pretty impressed by pancake specials at Feast (e.g. raspberry chocolate chip, carrot cake pancake specials) and Orange (awesome cinammon roll pancakes and interesting pancake specials served in a "flight"). People also love the other stuff at Orange like green eggs and ham.

Thanks for reading my first post.

Sally's
5454 N. Harlem Ave., Chicago
(773) 631-8966

Feast
1616 N Damen Ave
(773) 772-7100

Orange (on Harrisson)
75 W Harrison St
(312) 447-1000

the GF and I went to Sepia today for brunch, and their menu is truly outstanding! We decided to try both of their eggs benedict offerings: the berkshire pork belly benedict with honey mustard hollandaise, and the special (changes weekly I think) of peeky-toe crab benedict. Both were outstanding in different ways. Oh, and they make their own doughnuts, today's were filled with quince jam - yum!





Sepia
312.441.1920
123 N Jefferson
Chicago

m. henry is my spot of choice. amazing earthy entrees and great homey atmosphere.

http://www.mhenry.net/

5707 no. clark st.
chicago, il, 60660

you HAVE to check it out! the menus change every season, and the brunch menu is a bit more extensive, though there is only brunch on Sundays.

the menus on the site are very old, so stop by or call for an updated one.

i've had the fried egg sandwich (my favorite - HUGE!), pancetta parmesean benedict, martin’s mayan bennie, bacon wrapped eggs/polenta, and the brioche bread pudding. all amazing.

briansemerick wrote:m. henry is my spot of choice.

I like M. Henry a lot, and mentioned it in the topic on "favorite Chicago breakfast". Just beware of long waiting times for seating on weekends, when the line goes out the door and up the block.

There are brunches, and there are brunches. To add to the categorization at the top of this page, to me there are three basic types of brunch:

1. A la carte at places that serve breakfast during the week as well as on the weekends. There are lots of good ones, and some of them have multiple locations; my favorites are Walker Brothers and other locations of the Original Pancake House, Bongo Room, Flo, Wishbone, M. Henry, Kitsch'n, Orange (no website), and Lou Mitchell's.

2. A la carte at places that only serve on weekends (usually only Sunday, a few on Saturday), including North Pond, Magnolia Cafe, Sola, and Frontera Grill.

3. Buffet places that only serve brunch on Sundays, including Seasons at the Four Seasons, the cafe at the Ritz, NoMI, Allgauer's, and Barn of Barrington.

nsxtasy wrote:Just beware of long waiting times for seating on weekends, when the line goes out the door and up the block.

very true - although if you're just a couple you should be fine within 15 minutes. any more than that and you could be looking at 45 easy. since most of their tables are two-tops.

to modify that original list since this is a REALLY old thread resurrected, it's worth pointing out the Hillary's Urban Eater (HUE) is long closed so nobody tries to go there for brunch... (now a gourmet store of some sort)

MOD is long closed as well.

i recently had brunch at moonshine... i had pretty low expectations of it based off of reviews i read elsewhere. it was actually pretty great food... the eggs that accompanied the meal were cooked perfectly too. service is kinda "ehh" ... it's definitely a "sit back and relax" type place in every aspect, so if you're upset your coffee doesn't get refilled on time maybe skip out on trying it. their patio in the summertime/fall is great for people watching (and watching near miss accidents the entire time)

riverside cafe... is a unique dining experience that's for sure. it always feels a bit pricey when i get the check too. the spread they put out for breakfast is amazingly diverse... everything from boxes of twinkies to empanadas to mexican food.. i felt kinda let down the past 2 times going there though and haven't been in awhile..

one of my favorite brunches is from bite, though bite really excels at dinner so i usually go there for that instead.

Ina's in the West Loop on Randolph. A sit down brunch no buffet.