Crossrhodes on Chicago Just North of Main is good for Greek Food.
I like Buffalo Joe's Hot Wings, Waffle Fries, and Cheesey Baked Potato.
Gulliver's on Howard is interesting and good for general fare.
All the other outstanding places have been named.
Not far South of Evanston there are a ton of tremendous places.
Tiffan on Devon for Indian. Speakeasy on Devon for steaks and gourmet. Indie Cafe for Sushi. Moody's Pub for burgers, now I'm starting to think of Andersonville and just getting out of hand.

Parking is hell in Evanston and the enforcement is strict. I've been issued more tickets in Evanston than anywhere in the world. Just keep a lot of quarters in the car and don't even think about double parking just to run into a place to pick up carry out. They are always watching.

Good luck

curry71 wrote:Parking is hell in Evanston

Note that the development surrounded by Davis, Benson, Church and Sherman will include a big parking garage which should mitigate the parking situation tremendously.

Some of the parking problems are the result of a smaller garage being demolished to make way for that development.

FYI

"I used to eat only natural foods, until I learned that most people die of natural causes."

I love your signature.

I've been wondering what happened that changed the Evanston zoning from very restrictive to build whatever you want? I realize that there has been constant pressure from developers for years, I just wonder what changed on the city side of things.

Crossrhodes on Chicago Just North of Main is good for Greek Food.

I've gone there once and really enjoyed the lemon fries. I want to return someday for their Greek chicken, which I sense will be quite good.

Parking alert: there was no metered parking in front of Cross Rhodes.

Not an Evanston parking anecdote, but a Chicago: Last year some of us went to Harry's Hot Dog's for early breakfast. There was a one hour window for parking because none was allowed from 7 AM to 9 AM for rush hour. The cost was 25 cents per 5 minutes, which is a whopper. Just before 7 AM, there was a meter maid and a tow truck waiting for the big hand to reach 12 to ticket and tow my car. I did my best imitation of flying to get back to the car.

Regards,

For me, Evanston eating is usually about "what's convenient to the Century 12 Cine Arts 6?" And the answer to that is Wolfgang Puck's, which, while definitely not great, is also definitely not bad at all.

They make a decent martini (not a thing to be taken for granted in Evanston) and the food is fine. And as far as atmosphere goes, it resembles a Chicago dining experience, which is a compliment--and also not something to be taken for granted in Evanston.

The last time I was at Pete Miller's, everybody's meat arrived done wrong--which is a weird thing to happen in a place that calls itself a steakhouse. Which is also why that was the last time I was at Pete Miller's.

(In fact, the strip steak I had at Puck's last night was better than anything at Pete Miller's--and done exactly the way I ordered it.)

curry71 wrote:I've been wondering what happened that changed the Evanston zoning from very restrictive to build whatever you want? I realize that there has been constant pressure from developers for years, I just wonder what changed on the city side of things.

Hmmm...I wonder...[stroking chin with fingers]

By the way--driving past Evanston High School on Church recently, I saw a hot dog place called E-Town Dogs, or something like that. Is "E-Town" what all the gangstahs call Evanston?

Is "E-Town" what all the gangstahs call Evanston?

E-Town is what we call it in the Chi.

The oyster bar in the front section of the Davis Street Fish Market is very good. They usually have 8-10 different types of fresh oysters, plus steamed shrimp by the pound. The selection of brews ain't too bad either. The dining room there is only so-so.

Cathy2 wrote:Parking alert: there was no metered parking in front of Cross Rhodes.

On my last (mediocre) meal at Cross Rhodes, I parked right out front and had to get change from the counter to feed the meter.

HI,

I went once ... I parked across the street at the new construction where there were no meters ... yet!

Did your mediocre meal include the Greek chicken?

Regards,

Personally, I think the burgers at Cross-Rhodes are fantastic. I eat my burgers rare, and there are few places that I trust with that prepararation. The ground beef at CR is bought fresh daily from a butcher shop. The burgers are always cooked perfectly for me, charred on the outside and still cool and deep red in the middle. The owner has it down to a science. The condiments and buns are nothing fancy, although the tomatoes are always fresh and tasty. The focus is on the fresh meat. The greek fries, which are big crisp wedges drizzled in lemon and oregano are also wonderful.

Cathy2 wrote:Did your mediocre meal include the Greek chicken?

It did not. But if I ever find myself hungry for food while buying chocolate at Piron, I'll give it a try.

I haven't been there for a while, but when I worked in Evanston, the Olympic Restaurant, which is a typical Chicago Greek coffee shop, had surprisingly good Greek Chicken. I used to order it "off the board" which meant it was a lunch special.

d4v3 wrote:The oyster bar in the front section of the Davis Street Fish Market is very good. They usually have 8-10 different types of fresh oysters, plus steamed shrimp by the pound. The selection of brews ain't too bad either. The dining room there is only so-so.

Unfortunately, when Davis Street recently remodeled, they did away with their oyster bar. Now the shuckers are sequestered away in the back, although I am told that they are installing a new one in the next couple months.

More distressing is GWiv's info that they have abandoned the wonderful tater tots in favor of some nasty Sysco "potato" "Stars" This is totally unacceptable.

Octarine wrote:Unfortunately, when Davis Street recently remodeled, they did away with their oyster bar. Now the shuckers are sequestered away in the back,

Wow, that truly sucks. I haven't been there since they remodeled (obviously). The shuckers were one of the best things about the place. Besides watching their skillful techniques, they knew which oysters were the freshest and tastiest. If you were friendly to them, they would pick out the best ones for you. Plus, all the oysters were laying out in ice right in front of you, so you knew exactly what you were getting.

The next time I am in the area I will have to stick my head in to see what they did to the place.

Thanks everyone for all the replies! I wanted both selections for him for lunch and if we ever had dinner there afterwards. He works right across the street from Joy Yee's.

If you have problems with your meal at Pete Miller's you should tell the management. Really. They truly are concerned. We used to live across the street and loved the burgers. Until one day they changed. They were dry and salty and bad (and the buns were stale). We complained and were comped. We kept going back. The burgers were still weird (the buns were better, turns out they had had a supplier issue that day). But still salty and dry. So every once in a while we complained. And they comped us. We tried to tell them that we didn't want comping, we wanted the old burgers back. They swore no changes had been made.

Turns out someone else had been put in charge of making burgers. The old way, they had formed the patties and then dusted spices on the outside. To save time, the new person was mixing everything in. So there had been a change! It took a while for the management to figure it out, though, because we were the only people who ever complained.

Actually, we did bring it to management's attention that night, and we were comped something or other. But I consider that only the secondary method by which we informed management of the problem. The primary method by which we informed management of the problem was by withholding our patronage ever since, and spending our dining-out dollars elsewhere. I consider that a wholly satisfactory resolution of the problem. I've got my own business to take care of without worrying about how to fix somebody else's.

I know a very opinionated guy who travels the world for his job, eats out at the finest restaurants, and claims Pete Miller's is the best steakhouse in the Midwest, if not the country.

I disagree with some of his other opinions as well.

curry71 wrote:I've been wondering what happened that changed the Evanston zoning from very restrictive to build whatever you want? I realize that there has been constant pressure from developers for years, I just wonder what changed on the city side of things.

Well, let's just say that the keeper of the Evanston coffers hasn't had to keep his guard up for much of the last decade. Simply put, the city has been in budgetary crisis mode for years.

Each year, in order to create a workable budget there were always some last-minute cuts and tweaks (and bubblegum and spit polish) to keep Humpty Dumpty together.

Not least of their problems was the fact that Northwestern sits on some of the North Shore's primest property and doesn't pay a dime in property taxes. Of course Northwestern would argue that its student base and the moneyed staff that gravitate towards the university more than make up for any tax exempt status in their contributions to the local economy. I was a student at NU so I saw and heard the barbs and vitriole from both sides.

There were a couple of hare-brained attempts to alternately wring the requisite taxes from the university or punish them for not paying. My favorites:

- levying a tax on institutions that employ 1500 or more workers (a heat-seeking missile of tax code as there are but three in town - St Francis Hospital, Evanston Hospital and Northwestern University)

- threatening to deny emergency services to school grounds because they did not pay taxes and thus the students were not qualified local residents

Needless to say, the town councilmen eventually saw that the answer to their fiscal woes was to loosen zoning restrictions and remake the downtown into what it is today: Condotown USA.

As much as I hate orange balconies, it has added vigor to the restaurant scene here.

Another Campagnola fan here. I highly recommend it.

Actually I kinda like the orange balconies. At least there is some thought going into it rather than just a faceless smooth facade. I admit I am a fan of modern architecture so the bias is there. That building reminded me of ones I saw in Dusseldorf where they have done a good job of blending the old with the new imho.

Let me put in another good word for Chef's Station, whose tasting menu at $50 is, I think one of the better values in Chicago. Last Sunday, it consisted of:

1. Shrimp bisque with creme fraiche
2. Soft-shell crab garnished with a melon salsa and mango coulis (the crab was small but one of the tastier soft-shells I've had outside MD)
3. Salmon (perfectly cooked) on a bed of faro
4. Raspberry sorbet
5. Beef tenderloin in a truffle sauce on a bed of risotto and fava beans
6. Light salad
7. Flourless choclate cake with lavendar ice cream

For an additional $20 wine pairings were available, and altho I didn't find the wines themselves to be that impressive, the pairings (respectively, riesling, cava, rose, cabernet sauvignon, dessert wine) were on-the-money.

Service was attentive, atmosphere pleasant and unrushed. IMO a good choice for a special dinner without breaking the bank.

nr706 wrote:As much as I hate orange balconies, it has added vigor to the restaurant scene here.

I used to live in that building Not sure exactly what it did (or didn't do) for the restaurant scene, but people definitely either hated or loved those balconies!

We didn't know they were going to be orange. We thought they would be concrete like the rest of the building. But we got used to them. My husband loved them! I would rather have had green, blue or red.

Has the orange balcony building really been around long enough for anyone to refer to it in the past tense? Wow. Time flies.

At any rate, I'll second Chef's Station - we did the "tasting menu," and all of it was pretty good.

I forget - did anybody mention LuLu's? I suppose there are better places, but I like it. Wish the "bunch a lunch" were cheaper, but you can't have everything.

Mhays wrote:I forget - did anybody mention LuLu's? I suppose there are better places, but I like it.

Poor Lulu's. I don't think it gets much respect. I'll admit myself to having kind of written it off after the menu didn't change a bit for years and lots of other places came out doing pan-asian menus.

But really, they aren't so bad; they have spiffed up the menu at least a little bit (although who knows, maybe menu 2.0 has been around more years than I realize considering how long I wasn't going there). I've never been served anything which was badly prepared. It isn't revolutionary, but it's no slouch. I still like the trademark green salad with chicken and ginger dressing, and the vietnamese cold rice noodle salad with beef and a crispy egg roll on top is pretty good (for me, after you stir in a good bit of sriracha.) Can't remember the new dish I had any more, but I remember it made me think "I guess these guys haven't gone to sleep completely."

I agree about Lulu's. I hadn't tried it for a long time after they moved, because it never impressed me much. But a recent lunch has me raving about the best calamari in the area. Absolutely perfect, cooked through yet soft, with a very delicate batter.





Other stuff seen here besides the Salt & Pepper Calamari are the Golden Bao Buns "Crispy outside, soft inside, filled with char siu roast pork", Sesame Noodles, Chilled Steamed Spinach. The other dishes were good, but not in the raving category. They used to have a duck salad I liked but I don't know where it went. (it was similar to the chicken ginger salad mentioned.

Lulu's Dim Sum & then Sum
804 Davis St.
Evanston
847-869-4343

On Central St. across from Bluestone there's a new-ish Thai place called Pinto Kitchen - it went into a space formerly occupied by a Chinese takeout spot. I've eaten there a few times and although they seem to serve the tamer side of Thai cuisine (along with some other Asian menu items) everything I've had has been very tasty and with quality ingredients and since there are only a few tables the service is very attentive.

Speaking of Evanston - has anyone been to the new-ish steakhouse that opened in the Orrington? It got a good review but I haven't spoken to anyone who has actually eaten there. If memory serves me correctly I think it was called something like Narra or Nava and there was a big name chef involved. Sorry I'm not more specific.

Tobermory wrote:Speaking of Evanston - has anyone been to the new-ish steakhouse that opened in the Orrington? It got a good review but I haven't spoken to anyone who has actually eaten there. If memory serves me correctly I think it was called something like Narra or Nava and there was a big name chef involved. Sorry I'm not more specific.

The name is Narra. I know that Jacky Pluton was involved in the menu development and, IIRC, Eric Aubriot was/is involved here. Sadly, everything I've heard about the place suggests to avoid it, although I have not been there myself.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:The name is Narra. I know that Jacky Pluton was involved in the menu development and, IIRC, Eric Aubriot was/is involved here.

Yeah, Aubriot was the Executive Chef and left in December, according to Chicago Magazine. I believe Jacky Pluton remains the "concept chef".

I have not eaten at Narra.

Bset,
Michael