Kosher restaurants update?

The last mention of Kosher restaurants I found on this board was nearly a year ago, and I wondered if anyone had any updates. Besides this board I found a list on the Spertus Institute's website which had a link to the CRC list of kosher restaurants.

A favorite cousin will be in Chicago on business later this week and he wants to go to a kosher restaurant. Also, for health reasons he is semi-vegetarian. Fish is OK. He said he'd be happy with a salad, but I'd like to take him to someplace reasonably nice, in a moderate price range. Preferably a fairly quiet place where so we can talk easily.

He'll be staying in the North Michigan Avenue area, but I gather there are no kosher restaurants nearby. It seems as if they're all either north side Chicago or Skokie.

Shallots is rather pricy and I doubt he is looking for French food. He likes Mid-eastern or Asian. Mi Tsu Yun is questionable per Brotine's comment about the food being "bland and expensive." I've been to Ken's Diner and the atmosphere is more casual than what I'm looking for.

Possibilites I came up with are:

Bugsy's (several fish dishes on the menu). I saw Cathy2's report on a May, 2003 visit.
Hy Life / Slice of Life
Ta'boun Grill. He likes Israeli food, but there's no fish on the menu; they only have it as occasional specials.
Tein Li Chow on Howard Street in Evanston

Does anyone have recent info/comments on these or any others?

Thanks.

George, it's been a few years since my last visit to Taboun Grill, but I've always had very good meals there. I would note that the prices are high--the kosher premium fer sure.

Nevermind...saw that you knew about Shallots/Kens Diner.

Hashalom in Roger's Park is not kosher (I don't think...), but they do have vegetarian items. Great and very inexpensive Israeli Middle Eastern food.

Hashalom
2905 W. Devon, Chicago
773.465.5675

as taboun and shallots offer the best fare but are not ideal for your purposes, if i'm not mistaken, bugsy's is, sadly, really the only other option, given your criteria.

if i was in your position, i'd probably go with shallots, which tho french, offers the best kosher food in the metro area. it's also a bit (tho not much) cheaper since the move to skokie, so you won't have to mortgage a limb to pay the bill.

unless the restaurant has to be kosher for your cousin, i might suggest spring or catch 35. lotsa fish options, several asian-inspired, and all done to perfection.

Hi, George. I'd go with Bagel Country in Skokie for soups, sandwiches, fish dishes, quesadillas, veggie burgers and such; good kosher dairy, friendly atmosphere and fair prices. (Check menu at www.bagelcountry.com). And for better-than-Devon-Avenue-Kosher pizza, there's Da'Nali's Brick Oven on Oakton, in the same strip mall as the Hungarian Kosher supermarket.

I've always loved the food at Shallots, but we're usually there on someone else's dime. Tein Li Chow is darn good Chinese food -- yet it's the restaurant inside the Kosher section of Jewel-Osco and while you can sit there and eat (we usually take out), you always know you're inside a supermarket.

>>Brent
(who routinely humors my self-righteous observant relatives when they come to town by carrying in kosher food and watching them warm it in our treyf oven.)


Bagel Country
9306 N. Skokie Blvd.
Skokie, IL 60077
847 673-3030

Da'Nali's
4032 W. Oakton
Skokie, IL 60076
847 677-2782

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions. I now have a better sense of my options.

Li Chow is darn good Chinese food -- yet it's the restaurant inside the Kosher section of Jewel-Osco and while you can sit there and eat (we usually take out), you always know you're inside a supermarket.

From what I see of the place, it's take-out only - no place to sit and eat, or stand for that matter. I'm not Jewish, nor do I keep Kosher - but many of my neighbors are/do and I only hear mixed reviews from them when they talk about the place as to the quality of the food. It's a successful take-out because it's the only such Kosher take-out in the neighborhood.

B&B Bagels, on Touhy, in the West Ridge part of Rogers Park is a very popular spot for the Orthodox crowd not just for bagels but for sandwiches, soups, and, I think, salads. I don't know what fish they might have, other than Lox.