Southside eateries

Help everyone, I live in Beverly and need to find good restaurants, getting tired of getting on the dan ryan...help befor i go crazzzzyyyyy

I had a nice meal at Barraco's in Evergreen Park not too long ago. This location has a full menu of old-fashioned Italian/American fare. We had good braciole and decent pizza. I'd go back to try more of the menu if I were down that way again.

Barraco's
3701 W. 95 St.
Evergreen Park, IL 60805
(708) 424-8182
www.barracos.com

Rene G mentioned a Nicky'sin Beverly, and Paul Mollica wrote about Franconella's.

Barraco's is excellent. Going to 133rd and Olde Western Ave in Blue Island is worth a try. There is Marios(Mex) and Maple Tree Inn(Cajun) among others. Jalepenos on 96th and Pulaski is a good casual Mexican place with live music on weekends. Fox's(100th and Western) and Corrigan's (111th and Whipple) are good neighborhood places for burgers or sandwiches. For Chinese/Thai there is Chi Tung on 95th and Kedzie, but it is almost always crowded; Sesame Inn on 95th and about Washtenaw is just as good without the crowd.

There is a lack of nicer restaurants that compare to Fraconello's. Their food is good, but not always consistent.

Best places for lunch: Top Notch, Swanson's, Calabria, Nicky's

link from metromix:
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/loca ... mx-ng_heds

If you are going to Olde Blue Island on Western, don't forget about Mediterranean Cafe. It's excellent, although I think now the brother of the original owner/chef is doing the cooking.

Suzy

Beggar's Pizza, Baldinelli's on 95th, Louisa's in Crestwood.

I vouch for Maple Tree Inn. I've been there once and it was a very favorable experience. My only problem with that place is its weird hours.
Seems like every time I get the hankering for some South Side cajun, it's closed (It's open Wednesday through Saturday.)

Chi Tung...meh...I'm not really impressed by that place at all. I wouldn't go out of my way to go there, but if it was in my neighborhood...maybe every once in a while. I suppose its Chinese is better than most take-outs in the area.

Depending on how far you want to stretch your idea of what you consider your area, my favorite Thai restaurant in the Chicagoland area period is on 74th & Harlem. Bahn Thai. Looks like an old run-down shack. Fantastic food at great prices. I cannot stop raving about this place.

Other than that, to be completely honest, there is a dearth of good places to eat around Beverly and its environs. I'm in Archer Heights, and about the only places I visit south of Cermak are: Chickie's for Italian Beef and hot dogs (28th and Pulaski), Bahn Thai, Chuck's, Top Notch, Maple Tree Inn, The Nile, Rajun Cajun, Dixie Kitchen (last three being in Hyde Park.)

Long time lurker first time poster.

I am trying to put together a list of restaurants for a neighbor of mine that recently moved to Beverly from the North side. She feels there are not a lot of good restaurants on the Southside. I am just trying to list places that are on the South side or the South suburbs basically no more than a 1/2 hour drive (but the closer the better). The restaurant can be casual or fancy. Some that I have already are.....

Langniappe
Top Notch
Steve's Kabob's
Maple Tree Inn
Mediterranean Cafe
Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop
Medici on 57th
Le Petite Folie
Il Vicinato's
Bruna's
Lem's
Barbara Ann's
Bahn Thai

An additional FYI she has not liked Mulchrone's, Chi Tung or Sesame Inn. Restaurants that she frequented on the North side were The Hopleaf, La Tache, Hot Doug's, Katsu, Heartland Cafe.

I would love any and all suggestions & if I get enough perhaps a small local hand book would be in order for the few life long Northsiders who are finding the South side and all of the Southsiders who feel they have no restaurants in their area (I can't tell you how many times I have heard that) with a dedication to LTHforum.

Thanks in advance.

Petey's Lounge on 95th across from the hospital, Tatra Inn on 60th and Pulaski for polish buffet, and Vito and Nick's on 82nd Pulaski for thin crust pizza come to mind.

One more great Southwest Side find--although this is not a dining establishment--is Archer Liquors on Archer a few streets west of Central. From the outside, it looks like any other liquor joint in Chicago, plastered with advertisements for 30-pack sales on Old Style and the like.

However, inside, it has one of the best beer selections in Chicago--oftentimes, you can find beers here Sam's Wine & Spirits doesn't even stock. I even managed to sang a bottle of the impossible-to-find Westvletern #8 there last summer (they're out of stuck now.) Randy's the guy who does all the beer buying there, so he's the guy to ask for. If you're nice, he'll even pour you samples.

Archer Liquors
5996 S. Archer Avenue
Chicago, IL

Other places not to forget:

La Islas Marias (I adore their camarones rancheros)
5401 S. Pulaski

Zacatacos (two locations - my favorite grilled steak tacos in Chicago)
5925 S. Pulaski
71st & Pulaski

Illinois Bar & Grill (for the hamburger. Despite their claims, it's not the best in town, but it's a sloppy one-pound monster, and priced at only $5. I like it well enough to mention it. And what the hell's with all the Cubs memorablia in a South Side bar?)
4135 W 47th St

Here's a few of my favorites:

Pizza:
Louisa's, Crestwood. Similar in style to Lou’s.
Nick & Vito's, Chicago. Get thin crust.
Barraco's, Evergreen Park
Nino’s Pizza, Alsip

Beef
Pop's, Palos Heights. I think this one is much better than the one on Kedzie.

Hot Dogs and Burgers
Willie's Weenie Wagon, Markham. Try a Coney Dog.
Janson's, Chicago. Good shakes and decent dogs.
Nicky's, Crestwood. There are a lot of these grease joints around here—this is my favorite.
Wojo's, Evergreen Park. A million shakes and burgers.
Top Notch, Chicago.
Wonderburger Grill, Chicago. Small local burger joint.

Chinese
Chi Tung, Evergreen Park
Sesame Inn, Evergreen Park
As far as I know, these two are as good as it gets around here for Chinese. If you don't like these, you're gonna have to drive a little further North.

Mexican
Atotonilco, Worth

Chains
Because of the lack of variety, these chain restaurants are often necessary.
Lindy’s Chili, Chicago
Leona’s, Chicago
Potbelly’s, Oak Lawn
Nancy’s, Alsip
Rosati’s, Chicago
Portillo's, Crestwood & Oak Lawn
Mr. Sub, Alsip

All of the “Chicago” locations are right by Beverly.

If anyone has any others suggestions, please, please continue to post them.

Not a bad list Yourbar.

You just might be from the South Side, because for years the neon signs in Vito and Nicks read Nick and Vitos, and have switched from time to time.

And listing Lindy's Chili as a chain, I guess your right now, but when I worked there, it was one location, Western and Archer, and spent many an afternoon with a canoe oar stirring pots of chili.

Thanks for the memories

Edit:
Side note, Gerties Ice Cream and Lindy's Chili are the same family.

We had a Gerties/Lindy's here in Aurora that tanked, and was nothing like the originals. I worked both the Archer Lindy's and the Gerties on 59th and Kedzie that went way back

The aforementioned Willie's Weenie Wagon (an institution in the southern suburbs) was bought out and the name has been changed. I have no idea if the food has suffered as a result. I'll see if I can talk my family into an outing there for lunch soon.

Suzy

sdritz wrote:The aforementioned Willie's Weenie Wagon (an institution in the southern suburbs) was bought out and the name has been changed. I have no idea if the food has suffered as a result. I'll see if I can talk my family into an outing there for lunch soon.

Suzy

I'm sorry to say I drove past Willie's yesterday and it was indeed no longer Willie's. It is now Johnny's Wee-Nee Wagon.

But alas, a search on Google gave the following, puzzling results:
Willie's Wee-Nee Wagon
1880 E Lincoln Hwy
New Lenox, IL

Just wanted to say thanks to yourbar for suggesting Atotonilco as a southside Mexican place to go.

I work in Bridgeview, and am constantly looking for different places to go to -- we were sick of El Famous and El Gallo and Pepe's is just annoying.

We went onto Atotonlico, and honestly, were the only non-hispanic folks in the establishment. I always take this as a good sign. They have a very "standard" taqueria menu, but everything we ordered was good. My coworkers ordered steak tacos, which they said was all "real" meat.

I ordered a variety of tacos - chicken, lengua (beef tongue), and goat meat (very fatty, similar to lamb). I also ordered rice (always a must) and some horchata (also a must).

They brought out chips & salsa (excellent pico de gallo salsa) and carrots and peppers immediately. Our lunch, with large drinks, came to $30 with tip. Anyway, thanks for the rec. I am now very excited about trying some of the other places you mentioned.

my mom & i have been checking it out. not sure if it'll make it in the area, but i hope so. we'll check it out together sometime, though. not quite up dad's alley

Beverly Thrills
“We are not sticking to the strict French country bistro,” says chef Aaron Browning of Koda (10352 S. Western Ave.; 773-445-5632), which will open in Beverly on May 9th. “We’re going to go outside the lines to make it a little more modern.” (Browning, a veteran of Le Vichyssois, Everest, and Brasserie Jo, cites a roasted corn-and-crayfish chowder as an example.) Speaking of outside the lines: The owners, longtime Beverly residents Patrick and Janice Daley, are former hairstylists and liquor store managers who wanted to bring a “contemporary upscale restaurant” to the neighborhood. So what’s with the name Koda? “It’s the first two letters of my family name—a great big long Polish name—and the first two letters of Daley,” says Janice Daley. “We read the French dictionary for a year and decided we needed to simplify the process.”

Louies Chop Hous in Oak Lawn is one of my favorites for a steak in the neighborhood (103rd & cicero).
Ritchie's on 111th and Kedzie is good for prime rib
Ken's is pretty good for family dining

Coming soon Koda and Beverly Brewery

You will notice all restaurants in Beverly are actually NOT in Beverly as east of western has been dry for almost 100 years, so all dining establishments that serve liquor are on the west side of western in the neighborhoods of West Beverly, Beverly Woods, Mt Greenwood, and Morgan Park

And welcome to the neighborhood

I've eaten at Louie's Crap House twice and will never go back!
First time - I ordered the Louie's Porterhouse, Medium-rare. The strip side was a good 2 inches thick, the filet side was about an inch thick. So my steak came and it the filet side was more than well done. I sent it back. The second steak came, after everyone was about finished with their dinner, and the waitress asked me to cut into the steak to make sure it was to my liking. I cut into the filet side and again it was more than well done. The waitress said she needed to get a manager before taking it back. ?? The manager came, I think it was Louie's wife. She stood behind me, pointed to the strip side of the porterhouse and TOLD me to cut into it, which I did. It was medium. She said, "That looks good enough to me, I will not take the second one back." She argued with me about the steaks doneness for a good 2-3 minutes(in front of the entire restaurant) before I just gave up and said fine put it in a doggy bag and I'll see if my dog will eat it. I was charged the full amount!
Second time - Unfortunately I was stuck going to a luncheon after a funeral. I asked for a wine list because they do have an extensive list. I noticed a 1996 Cabernet that I thought was Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepage(This wine was awarded the best wine in 2000 by Wine Spectator). The way it was listed was wrong though. It read something like Chateu S. Jane. I asked if I could see a bottle. Sure enough it was Chateau St. Jean. I asked if I could buy a bottle and bring it home. The waitress said sure. It was marked on the wine list at $45.00. Binny's had it for $90.00. I bought 2 bottles, paid with my credit card and put them under the table. Well upon Louie hearing that I bought 2 bottles, he asked if I liked the wine and if he could see one of the bottles. After I did this he told me I could have the bottles for $100 each. I said I already paid for them and he proceeded to get the credit card receipt and ripped it up in front of me and literally ripped the bottles out of my hands.
So as anyone can see, if you want to go to a place where the management is always right...go to Louie's Crap House