Eleven City Diner

Had a taste for matzo ball soup and corned beef tonight. Headed to the Eleven City Diner and was greatly disappointed. Very gruff host took us to a table adjacent to the deli counter-no problem until we consistenly heard the brash guy who seemed to be in charge screaming at the cooks. Then the matzo ball soup tasted like water. When I told the waitress she brought Mr. Brash over. I suggested he taste the soup. He responded defensively that he tastes it every day. When I declined another bowl, he said I might as well get another type of soup as I was being charged for my soup/sandwich combo. He offered split pea which was really broccoli. I asked the server for some bread and she replied it doesn's usually come with soup. She brought 2 slices of challah which was just ok. The corned beef was very salty and the rye bread not fresh. When the bill came there was a $1 charge listed as "toast." When I questioned it, the server said it was for the bread. I said I did not think I would be charged. She shrugged. Lousy deli and not very crowded. Back to Manny's! This place needs to learn how to treat people. They are clearly counting every dime.

I guess that's why almost every time I pass by Eleven City Diner there are very few diners.

Unfortunate that they haven't fixed these problems yet. Sounds like it's actually gotten worse. I'll keep driving to Skokie.

That's a shame. I had walked by the storefront earlier this year and had hopes for it. Ah well. The South Loop is still lacking in good eats, though I am partial to Room 12/Bongo Room for a quick breakfast.

In the interest of continuity and completeness, I am providing a link to the original Eleven City Diner thread which includes many other tales of disappointment (including my own) and some praise for the patty melt.

Eleven City Diner opens tomorrow and I got a preview

Eleven City Diner
1112 South Wabash
Chicago, IL 60605
312-212-1112

Best,
Michael

Sounds like the Soup Nazi!

Since I didn't, in my brief search, see a post all about Matzo ball soup: I've been having a surprisingly good rendition lately at Goddess and the Grocer in bucktown. I'm not a particular fan of almost anything else they sell there, and I think the whole place is overpriced. But the soup! Rich, well seasoned chicken broth with matzo balls that are about 75% sinker and not too eggy.

They also have had signs up lately saying their weekend brunch involves imported H&H bagels, lox, etc.

I live in the neighborhood and was thrilled to have a deli within walking distance. Have twice ATTEMPTED to eat breakfast there on a Saturday. Once I got there right at their 9am opening, psyched for lox & bagels for carry out. Went to the deli counter - sorry, bagels haven't been delivered yet. HUH?!?! I thought this is a deli? No bagels? They bake these things at 4am don't they? They'd only been open a few weeks so chalked it up to getting the kinks out.

A month later I picked my wife up at the airport early Saturday AM, and got to ECD at 9:30am. They have valet parking for $10, but I just dropped my wife off and circled the block to find a meter. There were maybe 8 tables occupied, but the hipster host refused to seat my sleep-deprived wife until I arrived - even though she explained that I'd be there in a minute. Maybe they were miffed that they didn't get a a cut of the valet parking off of me, but to us it didn't seem like too much to ask for a slight breech in protocol if the place is half empty. When I arrived he went to seat us and put us at a 4-top. There were 4 booths open, and I requested one - he said no, you can't sit in a booth. Why? We don't have the wait staff to handle those. WHAT?!?! Then put yellow police tape around those booths or something. I'm not a fan of attitude, and this was getting ultra annoying. My wife was already cranky from an early flight and then having to cool her heels for five minutes at the host stand. But ok, fine, no biggy - let's just eat and forget about it. Waitron comes, takes the order - I want the lox platter. Ok, but there's no bagels yet, is whole wheat ok instead?

Last straw. I just stood up, told my wife let's go - right now. I don't think I've done that in 20 years. I didn't even pay for the coffee they poured. Walked 6 storefronts down to the Bongo Room and had a wonderful breakfast. I prefer not flaming a place, so I haven't bothered posting even though this happened at least six weeks ago. But these people have the hype machine going overdrive, I just saw another blurb in the most recent Chicago magazine so a fair and balanced rebuttal is called for. If they want go for the Dick's Last Resort vibe, they should relocate down to Navy Pier or something. Myself, I will not be donating my money to this place regardless how badly I lust some lox & bagels.

Lox on whole wheat???? That's beyond insane.

LTH,

Second try, first time they were closed though the posted hours indicated they would be open. I ask the very friendly waitress for an order of chopped liver and pickles to start, she says it may be too early and she has to ask the manager. From 10-feet away I can hear his loud NO. When the manager walked by I gave him, in the Jewish Deli spirit, a little good natured jibe, he looks me over and brings pickle and chopped liver in like 10-seconds, like it had been ready all along. Odd, but I know they are going for 'old time' deli stchick. When I try to order soup and a half corned beef, half pastrami it was a no go though. Sill ok, as it was about 10:45 on a Sunday. Though I was a bit irked, when after I got my lox/sable I saw corned beef and soup being served.

My wife had corned beef hash, oddly, which I believe Cathy2 has mentioned, a fine mince on the corned beef, and her friend's waffle with banana and pecans was fine, but nothing to write home about. The two guys split a lox/sable platter which was actually pretty darn good, though it's difficult to screw up sable and lox. The portion was generous, well enough for two, with tastes all around, but, even so, $38 seemed a bit stiff.

Eleven City Diner Lox Sable Platter


Potato pancakes, as has been said, are terrible, more like mashed potato cakes, greasy ones at that. The chopped liver was finely ground and a little sweet, in the range, but not to my taste.

All in all, lunch was ok, but mildly annoying management procedures, upper range pricing and overall stchick laden interaction will not find me rushing back.

Enjoy

Walked 6 storefronts down to the Bongo Room and had a wonderful breakfast.

And if it's a Sunday and the line's too long at the Bongo Room (which it often is on a Sunday), proceed another block and a half south on Wabash to Gioco which serves breakfast on Sundays, with eggs benedict of comparable quality to Bongo Room (that's saying something), some interesting specials (e.g., French toast made with brioche stuffed with bananas and mascarpone), and some intriguing Italian touches (e.g., the above mascarpone and that was pancetta under the eggs benedict)

G Wiv: is that the whole platter, or has it already been picked at? It doesn't look like it has, but if that cost $38...I don't know what to say. That's barely half of the food on my usual smoked fish platter, at Barnum & Bagel, which goes for a princely $15 (good fish, too).

Keep digging, ECD.

Wow, I really wish I had read the reviews before my husband and I subjected ourselves to an ordeal at this place. For those casual LTH readers (such as myself) this is a lesson to always, ALWAYS, check for reviews here before you go.

We decided to try this place because it is around the corner from us. Being hardcore Manny's fans, we tried to be reasonable about what to expect but the food was underwhelming and the bill was ridiculous ($47 incuding tip).

I started with the sweet and sour cabbage soup which was watery, too sweet and poorly seasoned. Right on the heels of getting the soup my "old school" lox plate came out - I note this because it took about 10 minutes after ordering to see the soup and then 2 mins later the rest of the food came out. The lox plate was average - really average - and not worth the $12 that was charged for it. My husband ordered a side of macaroni and cheese and a corned beef reuben.

I tried both of his dishes and realized that the lack of ability to properly use salt and pepper to season dishes extended from the cabbage soup to all the prepared dishes we ordered. The mac and cheese was bland, and the corned beef on the reuben tasted like it was sliced on a salt lick. To add insult to injury, the cooks forgot to put sauerkraut on the reuben and the 1000 island was barely visible.

Finally, the idea of seating people close to the kitchen, while very fashionable, requires that the owners understand that it becomes really embarassing for their customers to watch them yelling at their waitstaff and cooks.

I can only hold onto the hope in good old free-market competition from new diners opening in the south loop to help this place improve its product or go out of business.

Kathleen312 wrote:Wow, I really wish I had read the reviews before my husband and I subjected ourselves to an ordeal at this place. For those casual LTH readers (such as myself) this is a lesson to always, ALWAYS, check for reviews here before you go.

One small amendment to this lesson ... if nobody goes, then nobody knows. Sometimes you have to be the trendsetter walking in where nobody (from LTHforum) has been (or at least reported) before.

For some of us, at least me, there is the adventure of unreported territories!

Regardless I do check the boards to see what is recommended or to be avoided. I also appreciate your updating us with your experience. Sometimes tried-and-trues fail and sometimes less than great can redeem themselves.

Trying not to paint myself further into a corner ... a bid adieu as I troop off to Super H Mart for the 3rd time in 4 days.

Regards,

Apparently they care a lot about the website as well.

http://www.elevencitydiner.com/

whiskeybent wrote:Apparently they care a lot about the website as well.

http://www.elevencitydiner.com/

Maybe they mean the winter that starts in December 2006?

I have long since given up on Eleven City as a contender in the deli stakes, but perhaps as a diner. . . after all, they say they are a diner, don't they?

Anyway, I tried them for breakfast again, ordering their high-end corned-beef-and-pastrami hash with eggs ($9.95). You'd think that, given their desire to serve high-end corned-beef and pastrami sandwiches, too, that . . . well, wouldn't you?

No such luck. For some reason (probably having something to do with efficiency) they decided to GRIND whatever meats went into the hash together and with, seemingly, not much else, so that it had both the taste and the consistency of modestly seasoned meatloaf, pulverized. But there was plenty of it, and the over-easy eggs that came with it--three of them--were done perfectly, although the toast was MIA, not to be hunted down until the eggs were long gone (That's never happened at White Palace!)

Oh well, they do serve Intelligentisia coffee and they kept our cups filled, but in the corned-beef-hash stakes, definitely a mudder on a high-speed, hard dirt track where a true thoroughbred named Manny's remains supreme.

ndgbucktown wrote:G Wiv: is that the whole platter, or has it already been picked at? It doesn't look like it has, but if that cost $38...I don't know what to say..

NDG,

The lox/sable platter has not been eaten, picked at or even set decorated. That's what you get for $38, though one of the pieces of sable, there were two, is a bit hard to see. (It's at 3 o'clock)

The lox/sable platter was not a very good deal, but, unlike the potato pancakes, at least tasted good.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sable has become ludicrously expensive in the last several years, and is never a good deal anyplace. At least they have it available which is more than can be said for some other places.