M Burger - Chicago, IL

Burger is Chicago's answer to In-N-Out.  Their first location on Huron Street shares a kitchen with its higher-end sister restaurant Tru.  You can peek into Tru's kitchen and see the chefs work their magic on creating multi-course dishes, all the while chomping on some great burgers and fries that will have you in and out in 15 mins.  

Unfortunately M Burger doesn't hold a candle to In-N-Out burgers but it doesn't mean they aren't good and you can't enjoy them from time to time.  It's obviously caught on with the rest of Chicagoans since they subsequently opened up three other locations in downtown.   Their most recent addition is in Water Tower Place.  

They all are housed in a fairly small space with a few counters and benches to sit on.  They offer a simple menu of hamburger, cheeseburger, fries and shakes.  

Yeowoosai - Chicago, IL

According to my friend Becky, Yeowoosai has the best kimchi fried rice in Chicago.  I've been a few times before with other friends but didn't try the fried rice so we took Mary and Jeanie before they left.  After a long weekend of midwestern treats, I think they were all craving some spicy, Korean eats.  We ordered stew and this kimchi fried rice to share amongst the four of us and it was the perfect amount of food.  We loved that the rice came in a stone pot so you get those crispy edges as it continues to cook the rice.  They are a Korean pub/restaurant so they serve beer and soju there as well.  It's a great place to stop by if you have late night cravings.  

Yeowoosai

6248 N California Ave

(between Granville Ave & Rosemont Ave) 

Chicago, IL 60659

Sable Kitchen & Bar - Chicago, IL

If you haven't been watching Season 9 of Top Chef, you will notice several Chicago chefs competing for the grand prize.  One of the chefs, Heather Terhune, is executive chef of Sable Kitchen & Bar, which is in the Palomar Hotel in the River North area of Chicago. 

Sunda - Chicago, IL

Andrew has been telling us about the industry discount at Sunda that he gets for some time but we never managed to go.  I realized if I plan it, they will come, so I made reservations for us for Sunday evening.  Here's a sampling of the yummy things we ate.  

For appetizers we ordered the “toast and jam” which consisted of crispy shrimp “toast” and spicy tuna “jam.”  A bit difficult to spread the jam unto the bread, but it was fun to eat.

Kuma's Corner - Chicago, IL

I was warned that you would have to wait if you want to get your hands on a Kuma's burger, so my cousins and I made sure we made it in time exactly when Kuma's opened at 11:30 am on a Saturday.  Unfortunately we weren't the only ones who were warned, because by the time we arrived, the place was packed and several groups of people were ahead of us in line for the next tables to open up.  I think we waited close to 2 hours to get seated.  Thankfully you can order drinks at the bar, so that kept Jung happy but Julie and I were salivating watching other people chomp on their burgers for a solid 2 hours.  

Once we were seated, our eyes were bigger than our now shrunk stomachs, as we ordered a burger each and some macaroni & cheese and mussels to start.  

You customize your own macaroni & cheese so we chose bacon, jalapeño and scallions for ours.  The mac & cheese was really good and a really decent size to share.  We also ordered the PEI mussels, which had butter, garlic, leeks, crushed red pepper and allagash white ale in it (sorry I forgot to take pictures).  Needless to say we devoured the mussels and killed the mac & cheese.  

Smoque - Chicago, IL

In August, my cousins came to Chicago for Lollapalooza and to visit me of course.  :)  I think they were here for about 2 weeks and I think I gained 5 pounds after they left.  We ate a ton and not surprisingly I had a long list of places for us to try.  I don't think Chicago is necessarily known for BBQ, but Jung and Julie wanted to try it while they were here.  Several people recommended Smoque to me in the past so I took them there.  

Sprout - Chicago, IL

One of the Sundays when Mary and Jeanie were still in town, we went to Sprout for brunch.  If you are top chef fans, the names Dale Levitski and Sarah Nguyen may ring a bell.  They joined forces after the show ended and opened Sprout in the fall of 2009.  Sprout has a three course prix-fixe dinner menu, which looks really interesting, but sad to say, it never made it to the top of my list when picking a place to eat amongst friends since not everyone wants to do a prix-fixe.  But when they started serving brunch on Sundays earlier this year I knew that would be more conducive to me visiting.   

Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Co - Chicago, IL and a few other pizza joints

Aleen!  This is for you.  I am sooo behind on my posts, but I will try to catch up one post at a time.  

When my friends Mary and Jeanie were in town this summer, I wanted to take them to eat Chicago style pizza but knowing they wouldn't be fans of deep dish, we tried Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Co.