The Bristol - Chicago, IL

I brought Jeanie and Mary to Bristol for dinner when they visited me last summer.  I had heard great things about it but it's one of those places that was on my radar for a bit but never became realized.  Thankfully I used their visit as an excuse to come.

We were a bit early for our reservations so we went up to the bar and had some drinks.  I'd like to point out that they have a special brew from Goose Island called "A beer named Sue."  It's an American black ale and it's quite good.

By the time we got our drinks, our table was ready so we headed downstairs.  We ordered the raviolo as our starter.  It's a big ravioli filled with ricotta, egg yolk and brown butter.  Sorry for the grainy pictures, it's pretty dark inside the restaurant.

You would think the combo of ricotta, egg yolk and brown butter would be too heavy but it just works.

We also got the roasted bone marrow with shallot jam and sea salt.  Most places cut the bone marrow into round cylinders and it's so hard to scoop out the marrow but this was so much easier to eat.  

For our entrees we shared the pork belly with some yogurt sauce.  It was highly recommended and it did not disappoint.

Mary loves chicken so we had to try the roasted chicken, which was really moist and quite delicious.  I'm always hesitant to order chicken because most often than not it ends up rubbery, but this was really good.

For dessert, Bristol is known for their basque cake.  It's basically a buttery cake that's crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.  It's a bit dense for my taste, but I can see why people love it.  They do different variations on the fruit depending on the season so when we were there, it came with strawberries, balsamic and champagne sabayon.

I'm told they also have fantastic brunch and their monkey bread is divine.  I wasn't able to make it back for brunch but hopefully one of these days!

Bristol
2152 N Damen Ave
(between Shakespeare Ave & Charleston St)
Chicago, IL 60647

Lure Izakaya - Chicago, IL

I visited Lure Izakaya with my cousin when I was in Chicago.  I had heard of a new izakaya opening in Chinatown and it sounded like it could be promising.  

I was expecting a more low key, Japanese pub like environment but I think they were going for a more trendy, lounge feel.  It's reflected in the menu as well.  Their menu consists of mostly small plates of Asian fusion dishes and a few yakitori options.  My cousin and I thought the food was tasty, but definitely not what we were expecting from a traditional izakaya place. 

We both picked a few dishes that jumped out at us.  First was the Zuke salmon, which was seared salmon in a soy-mirin broth.

Zed451 - Chicago, IL

I am so behind on my posts, but here's a quick shot of one of my last dessert stops in Chicago.  When I asked my foodie friends what was a must eat before I leave Chicago, they raved about the butterscotch bread pudding at Zed451, which I thought was a brazillian bbq spot so I would have never guessed they have excellent desserts.    

I would have never ventured here had it not been for my friend's recommendation and the food we had was really good.  I know most people enjoy getting all the different cuts of meat when they go to a braziallian bbq restaurant, but I am one of the few who actually get full from the salad bar.  The have a build your own salad station, soups, a charcuterie and cheese station, a whole range of different types of pre-made gourmet salad.  

Don't forget to finish your meal off with their butterscotch brioche bread pudding with home made marshmallow on top.  Can't get any better than that!  Ok maybe Tartine's bread pudding but we'll have to wait a few more posts for that one.  

Zed 451

739 N Clark St
(between Superior St & Chicago Ave)
Chicago, IL 60610

Longman & Eagle - Chicago, IL

One of my favorite favorite restaurants in Chicago is Longman & Eagle in Logan Square.  It's a gastropub and I know what you are thinking Chicago is full of gastropub so what's so special about this one.  The difference is that they actually fulfill on both fronts - great drinks and great food.  Maybe it was also that we came during a warm autumn night and got to sit outside and ate and drank to our heart's content, but I think the company that you're with can definitely make the food association that much greater and of course I was with Susan and Aleen.  

They had a bunch of interesting small plate options so we couldn't narrow it down so we got three to share.  This was the Ricotta Gnuddi with Asian Pear Black Walnut Jam, Butternut Squash Veloute and Brown Butter Sage Emulsion.  Basically imagine a ricotta gnocchi that is fried and you get the picture.  Yum is right.  

Root's Pizza - Chicago, IL

When I heard a Quad City style pizza place was opening near my old neighborhood in Chicago I knew I had to go.  For those unfamiliar, Quad Cities refers to the five cities on the Mississippi River—Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa.  A particular style of pizza is home to that area and it's known for their hand-tossed malt crust pizzas that are scissor cut into strips, not slices.  

For a city that deeply prides itself on deep dish pizzas, you would think a Quad City style pizza place would not flourish here but from the looks of it, it's been doing pretty well.  For those that aren't into pizza, they also have hot dogs, sausages, bratwurst, sandwiches and pasta options on their menu.  

Caroline and I chose for our pizza the garden pizza which came with roasted mushroom, diced green peppers, roasted red peppers, kalamata and green onion mix and Quad Cities Mozzarella Blend.  The crust was definitely chewier and a tad on the sweet side.

Purple Pig - Chicago, IL

Sniffle sniffle, this is one of my meals that I had with Aleen when I was still in Chicago.  It feels so long ago now.  

In case you guys didn't know, I made the move out west to San Francisco a few months ago.  I had such an amazing time in Chicago and have such fond memories, especially of food.  I feel like I literally ate my way through Chicago in the short time I was there and I'm so thankful for it.  My friends even asked me before I left if there was anywhere I had to go before I left and I really felt like there was nothing that I missed out on.  

Plus I have to leave some places for my visit next time, right?  :)

Purple Pig was one of Chicago's hot new restaurants when I was there.  It's a sister restaurant to one of my favs, Davanti Enoteca.  As you can guess from the name, they feature and highlight the other white meat.  

It's tapas style so we ordered several dishes to share.  

This was the asparagus & hazelnuts with arugula salad with treviso or radicchio.  One of my favorite dishes at Davanti is their truffle egg toast with asparagus and this salad is also a creative and delicious use of asparagus.   

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.  

Afternoon Tea at the Seasons Lounge at Four Seasons - Chicago, IL

My friend Yeena took me out for afternoon tea for my birthday a few months ago.  How can you not love little sandwiches and plates of scrumptious desserts?  

Hot Doug's - Chicago, IL

This summer, Mary and Jeannie came to visit me and so did my cousins.  That meant lots of trips to Hot Doug's for me.  They are only open from 10:30 to 4 pm on Saturdays so that means you have to go right as it opens if you don't want to spend 2.5+ hours in line.  I think we got there around 11 am one time and we ended up waiting exactly 2 hours.  We tried the second time to get there right as it opened, and there was still a crazy line.  I think it shaved off 30 mins of our wait.  Next time I'm getting there at 10 am!!

We ordered a bunch of hot dogs to share.  I picked the Turducken Sausage with Smokey Bacon Sauce, Pate de Compagne and Brie-Blue Cheese.  Jeanie picked the Sonoran Dog that consisted of Jalapeno and Cheddar Beef Hot Dog with Jalapeno Mayonnaise, Jalapeno Bacon, Pinto Beans, Tomatoes and Onions.  I think she asked for it with just the hot dog and cheese.  

Graham Elliott - Chicago, IL

We celebrated our friend Gook's birthday at Graham Elliot months ago.  We happened to go when they were revealing their spring menu, so that just goes to show how long ago this was.  Sorry guys!  

I've always wanted to try Graham Elliott, but I had heard some mixed reviews.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and ended up leaving the place a bigger fan of Graham Elliot than before (if that's even possible).  Everything was so whimsical yet at the same time delicious. 

Seadog Sushi - Chicago, IL

I've been eyeing this sushi restaurant since it opened near our neighborhood and was so happy that there was a sushi restaurant near by.  Within the past six months, I've only been there twice now and it's not because I didn't like it, I just keep forgetting that it's there.  I failed to take pictures the first time, but here's what I had for dinner with Aleen awhile back.  

Aleen loves gomaae, spinach with sesame dressing. so we got an order of that.  It came in three little mounds of steamed spinach with sesame dressing on top.  

Province - Chicago, IL

I am so embarrassed that I am months and months behind in my posts.  I can't even remember what I ate.  This was a lovely dinner though that I had with my friend Christina.  

We were greeted with an amuse bouche of fried olives.  It took us awhile to figure out what to order so they accidentally brought us two plates of this.  Psst... don't tell anyone, we didn't mind though.  :)

The Gage - Chicago, IL

I went to the Gage awhile back for Chef's Week.  A couple friends and I went there for lunch.  They didn't have their Chef's Week menu up so we didn't really know what to expect.  Here was what our choices were.