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.

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. 

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.   

Classic Gougeres

I have been eyeing this recipe for awhile, so I made this for one of the random dinner get togethers we had with Aleen and Gook.  Don't these look amazing?  They are quite tasty.  :) 

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.  

Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits

These are unbelievable easy to make, especially if you have a  food processor.  

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. 

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.  :)

Mercat a la Planxa - Chicago, IL

I've been a fan of  Jose Garces on Iron Chef and especially from his food demonstration at the Chicago Gourmet this past summer. He was very approachable and down to earth. I've been itching to try his Chicago restaurant, Mercat a la Planxa, but for one reason or another, it kept eluding me.  

So number two on my list for Restaurant Week was Garces' Mercat.  I got a bunch of us together on a Friday night for some tapas.  It's a beautiful space right on Michigan Ave near the Art Institute.  Here was what was great and not so great about Mercat for Restaurant Week.

The good news: the food is excellent, it's so flavorful and everything we had was delicious

The bad news: you do not get your money's worth if you come in a big group for Restaurant Week.  Typically for Restaurant Week, you get a choice of three items as a three course meal, which usually ends up being more than enough food.  I thought it was a bit odd that the waiter encouraged us to order additional plates on top of the restaurant week menu.  We thought a few additional tapas would be enough, but even with those additions, we totally felt stiffed.  We got some items taken off the final bill, but it didn't leave us with a good impression.  


Because everything is served family style, the portions weren't adequately thought out.  We were often times presented with one dish to share among the six of us, even though we were each paying a prix fixe price.  Tables of two next to us were getting the same exact dish that we were, except they were only sharing amongst the two of them.  


I do think it's worth it if you come in pairs.  If you do decide to come with a bigger group, you're better off ordering off the regular menu instead of doing the set menu.  

Our waiter highly recommended the bacon wrapped dates stuffed with almonds.  Each order comes with 2 skewers so for the five of us, we ordered 2.5 orders.  These were amazing. If you've never had bacon wrapped dates before, you need to get on it.  

Publican - Chicago, IL

I've been to Publican before but didn't feel like it lived up to all the hype.  Their spicy pork rinds are famous, but I much prefer Chizakaya's puffed pork ears.  But Yeena hadn't been yet so when we were thinking of some brunch options, we contemplated Publican for Sunday brunch.  They only have brunch on Sundays and it's from 10 am to 2 pm. 

I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to get reservations, but it wasn't too bad actually.  Because of the communal seating, you can definitely fit a lot more people in there than you would expect. 

We started off with some dishes to share, namely the banana bread and ricotta cheese and the maple syrup braised publican bacon that they are also notorious for.  

The banana bread was toasted, placed on top of a mound of ricotta, drizzled with honey, walnuts and pieces of dried fruit.  I need to make this at home, it was so simple, but just a great mixture of textures and flavors. 

Honky Tonk Barbeque - Chicago, IL

I received a gift certificate to Honky Tonk awhile back so one a cold, snowy night I dragged my friends to Pilsen to check out this place known for their BBQ.  

Here's what it says on their website: 

 

"Honky Tonk Barbeque features championship barbeque pork, beef, chicken and other down-home dishes. We feature slow, wood-roasted beef, pork and chicken. It is cooked over a wood burning fire with no natural gas. This results in pulled pork and smoked brisket that is cleaner tasting and free of the taste of fuel that is noticable in almost all the other barbeque you will find in town. Come and try it for yourself and see what a difference the wood makes!"  They were also featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. 

Macaroni and Cheese with Buttery Crumbs

I am one of those weird people who have never been a fan of macaroni and cheese.  I'm not a huge fan of cheese in food.  I love eating cheese by itself, but melted cheese in pasta is kind of too rich for me.  But I know people love macaroni and cheese and it's a common Thanksgiving side dish so I decided to try to make a batch.