Chicago Recommendations

Can anyone recommend any Chicago restaurants? Adventurous is good. Ethnic is also a favorite. I'll be there over Memorial Day weekend and will be staying near Grant Park.
Thanks!

We were there a couple of months ago & one place that we loved was Carmine's (part of the Rose Bud group). It was packed but the service & food was great. Some of the best Italian food I have ever had at a restaurant. The prices were very reasonable as well.

[Robin Garr]

Can anyone recommend any Chicago restaurants? Adventurous is good. Ethnic is also a favorite. I'll be there over Memorial Day weekend and will be staying near Grant Park.
Thanks!

Beth, I hope you get more good recommendations here, but to help you out, there are a couple of other Chicago restaurant discussions on the forum currently. Ethan started a great one about his recent visit in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3181

There's another Chicago discussion, much of it about a great place called Sepia, wound into the controversial "18% tip presumptious" thread. It starts with this post and then you have to kind of work your way down to find the replies:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3284&p=31423&hilit=sepia+presumptuous#p31423

Bruna's - great italian but further afield than Grant Park.

GG


http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants ... 23/content

We did Sepia when we were just recently in Chicago. Really lovely stuff. And it's fairly close to the Grant Park area.

There is a great Italian restaurant called La Scarola.
Fabulous Italian food in a classic setting with reasonable prices.
I highly recommend this place.
They have a website:

http://www.lascarola.com

Having lived in Chicago for a bit I grew partial to Lawry's Prime Rib. I also still crave Big Bowl like crazy about once every couple of weeks...if you like Asian cuisine, it is phenomenal.

Thanks to all for the recommendations. The more, the better. And thanks to Robin for pointing to other threads. Does any one know of any Nepalese restraunts in Chicago? I have a craving for yak butter tea.

[Robin Garr]

Thanks to all for the recommendations. The more, the better. And thanks to Robin for pointing to other threads. Does any one know of any Nepalese restraunts in Chicago? I have a craving for yak butter tea.

I've never eaten there, Beth, but Dr. Google refers us to Mount Everest Restaurant, The Taste of the Himalayas. Looks like it's on the north side up close to Evanston.
http://www.mteverestrestaurant.com/us/default.aspx

They have Indian and Nepalese cuisine. Here's the Nepalese menu:
http://www.mteverestrestaurant.com/us/u ... alientrees

Yak butter tea is not mentioned. Isn't that a Tibetan thing, anyway?

My wife and I discovered The Big Bowl on our honeymoon. I too crave it, especially the garlic chicken. It was awesome. As far as other Chicago recs, Nacional 27 (incorporates cuisine from the 27 countries of South America), Topo Gigio, Lou Malnatti's, Gibson's Steakhouse and Ed Debevics. Those options should run the gammet in terms of what style food you are looking for, and the type of restaurant (i.e. casual, upscale, etc). Have a great time. We'll be heading back up there in June and can't wait!!!

I also happened upon Big Bowl one time looking for a lunch spot. I know recommend it to everyone who goes there. I love the ginger ale. I used to live in Chicago and still get back a few times a year. I few must spots (in additional to Big Bowl) when I go are

Cafe BaBaReeba - tapas bar in Lincoln Park (get the goat cheese marinara)
Cafe Iberico - tapas bar in River North (not as fun as BaBaReeba, but I think prices are a little better)
Bistro Margot - French bistro. Very sweet. They were really great with my daughter and kids can write on the table cloth.
Frontera Grill/Topolobampo - excellent Mexican. Two sides of the restaurant. One more expensive than the other.
Russian Tea Time - Have the afternoon tea service. Also great vodka flights. Near the Art Institute. The good looking waiters are also a plus.
Bin 36 - not so much on the food but it's hard to find a better wine list. I just sit at the bar and drink wine.
Brasserie Jo - Great art deco french place. The chocolate mousse is reason enough to come.
Cyrano Bistro & Wine bar - another french bistro (why can't we get it in Louisville?) Private owned and chances are the owner or his wife will make it around to talk to you personally. Great mussels.
Heaven on Seven - several locations of this. It's where a lot of people go for a cajun breakfast or lunch.
Lou Malnati's - pizza. My spot used to be Giordano's but they seem to have gone tourist. This is still not a widely known spot. Expect a wait but it's worth it.

There are also a lot of really wonderful places to eat out of my price range. These are the reasonably priced spots that I try to go to whenever I can get up there. There are also a lot of other places I want to try, but I just can't seem to not go to the places I listed above every time I take a trip there. I start to crave this stuff.

We love Chicago, and I friend who lived there turned me on to a wonderful restaurant near the "North Bridge" area called Vermillion. It's indian fusion, with a creative and talented female chef. Wonderful place!

Hope you have fun!
Meliss

Here's a fun place too !

http://www.hotdougs.com/

Check out the specials

I ate at Carmines a few months ago. Excellent Italian food. The dining rooms are very cramped and crowded, so once you're seated you are likely pinned in for the duration. I forget the name of the dish I had, but it was basically a deboned roasted chicken. Imagine a roasted chicken that' s been run over by a truck, and that's what it looked like. It was very good, though.

Heaven on Seven...great lunch. I also agree with Lou Malnatti's if you want the best Chicago pizza. Always say "patty" when you ask for sausage!!!