This is my favorite restaurant in Chicago. It was my favorite even when I was going through the "I hate all Italian food" stage. Good thing I got the memo that Italian food is actually good because that's all I can cook. We first came here when it was my mom's first time in Chicago. It's meant for sharing and all of their dishes are small-plates (tapas style) and come out whenever they're ready. My favorite dishes are the cavatelli, linguini and clams, calamari and margherita pizza. Their pizzas are soo reasonably prized and they are wayy better than any other pizza I've had. And you can't forget about dessert.. I think we've pretty much tried em all but my favorite are the doughnuts.. I forget what they're called in Italian. It comes with warm chocolate sauce and honey.
Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Co.
My mom and I were very hesitant about going to this place when my brother and Grace told us about it. Pizza pot pie to us sounded not so appetizing especially since we don't like much sauce on our pizza. But it's not what you would expect.. it's so difficult to explain, but you gotta trust and just try it! Make sure you get a salad and a flatbread for starters. Their dressings are house-made and the flatbread is SO huge it doesn't even fit on a plate. Each pot pie is made to order and takes about 30 minutes to bake, but it doesn't even feel that long when you're busy enjoying the salad and flatbread. Don't leave Chicago without stopping here.
Grange Hall Burger Bar
I've been here about 4 or 5 times now.. I absolutely love everything about this place. I came here with Corey and Grace when I was staying with them when I first moved and we've been back since then. I can eat my entire burger! For those of you who know me, this is truly an accomplishment worth sharing. The burger in this picture is not what I ate, but mine didn't look this cool! I also came here with Anna and we shared a burger so we could try their chocolate banana milkshake and homemade tart cherry pie. Both were delicious.
I love sushi, but I'm very particular. I like quality ingredients when I'm consuming raw food and this was some of the best sushi I've had. Although nothing compares to Orient Express in Vinings near Atlanta. This place is super tiny and get full really fast. My brother has waited for a table for 2 hours!! Insane.
The atmosphere in this place makes the food even better. I love the colors and the decor, but the food was also equally worth the trip. We got a full rack of baby back ribs and split it with one person. Their cornbread was my favorite and comes with honey butter. Yum. We got a brownie sundae for dessert.. can you believe this actually exists?! And most of that is ice cream, not whipped cream. Between 4 people. we almost had her finished.
We came here for empanadas and had to wait an hour on a week night. So now you know it's good. Make sure you try the Oatmeal milkshake.. I know it sounds gross, but it's really not! Their empanadas were also really good as well as their yellow rice. I definitely would like to come back here again. Sorry for no pictures.. We came here before I knew that I wanted to write a post like this.
Molly's Cupcakes & Sweet Mandy B's
I love cupcakes and these are the best I've had compared to other cupcake shops. My favorite is the cookie monster. It has cookie dough in the middle and a real chocolate chip cookie on top!
Garrett's Popcorn
You can't come to Chicago without grabbing a bag of Garrett's Popcorn. It's the best. The caramel crisp is my mom and I's favorite. It's really only good the first or second day, so make sure you eat it up!
Butcher and the Burger
I came here with my mom, Corey and Grace when we were visiting last summer for Grace's bridal shower. It's not as good as Grange Hall Burger Bar, but it was still pretty darn tasty! The burgers and fries come on a wooden butcher block - so fun!
Hot Chocolate
We tried this place over my spring break here this year and I really enjoyed it! It's owned by a famous pastry chef and they don't just serve hot chocolate and dessert. We came here for dinner and actually didn't even get hot chocolate! I'll have to come back for sure.
Crab Sandwhich with handmade chips
Macaroni and Cheese. Classic.
An assortment of cookies.
Chicago Bagel AuthorityI've been coming here since my first visit with my brother and at first I hated it, but now I don't. For breakfast I get an egg bagel with an egg, cheese and cream cheese. Yumm, the perfect comfort food! I used to make bagel sandwiches like this all the time, but this is so much better. Their rice krispie treats are great. You get one for free if you check in on Yelp.
Sam's Sunrise
Sara's Secret
Tom & Wendee's Italian IceYou've never had Italian Ice quite like this. They have chocolate flavored ice and it's surprisingly not weird at all. I'll add in a picture the next time I go.
Cozy Noodles
This is right down my street and I am so glad my brother showed me this place! It's the absolute coolest/craziest restaurant I've been to in Chicago. You would never know it's a Thai place from the way it's decorated. It's also really cheap. I forget to take a picture every. single. time. And I eat here almost once a week!
Potbelly
Just a normal sandwich place, but you know I love my sandwiches! These are soo cheap but so delicious! I always get the turkey.. it's toasted and it's just the perfect sandwich for lunch. They also have really good sugar cookies and rock their social media! They even tweeted me back once :)
Pannenkoeken is a Dutch pancake.. it's like a crepe but not exactly. I'm not sure what the difference is really, but that's ok it was delicious anyways. The place is extremely small.. I think there was a total of 5 tables in the whole place but it was cozy and there was even a wait and we didn't go at a regular breakfast time. I would highly recommend this for anyone who is a fan of crepes/pancakes! They have sweet and savory pannenkoekens.
This is a super cheap hot dog place on the same street as my brother's apartment. They have the best milkshakes and in my opinion, hot dogs. I don't like Chicago dogs because they always have too much stuff on it, but I get them with just celery salt and it's perfect. This place is open really late, too.
Oh, doughnuts how I love you. These are special though. The flavors are so original and out-there. We got toffee crunch, banana cream cheese (my fave), pistachio passion fruit and blackberry goat cheese. I went back with my dad and he got one with an entire piece of bacon on top!
This sandwich shop is amazing! I ate my entire club sandwich and is was worth every penny - it was a little over $10 just for the sandwich but it does come with some chips. Just writing this makes me want one so bad.. I loved it. I went here with my brother during our lunch breaks. I'm so lucky I have him here, I don't know what I'd do without him and Grace.
This is Giuliana and Bill's restaurant and I absolutely love this couple. I'm a sucker for reality TV as you all may know. The food was delicious and this place was beautiful! Be sure to book a reservation wayyyy in advance. I booked a reservation for 5pm almost 3 weeks in advance and that's the only time that was available besides 10pm!
Giuliana's Italian Salad
Mama DePandi's Pasta
Lobster Ravioli
This is the best ice cream I've ever had. That I can remember. The line is wrapped around the entire inside and sometimes comes out of the door. I've never been when there wasn't a line. Their ice cream is homemade and they have some pretty unique flavors. I always get the Cubby Crunch, which is vanilla with oreos, sprinkles, crunch bar pieces, and more candy pieces that taste so yummy. I eat my entire waffle cone every time. It's walkable distance from my apartment so it's pretty dangerous.
Cafe Ba Ba Reeba
I went to this restaurant a while back when my family and I first visited my brother, but I recently came here with just my brother and Grace for his 25th birthday! It's a tapas-style restaurant and it gets super busy here on the weekends. Hours-long waits for a table. They're very well-known for their sangrias and I remember them having a huge Bloody Mary bar too. This time my brother and I shared a pitcher of their mango sangria. We each got about two and a half glasses and it sure was tasty. You know I'm not much of a drinker, but I really enjoy a sangria. I took horrible pictures, but I always forget because I'm too excited to eat! They have really great empanadas though and this is actually the first place I've ever had an empanada! Their desserts are also really amazing. We each got two different desserts!!
Interurban
This place has been hiding from us and I'm kinda sad we just discovered it! It's located on Armitage Ave, literally 5 minutes away from Corey and Grace's old apartment. It was featured on a TV show Corey and Grace were watching and is known for its pop-tarts. I love pop tarts and these are delicious and homemade. I wish I could bake because I would immediately open up a pop-up pop-tart shop. I got the apple and cinnamon one but I seriously wish I'd tried more. I'll just have to go back I guess.. It was so yummy. The crust was crispy and the filling was a way better version of McDonald's apple pies.
I definitely talked about this place in my last "Chicago Eats" post, but it deserves a second mention. I tried the Messy Katie sandwich this past weekend and oh. my. It's the most perfect combination invented. It has turkey, cream cheese, honey mustard, avocado, tomato and sprouts all on a bialy which is a type of onion bagel. I'm a plain Jane normally, but this was just too delicious and I absolutely loved everything on it.
Del Seoul
Again, my brother introduced me to this place. We were walking to Bobtail Ice Cream from his old apartment - it's quite a hike - and we got hungry. We stopped here on our way and split a spicy shrimp sandwich. I hate spicy foods a lot. I always feel like it ruins food because I can't enjoy it when my mouth is on fire. However, this is just the right amount of spicy. It's the kind of spicy where it adds a little something extra to the flavor and doesn't ruin it at all. I've been back two more times and will definitely go again. I even went by myself one day and took it to the park nearby that's how much I like it. It's located right next to Molly's Cupcakes, Toro Sushi and Lito's Empanadas. All great places. Anyways, this place is Korean Street BBQ and the actual name of the sandwich I get is called the Sesame-Chili Shrimp Bahn Mi Sandwich.
Bakin & Eggs
I came here with Anna while she was visiting and used a Groupon I had bought for us. That's how I heard about the place. It was super cute inside - there was a little coffee bar and bakery so you could make yourself coffee while you wait on your table. We had to wait for about 20-30 minutes on a Saturday morning. The menus come on clipboards and your check comes in a clothespin. I love those little touches. I got the "lovely french toast" which is a bread pudding from chocolate almond croissants. It was heavenly. Anna and I shared some honey flavored bacon and that was even more delicious. Probably some of the best bacon I've ever had. They had other flavors, but we both agreed on this one. I will definitely will try to go back to this place one day!
Ann Sather
Anna and I came here twice while she was visiting. We walked to the one on Belmont the first time and then realized there was one right on Broadway/Cornelia.. which is only two blocks from my apartment! We got their giant cinnamon rolls and homemade orange strawberry banana juice as well as their Swedish pancakes with lignonberries. I loved everything.. it is such a homey place and it's super cheap and delicious. I heard about this place from always seeing people come into Starbucks with an Ann Sather bag (probably full of cinnamon rolls!) and knew I had to try them. Unfortunately I never got a picture of the cinnamon rolls because we demolished them immediately. Whoops.
Jeni's
My last weekend in Chicago - and also my birthday weekend - was spent with Corey and Grace. We were walking around the Southport area, which is halfway between mine and their apartments, and stumbled across this ice cream shop while trying to decide on where to go for lunch. I immediately noticed the garland from outside of the shop and was excited to go inside! They had tons of unique flavors I had never seen before, but I decided to go with the classic banana and strawberry ice cream. They have different names than that, but I can't remember what it was called. It was really thick and creamy ice cream and you could tell it contained quality ingredients. Everything is organic and natural and the dairy comes from grass-fed cows. Jeni has a New York Times Best Seller book on her ice cream recipes if you're interested. I just heard that a Jeni's will be coming to Atlanta this fall in Westside Provisions at 1198 Howell Mill Rd and I can't wait to take my parents here!
Union
We came here for my birthday dinner and I thought it was such a cool place! It's an Asian Fusion place.. known for their sushi and barbecue bar. They barbecue the meats and vegetables over this large flamed bar at 600 degrees. We ordered a bunch of different things but my pictures turned out really bad because it was so dark inside. We tried a slider sampler plate and also got the Truffled Tuna for our appetizers and both were really good. I've never had truffle oil before, so it was cool to try that! For the main course, Corey and I shared some sushi - which was some of the best sushi we've ever had - and we all three shared the barbecue bar sampler and Grace also got the short rib ramen. I actually really enjoyed all of the food and would love to go back for some sushi!
90 Miles Cuban Cafe
I saved the best for last. My dad, Corey, Grace and I all came here for lunch on my last day in Chicago after we moved everything out of my apartment. It's just a short walk from Corey and Grace's new apartment in Roscoe Village. It's a small place with some outdoor seating and it was busy for lunch on a weekday! Corey and my dad got cuban sandwiches and Grace and I got 3 empanadas each. We also got two Guanabana shakes and a side of fries. Everything was beyond delicious. The fries reminded me of Checker's fries but way, way better. The empanadas were my favorite out of all of the empanadas I've ever tried. I got a chicken, beef and a snickers one and I can't even tell you which one was my favorite because I liked them all so much. Also, the shakes we ordered were so soo good. I'm not sure what kind of fruit guanabana is but it tasted like a mixture of apples and something else, but whatever it is it's amazing. I can not wait to go back there and take my mom as well! Highly, highly recommend this place. Also, Guy Fieri visited 90 Miles on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!
Until next time, Chicago!