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Chicago Dining Recommendations
My parents are coming to Chicago in a week, and I’d like to take them out to the nicest place that doesn’t require a jacket. My parents have a traditional contemporary American-ish taste, so a sushi bar is out of the question unless it’s a fusion thing. Upscale Asian cuisine is also fine as long as it has more to offer than sushi. I know about metromix and chicagoreader, but am curious to hear some recommendations from OOT.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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My parents are Klansmen, so a sushi bar is out of the question unless it’s a fusion thing. [/ QUOTE ] FYP |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
The Capital Grille is awesome.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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The Capital Grille is in 99% of cities with a population over 1000. [/ QUOTE ] FYP |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
There are quite a number of very good steakhouses that would fit your criteria - Ruth's Chris, Morton's, Gibson's, Kinzie Chophouse or Lawry's (<--prime rib, not steak). Vong's Thai Kitchen has good food but a much more younger/hip atmosphere. Joe's Stone Crab is good, Blue Water Grill as well. I'm a big fan of Cafe Absinthe in Bucktown.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Signature room in hancock building is really nice, but a little dressier than you'd want I think....
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Not that there's anything wrong with Ruth's Chris or Morton's, but if that's where you decide to go to get a steak in Chicago, YSSCKY.
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this probably isn't what you are looking for, but Bob Chinn's is awesome.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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this probably isn't what you are looking for, but Bob Chinn's is awesome. [/ QUOTE ] this is the correct answer. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
z28dreams,
Does the signature room in the hancock require a jacket? Posnera, Butter is right on par with what I'm looking for. I'll definitely check it out sometime soon if not with my parents. Davelin, I've considered Gibson's and Morton's, and might still end up choosing a steak house. However, my parents are familiar with the steak house atmostphere, and I would like to expose them to a different fine dining experience. GBP04, Bob Chinn's is great, but yah, I'm looking for something a little more fine dining-ish, and if it's seafood, then with a little less Red Lobster feel. I'm basically trying to avoid the 4-star places like Tru & Everest. This is almost exactly what I'm looking for, but it's a little too far out of the city. Thanks for all the responses thus far. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
1) Steak houses are good and all, but don't go chain if you're going to take your parents out for a really nice meal. Think more on the lines of Custom House, Lawry's, or the Chop House. I've had a couple of mediocre results at Lawry's lately, so I'd actually put it 3rd on the list (also because it is a chain, a small one, but a chaine).
2) Butter was absolutely meh. The food was overpriced, the attitude of the place was horrible, the seating was uncomfortable. But mostly everything was tiny and expensive and really not out of the league of taste from stuff costing 1/2 as much. 3) The food at Signature Room is cruddy. If jacket not-required is a requirment, look of course at the steak houses, but also look at: Sola schwah (might not have a h on the end, but it's byob fyi) Frontera Grill is one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country, but doesn't do reservations. Cafe Spiaggia is fantastic, affordable, Italian, while the slightly more posh, and significantly more expensive Spiaggia (in the same building) requires a jacket I think. Osteria via Stado is about 1 year old "traditional" Italian place that I've been using as one of my go-to places to take out of towners for a while. Those are just some that jump to the top of my head. Check out opentable.com for some of these for reservations or some more ideas. citanul |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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I'm a big fan of Cafe Absinthe in Bucktown. [/ QUOTE ] I really liked this place. And it's in a cool neighborhood so you can stroll around afterwards with your parents. Although depending on their tastes (say dad is an "I'm a big meat and potatoes guy. I don't want any frou-frou.") they may not like it a ton. Also, I like Chez Joel on Taylor for some less expensive french. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
If you explore the south-side, there are a lot of good italian places on Taylor street like Rduke mentioned.
La Vita is small but has great food. I wasn't as impressed with Francescas (or something like that). These aren't super high class places, more small quaint italian places. Definitely no jacket required. Across the street is Beviamo Wine bar, which has a pretty cool atmosphere and you can do some tastings while you are there, live piano music on Fridays. (this is all 3 years ago or so since I've moved, so you might want to verify it) |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Always take a look at Metromix.com and read the user reviews for the places you are interested in.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
john,
check out spring and scylla as well, though sola and schwah are i think in ine with what you're looking for also. citanul |
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Despite its Midwestern status, there is excellent Fresh Seafood in Chicago. Do they eat Seafood?
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Didka's [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Everest is a safe choice.
Opera is good for quality Chinese. Eat there and you'll see what I mean. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
You are all incorrect. For contemporary American cuisine in Chicago (which doesn't require a jacket), there is no better restaurant than Blackbird. MK is pretty good too. Bin 36, Naha, Crofton on Wells all not bad either, but not as good as MK or Blackbird. Blackbird gets kinda cramped and crowded, so if that would be an issue MK might be a better bet.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Glad to see Cafe Absinthe has so many fans. I thought it was really good, but went there on a Tuesday night and had the whole place to ourselves.
Hugo's Frog Bar is next to Gibson's and shares some of the same menu. Weber Grill is always fun. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
I was on vacation to Chicago last week and ate at Kinzie's Steakhouse with my family, and I highly recommend it. The food was great and the service was very good, they even comped us with free desert for no reason!
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
i gotta go with bob chinn's also,
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Thanks for all the recomendations. I'm deliberating between the following restaurants.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Didn't read OP
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Try Gibsons Steakhouse www.gibsonssteakhouse.com [/ QUOTE ] Take them to Gibson's. If you have something against Gibson's, take them to Colletti's. And no, I'm not just saying that because it's my family's restaurant. The pizza is ridiculously delicious. Someone mentioned the south side. Don't take them to the south side if you want them to return home alive/not raped. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Oh, I forgot about Spring. Definitely good. Probably as good as MK, but Blackbird is still better.
Anyway, there's a lot of bad advice in this thread if you're looking for a pretty nice place that isn't just a steakhouse. Citanul is pretty spot-on although I'm not a big fan of Italian as "fine dining." I don't think it's particularly impressive for the money - still, it's great for some people, especially parents. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Saw the new "trip to Chicago" thread and wanted to say that I was in Chicago this weekend and hit up Blackbird based on this thread. The food was amazing. I would recommend the restaurant to anybody -- especially young people looking to have a very nice meal (the place isn't one of those stuffy nice places).
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
Some guys recommended Rhapsody to me today. Thoughts?
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Saw the new "trip to Chicago" thread and wanted to say that I was in Chicago this weekend and hit up Blackbird based on this thread. The food was amazing. I would recommend the restaurant to anybody -- especially young people looking to have a very nice meal (the place isn't one of those stuffy nice places). [/ QUOTE ] You're welcome. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Some guys recommended Rhapsody to me today. Thoughts? [/ QUOTE ] Pretty meh. Food is decent but there is better for the same price in the city. I've eaten at plenty of Steven Chiapetti (sp?) restaurants and he's always put out solid but not spectacular food. They may have changed executive chefs since I went, so you could check that if you wanted. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Oh, I forgot about Spring. Definitely good. Probably as good as MK, but Blackbird is still better. Anyway, there's a lot of bad advice in this thread if you're looking for a pretty nice place that isn't just a steakhouse. Citanul is pretty spot-on although I'm not a big fan of Italian as "fine dining." I don't think it's particularly impressive for the money - still, it's great for some people, especially parents. [/ QUOTE ] Spring is a little bit overrated, IMO. Blackbird or Cafe Absinthe, both mentioned in this thread, are better choices. |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
I'm not a huge fan of Cafe Absinthe, but it's not bad. As an aside, I kinda like Brasserie Jo and Kiki's Bistro for fairly cheap French food, although those aren't what OP is looking for.
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Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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Some guys recommended Rhapsody to me today. Thoughts? [/ QUOTE ] Dean, Rhapsody is an interesting place. The food is competent but not stellar, but it is incredibly convenient to the CSO. The food is similarly overpriced. It does have a neat thing where the diningroom is entirely soundproof, so though it is at the intersection of 2 major streets and 50 feet from an El, none of the noise comes in. The interior is again a fantastic piece of work, where even when crowded your conversation does not travel to other tables nor does the sound of other groups flood yours. Basically, Rhapsody+CSO is a good thing, though not necessary to do multiple times. Within 2 blocks, I'd recommend Russian Tea Time over Rhapsody. Blackbird, mentioned several times in this thread, is of course fantastic food. The Chef/Owner (team or single person, I can't remember) has/had another restaurant that was supposed to be very good (I can't remember if it was Pluton, but Pluton is gone now, so whatever). The thing that got me about Blackbird was the totally over the top-ness of the pretentiousness when I was there. Having a big label on the menu saying "servers' attire provided by Joseph Abboud" is just a bit much. I think that some of the feeling I got that my date and I were being kept away from the other diners was because someone who was likely Russel Crowe was coming in halfway through our meal,and they didn't want to seat anyone within 2 tables of him. Not a simple task at a 12 table restaurant... Spring I think is overrated, but that's not because it's not really, really good food. It's just because people totally sweat Shawn Maclain (spelling terrible I'm sure)'s nuts. Personally I was unimpressed by Green Zebra, his other no-red-meat restaurant. Last night I took some friends to Custom House (Dean, this was in the same building as your hotel! But you moved already from what I understand?) his semi-new steakhouse. While slightly more expensive than average steakhouse, not much more. The food was not as copious as at other steakhouses either, but no-one was hungry at the end of the meal. Except or my friend who think that anything with salt in it is salty, everyone thought the food was terrific. A good choice for steakhouse if you have people in your party who don't like steak. Most, if not all of the steakhouses in Chicago I've been to aside from this one have shown themselves to be incompetent at preparing seafood. A shame. Seafood restaurant I recently went to that had me very happy was Scylla. I don't know if I already mentioned that in this thread. Maybe sometime after I get back from Vegas we can set up some kind of 2+2 nice meal in Chicago thing. Who knows. citanul |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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I'm not a huge fan of Cafe Absinthe, but it's not bad. As an aside, I kinda like Brasserie Jo and Kiki's Bistro for fairly cheap French food, although those aren't what OP is looking for. [/ QUOTE ] 7, Check out Bistro Campagne. Good, inexpensive French food, high quality. Good beer selection. Good atmosphere. Good, reasonable, wine list. etc. citanul |
Re: Chicago Dining Recommendations
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[ QUOTE ] I'm not a huge fan of Cafe Absinthe, but it's not bad. As an aside, I kinda like Brasserie Jo and Kiki's Bistro for fairly cheap French food, although those aren't what OP is looking for. [/ QUOTE ] 7, Check out Bistro Campagne. Good, inexpensive French food, high quality. Good beer selection. Good atmosphere. Good, reasonable, wine list. etc. citanul [/ QUOTE ] Cafe Bernard isn't bad either. Generally, as far as comfort food goes, Italian is way overrated and French is way underrated, at least in Chicago. |
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