Good Eats in South Loop, Prairie District?

[Greg]

New York Hound visiting your great city between Christmas and New Year's. I've trawled these boards and elsewhere picking out some of Chicago's best eats, and I've plotted them on a little map*. I've also plotted some of the city's best attractions. A funny thing has turned up. I can't find any good eats in the South Loop or Prairie Districts (which I take it is the area around the Field Museum and the Glessner House). I've got the Bongo Room, but I figure that I'll want some lunch by the time I'm done with those spots. Can anyone point me to a restaurant/take-out joint/food cart worth visiting in that vicinity?

Also, while possibly verboten on these boards, I'd be much obliged if anyone can give me an excuse to get up to the Lakeview area (that may be wrong, but bare with me folks, I'm trying...) so that I can justify hitting the likes of Fat Willy's and Wiener's Circle. Don't get me wrong, I'd make the trip up there based on the food alone, but I need some sort of cultural institution to use as ruse to drag my traveling companions along.

Thanks! By the way, I'd be disappointed if nsxtasy didn't offer at least one suggestion. That poster is a walking culinary encyclopedia of Chicago.

*Here's a link to the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF...

[nsxtasy]

There are lots of restaurants in the South Loop. I'll start at the north end, just south of Congress (approx 450S), and work our way south. Remember, Chicago has a grid system for house numbering; each 800 difference in house numbers corresponds to a mile when you're away from downtown, a little less than a mile in the downtown area. So I'll refer to those numbers as I go along.

There are two excellent upscale restaurants in the South Loop. Custom House offers contemporary American food with an emphasis on meats. www.customhouse.cc Mercat a la Planxa offers Spanish tapas. www.mercatchicago.com

There are lots of less expensive restaurants too.

There are two places for authentic, delicious Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. If you want to go for the single-crust "pizza in the pan", go to the new location of Lou Malnati's ( www.loumalnatis.com ) at 805 S. State Street. If you want to try the double-crust "stuffed" variety, go to Edwardo's ( www.edwardos.com ), at 521 S. Dearborn Street. Either way, if you don't want to wait 30-45 minutes while seated for your pizza to bake, you can phone ahead with your pizza order, so it's ready shortly after you get there.

Go to Hackney's at 733 S. Dearborn for burgers, "French dip" roast beef sandwiches, and their famous "brick" of onion rings. Irish pub atmosphere. www.hackneysprintersrow.com For Thai food, Amarit at 600 S. Dearborn - www.amaritthai.com For Nepalese/Indian, Chicago Curry House at 899 S. Plymouth Ct - www.curryhouseonline.com For sushi, Oysy - http://www.oysysushi.com For a Jewish-ish diner, Eleven City Diner - www.elevencitydiner.com

To get delicious handmade artisanal chocolates for your friends and family back home, go to Canady Le Chocolatier - www.canadylechocolatierchicago.com

For breakfast, I love Bongo Room at Wabash and Roosevelt (1200S). They have great sweet pancake specialties like pretzel pancakes with white chocolate sauce, and blueberry pancakes with almond panna cotta sauce. If you want to try more than one dish, they are happy to serve a one-third or two-thirds portion of any pancake dish at a reduced price, instead of the standard three-pancake portion size.

Gioco for Italian - www.gioco-chicago.com and Opera for Chinese - www.opera-chicago.com - are restaurants that are "hip" versions of ethnic food; both around 1300S just south of Roosevelt, and directly west of the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium (although you'd need to cross Lake Shore Drive on Roosevelt to get there).

Moving our way further south...

Cuatro, at 2030 S. Wabash, is a lively place offering Latin fusion cuisine, dinner only. www.cuatro-chicago.com

If you're at Glessner House (1800S) , it's a short walk to Chinatown, centered at Wentworth and Cermak (2200S) and home to many of our best Chinese restaurants. (You can also take the CTA Red Line to Cermak/Chinatown.) There are two restaurants I recommend for spicy Szechuan food. My favorite is Double Li - http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurants/double-li The owner, Ben Li, can help you with your menu selections. The other is Lao Sze Chuan, at the end of the building of shops called Chinatown Mall. They had a website at www.laoszechuan.com but it doesn't seem to be operating at the moment; see http://chicago.menupages.com/restaura... instead.

P.S. Thanks for the kind words!

[ferret]

I would skip both Hackney's and Amarit. Amarit has surprised me on occasion but is sub-par Thai. Hackney's was great in it's day but is nothing special now. If you happen to be in that area, Cafe Mediterra, directly across from Hackney's, is a very good Mediterranean-inspired option for both breakfast and lunch.

[nsxtasy]

I should note that some of the recommendations above are "destination" restaurants, places that are unusual and good enough that they are worth traveling to from other parts of the city - Custom House, Mercat a la Planxa, Canady, Bongo Room, Cuatro, Double Li - while others are more along the lines of "if you happen to be in the neighborhood, here are some good places to eat if you want this particular kind of food". The pizza places are another matter; they're excellent but the big chains (e.g. Lou Malnati's, Giordano's) have locations all over the city and suburbs.

[jbw]

If you're interested in take-out, Panozzo's is a good choice for Italian sandwiches (the vegetarian is really excellent):

http://www.panozzos.com/

Bongo Room is also a good choice, if you don't mind artisanal pancakes for lunch.

An iconic Chicago lunchery is a bit of a trek, but worth it, if you're in the mood. Just west of the South Loop (go up to Roosevelt (12th st.) and take either a bus or walk about a half-mile west) and you'll run into the much-loved Manny's. Not really a Jewish deli--more of a Jewish cafeteria (think 2nd-Avenue Deli rather than Carnegie), but a Chicago institution.

Weiner Circle, by the way, is a good walk, but not exceptionally far from Lincoln Park, and you could justify a trek up there with a visit to the Lincoln Park Zoo or Peggy Noetebart (?)Nature Museum.

Have fun, and dress warm.

[ferret]

Bongo Room has a full menu of lunch offerings (sandwiches/salads). And their breakfast options go well beyond pancakes.

If you're near 11 Cuty Diner, then it's definitely not worth a trip to Manny's. For jbw to even mention it in the same post as 2nd Ave Deli (which is every bit the Deli that Carnegie is) is a travesty. Manny's is good by Chicago standards, but only because those standards have eroded.

[jbw]

Manny's is the last of the Jewish carfeterias in Chicago (and most of elsewhere) and for that it holds a warm place in my heart. I mention it with the Second Avenue Deli because Second Avenue, at least in the old days, was as well known for such entrees as ox-tail, veal breast, etc. which Manny's also occasionally offers. Manny's continues to offer good fresh sliced corned beef sandwiches, as well as pastrami (if you like it spicy), roast beef cut to order and boiled brisket sandwiches which I have found rarely elsewhere. It's got a lot attitude, and is also an interesting hangout for a lot of Chicago types, from cops to alderman to, on a rare occasion, President Obama. Altho you can get a corned beef at 11-City, it's a different kind of place altogether, and, IMO, eminently unremarkable.

[ferret]

It's definitely more attitude than good food. The deli in Chicago is dead. New York and Miami have maintained their standards over the decades. Chicago's versions pale by comparison. Manny's today is not the Manny's of even 20 years ago.

[nsxtasy]

Another point worth stating is that the OP is visiting from New York (presumably from the city). There are some foods that New York does better than Chicago, and some that Chicago does better than New York. For the former category, comparisons to food back home may not be favorable. If I were visiting from New York - a place I'm very familiar with - I would not be eating Jewish deli food (or Jewish diner food - NOT the same) here, unless I had a strong longing for it and I were willing to accept something less than the best available back home in New York. Same thing for Chinese food (as well as Italian). OTOH I'd be all over Chicago's deep-dish pizza, the pancakes at Bongo Room, and our Thai food. For the same reason, I'd also be venturing away from the South Loop for some of our superior Mexican food, such as at Mundial Cocina Mestiza in Pilsen, and Rick Bayless's Topolobampo and Frontera Grill in River North. And if I enjoyed high-end restaurants, I'd hit Alinea, which was recently named one of the ten best restaurants in the WORLD (as was New York's Per Se). There are still other types of food that both cities do well, such as contemporary American (e.g. Custom House). I'm not sure where I'd place tapas, especially since there is a lot of variation here; however, it's worth noting that Mercat is possibly our very best, and its owner, Jose Garces, is a native Chicagoan who made his name with his Latin restaurants in Philadelphia.

[Greg]

Wow! Some great replies here that I'll have to spend some time digesting (pardon the pun). nsxtasy, thanks for not letting me down. You raised some excellent points in your 3:13 post. You assumed correctly - I am from New York City, and I do spend a lot of time eating at out-of-the-way ethic places. Given my limited time in Chicago, I'd like to get as many Chicago specialties as can without overlapping those things I can get at home. To that end, deep dish pizza and hot dogs are high on my list. Anything else I must have while I'm in your city?

As for meals not served on paper plates, I've got Bayless on my list, and some of the other Chicago standouts. However, I am traveling with a toddler, so multiple upscale dining experiences won't be practical.

Thanks for all the insight here. I knew I could count on my fellow Chowhounds.

[nsxtasy]

>> Anything else I must have while I'm in your city?

Stop by one of the Garrett's Popcorn stores, in the Loop and on North Michigan Avenue, for their caramel popcorn and cheese popcorn. www.garrettpopcorn.com