friend kept on calling them and calling them until he was able to get a reso

Green Plastic,

Haven't been to Geja's, but the reputation is great, and I've got a groupon, so I'll find out soon!

If that doesn't work out, +1 to Bistro Campagne in Lincoln Square. Very well done bistro+ French with a nice beer selection, some good wines, and a cozy atmosphere. Absolutely fantastic molten/warm chocolate cake.

for people in the Lakeview/Lincoln Park area, where is a good place to get some good Chinese food? At my old job in Broadview there was this place called See Thru Kitchen on Cermak/13th Ave that had Singapore Noodles and it was basically one of the greatest Chinese dishes I've ever had. Looking for something similar around here

call back a lot

I've lived here 4+ years. As soon as I find a good chinese takeout place, I'll let you know.

tks to mr beautiful i've got a reservation at 830 friday (tks!). i've been to geja's once before and i thought it was very good. the atmosphere is top notch for a romantic date.

GP,

Thanks for the very positive review of Geja's - looking forward to getting in post-VDay.

Illini,

I'd love to find out about "good" Chinese takeout/delivery on the northside, if there is any. My 3 best picks are Chen's, Wing Hoe, and Orange Garden.

Chen's is on Clark near Wrigley. They are the type of Chinese place that also has sushi, but the food is OK. Pretty expensive for americanized Chinese, but again, the food is OK. Probably legitimately a better place to go out to eat (ideally with a woman) than delivery.

Wing Hoe is classic American Chinese. Lots of sticky sauces, fried apps, breaded/etc meat. Way farther up north, but not sure of what their delivery range is (like 5400 Broadway, I think?).

Orange Garden is at Lincoln and Irving Park. Even older-school American Chinese. Chop Suey/etc. Food is exactly that type of stuff that you eat too much of and then feed bad the next morning.

Not sure if that answers your question, since I'd guess the places you had before were more authentic? Let us know

if I'm wrong, can't you do take out at Sun Wah?

wait, is it really that hard to find a good family owned Chinese restaurant thats actually owned and prepared by Chinese people?

Chen's is definitely more of a sit down restaurant and the prices reflect that. It's not terrible but there's far better value out there.

Sun Wah is phenomenal but I consider it too far north to be part of this discussion and it's just a different kind of chinese -- not as amercanized I guess you would say.

Philly is the kinggggg of late night, chinese take out places with giant portions on the cheap. I'm talking about that s*** you find yourself ordering every Friday and Saturday night and eating for leftovers on Sunday.

Chicago is extremely disappointing in that regard but I can forgive because this city is nearly as strong in Mexican joints.

thai places as well. Seriously, the quality of thai that I've had, on the whole, in chicago beats what I had on the island (manhatten) when I was living out there

I've never had Thai food, only chinese and sushi, what are some good Thai dishes to try?

You probably want to start off with the 'classics', so I'd recommend Pad Thai, Chicken/Beef Satay with peanut sauce, Green Curry, Red Curry and Panang Curry. Those should get you started. There's plenty of Thai places in Chicago though, it's not too hard to find somewhere to order off grubhub.com

anyone plan on going to arcade fire and the national show in mid-april? they're playing 3 shows at UIC pavilion. gf bought tix for my bday so we're flying out for that, cubs game, and hopefully a bulls playoff game.

how about recommendations for hotels around 125-175/night range? it will be just the 2 of us and we'd like to stay in a location center to all the touristy stuff. wouldn't mind something trendy that caters to a younger crowd. in-building nightlife would be a plus as well. so far looking at the w lakeshore, wyndham, and the westin.

squash,

you should be able to do a ton of good trendy hotels in that range. i'm not sure exactly on prices but hard rock hotel, the wit, and whatever the thing that has Sable on the ground floor are all good. sofitel too, if you're in to that part of town.

illini,

so are you looking for authentic chinese or no?

re:thai - dean's suggestions are pretty good for starters. i very strongly recommend a trip to any/all of tac quick, spoon, sticky rice. at least the first and third are byo, and i think spoon is as well. at spoon don't sleep on the name kao thawt (which is also fabulously done at lotus of siam in vegas). at sticky rice, the pineapple fried rice is unreal (and served in a pineapple if you dine in!).

what's possibly more impressive is the quality of the totally random joint that serves the standard american favorite thai stuff, snail/thai55 in hyde park, duck walk and a dozen other places in lakeview, etc.

mr beautiful --

forget to comment on living in Old Town. overall, i like it. the best part about it is the location. i'm across the street from the beach, the zoo, and getting to nightlife in RN or LP is super easy.

i don't like the fact that public transportation can suck, depending on where you are in OT. it's about a 15 min. walk to the closest El stop for me which makes it almost unusable. not much to rave about regarding the local bars, a couple that are decent that i am sure you know about.

I'll be on the hunt for authentic Chinese food this weekend, I'll report back

I also live in Old Town, but close to North/Wells with all the restaurants and nightlife. I also live about a 5 minute walk from the Sedgwick El stop which is really convenient. Overall, I love the area and it's perfect if you need to get to the Loop for work on a daily basis (assuming you don't live as far from the El as Taylor does). It seems like a more "settled" area than Lincoln Park, with more young families and less of an active bar scene if that is something you're into. Then again, as Taylor mentioned, hopping in a cab or a bus to get to River North or Lincoln Park is really easy. All of my friends who live in Old Town are really happy with the area for what it's worth.

North & Wells is a great area. I looked for places there last time I moved, but couldn't find many rentals. Second City, Cinema, Comedy Club + a bunch of restaurants and nightlife (went to Benchmark on Wednesday and it was absolutely buzzing). There's also a really great soup place in that area that I love, and a cigar store.

65 Chinese Restaurant is not bad for the record. They have 4 locations in the city. The three I know of are in the loop.

have people seen this new site http://www.grubwith.us/? started in chicago -- they set up group dinners with random people as a way to check out new restaurants and meet new people in the city. they do fixed price family style meals and charge slightly more for later slot reservations than early ones to encourage people to sign up.

i really like the idea and if i were in chicago would at least start bumhunting it and joining the meals that have good looking grubbers

I wish I had more balls since signing up for that kind of thing seems like a great way to meet cool new people OR meet a bunch of freaks and have some hilarious/awesome stories to tell. Worst case scenario (other than coming across someone genuinely malicious) is sitting a table of bores. Do you think most people who go to those dinners don't know anyone else there, or do you think people sign up in pairs?

+1, lived here for 6 of the last 7 years and I love it. The addition of Benchmark/OTS has been great.

alright, went for some chinese for lunch. i went looking for a place called Yen's on Clark/Diversey but I might be an idiot and couldnt find it lol. so instead of looking like an idiot I walked up Broadway and found a place called Yum Yum's Asian Cuisine. Pretty damn authentic, owned by Asian people where English was clearly a second language, exactly what I was looking for. I tried the singapore noodles:

pretty much looks like that. I usually get it with chicken and not pork. Its spicy and damn delicious. they gave me it with pork and next time will get chicken. its was pretty good, a little dry unfortunately. It was $8 for good size serving. I'm a big guy and it filled me up. I'll definatley go again and try the staples of fried rice and sweet and sour chicken and all that other stuff.

thanks for the old town reviews.

we should find a good grubwith.me and post it here to double as a small meetup