You're gonna need east lakeview and Lincoln park for the better sushi places in those areas. Toro Sushi is your best bet

Second this. BYOB. Liquor store across the street.

chis,

When the person agreed to go originally, they agreed to be on the hook for the complete price of the ticket. If you had not found anyone to take the ticket at all, they should have to pay the full $300. Any shortfall you had to take on because you had to find someone last minute should similarly be made up by them.

JP,

Sushi Mura on Southport is decent, but nothing to write home about. Really a neighborhood place. Farther south on Southport, Rise was actually quite nice and, at least last time I went there, trendy/fancy/fun enough to be birthday-worthy. I haven't been to Toro, but this thread has repeatedly said it's quite good. On a random weekday you shouldn't have to deal with lines, I wouldn't think, which would otherwise possibly be a problem, given it's no reservations. I've been super impressed by Ora, in Andersonville. Again, pretty low key and neighborhood place. For fancier, a bit more expensive, etc, Mirai is still quite good, and the location is sometimes better for moving to or from other bars and stuff.

Clayton,

Takashi weekend ramen is quite good. I've also heard good things about Yusho ramen, which I also think is weekend only. Slurping Turtle is good. So is Belly Shack, which I think just moved to Randolph St. I heard a rumor that one of the casinos has some fantastic ramen, but I don't remember which/where/etc.

Sorry. Just saw this.

Butcher/Larder and Publican are the best, but if you'd rather venture west than south, Paulina Meat Market is super solid. It's been my north side go-to for over 10 years and they've never let me down. Gene's is a bit cheaper and along the lines of what you're looking for, too, but not sure on their grassfed.

Is Paulina grassfed though? I love going there for the range of quality stuff they have, but I wasn't sure if it fit his criteria

They freeze it. You can call in advance for fresh grass cuts.

If anyone wants to order Grassfed Beef in Bulk, this guy has been doing deliveries to Windy City Crossfit in North Center every 6 weeks or so and prices are pretty decent.

http://www.vdlgrassfed.com/

He was just in town two weeks but if anyone wants to put an order in, he'll probably be around in early January. The Ground beef is really good. People have also raved about the bacon though I don't eat pork. Shoot me a PM if interested and I'll try to remember next time around.

ty mike and citanul

Heading to Frontier this weekend to do the whole animal dinner. We went with the Wild Boar. Anyone done this before? Thoughts?

I did a Kangaroo dinner with them in August and thought they did a bang up job. Make sure to get there early enough to do their $1 happy hour oysters

Obvious Harold's is obvious?

I've never regretted licking my fingers to that.

Speaking of chicken, if you ever happen to be around Cicero and Chicago, gotta do Coleman's. Little in and out joint on the West Side.

I had a lot of buddies in Oak Park growing up and this was our spot. My mom, uncle, and some friends are still in OP, so I still pop in here and there. Still sinfully amazing chicken and rib tips.

It really isn't dangerous over there. Just happens to be a ton of poor black people in the neighborhood. Kinda like a more run-down Humboldt Park where gangbangers mind their own business where the cops haven't locked them up but you still don't wanna take a late night stroll.

I got a rec for you guys. small's smoke shack. it's right by horner park. get the fried chicken! place is small. call ahead 20 mins before you get there and you'll only wait 5 min. the fried chicken itself gets my maximum five star recommendation.

Yea Smalls smoke shack is really really good.

Headed back to Chicago for a week for the holidays.

I grew up in the suburbs and have done most of the touristy things of course (pretty much all of the museums, millennium park, hancock building, navy pier, second city, etc).

Anything a little more obscure I should check out? Also, any favorite new bars or restaurants in a moderate price range (let's say < $25 / entree).

I'm going to scan through all 30 pages of this thread, but any quick tips would be cool.

Thoughts on Kangaroo? I'm from Australia, had it a few times it's ok I find it a bit bland though, maybe because I don't know how to cook it.

Thanks for your rec on Boka btw- went there for the GF's birthday it was superb.
For those interested had the scallops/spanish squid for starters and I had the duck for entree, with sides of mac/carrots, which might have been some of the best duck I've ever had, just ridiculously good. GF had the salmon which has been talked/asked about in this thread before, was pretty good but I am not a huge cooked salmon fan, she enjoyed it though.

going to check out paulina meat market tomorrow i think, as its a bit closer and i can't be ****ed venturing outside too much when its -6celsius

People who have been putting off going to Boka should probably go ASAP, unless it's already too late. They're going to (?) close and remodel, reopening with the chef who just left The Lobby. While I'm excited about that, it'll be different.

Went last week with family for my bday. Had hamachi, chicken thigh, and salmon.

Hamachi was on point. Chicken was good but nothing special and it came on a bed of strange grains that wasn't so good. Salmon was cooked very well but was way too salty. My mom and sister also got it and we all said the same thing right away. We definitely use way less than average salt on a normal basis, but I still think it was very salty.

Service was professional but waitress was very dry and pretty boring. Decor was really nice and they give each table plenty of space. Birthday marshmallow/chocolate treats were delicious!

musta been unlucky on the salmon, one my GF had was def not salty and I'm not a big salt user either.

Renewed Next tickets, kind of reluctantly, and downgraded to a 2top. Tickets are 165 steak, 130 Chinese, 245 Trio + 20% tip + 10% tax.

This means steak is over $200 and Trio is over $300/person. I'm seriously questioning whether I'd be happier paying $200 there vs. eating at 2 actual top tier Chicago steakhouses and getting whatever I want. Or eating at basically any top restaurant in the world with the flexibility of choosing any date/time/# of people/substitutions I want vs. the Trio menu, .

They were selling season tickets to the general public earlier and they definitely weren't insta-selling like they did at launch.

I've gone to 6/9 meals so far and while I've generally enjoyed them (Bocuse was really good), especially not living in Chicago now (which means basically all or all minus 1 of my nicer meals for the year are there), I'm really questioning whether it's worth it to stay loyal.

Personally I think you could destroy it at Primehouse for the $200 it will cost for the steakhouse next. Hell, you can drop $100ish on a great bottle of cab or Bordeaux, bring it to Primehouse, pay the $25 per btl corkage and get a tour of the aging area in the basement+the meal for what next will cost after tax+tip. Just my opinion though

While I procrastinate, I will continue with more food reviews from my week in Chicago.

Shaw's Crab House: Interesting choice I made for my bday dinner seeing as I don't eat any shellfish. We had a picky(er) than me eater who overruled our previous idea of Yusho, so this was it. We got seated a full 35 mins after our reservation that we were 15 mins early for. I found the bread to be the worst bread I can remember tasting at a restaurant.

Then I ordered the simply grilled (wild!) salmon. I was brought simply grilled scallops. Not a big deal, especially since they somehow instantaneously were able to bring the salmon out. The salmon was decent and portion was fair, but I'd rather buy wild salmon from the store and cook it at home. Baked potato was a little hard. Other girl ordered baked potato that was inappropriately hard/bad. Other than the wild factor, I think Cheesecake Factory provides an overall better grilled salmon meal/experience (bigger portion, 2 sides, half the price).

Moscato wine dessert: can never go wrong!

Overall opinions ranged from fair to disappointed, so probably won't be returning, though this is the only place I found that served wild salmon in Chicago.

Milt's: Kosher place in Lakeview.
Chicken tender appetizer: excellent
Loaded smashed potatoes: one of the best sides I can remember eating. It's like potato-skin-esque mashed potatoes with fake bacon- really, really good.
Corn on the cob: standard
BBQ combo (1/2 bbq chicken, 1/2 bbq ribs): 1st time eating ribs. They were tasty, though a little expensive and not great value. Chicken was very solid, nothing too fancy, in future will just go with the chicken unless very hungry.

Never been to Primehouse, how does it compare to the Brazilian steakhouses (e.g fogo, texas), which I love btw.

Fogo is where its at.

You can catch me there every Wednesday night from 9pm-closing, going on over ten years now.

Went to Ruth's Chris for the first time in a while since they implemented the new "dress code" to get all the ghetto dudes from coming in. Still amazing, and good news, they're gonna change they're hours on weekends to ~10pm. Pretty ridiculous to close at 9