Lincoln Avenue North and Roscoe Street West
$13.95
8.7/10

I just had lunch at Noodles Party, which is next door to Ssyal— imho, an absolute elite pair of restaurants. Are there other pairs like this around the city?

This is like tropical inspired ice cream flavors here. I had the chirimoya custard and banana ice cream together in a waffle cup. I think it was about $10

I am so glad I went during happy hour because if I had paid $35 for this I would have been pissed. The most unseasoned cheesesteak I have had in this city. Which is unfortunate because the presentation is amazing.

- The bread was not toasted, it was very chewy and almost cold when it arrived. It seems like they took it out the fridge and didn’t bother toasting it before putting the ribeye.

- Cheese sauce was fine, I think it needed some more pepper or something. It was very rich, and i would not say it complimented the cheesesteak much.

- Although they give you tons of ribeye, it means nothing when that ribeye barely has any salt or pepper on it.

- Fries were amazing, like honestly some of the best fries I have had in a long time.

I brought some fresh jalapeños to cut the richness of the sandwich and sadly it still wasn’t enough. Someone described a cheesesteak on here as “one note” and I think this is another example of a one note cheesesteak.

If you are going to try this, do it during their happy hour 4-6 M-F. I would not pay full price for this.

Just walked past Milwaukee and Pulaski and see a sign for Taco Burrito Palace getting ready to open. Does this have ties to the old location? Anyone have any insight?

Have a res for a bday celebration coming up next week at El Che.

Super excited and have heard great things, buddies and I have been talking about if we should do the Leap Of Faith option or not.

My gut feeling is telling me no as I see very little about it anywhere but maybe I’m missing out?

If we don’t any recs from those who’ve been there?

My eyes set to the Party Steak or one of the Strips otherwise but fully open to trying anything. Want to make this a worthwhile experience.

My girlfriend always orders green papaya salad when we eat Thai food. I thought I might try to make it at home. Has anyone found fresh green papaya at any of the local Asian markets?

Check out this place! It’s been around since the mid-90s! The people here are lovely and treat me like a family member. If you’re adventurous, try the Menudo (available only on Saturdays). It’s an amazing dish with pig feet, and it’s a great cure for a hangover!

Circa 2010, it was in the same space as the old Aurelio’s off of 59

Coming from across the country, we had reservations for Planta and we just received notification that they’re closed due to some kitchen equipment issues.

What are some higher end vegetarian restaurants that you would recommend instead?

Does anyone else think it has lost its edge a bit? I have been going there for years and ever time I have gone back recently I just leave more disappointed.

One time went multiple options were unavailable at 5pm, next time tough service, most recent was cold pizza that arrived 5 mins after we ordered (was just strange).

I want to love it like I used to, but just has been letting me down. Have I just had bad luck or is anyone else out there feeling this too?

I ordered their quesabirria dinner with a side of beans and rice as well as a medium horchata drink. It cost me $24 after tipping $5. I will say I liked the meal overall although the meat isnt as tender as say Cesars or even Birria Zaragoza or Tacotlan. I did like it though due to the price relative to portion size. The horchata tasted quite grainy to me but good.

Three Irish Natives make a Masterpiece called The Kerryman in Chicago

Nobody can agree on everything, but this Pub should be unanimously adored for its charm. What's there not to like?

I got ice cream from Mike's tonight. It's inside of Milos Pita off of the Morse red line stop. I got a double scoop of the midnight caramel river. It was really good and cost me $8 dollars after a $1.05 tip.

My favorite is the crab bisque at Joe’s Seafood. It is dense with flavor but a bit on the heavy side so I usually split it with a dining companion.

Any spots with exceptionally great bisque?

My mom is visiting in a month and I was hoping for some recs for good tamales (most posts I saw were 3+ years old).

I feel like I had some good tamales 6-7 years ago when I first moved here and haven't managed as much luck to find great tamales since.

I’m coming to town for a concert at the Logan Center for the Arts and am looking for suggestions for a pre-concert dinner. Anyone have thoughts about Mahari Restaurant? Would it be safe to walk from there to the concert hall or better to get a ride? (I tend to be ignorant/fearless but my brother in the ‘burbs is acting like I’m proposing a trip to a war zone.) Any restaurant recommendations closer to the concert hall?

Half a dozen Pequod’s is awesome or absolute shit posts in the last three days. You are all welcome to have your opinions on the restaurant but we don’t need a back and forth post on the same restaurant several times every day for a week. Feel free to use this thread if you have something new to say about the subject.

I know Indienne gets a ton of praise here, and that praise was actually part of why I chose it for my birthday dinner. I went in genuinely excited. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of the most disappointing fine-dining experiences I’ve had.

Our bill would have been around $460 for two before the restaurant made a $50 adjustment, so we ultimately paid about $410. The first half of the service was particularly rough. Our original server mostly came to the table, listed what was physically on the plate, and left. There was very little discussion of technique, inspiration, preparation, or how the components were intended to work together. On at least two occasions ingredients were also described incorrectly, including black garlic being identified as a mushroom paste. The most frustrating incident involved a dehydrated tomato component. It shattered while I was chewing it, became lodged in the roof of my mouth, and caused me to bleed. I drank all of my water and then my date’s water trying to deal with it, and we still had to wait for someone to return before I could get more water and napkins.

Eventually I stepped away from the table because I didn’t want to complain in front of my date during my birthday dinner. To Indienne’s credit, once I said something, they changed our server and the difference was enormous. Our second server was excellent. Suddenly the dishes had context and explanation, the table was being properly maintained, crumbs were cleared, our needs were anticipated, and it actually felt like the level of hospitality I associate with fine dining. That honestly made the first portion of the meal even more confusing because it demonstrated how different the experience could have been. They also took $50 off the bill, and I want to give them credit for a couple of nice birthday touches. They brought me a small ginger drink and an additional coconut dessert. The coconut dessert was genuinely excellent and was probably the highlight of the meal for both of us.

Unfortunately, the service wasn’t my only problem. I just did not think the food was particularly good. There was clearly technique involved and the plating was polished, but a lot of the ideas didn’t translate into food I actually wanted to eat. One example was a burrata preparation served frozen on a black rice cracker. I understand what they were trying to do, but texturally the cheese was icy and unpleasant to me. Other courses were perfectly edible but just remarkably unexciting. Even the black dal, which I liked, tasted like a good version of something I could get at a normal Indian restaurant rather than something that made me understand why I was paying this much. More broadly, I didn’t find much cohesion or progression through the menu. There weren’t many moments where a technique transformed an ingredient in a way that surprised me or made me think about it differently. We actually stopped photographing the courses partway through because we had basically stopped being excited about what was coming next.

For context, this isn’t simply “I spent $400 on dinner and got sticker shock.” Fabrik in Austin is one of my reference points for tasting menus. I took my brother there for his birthday and spent roughly $250 total for two after tax and tip. I thought Fabrik was dramatically stronger in flavor, creativity, technique, storytelling, service, pacing, portion size, and overall experience. I’ve also enjoyed meals at PLANTA considerably more for a fraction of the cost.

If Indienne had completely floored me, I would have been comfortable spending $400+. I just didn’t think it came remotely close. I emailed the restaurant afterward because it bothered me that this had been my birthday dinner. It took about a week and a follow-up before I received a response from management. Their GM acknowledged that the experience missed their standards, said the team involved had been retrained, and said they had discussed the component that shattered, but declined to offer anything beyond the $50 adjustment that had already been made during dinner. I’m glad they apparently took the feedback seriously internally, but I found that resolution disappointing. Being told that a future visit would be better doesn’t really replace a birthday dinner, and given how poor a substantial portion of the experience was, $50 off a roughly $460 meal didn’t feel commensurate with what happened.

Obviously food is subjective, and plenty of people clearly love Indienne. I’m not claiming those people are wrong. But for me this was around a 3/10 overall experience, and I’m genuinely surprised by how different my experience was from the near-universal praise I had seen beforehand.

I’m curious whether anyone else has had a similar experience there, particularly with the food itself, or whether I just landed on an unusually bad night.

Neopolitan Pizza?

Neapolitan pizza is my favorite kind of pizza, and no matter where I go, city or state, I seem to not be able to find a pizza that is truly Neapolitan. Are there any places in Chicago that claim to be Neapolitan and are actually Neapolitan?