On my recent trip to Chicago (my first time) I was able to try some of the many restaurants this great food city has to offer. I thought I would share my experiences:

The Highlights

Frontera Grill: We really loved the fancy Mexican food at this bastion of this cooking style. From the guacamole and ceviche to the carne asada and plantains everything was simply fantastic. My sister and I thought that this was the best fancy Mexican food we have had and we cannot wait to return and try Topolobampo and Xoco next time.

Portillo's: Loved the hot dogs here and such a fantastic theatrical experience, from the studio style kitchen operation, to the pick up counter, to the millions of people that come on foot and through the drive-through and of course to the hot dogs. Certainly beats Greys Papaya in NYC hands down and I never expected those sport peppers to pack the kick they do. Will return again but next time we will try Hot Doug's.

Lou Malnati's: We really enjoyed the food at Malnati's -- the deep dish pizza was different from what I expected. I was expecting something a lot heavier, greasier, and more artery clogging than it was. Of course, it was artery clogging but simply not as much as I had expected. The crust was great -- it is hard to decide which I like better, the deep dish at Malnati's or the thin crust at Grimaldi's in NYC. Still, a great place and a great meal.

Potbelly Sandwich Works: This place was simple but they executed it very very well. The sandwiches were great, the soups were great and milkshakes were great. Love this place for a simple and cost effective meal.

Friends: A small quaint and retro modern sushi bar cum lounge was a nice surprise on this trip. Located at Rush and Superior the sushi and the Japanese food was quite good and quite reasonable as well. The service was friendly and the rice used in the sushi was pretty decent. I wouldn't expect top sushi place quality but it is still quite good and highly recommended.

Decent but nothing special

Giordano's: We are not fans of stuffed crust pizza so we opted to try their regular pizza and their spaghetti with meatballs. Both were good but we found the pizza a little disappointing. The pasta was good and the small was humongous!! Typically pizza tastes better the next day -- regrettably this one didn't.

Wow Bao: After hearing so much about this place we tried the location in the Water Tower Place mall. The chocolate bao was really good and is a great idea. We found the savoury ones - teriyaki chicken, kung pao chicken, and the barbeque pork to all taste the same due to the same flavour notes common to each bao (ginger and lemongrass). The service was terribly surly but it was good to give them a try.

Vong's Thai Kitchen: I knew going in that this may be a little disappointing but I wanted to try it out anyhow. It was decent but nothing special. The food was decent and even asking for spicy the food came out very mild. The pad thai was good as was the spicy beef but the service by the waiter/waitress was very poor. The bussers and support staff, however, busted their rear ends. I am not sure if I would return.

Sheer and Utter Disappointments

Pierrot Gourmet, Peninsula Hotel: I had high expectations for this place as it is operated by the highly lauded Peninsula hotel. I left so underwhelmed and very disappointed. The food was mediocre at best -- the French onion soup was salty broth with a sprinkling of onions and a piece of bread with a little cheese on top floating in the centre. It took 20 minutes for the soup to come out (understandable if it was being gratined) and took even longer for our main courses to come out. There was an OktoberFest special on so I ordered the leberkase and my sister the pesto chicken tarte flamb�e. The tarte was bland and flavourless and the leberkase (bavarian meatloaf) salty and slightly overcooked. The mashed potatos were decent but the sauerkraut was limp, soggy, and not very sour. The service was as clueless as it could get.

NoMi, Park Hyatt Chicago: I had heard much about this restaurant but I had my reservations. The food was so-so, the service was so-so, the room felt cold and sterile but the cost was astronomical. 16 pieces of sushi, a sandwich, a salad, one tea and one diet coke came to $140 including tax and tip. Fortunately, we had a $100 dining credit but still this was a ridiculous amount for such average fare.

BTW, Nomi in Japanese means flea. We most certainly were fleaced!!

Charlie Trotters: I think I will create a separate thread to discuss this one.

If anyone is interested, here is a link to a thread in the Luxury Hotels forum with links to my hotel stays as well as couple other threads by other posters:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...ry-hotels.html

Interesting post. I agree with a lot of what you have to say about the places I am familiar with. However, I'm not a huge fan of Giordano's, but I am curious about why, if you don't like stuffed pizza, you would go there and then write a negative review about the "regular" pizza that they are not known for - particularly when there are so many places in Chicago with really great thin and thick crust pizza. Seems just a little unfair to Giordano's.

We could have told you about NoMi (and possibly did). It is developing a pretty bad repultation for mediocre food and sky-high prices.

Point taken. However, just because Giordano's doesn't specialize in thin crust pizza, and because they did not do it very well, does it make them exempt from criticism? They did, afterall, take my money and sell me the product....

That being said we weren't expecting to be blown away-- we were a little disappointed since they are a pizza place. The pasta was decent and the price was good.

I am sure I read something about NoMi, perhaps in the Hyatt forum, but the hotel would only allow us to use our lunch credit there and not through room service. Unfortunately, NoMi has certainly lived up to the reputation you stated!!

Loved Lou Malnati's when I went in April. I'll definitely be back next time I'm in town.

I was less impressed with Frontera Grill; good ceviche, definitely, but I wasn't too excited about anything else I tried. Of course I have to give the disclaimer that I grew up in New Mexico, so the bar is high.

No, it doesn't mean they're above criticism, but from my point of view, it's like going to a steak house and saying we don't really like steak, so we ordered pork chops and they weren't too good and then writing a review of the steak house on the basis of the pork chops. Just my .02.

I was in Chicago at the same time as luxury and this thread has given me the perfect opportunity to sing the praises of Vermilion. It doesn't appear to have ever been mentioned on FT but it was the dining highlight of our trip. It specialises in fusion of Indian (subcontinent, that is) and Latin American foods. Pretty weird premise, I thought, but the food was startlingly creative and fabulously delicious. Absolutely wonderful service from a young man who was thoroughly knowledgable about the food and could discuss it in all its subtlety - because despite the big flavours the food really is very nuanced.

BTW I stumbled upon Vermilion in throwaway line on the TA reviews of Trump. Really pleased I followed up on it.

this kind of thing almost tempts me to read TA.

thanks for the report. ^

Unfortunately one has to wade through an awful lot of dross to find any gold on TA. And in this case it was pretty well hidden.

I just received an email stating that Vong's is closing their doors at the end of December after 10 years.

There　are other meanings of "NOMI", such as alone, merely, only.....but the one you used to describe this restaurant is allowable !

A big ^ to Vermilion.

A lot of the restaurants in the list above are very commercial operations. While many of these places are good, Chicago has much more to offer at many of its "Mom and Pop" type places that aren't in River North (entertainment/tourist area).

The hidden gems that don't advertise in Chicago Magazine are what truly make dining in the city unique.

I know we started with a pretty standard "Dining in Chicago 101" list of places for our first visit. As I return to the city more and more I know we will start to go up the ranks and go farther afield to the true gems.

Ditto. I really enjoyed Vermilion.. And they have a separate vegetarian menu!

I enjoyed Perennial too, and found Boka very much over-rated.

And the best breakfasts ever can be had at Toast ...French toast orgy ...yum.