I'd strongly encourage you to get out of the airport during those three days. ;)

Hope you know the difference between Lou's and Giordanos. Only latter has "stuffed pizza" whereas Lou's is deep dish (thicker, raised crust). The confusion is quite common.

Frontera is quite good too but Topolobampo is Baylesss' crowning jewel.

I tried Hi Five Ramen for the first time last night and loved it! It was nothing like the ramen I am accustomed to from Japan - it seemed much more Chinese in terms of complexity and spice. I will be back!

Three very different dining experiences. Good choices, although I'm not a big fan of either stuffed or deep dish pizza.

If you have any change of plans, I'd recommend a Paul Kahan restaurant. A few are mentioned in this thread, but my favorite has always been The Publican.

I'm coming to Chicago tomorrow for the first time and plan on having dinner at Gibsons (thanks for the recommendation) on Friday night.

Can anyone advise if I'll need to make a reservation? (I'll be dining alone)

I'm staying at the Drake if the makes any difference, I'm thinking the concierge may be able to do something if necessary.

They're on opentable, it appears only 4, 4:30, and 9:30 are left for 1 person on Friday. Note that you can also get a Gibson's steak next door at Hugo's Frog Bar, but the reservation times there aren't much better, 5:30 and 9.

I'd call the concierge today.

I did and she got me a 5.30 at Gibsons. Thanks for your help.

Hope you enjoy it, it's one of my favorite restaurants. My Dad and I always go when we're visiting Chicago.

So DW and I had some nice experiences:

Lunch at Frontera (and Rick Bayless was "in the kitchen") - guacamole + sikil pak combo app was amazing, trio of moles also great

Had lunches at both Lou Malnati's and Giordano's so we could compare. We liked Giordano's better

Found Kurah Mediterranean Tapas in the South Loop, that was good and very reasonably priced

And a mind blowing experience at Alinea in Lincoln Park, service and food and presentation all superb.

Check Please for restaurant recommendations
 

If you're looking for Chicago restaurant ideas, I recommend you check out the Check, Please! database at http://checkplease.wttw.com/
Check, Please! is a Chicago PBS station restaurant review show. They review a lot of really interesting places.

I may have mentioned this before, but the LTHForum Great Neighborhood Restaurants is also a terrific list.

Good to hear about Kurah...it's just a few blocks from the boyfriend's and we haven't tried it..

I would second this suggestion. I use it all the time (and contribute when necessary)

Barack Obama was on that show once. I seem to recall he chose Hyde Park's Dixie Kitchen to review.

That's correct. It was filmed for the first season (2001) when Obama was a state senator. It wasn't run at the time, then was run just before his inauguration in 2009.

The producer said they didn't run it back in 2001 because the flow of the episode wasn't right. The other two reviewers were somewhat quiet and Obama ended up doing most of the talking. Amanda Puck didn't do much to get the others involved (Alpana Singh did much better in similar situations).

I think I'm in the minority in that I actually enjoyed Amanda as host. She worked for me in sort of a not-very-polished way. Alpana did grow on me eventually and was like-able, but the current host isn't interesting or entertaining at all.

I haven't seen all that many Amanda episodes, I didn't really start watching it until season 4 or 5 and they don't rerun the really old ones very often. Alpana was fine, but annoyed me whenever wine would come up. Yes, we get it, you're a sommelier, fine. Shut up and let the people talk about the restaurants not about how some obscure wine pairs with what they ate. Catherine doesn't bother me, she's okay. One thing that's clear now is that the stupid puns about people's jobs came from the producer, not Alpana.