No one mentioned the heavy metal.

I am not a heavy metal fan. If anyone had told me that The Lockdown was all about the heavy metal, I never would have eaten here.

Do you know how hard it is to listen to excruciatingly loud, ANGRY heavy metal and eat a huge juicy burger at the same time?

I took home three-quarters of my burger — “The Punk Bitch” with garlic mustard, gruyere, and proscuitto, — and 7/8ths of my caesar salad. I ate them at home in the quiet comfort of my living room. With some Satie playing.

Everything was very good, particularly the garlicky caesar. But I won’t be going back for more.

The Verdict: LOUD, even with no patrons.

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I was lucky today. I had an errand to run and the shopkeeper told me to come back in 30 minutes. So I went in search of tacos to kill some time. I thought for sure I’d find tacos somewhere.

But instead I found Chickpea, just west of Damen on Chicago Ave. So I paid $4 (!!!) and had the best falafel I’ve had since Hoxton Beach on Whitecross Street in London. And that’s saying a lot because Hoxton Beach is sort of awesome.

The vibe at Chickpea was pretty great too. All old action movie posters, in Arabic. And cool dangly lights. I liked it. I think you will too.

The Verdict: Go!

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The post Being Mayorly… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Prasino, Wicker Park. I enjoyed a leisurely Sunday brunch here with my friends Irina and Mohan a couple of weekends ago. The place is HUGE. It’s a pretty space, but the type of space I expect to be all scuffed-up and worn looking within the year. Is that bad of me? Yes. But seriously…how will they afford the upkeep? I had the roasted turkey club with turkey, bacon, swiss, arugula, tomato, avocado, and Parmesan aioli on a pretzel croissant. It was fine. It was just messy to eat, and I had one of those “America, this is why you’re fat” moments. And then our server took forever to do anything remotely server-like, and I was disappointed. The Verdict: Good, not great. But the outdoor seating on a nice day is ace.

Blue 13, River North. (Well, sort of River North, because it’s like close to the expressway.) My old grad-school friend Holly and I had a good catch-up here over lobster pizza and pork chops. Firstly, it’s a nice space but by the end of the night, I couldn’t hear myself think. And it’s not a bar. It just has terribly poor acoustics. Also, the tables are very close together. I don’t mind this in France because, well, it’s France. But going to the bathroom at Blue 13 if you’re sitting on the banquet side…a chore. Back to the food…the lobster pizza was flabby in the middle. The pork chop was as big as my head…tasty but BIG. I ate it for THREE DAYS afterwards. Do I need to say it one more time…America, this is why… The Verdict: Good.

What next…GT Fish & Oyster, I go to Mexico, and then I go to the richest country in the world. The country that’s going to own our asses soon. If they don’t already. Qatar. Amazing.

The post Where I’ve Been Eating, Chicago Edition first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Date of Last Visit: 23 April 2011

The Victim: Me

The Damage: Around $7.50

The Background: People swear by La Pasadita. There are three of them just south of the intersection of Division and Ashland.  I went to the one on the east side of the street…the one that only serves tacos and burritos.

And you know what? It’s FILTHY. Why someone would willingly choose to eat here, I don’t know. The floor looks like it has never been cleaned. There’s stuff everywhere. It’s dingy and grimy and while I appreciate a hole-in-the-wall, I like them to at least seem like someone cares enough to wash the floor at night.

The steak in the steak burrito was over-cooked, flavorless, and dry. The tortilla was the only saving grace. It had a nice char to it in parts from being on the grill.

The Verdict: Definitely not. Maybe I caught them on an off-day, but it takes a long time to build up that level of grime. And I’m sorry, but if the floor is that dirty, what else is dirty? I checked the Public Health Web site and there’s no report on any of the La Pasaditas. This place makes me want to resurrect that idea about operating a high-pressure water hose business on the side.

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Thai Village, Ukrainian Village

Thai Village
2053 W Division
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, December 30th, 2010

The Victim: Me

The Damage: $20.

The Background: Thai Village must seriously have one of the best lunch specials in town. $5.95 for three courses!!! Until 3 pm every day of the week.

Of course, I got there at 3:11 pm.  No lunch special for me.

Groupon Has Been Here

Not only did I miss the lunch special, but if you can read that sign on the right, I also missed the Groupon. ($20 of food for $10!) I seriously wish I could help Thai Village with their signage. Such an atmospheric place. Such terrible signs.

Thai Village Crispy Roll

To start, I took my server’s recommendation of the Crispy Roll: rice wrapper stuffed with ground chicken, vermicelli, egg & bean sprouts; topped with tart plum sauce & ground peanuts. Maybe there was plum sauce here; I’m not sure. What I can tell you is that there was a very bright and tangy citrus sauce that made me happy all day, just thinking about it. I enjoyed this.

Thai Village Pad Se Eu

Much less satisfying was the glumpy Pad Se Eu. It had none of the brightness of the Crispy Roll. (Hey, I wasn’t expecting a lot–this is Pad Se Eu after all–but give me something.) The noodles were stodgy. The broccoli was scarce. I took a few mouthfuls and then had the rest packed up for later. (Luckily, the crispy roll was a very generous portion.)

The Verdict: Thai Village has a Bib Gourmand. Maybe that’s because of the amazing $5.95 lunch special. I’m not sure. Because otherwise, I don’t get it. I don’t think they’re doing anything special. I mean, maybe I’d order Thai Village for delivery it was raining, but I wouldn’t make a special trip back.

P.S. Totally forgot to give a shout out to my fellow Chicago restaurant bloggers over at BYOB Bandits, whose post about Thai Village had me making the trip.

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El Barco Marisco
1035 North Ashland Avenue
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, November 17th

The Victims: My good friends Matt and Kim who were visiting Chicago, along with an assorted cast of characters.

The Damage: $40 each or thereabouts.

The Background: The best part about being back in Chicago is getting to see people I wouldn’t have had a chance to see otherwise if I still lived in London. Matt lives in Minnesota and sells boats for a living. That’s not going to send him to London very often. Kim I actually did see a few times in London, but the visits were few and far between. But here they were BOTH in town at the same time and as our table for dinner gradually expanded to eight people, I went in search of good and inexpensive group dining in Chicago.

I think the photos say it all. El Barco (as the locals call it) is good for groups because the restaurant loves to serve big platters of seafood. Their paradillada (the first photo) is full of everything, including chicken. But you know what?

It’s all pretty sh*t.

Undercooked, overcooked, over-salted, under-salted…you name it. (This must be why they keep so many hot sauce jars and limes on the table. So you can add your own flavor or mask their mistakes.)

That being said, the fried fish of indeterminate origin in the paradillada…that was good. (Frying covers up a multitude of sins.) And the refried beans. The beans were also good. As you can tell from the second photo, we also had whole fried snapper. Yes, it tasted as bad as it looked. But I liked the broccoli. It’s hard to mess up broccoli.

When we left, we all smelled like cooking oil. Uggh.

The Verdict: Everyone loves this place. They must not get out much. Never trust a restaurant shaped like a boat.

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Guanajuato Groceries
1053 N Ashland
Chicago IL

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, November 27th, 2010

The Victim: Me

The Damage: Less than $5

The Background: Sometimes, you just want some tacos for lunch. Guanajuato Groceries is one of those places that you wish you could go back and take more pictures of. Because it’s a taco stand. In the back of a grocery store. It’s a tidy and compact operation.

And it’s cheap. Super cheap. I walked out of Guanajuato’s with two steak tacos and one carnitas (pulled pork) taco for less than $5. In hindsight, I should have gotten two carnitas and one steak as the carnitas was mouth-wateringly luscious and fatty and soft. The steak was a little overdone.

But drizzled with cilantro and onions and accompanied by a very spicy salsa? Not a bad lunch.

The Verdict: There’s something very compelling about Guanajuato’s. The only thing that’s got me thinking is that it’s been so long since I had a proper taco that I’m not quite sure what a good one should taste like anymore. So I think I need to do some more exploring before I return to Guanajuato’s.

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Bob San
1805 West Division Street
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, November 21, 2010

The Victim: Me

The Damage: $30.20 + tip.

The Background:  I was having one of those days. One of those immensely productive but impossible days where all of a sudden, you look at the clock and it’s 4 pm and you haven’t had lunch yet.

This never happens to me.

But it did the other Saturday. And when faced with these sorts of situations, I choose…I choose sushi.

I chose Bob San because my friends Jen and Kelly raved about it to me recently when I bought my new place here in Chicago and I told them where I lived. Bob San, they told me, is where it’s at.

Lucky for me, Bob San had a spot at the sushi bar available at the ungodly hour of 5:30 pm. Londoners, are you dying? Yes, in America, we eat that early. I bundled myself up and walked over.

I took my seat at the counter and told the sushi chef that I wanted omakase and would spend up to $30. This seemed about right for a late lunch/early dinner in Chicago, right?

First up was the miso soup and it was a very good variation thereof. The miso paste seemed to be of the red variety and hung alluringly throughout the broth. (How poetic is that? I’ll stop now.) I dropped the spoon after clearing the bowl of tofu and drank the rest.

And now, the omakase. With the exception of the silvery Spanish mackerel, this was all pretty standard stuff. I was disappointed. I know chef’s choice means chef’s choice. But I do think the chef’s choice should be more than salmon and and tuna and one little sliver of Spanish mackerel. This is terrible, but to me, it says you do all your shopping at Costco. I can get tuna and salmon anywhere. The Spanish mackerel was nice, but not with that deep creamily oily flavor that I was hoping for.

The noted Chicago food critic Steve Dolinsky gave Bob San’s omakase a miss and now I understand why.

I had mentioned to the chef that I was a huge unagi fan. I know I know…unagi is COOKED. It’s not raw. But there’s something about eel done Japanese style that has always, well, made me happy. This little tidbit was exactly how unagi should be. I have no complaints there. (Doesn’t the unagi look like he’s talking to the roll? Sorry to call him a he. He just seemed like a he.)

And the roll? The House Crunch? It was shrimp tempura, spicy mayo, eel sauce, with crunchy tempura crumbs. (See what I mean about Americans and their rolls?) And it was kind of a mess. I mean, I’m sure some people would like it. People who like to have their mouth full of A LOT of stuff. But it was just a crunchy mess and not anywhere near as light but yet still luscious as Pham’s crunchy tuna roll.

The Verdict: I left Bob San’s with $35 fewer dollars than I entered with. And with no firm intention to return in the near future. I mean, their food is fine. Many people would like it. But I think there are many more Japanese restaurants in Chicago that deserve my attention before a return visit does.

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I am really really loving exploring my new neighborhoods–Chicago’s Wicker Park and Ukranian Village. So the other morning, I did a little search on all the main Internet social outlets…what were the places by me that everyone was talking about? Black Dog Gelato was at the top of the list.

Whiskey. Bacon. Together. I can see this working. I didn’t make the jump though. You see, I was distracted by the Goat Cheese Cashew Caramel gelato. Yes, Goat Cheese Cashew Caramel.

Oh, and the Oreo mint.

Yes. Together. I couldn’t stop myself. I ordered both. Squished into one cup.

And you know what? That didn’t bother me. In fact, I kinda liked it. Because really, at the end of the day, these are some of my favorite flavors.

The orieo mint was super minty. And the goat cheese cashew caramel–really three of my all-time favorite flavors–it’s the type of combo that sticks with you for days afterwards and you keep thinking, “Was that really as good and as interesting as I thought it was?” I think it was. I’ll be back this weekend, I hope, to double-check.

The Verdict: Do it.

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