Chipotle

Dinner/snack. Chicken fajita bol: fine, but they were out of the mild tomato salsa! :-( At least they were open late -- a pleasant surprise!

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601-3702
312-578-0950

Chicago SummerDance Grill

Dinner/snack. Chicken skewers with spicy salsa: quite good, and a startling amount of food (tons of tortilla chips). The salsa was good and quite spicy, I could have used more. Unfortunately the salsa was also watery, so the chips at the bottom were mushy mushy.

Chicago SummerDance
Sprit of Music Garden
601 S. Michigan Ave.
312-742-4007

Penny's

Lunch, dine in. Gyoza: delicious; lad nar with chicken: delicious, seemed like a lot more noodles than usual; pad thai with chicken: good, also seemed like a lot of noodles. Seems like the Saturday kitchen crew is a whole lot better than Wednesday's!

Penny's Noodle Shop
1542 N. Damen
773-394-0100

Oriental Express

Lunch: chicken fried rice. Just fine, quick bite to eat at the desk.

Oriental Express Ltd
233 E Wacker Dr
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 938-1118

Sushi X

Dinner, carry out. Two shrimp tempura rolls (with tempura crumbs): yum yum yum, love the eel sauce. Avocado roll with cucumber and chili sauce: very good, quite spicy, unevenly distributed chili sauce though. :-( And sake roll with spicy mayo: unfortunately wrapper, not rice, on the outside, but still good, and quite spicy (surprisingly so). Also, 50 cents for extra ginger; we got two little cups of wasabi and three (!!!) little cups of ginger -- wow! Damn, I love Sushi X.

Sushi X
1136 W. Chicago Ave.
312-491-9232

Pizza Metro

Dinner, dine in. One slice of pepperoni and onion: good ... except there was no onion (I think). One slice of potato and rosemary: mm, quite good, a nice change of pace, good with some red pepper flakes. The workers were particularly rude and inattentive tonight. :-(

Pizza Metro
1701 W Division St
(773) 278-1753

Oriental Express

Lunch: chicken fried rice. Good, good. Made even better by eating it outside on the grass by the river, with a good book to read.

Oriental Express Ltd
233 E Wacker Dr
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 938-1118

Chipotle

Lunch: chicken fajita burrito, with two scoops of corn, instead of one plus a little of the spicy. Very good, with a surprising mild burn in my mouth when I was done, though little or no burn detected while I was chomping.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601-3702
(312) 578-0950

Whole Foods Mediterranean turkey burger

Dinner. Broiled it instead of grilling it. It turned out OK, not great. Dunno if that was because of the burger or because of the broiling.

Chipotle

Lunch: chicken fajita burrito, very very good, not killer spicy today.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601-3702
(312) 578-0950

Las Palmas

Dinner. Seafood tacos of the day -- beer-battered shrimp with mango and something, very good, but it got worse as it cooled off. I didn't even mind the corn tortillas. However, not a ton of food, yet it was enough (no veggies though!). Substituted fried plantains for rice and beans, yum! Chicken fajitas were fine as usual, also got not-so-good as they cooled off. The days of the huge buffet burners were good times indeed.

Las Palmas
1835 W. North Ave.
773-289-4991

Dirk's Fish & Gourmet Shop Sockeye, Chilean Sea Bass, and Halibut

Dinner. Sockeye wasn't great, I think I prefer King (which didn't look that good in the display case), or maybe the farm-raised. However, ordering the sockeye was unexpectedly exciting, because they brought out a full (huge!) salmon and filleted it and cleaned it before our very eyes!

Dirk's Fish & Gourmet Shop
2070 N. Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL, 60614
773-404-3475

Mac's

Lunch. BLT (not that good), French fries (made me feel sick), macaroni and cheese (very good).

Mac's
1801 W. Division
(773) 782-4400

Alliance Bakery

Breakfast. Raspberry-filled doughnut. Didn't have any filling! :-( I went back, and they gave me a new one. In the end, it wasn't even that good. :-(

Alliance Bakery
1736 Division
Chicago, Illinois 60622
773-278-0366

Sushi X

Dinner, take out. Godzilla roll (delicious), asparagus roll w/ avocado (good), California roll (just OK -- no need to get it again), shrimp tempura roll w/ tempura crumbs (delicious). Fantastic sushi, a decent price. Inside is dark and gloomy and creepy, take out and delivery seem to be the way to go. Take out packaging was all fancy and everything. Yum!

Sushi X
1136 W. Chicago Ave.
312-491-9232

Koryo

Dinner. Some kind of sweet potato soup (not great, not bad, tasted like the bean filling of mochi, very thick like pudding), radish wraps tray with wasabi sauce (pretty good), two kinds of pancakes (neither too good, I think they were seafood(?) and soybean(?)), panchan (fine, yea for potatoes!), dolsut bibimbap (pretty good ... I liked having the sauce on the side, to spice it up as much as you want ... I don't think our pot was hot enough), and bulgogi (a little dry).

Koryo
2936 N. Broadway
(773) 477-8510

Potbelly

Lunch: turkey and provolone, wheat, extra turkey, plus chips. Not bad, but as usual all the meat was tucked into the one side of the sandwich. Sigh.

Potbelly
111 East Wacker Drive
312 861 0013

Chipotle

Lunch: chicken fajita burrito, very good, too spicy at the bottom (again).

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601-3702
(312) 578-0950

Panda Express

Lunch. Orange chicken (delicious), some kind of white meat chicken breast with asparagus and mushrooms (not so good, the asparagus was very fibrous and stalky).

Panda Express
Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 201-8790

Dirk's Fish & Gourmet Shop Halibut

Dinner. Deeee-licious halibut. Grilled plain, just with oil, salt, and pepper. Wow, Dirk's is not letting us down! And at $18 for 2 servings, and as good as any halibut in any restaurant, it really makes you think twice!

Dirk's Fish & Gourmet Shop
2070 N. Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL, 60614
773-404-3475

Scooter's Frozen Custard

Dessert. Some kind of caramelly sundae (over vanilla frozen custard), with nuts, whipped cream, and cherry. Delicious.

Scooter's Frozen Custard
1658 W. Belmont Ave
Chicago, IL 60657 773-244-6415

Dunlays on Clark

Dinner. Veggieburger -- wow, shockingly good, they say it is homemade. It had brown rice, bits of sweet potato, and I don't remember what, but it was delicious. My only gripe is that it was really squishy and so by the end, I had flattened it down and it had been oozing out of the bun. Fries were delicious skinny fries, like Houston's, and a ton of them! Everything about this place was like Houston's (and Bandera) -- no wonder, the GM came from there. For $8, a good deal, just like getting a burger at Houston's.

Dunlays on Clark
2600 North Clark Street
Lincoln Park
Chicago, IL 60614
773-883-6000

The Chopping Block

Early lunch snacks. "Summer One Dish Dinners" class:

From salads to stir-frys to pastas, everyone needs some quick and easy ideas for cool summer meals! Cucumber and Tomato Salad, Broccoli Chow Fun with Black Bean Sauce, Fettucine with Mushrooms and Peas, Pan-Roasted Salmon with Spinach and White Beans

Salad was great, chow fun was OK, fettucine was great (but I didn't like the shrooms), the salmon was great (and the beans were OK).

The food was pretty good, but the class was a small letdown. It was a bit like Emeril Live, only you're right there in front. A lot of her teachings were stuff we already knew, from Good Eats and Cook's Illustrated's books and TV show. So it was kind of just like paying for the recipes. The whole thing seemed a bit like a marketing push for stuff they sell at the store, so I kind of resented paying money to attend a commercial for their store's stuff. And the other folks in the class were either older Lincoln Park housewives or ditsy Lincoln Park trixies -- not my crowd -- and most of them didn't seem serious about learning to cook; OK, I'm a cooking school snob. Maybe the hands-on classes at Lincoln Square are different.

India House

Dinner. Free plain naan w/ an orange dipping sauce (excellent), vegetable samosa (pretty good, I only like one out of four sauces, the dark watery one), chicken vindaloo (I asked for it to be not as spicy as normal ... the spiciness built and built and simmered in my mouth, even when I wasn't eating it, until I couldn't take it any more -- the manager saw this and took it away and brought back some chicken tikki masala, which was fine, maybe a bit chewy), garlic naan (good), aloo gobi (good but not great).

White tablecloths, tuxedoed waiters, 140+ menu items, guy playing music on a cheesy electronic keyboard in the foyer. This was a weird place, but I was impressed with the service, but maybe not with the food.

India House
59 W Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60610
Phone: (312) 645-9500

Penny's

Dinner: gyoza (excellent), Vietnamese spring rolls (tasted really off to me), lad nar with chicken (good, but seemed like not much chicken), hot pepper noodle with chicken (again, not as good as normal -- who the heck is cooking on Wednesdays?). Our waiter was new, and dinner for some reason took about twice as long as normal for Penny's; he has much to learn about pacing.

Penny's Noodle Shop
1542 N. Damen
773-394-0100

Chipotle

Lunch: chicken fajita burrito. Faxed my order in, for the first time. Worked OK. I put in a time of 12:05, giving them only 7 minutes to get it made, and they told me it'd be ready at 12:15, and when I got there it had been sitting a while. But it wasn't cold or anything. Faxing orders ahead is definitely a good way to go, to beat the line, but you don't get to tell them exactly what you want in the burrito, and how much.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601-3702
(312) 578-0950

Heartland Meats sirloin steaks

Dinner. Grilled two 4.5 oz. sirloin steaks. Good, a little chewy. Did I overcook them? I pulled them off at 140 degrees internal tempurature, just like Cook's Illustrated's grilling cookbook recommends for medium doneness.

The steaks were pretty cheap, though. I remember their filet mignons were good but very pricey. Maybe the NY strip is worth a try?

Oriental Express

Wacker/Columbus pedway. Lunch: chicken fried rice. Faster than I remember, hmm. Tastes as good as ever.

Oriental Express Ltd
233 E Wacker Dr
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 938-1118

Boca vegan burger

Dinner: not bad, maybe a little dry.

Chipotle

Lunch: chicken fajita burrito, delicious.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60601-3702
(312) 578-0950

Dirk's Fish & Gourmet Shop Chilean sea bass

Best sea bass ever. Took a long time to cook (maybe 12 minutes?) on the grill, as the fillet was very, very thick. Didn't seem overcooked, though.

2070 N. Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL, 60614
773-404-3475

Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!

Pre-Theater dinner. Cold tapas: garlic potato salad (good). Hot tapas: shrimp with garlic, olive oil & red pepper flakes (very good), jalapeno shrimp (good but not great), chicken empanada (good, but why one gigantic empanada when we're obviously going to be sharing?), skewered chicken & chorizo sausage (good), roast dates with bacon & apple vinaigrette (very good!), goat cheese baked in tomato sauce (very good). Iced tea tasted awful (2 out of 3 glasses). Desserts: chocolate soup was OK, strong aftertaste, carmelized banana was nothing special.

Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba
2024 N. Halsted St.
(773) 935-5000

Lake Shore Country Club

Dinner: lamb T-bone, fine.

Lake Shore Country Club
1255 Sheridan Rd
Glencoe, IL 60022
(847) 835-3000

Chipotle

Michigan/South Water. Lunch: carnitas fajita burrito. Not too good, kind of dry. No more fooling around, back to chicken.

My Pie

Damen/Armitage. Dinner delivery: medium deep dish special, plus tomatoes, minus mushrooms. They let me substitute, against their own rules, but they ended up not giving the price of the "special". Hmph. Well, the pizza was delicious.

Chipotle

Michigan/South Water. Lunch: chicken fajita burrito, yum.

King Salmon from Dirk's Fish

Clybourn/Armitage. Very very good fish. Pricey, but probably worth it. Much better taste than the salmon we've gotten at Whole Foods, and much better looking than good old Jewel. Apparently everything is sushi-grade, and the salmon is flown in 3 times a week, and the fish case is 90% cleared out every single day. What a find! Need to check into their frozen lobster bisque and the shelled deveined uncooked shrimp!

Chipotle

Clybourn/Cortland. Lunch: chicken fajita bol.

Sultan's Market

North/Hoyne. Lunch: spicy falafel sandwich, pretty good, the spicy sauce was densely concentrated in one little area again, though.

Some sushi place in Terminal 3 at SFO

Lunch: California rolls (just edible).

The Greystone Restaurant, St. Helena, CA

Dinner: temptations (yummy and exciting), halibut (delicious, nice crust).

The Greystone Restaurant
St. Helena, CA

V. Sattui, St. Helena, CA

Lunch: mango chicken sausage sandwich (not bad, but why wasn't it grilled on the big outdoor grill?), grilled corn (not so good). A crazy hectic place, as usual.

V. Sattui
St. Helena, CA

Farmhouse Restaurant, Forestville, CA

Dinner: don't remember, but it was good and fancy and expensive.

Farmhouse Restaurant
Forestville, CA

Korbel Delicatessen, Guerneville, CA

Lunch: some kind of sausage, surprisingly good, with a side of citrus rice salad, not bad.

Korbel Delicatessen
Guerneville, CA