America's Test Kitchen: Pasta with Garlic and Oil

Absolutely amazing, and not hard to make. Peeling and mincing the garlic was the only real labor. Made 3 large servings. The salt at the end is completely unnecessary. This is good enough to serve to guests.

http://www.americastestkitchen.com/Recipe/759.shtml

Noodles in the Pot

Dinner. Baby egg rolls: good; pad thai with chicken: very good, huge portion; cashew chicken: very very good, huge portion. This place has a dank atmosphere and poor service, but the price is right and the portion size is gigantic.

Noodles in the Pot
2453 N. Halsted St.
773-975-6177

Oriental Express

Lunch. Chicken fried rice: just fine.

Oriental Express
233 E Wacker Dr
312-938-1118

Ben Pao

Dinner. Old world egg rolls: good, but not quite great; chicken satay: quite good, not very curry-ish, surprisingly; cherry bomb shrimp: good, but no veggies, and pretty spicy; five-spice pork noodles: much better than expected, not bad really.

Again, Ben Pao is somewhat mediocre, for the price.

Ben Pao
52 West Illinois St.
312-222-1888

Chipotle

Lunch, dine in. Chicken fajita bol: very good, as usual. There was absolutely no line here, at 11:40!

Chipotle
291 East Ontario St
312-587-7753

Whole Foods raw chicken spicy Italian sausage

Dinner. Not at all spicy. The ends were busted open, so the sausage kind of mushroomed out of the ends, looking funny.

Milk and Honey Cafe

Brunch. BLT: delicious!

Milk and Honey Cafe
1920 West Division St
773-395-9434

Matsuya

Dinner. Delicious! And cheap! Only $1.25 for salmon sushi, $1.50 for tuna, and $1.75 for yellowtail. Crunch roll: delicious delicious delicious; ET roll: OK; Mexican: unspectacular but still good; spicy tuna roll: unspectacular; salmon: very good, but not the best; tuna: good, and it had a ton of wasabi hiding; yellowtail: delicious!

Matsuya
3469 North Clark St
773-248-2677

Zen Noodles

Dinner. Crispy rolls (small): good, with four rolls, it was about 50 cents/roll, a decent bargain; Thai cashew chicken: very good.

Zen Noodles
1852 W North Ave
773-276-8300

Potbelly

Lunch. Turkey and provolone, wheat, extra turkey, plus chips: quite good, it has been a really long time since I had Potbelly.

Potbelly
111 East Wacker Drive
312-861-0013

Oriental Express

Lunch. Chicken fried rice: just fine.

Oriental Express
233 E Wacker Dr
312-938-1118

Sushi X

Dinner, delivery. Shrimp tempura roll w/ tempura crumbs: delicious; vegetable tempura roll w/ tempura crumbs: delicious; avocado roll w/ cucumber and chili sauce: very good, very spicy; salmon roll w/ wasabi mayo: seaweed on the outside (!!!), and not much wasabi flavor, a slight disappointment.

We think that you have to have two things inside the seaweed, else the rice goes in.

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

Bella Bacino's

Lunch, dine in. Canadian bacon and pineapple individual stuffed pizza: very good. The food was pretty good, but lunch took well over an hour, mostly just waiting for food, and the order got screwed up anyway.

Bella Bacino's
75 E. Wacker Drive
312-263-2350

Pizza Metro

Dinner, carry out. Sausage and pepperoni: good; potato and rosemary: good. We picked up late, and it was cold and not very good. :-(

Pizza Metro
1701 W Division St
773-278-1753

Chipotle

Lunch, dine in. Chicken fajita bol: very good, as usual. This location seems better than Michigan Ave.: shorter line, more seating, more space, and an outdoor patio.

Chipotle
291 East Ontario St
312-587-7753

Kitsch'n on Roscoe

Brunch. Some kind of scrambled eggs with stuff dish (chiliquesa?): not bad. The Texas toast was pretty good, but not spectacular. The chicken apple sausage was puny and looked gross and didn't taste very good at all. Overrated.

Kitsch'n on Roscoe
2005 W Roscoe St
773-248-7372

Coast Sushi

Dinner. Wow, I don't even remember what all we got, but it was all excellent, especially, of course, white dragon roll. Tuna sushi was actually a little better than the salmon sushi. And the yellowtail (hamachi?) roll was really quite good.

Coast Sushi
2045 N Damen
773-235-5775

Einstein Bros. Bagels

Lunch, take out. Tasty turkey sandwich on a plain bagel: good, but I miss BBQ chicken.

Einstein Bros. Bagels
1549 North Wells St
312-664-4777

Kevin

Dinner. Wow, very good food, but maybe not as good as mk. Amuse bouche of a sweet corn wonton in a delicious sweet-and-sour kind of sauce: absolutely delicious; tartare of tuna with wasabi: very good, and the wasabi was hot hot hot; shrimp and crab cakes: good; buffalo and venison: very good, the venison was really really good, while the buffalo was a little more chewy; some kind of chocolate caramel "turtle" dessert: very good! Our server was overly gregarious, and I didn't get a Happy Birthday dessert plate :-(, but it's a little hard to complain overall, cuz it was such a nice dinner. But mk was better.

Kevin
9 W Hubbard St
312-595-0055

Penny's

Dinner, carry out. Japanese gyoza: delicious; Vietnamese spring rolls: good; hot pepper noodle w/ chicken: very good (moderately, but not killer, spicy); pad se ew w/ chicken: quite good.

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

Chipotle

Lunch. Chicken fajita burrito bol: delicious, even without the tortilla.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
312-578-0950

mk

Dinner. Amuse bounche (gazpacho): spicy, cold, tasty; lobster again (lobster and corn soup): wowie zowie, delicious; pork (pork tenderloin over greens, bacon, fingerling potatoes, and coarse mustard sauce): very good, but not especially exciting; pomme frites w/ truffle cream: very, very delicious, and a ton of fries, not nearly enough cream sauce for the volume of fries, but who can eat them all anyway; turtle (chocolate, caramel, and nuts dessert): fantastic!

What a great dinner! And on top of the great food, everyone there is so friendly and not snotty, what a pleasure.

mk
868 N Franklin St.
312-482-9179

L'Appetito

Lunch. Grilled red peppers and mozerella sandwich: not bad, not good. Cold and flavorless.

L'Appetito
30 E. Huron St.
312-787-9881

Szechuan Restaurant

Lunch buffet. Not bad. General Tso's chicken was devilishly delicious, dark meat chicken. Double seafood (shrimp and ... scallops?) was OK, totally bland. Chicken in satay sauce was OK, all-white breast meat. Egg roll was terrible.

Szechuan Restaurant
625 N. Michigan
312-329-9494

Wow Bao

Lunch. Teriyaki chicken bao: very good; BBQ pork bao: just good.

Wow Bao
Water Tower Place
835 N Michigan
312-440-3165

Moonshine

Dinner, dine in, sidewalk patio. Pork ribs: chewy, not very good; French fries: just OK. This place is just OK bar food. Maybe other menu items are better.

Moonshine
1824 W. Division
773-862-8686

Thai Village

Dinner, dine in, sidewalk patio. Shrimp rolls: not bad, just little shrimp in a folded-over skin, but the dipping sauce was excellent; cashew chicken: very good, excellent sauce; wide rice noodles in "tasty sauce": very good.

Thai Village
2053 W Division
773-384-5352

Houlihan's

Lunch. Chicken fingers platter: delicious, tons of food, but a whopping $14 (dinner plate, apparently). Ouch.

Houlihan's
111 East Wacker Drive
312-616-3663

Penny's

Dinner, carry out. Japanese gyoza: delicious; Vietnamese spring rolls: good; hot pepper noodle w/ chicken: very good (very spicy at the bottom of the container); pad thai w/ chicken: good.

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

Chipotle

Lunch. Chicken fajita burrito bol: delicious, even without the tortilla.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
312-578-0950

Sushi X

Dinner, take out. Shrimp tempura roll w/ tempura crumbs: delicious; vegetable tempura roll w/ tempura crumbs: delicious; sake roll w/ cucumber and chili sauce: very good, the salmon was melt-in-your-mouth delicious; asparagus roll w/ jalapeno: way way way too spicy (and they forgot our tempura crumbs on this roll).

Wow, never, ever again, get jalapeno on a roll!

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

Picante

Lunch. Chicken taco: good, all white meat chicken; chorizo taco: very good, but quite greasy/oily. The hot sauce was killer hot -- a few drops will do -- and the mild sauce was very pleasant. The burritos here are gi-normous, probably could share one.

Picante
2016 1/2 W Division
773-328-8800

Dirk's ono/wahoo

Dinner. The guy at Dirk's said to cook the ono until it was almost cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. I probably grilled it for about 5 minutes per side, and it was cooked all the way through, and a bit chewy, like fully cooked tuna.

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

Penny's

Dinner. Gyoza: delicious; Vietnamese spring rolls: good, also good with Thai spring rolls sauce; crab rangoon: pretty good; lad nar with chicken: just OK, exceptionally wide noodles tonight.

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

Oriental Express

Lunch. Chicken fried rice: just fine.

Oriental Express
233 E Wacker Dr
312-938-1118

Pizza Metro

Dinner, dine in. House salad: pretty decent, tart balsamic dressing, lotsa olives though, but the nice big baked roll was nice (and filling); one slice of pepperoni and sausage: good; one slice of pepperoni, onion, green pepper, and grilled red pepper: OK, but all the veggies kind of made a layer of mushiness -- better to stick to only onions, I think.

Pizza Metro
1701 W Division St
773-278-1753

Panda Express

Lunch, carry out. Orange chicken: not bad, toxic as usual; garlic green bean chicken breast in black bean sauce: terrible flavor, terrible green beans.

Panda Express
Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph
312-201-8790

Fresh Choice

Breakfast. Strawberry, blueberry, banana, apple juice all-fruit smoothie: delicious!

Fresh Choice
233 N Michigan Ave
312-856-1456

Bob San

Dinner, patio. Two House Crunch rolls (not as exciting, now that we've had Sushi X and Coast rolls w/ tempura crumbs on the outside), Vegetable Crunch roll (pretty good), California roll (very good, perhaps the best California roll I've had), 4 pieces of namasake (amazing -- haven't had it this good in a long long time).

Bob San
1805 W. Division St.
773-235-8888

Chipotle

Lunch. Chicken fajita bowl: delicious, lotsa lotsa fajita veggies.

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
312-578-0950