Sushi X

Dinner, delivery. Veggie tempura w/ crumbs: delicious. Tuna w/ something: delicious. Sake w/ something: delicious. Hamachi w/ something: delicious. Cucumber, avocado, and asparagus, maybe w/ something: delicious.

Tizi Melloul

Dinner. We just got 5 appetizers. Hummus: just OK, and a crazy ton of it. "Curried" tuna tartare: good, and not curry-ish at all. Spinach salad with weird square blobs of cheese and pine nuts and bacon: just OK -- the cheese and nuts were narsty. Pulled pork ribs w/ grilled shrimp: good. Cheese crisps: basically gooey cheese inside of a baklava pastry shell: just OK.

The free bread and dipping oil was pretty darn good actually, better than some of the stuff we paid for. We ended with ginger creme brulee that was neither gingery nor particularly good.

Cool room, decent service, but unspectacular food, and a somewhat inconvenient location.

Tizi Melloul
531 N. Wells St.
312-670-4338

Penny's

Dinner, delivery. Gyoza: delicious. Vietnamese spring rolls: delicious. Hot pepper noodle w/ chicken: delicious. Pad thai w/ chicken: delicious.

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

The Great Steak & Potato Company

Lunch, carry out. Regular-size chicken teriyaki sandwich w/ Swiss, onions, lettuce, tomato, no mayo: OK, not great. The roll was the local Turano brand, and quite chewy. The small fries were mushy and greasy.

The Great Steak & Potato Company
233 N. Michigan
312-540-1219

Chipotle

Lunch. Chicken fajita bol w/ normal amount of spicy salsa: delicious, but the lettuce lady gave me cheese too. :-(

Chipotle
291 East Ontario St
312-587-7753

Panda Express

Lunch. Orange chicken: good. White-meat chicken with green beans and a "black bean garlic sauce": good (I think this was "the" special, and it's too bad they don't always have this).

Panda Express
100 W Randolph St
312-201-8790

Bruna's

Dinner. Free bread: good, but really chewy crust (maybe this is what "real" Italian bread is like?). Caesar salad: delicious, and enormous -- we shared 1 salad, and they split it into separate bowls for us, and each bowl looked like a normal salad to me ... at $7 a real bargain. Chicken parmesan w/ rosemary potatoes and green beans: very good, and enormous.

First heard about Bruna's courtesy of EatChicago. What a find! Totally old-school feel to the place, delicious simple Italian food, huge portions, moderate prices, and fantastic service. Our waiter was awesome, very good with providing recommendations.

Why is good simple Italian food so hard to find in Chicago? Why is there a one-hour wait at Maggiano's? Why does Trattoria No. 10 still exist? Bruna's is the real deal.

Bruna's Ristorante
2424 S. Oakley
773-254-5550

Milk and Honey Cafe

Brunch. BLT: delicious!

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

Yen's

Dinner. Spicy chicken and green beans: delicious, great flavor, the onions were a nice bonus. Kung pao shrimp: good, but not great, lotsa veggies, but also some undesirable veggies.

Service was excellent, water service especially. If only their delivery tasted as good as their dine-in.

Yen's
2856 N. Clark St.
773-549-0707

Flo

Brunch. Three-berry (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry) French toast: delicious. I don't know what the yellow goo was on top, but it was delicious. And the butter-like goo in the little cup was also delicious.

Service was lacking though.

Flo
1434 W Chicago
312-243-0477

Coast

Dinner. White dragon roll: delicious as always. Wasabi (hamachi and cucumber and ... more stuff) roll: good, hamachi was great, but wasn't as wasabi-y as expected. Grilled asparagus roll: delicious. California roll: good, but not anything special. Spicy crunchy tuna roll: very good. Pieces of namasake, maguro, and hamachi: delicious. One piece of (bluefin) toro: delectable!

At 7:20, they told us the wait would be an hour, but it ended up being only 30 minutes.

Coast Sushi
2045 N Damen
773-235-5775

Penny's

Dinner. Gyoza: delicious. Vietnamese spring rolls: delicious. Lad nar w/ chicken: delicious.

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

Chipotle

Lunch. Chicken fajita burrito bol w/ mild, corn, and hot salsa: very good!

Chipotle
316 N Michigan Ave
312-578-0950

Cosi

Lunch, take out. Bruschetta BLT: pretty tasty, but the bacon was very fatty.

Line was long but moved very quickly.

Cosi
233 N Michigan Ave
312-938-3200

Pizza Metro

Dinner, take out. Pepperoni and sausage: good. Rosemary potato: good. Pepperoni and onion: not good ... their onions are not very good.

Pizza Metro
1701 W Division St
773-278-1753

Oriental Express

Lunch, take out. Kung pao chicken: OK, quite spicy, but too much celery, and no peanuts. Green bean chicken: OK, but goopy.

Sigh, I don't know why I keep going back to this place. It's not very good.

Oriental Express
233 E Wacker Dr
312-938-1118

Sushi X

Dinner, delivery. Vegetable tempura roll w/ tempura crumbs: delicious. Hamachi roll inside out w/ cucumber, tempura crumbs, and eel sauce: delicious. Tekka (tuna) roll inside out w/ avocado: delicious. Sake roll inside out w/ asparagus, tempura crumbs, and eel sauce: delicious. Avocado roll inside out w/ cucumber and asparagus: delicious.

No spicy rolls tonight, and it was a delicious change of pace.

They said it would take 45-60 minutes, and it took over 70. :-(

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

Penny's

Dinner, delivery. Gyoza: delicious. Vietnamese spring rolls, with extra sauce: great. Pad thai w/ chicken: good. Lad nar w/ chicken, with noodles in a separate container: delicious -- almost TOO crunchy!

What a great way to get lad nar, the noodles were super crunchy.

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

Chipotle

Lunch. Chicken fajita bol w/ normal amount of spicy salsa: delicious, and not too bad, with two cups of water.

Chipotle
291 East Ontario St
312-587-7753

Pacific Cafe

Dinner. Vegan gyoza: perfectly fine. Vietnamese lemon grass stir-fry: very good, no nasty veggies, very very spicy.

Service, as always, was unattentive and slow, even though we were the only diners in the joint (at first).

Pacific Cafe
1619 N Damen Ave
773-862-1988

Keefer's

Dinner. Country salad (curly greens, bacon, poached egg, croutons): very good, the runny poached egg wasn't bad at all. Hamburger (8 oz.) w/ Swiss cheese: very good. Pomme frites: very good, and a ton of them. Peanut butter crunch ("corn flakes" with chocolate, and peanut butter mousse): terrible, like a Snickeroo gone wrong.

The bistro menu was such a bargain -- why would anyone buy a cheeseburger at Chili's, when you can get this thing at Keefer's for a few bucks more?

Service was excellent.

Sultan's Market

Lunch. Falafel sandwich, with taboulleh instead of the white creamy (not yogurt, he said) salad sauce thing: very good -- and it didn't make me sick.

I wonder what is in that other stuff, it must have been making me sick all this time.

Sultan's Market
2057 W. North Ave.
773-235-3072