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For me, the lamb was really the highlight of the Blackbird dinner. One of the best lamb dishes I've had in a restaurant.

Many, many, many thanks to Ron and everyone who contributed to making this weekend such a great time. A special shout out to Alchemist for putting on a simply outstanding event at The Violet Hour. Marissa and I really enjoyed seeing some old friends and meeting new people. We hope all of the out of towners enjoyed visiting our city as much as we love living (and eating) here.

The Maxwell Street market tour was a lot of fun this morning. David Hammond did a great job of educating and navigating our group through the crowded market. The food was fantastic (for me the tamales and some of the tacos were standouts), and some of the sights were highly entertaining (if you need tube socks, tires, wrestling masks, and Super Nintendo games this is the place for you). Hopefully pictures will be forthcoming.

Great times last night. The Violet Hour was amazing. There is pain in my household today.

That wasn't my rec, but I'm pretty sure lamb with cumin is on the menu at Lao Sze Chuan.

Check out this and this and this. Two of my favorites (which are definitely can't miss items) are Tony's 3 Chili Chicken (aka Chicken Crack) and dry chili prawns. Enjoy!

Here's an idea... If you're going to take the Red Line to Wrigley (Addison stop), you could go early and take the Red Line past Addison and get off at Argyle. There's a host of Vietnamese places, but may favorite place up there is Sun Wah (Chinese BBQ). Outstanding pork, duck and chicken. You could also go after the game, which would make your El ride a lot more pleasant (most people will be taking the El back south)

I would advise our visitors not to panic too much about getting around Chicago. Just remember the following: Leave extra time to get places Cabs are plentiful Leave extra time to get places Check the CTA website when you get here for the Trip Planner (how to get from Point A to Point B) and any system outages/reroutes Leave extra time to get places This is a very easy city to get around, sometimes it just takes longer than one might expect.

You may want to give Blackbird a shot (especially if you're a fan of pork belly and other pork related products). Blackbird 619 W Randolph St (312) 715-0708

Babbo is definitely well known outside of NYC. Pick up the book "Heat" for additional context.

I've had that tagliatelle and it's fantastic. Never done the lunch buffet though.

I think A Mano would be a good choice. It's a quieter, higher quality version of Quartino. I've had a couple of fantastic meals there since the first one thata I posted about above.

I was having some trouble paying for multiple events without logging in to PayPal. Once I logged in I had no trouble at all. BTW Ron, you can take us off the list for the Saturday shindig. Still in for everything else though.

We had dinner in the lounge last night and it was a very nice experience. The lounge menu is made up of smaller courses from the "Raw" and "Warm" portions of the menu along with some "Sweets", souffles, and cheese. The dishes were generally in the $15-$20 ranges (with some costing a bit more). The portions are definitely smaller than what you would get as part of the 4 or 12 course tasting menus. You can also order items a la carte off of the regular menu. We had a bunch of smaller plates, focusing mainly on things we didn't have the first time we went to L2O. Standouts were the lamb and ebi tartare, the tuna & hamachi, and the golden egg with pork belly (I liked this pork belly dish much more than the one I had as part of the 12 course tasting). I rounded out my meal with the sea bass dish that YT captured above. We finished with souffles, and the kitchen was nice enough to send out the marshmallow, macaroon, and ganache that we would have gotten in the main dining room. So all in all a nice experience. Still not inexpensive (we probably spent about as much as you would expect to spend if you order the 4 course), but a nice way to experience L2O's food on short notice or if you can't get a reservation.

As much as I like Moto, you might want to do L2O instead. If you want something a little less "molecular" I would suggest either Blackbird or North Pond (btw, I had an absolutely incredible meal at North Pond last weekend, easily the best of the 3 meals I've had there).

Obviously YT has been there more than me so I would defer to his opinion, but I thought that the tasting got a bit overwhelming by the end of the savory portion of the menu. Next time I will definitely go for the 4 course (and maybe add a course).

Same here. There was much sadness when Scylla closed. I can't wait until she opens her new restaurant.

Yes, there is a bar and lounge area that has communal tables.

We really liked this restaurant. There were four of us at the table, so we decided to use a little ordering power and taste a good sized portion of the menu. We started with the cold section. The Kobe beef tartare was the standout for me. The horseradish ice cream was a very cool touch, unfortunately it didn't stand a chance against some AC issues in the room last night. What I thought was really neat about this dish was the fact that it still tasted like a very well executed, classic steak tartare, just with some flourishes thrown in. I also tried the Caesar salad. I liked the salad, but not as much as the tartare. I would agree that the brioche was a little light on the filling, but it didn't bother me. The anchovies perched on the individual pieces of romaine were outstanding. Another person at our table had the raw tuna, and she said it was excellent. It looked like a pretty gorgeous piece of fish. Next we moved on to "hot". I went with the Milwaukee-inspired risotto. I had what turned out to be an earlier version of this dish at Avenue's on New Year's Eve. Aged cheddar, bacon, PBR-braised onions, green apple, and Cheez-Its. What's not to like? The green apple was the key to this dish, providing a nice counter-point to the richness of all of the other ingredients. I also tried the gnocchi with fried egg, asparagus, and truffle oil. A pretty rich dish, but eating the gnocchi in the same bite as a piece of asparagus and a piece of runny egg was just fantastic. The gnocchi was just a little over salted, but it didn't take away from the dish too much. For my main course, I had the pork chop. A gigantic piece of meat that blew me away with how tender and juicy it was. I thought the watermelon chutney was a nice cooling touch on top of the meat. The grits and the greens I thought were both good, but didn't really blow me away. I thought the sauce, that had a distinctive root beer taste was fantastic. A back yard BBQ on a plate kind of a dish that I really enjoyed. The Wife had the lamb, which I thought was quite good from the couple of bites I had. It came with an Israeli cous cous that was very tasty. I had a bite of the scallops. I thought they were cooked perfectly (nice sear on the outside, a little short of cooked through on the inside). The whole dish had a bold smokiness that I enjoyed, but I could see how this might not be for everyone. The 4th member of our table had the halibut that was pronounced "excellent". We had 4 desserts to share across the table. I wound up with the gooey brownie in front of me, which I was reluctant to share with the rest of the table. Basically, this is everything I love in desserts on one plate (chocolate, peanut butter, banana). The rice crispy treats were a big hit, especially when eaten in combination with the strawberry and rhubarb they are accompanied by. I wasn't nuts about the peach cobbler, but I really enjoyed the creme brulee (probably because I was the biggest coconut fan at our table). Service was outstanding. Our server Jim who we know from several other restaurants is a real pro. He guided us through the menu and wine list expertly. He and many of the other members of the staff we spoke to are very excited and very passionate about the food and the restaurant. Jim was also nice enough to bring out 4 glasses of Muscat with dessert. After dinner we decided to hang out in the lounge for a bit and try some cocktails. I had the London Calling, which is their take on a Pimm's Cup. I'm no cocktail expert, but I really enjoyed the drink. Very refreshing on a hot summer night. While we were having cocktails, Chef GEB came out to say hello, and his excitement over what was going on was just great to see. He was definitely exuding a "now the chains are off" kind of exuberance. I have always been a huge fan of Chef Bowles' cooking, so I probably went into this meal a little bit biased. We had eaten at Avenues while he was there 3 times, and enjoyed each meal immensely. So, it was so great to be in an environment that was completely of the Chef's design, eating the food that he wants to be serving in an environment that he wants to be serving it. Incidentally, strip out a luxury ingredient or two, add a bit more whimsy, and this is basically what he was cooking at Avenues. But now you can get it at about half the price, and you can wear jeans. One other thing...the foie-li-pop is on the late night menu. Two for $7. We had a round before out appetizers and they were just as good as they were at Avenues. Frozen foie covered in Pop Rocks. One more reason to love Graham Elliot.

Check out this list from the Chicago Sun-Times.

To re-iterate. The resataurant is open. They opened last Friday (soft). Per Chef GEB's post on LTHForum, the official opening was last night.

Umm, yes it has.

I'm going on Saturday. I will report back.

All of these are in the city... If you're going to be in town on a Monday you could do Sweets & Savories. On Monday's you can do a tasting menu for $50. You could probably get away with $50 pp at Avec (mediterranean influenced small plates). They don't take reservations and weekends there are VERY busy, so that would be something to stick with during the week too. Mado is a new spot in Bucktown, focusing on local and seasonal ingredients. They are BYO, so $50pp is definitely do-able. If you want to stick to more ethnic eats, $50pp is no problem. For Thai, I would recommend TAC Quick. Sun Wah is an awesome spot for Chinese BBQ. Lao Sze Chuan is currently my favorite spot in Chinatown. Sweets and Savories 1534 W Fullerton Ave (773) 281-6778 Avec 615 W Randolph St (312) 377-2002 Mado 1647 N Milwaukee Ave (773) 342-2340 TAC Quick 3930 N Sheridan Rd (773) 327-5253 Sun Wah 1134 W Argyle St (773) 769-1254 Lao Sze Chuan 2172 S Archer Ave (312) 326-5040

Can you give us more information like any geographic limitation? What kind of food do you like? Chicago is a big city, with lots of "good places to eat at".