Chicagoland New Year's Resolutions for 2007

[nsxtasy]

In another topic, molto e mentioned his "2007 have to's". Here are mine:

OVERALL GOAL

1. Lose weight. Okay, I'm sure that's not what anyone else here wants to hear about. But I HAVE TO DO THIS, or I'm going to regret accomplishing anything in the rest of this list.

PLACES I'VE NEVER BEEN

2. Quince (Evanston) I am looking forward to trying this new restaurant in the old Trio space. Watch for a report... very soon.

3. Fine dining I keep a long list of fine dining places that I've been wanting to try - doesn't everyone here? - and I hope to go to at least four of the ones on my list, which currently looks like this:

Sola (Chicago)

Sweets and Savories (Chicago)

Vie (Western Springs) - per Ron's recommendation

Courtright's (Willow Springs)

Avenues (Chicago)

Scylla (Chicago)

Cuatro (Chicago)

Fulton's on the River (Chicago)

Custom House (Chicago)

Spring (Chicago)

Vermilion (Chicago)

Le Lan (Chicago)

Naha (Chicago)

Pancho Viti's Mexican Cantina (Highwood)

4. Tallent (Bloomington IN) Yes, I know it's out of town, and this topic is for Chicagoland. But I've heard a lot about this fine dining place (as well as some places in Indy I'd like to try) and I'm determined to go there this year.

5. Thai food I intend to try at least two new (to me) places in Chicago that I have never been to.

6. Pizza I intend to try at least one new (to me) place specializing in pizza, in addition to the big Chicago-style chains I already love.

7. Barbecue I want to try at least one new (to me) place specializing in barbecue, to see if it's as good as Carson's, which I still enjoy.

8. Hot Chocolate (Chicago) I keep hearing about the desserts in this restaurant.

9. Chocolate Box (Winnetka) Fine chocolates (although Piron remains my ultimate standard of comparison and is as great as ever).

PLACES TO RETURN TO

10. The Lobby Restaurant in the Peninsula I just loved this place the several times I've been there for dinner. I loved the food, I loved the chocolate-infused iced tea (it's a lot better than it sounds), I loved the service, I loved the all-you-can-eat chocolate dessert buffet on weekends. I want to go back!

11. Close by places I'm looking forward to returning to places close to home that I enjoy, hopefully at least one visit to each of these:

Oceanique (Evanston)

Chef's Station (Evanston)

Black Ram Steakhouse (Des Plaines)

Mitchell's Fish Market (Glenview)

Lupita's (Evanston)

Thai Sookdee (Evanston)

Walker Brothers Original Pancake House (Wilmette, Glenview, and other locations)

Pete Miller's (Evanston)

Edited January 11, 2007 by nsxtasy (log)

[jesteinf]

Neat topic. Here are my goals for 2007:

1. Get to Moto! I've heard so many mixed opinions, I just need to try it for myself

2. Get back to Schwa. I just need to suck it up and go on a weeknight.

3. Get to Nomi. Sounds like there are great things happening under the new chef.

4. Get to Prairie Grass Cafe. Yes, there is life outside of the City.

5. Eat in more neighborhoods. Even within the City, I need to get around more.

6. Get back to Alinea. It's been since March, and that's just too long.

7. Actually cook something. We'll see about that.

[nsxtasy]

Now that we're at the halfway point of the year, I thought I'd check up on how I'm doing against my goals for the year:

1. Lose weight: Not done. I intend to do a lot less eating out the second half of the year.

2. Quince: Done. But disappointing.

3. Fine dining: Only partially done (Sweets and Savories, Avenues) unless Sunday brunch qualifies (Sola, Cuatro).

4. Tallent: Done. But disappointing.

5. Thai food: Done (Thai Pavilion 2, TAC Quick).

6. Pizza: Done (Burt's Place, Pequod's). But disappointing.

7. Barbecue: Not done.

8. Hot Chocolate: Not done.

9. Chocolate Box: Done. But disappointing. However, I tried a lot of chocolatiers in the area, and found others that I liked a lot. See separate topic.

10. The Lobby Restaurant in the Peninsula: Not done.

11. Close by places: Mostly done (Black Ram Steakhouse, Mitchell's Fish Market, Lupita's, Thai Sookdee, Walker Brothers, Pete Miller's, but not Oceanique, Chef's Station)

Here are the highlights and lowlights of my meals during the first half of 2007, (excluding brunch visits, fast food, etc):

Wow, Incredible (worth traveling long distances to dine):

Tallgrass (Lockport IL) - best meal of the first half of the year

Avenues (Chicago IL)

Le Bernardin (New York NY)

Margaux (Sheboygan WI)

Aigre Doux (Chicago IL)

Very Good (worth recommending to others):

Black Ram (Des Plaines IL)

14 West (Indianapolis IN)

Diva (Toledo OH)

The Cabin (Ashland OH)

Mitchell's Fish Market (Glenview IL)

Kincaid's (Burlingame CA)

Rosemary and Sage (Riverdale NJ)

Lupita's (Evanston IL)

TAC Quick (Chicago IL)

Thai Sookdee (Evanston IL)

Thai Pavilion 2 (Skokie IL)

Pete Miller's (Evanston IL)

Giordano's (Evanston IL)

Lou Malnati's (Evanston IL)

Just Okay (worth visiting if you're in the neighborhood):

Cafe Matou (Chicago IL)

Georgio's International (Toledo OH)

Brant's Bistro (Mansfield OH)

Davis Street Fishmarket (Evanston IL)

Italian Colors (Oakland CA)

Rivoli (Berkeley CA)

L'Explorateur (Indianapolis IN)

Merle's Barbecue (Evanston IL)

Wildfire (Glenview IL)

Disappointing, seriously flawed (worth forgetting):

Burt's Place (Morton Grove IL)

Pequod's (Morton Grove IL)

Tallent (Bloomington IN)

Port Edward (Algonquin IL)

Quince (Evanston IL)

Dreadful (worth warning others away):

Steve's Dakota Grill (Ontario OH)

Gio (Evanston IL)

Dave's Italian Kitchen (Evanston IL)

Edited June 29, 2007 by nsxtasy (log)

[JDYmeat]

We just went to Quince last night and I must disagree with your assessment, we all loved it. The menu was well thought out and executed perfectly. The service was quite friendly and I would describe the atmosphere as very comfortable, even if the bathroom is in one of the hotel rooms. Although, I may be unique in appreciating those types of quirks rather than holding that against them.

[nsxtasy]

We just went to Quince last night and I must disagree with your assessment

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Funny, that's the one place I probably misclassified, in hindsight. If I could edit my post, I would bump it up one category, to "Just Okay (worth visiting if you're in the neighborhood)". I thought most of the dishes were exactly that - just okay. Only one or two things I tried were really impressive. The desserts, in particular, were a big disappointment (and that was the only thing "big" about them; I was disappointed in their portion size as well as taste). There are half a dozen places in Evanston with similar food items and prices where I've had substantially better meals.

It's possible that they have improved since I went there in January, and I certainly hope so; if so, that's a good thing. But with all the restaurants to choose from here, I have a tough enough time returning to places I liked a lot, let alone places I didn't.

[LAZ]

Disappointing, seriously flawed (worth forgetting):

Burt's Place (Morton Grove IL)

Pequod's (Morton Grove IL)

Clearly this is a style of pizza you don't like, since they both do the same thing. They do it very well if you like that style of thick-crust, caramelized pizza.

This isn't my favorite style, but I like it a lot better than Lou Malnati's.

Dreadful (worth warning others away):

Dave's Italian Kitchen (Evanston IL)

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On this one, I disagree seriously. Dave's is a great place for over-the-top, hugely portioned, Italian-American food. It's the real thing all the chains try to emulate. If you don't like that kind of food, you won't care for it, but they do what they do really well.

[nsxtasy]

Clearly this is a style of pizza you don't like, since they both do the same thing. They do it very well if you like that style of thick-crust, caramelized pizza.

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You're right - I don't like burnt pizza with an otherwise tasteless crust. I tried it, and didn't like it.

On this one, I disagree seriously. Dave's is a great place for over-the-top, hugely portioned, Italian-American food. It's the real thing all the chains try to emulate. If you don't like that kind of food, you won't care for it, but they do what they do really well.

←

No, this is not one of those "if you don't like that kind of food" issues. They serve BAD FOOD. And BAD FOOD isn't worth it, even if it's inexpensive.

My expectations for Dave's weren't that high, due to the low price; I expected the food to be edible, but that would be a highly generous and undeserved characterization of the food there. We had two dishes. One was veal in lemon sauce, which consisted of a few slices of veal with no breading and no taste, served over rotini in a liquid that I can only guess was the water in which the pasta was boiled. The dish had absolutely no lemon taste whatsoever. The other was a special, grilled chicken and provolone ravioli, in which the ravioli (including filling) had absolutely no taste, and were submerged in a tomato sauce that might have come from a jar at the supermarket (and from the cheap brand, too). Also, from the Department of Ewwww, I'd also like to know what the green-colored liquid in the olive oil dispensers on the tables is, because it sure doesn't taste like olive oil (although the serving of undistinguished bread without butter would lead one to expect it to be real olive oil).

I don't eat at expensive restaurants every time I eat out, and I don't expect the same thing when I'm paying $10 or $14 for an entree (the veal at Dave's is $13.95) as when I'm paying $20-30 or more. But I expect it to be better than, say, what I find in the frozen food department of my local supermarket. At Dave's, it wasn't; it was worse. Which is pretty much the definition of BAD FOOD.

If you want inexpensive but decent Italian food, there are places where you can get it, including some in and near Evanston. Based on my dreadful dinner there, Dave's isn't one of them. (And my dinner at Gio, a few doors down, was almost as bad.) Just to cite an example, Panino's in Evanston is exactly the same kind of place as Dave's, featuring a variety of food including pizza, pastas, sandwiches, and mostly-Italian entrees, in a casual setting, at similarly low prices. The difference is that at Panino's, the veal in lemon sauce actually tastes like veal and lemon, and there is a real lemon sauce instead of a thin, dishwatery liquid underneath. So if you do like that kind of food, you'll find that it's much better at Panino's than at Dave's, based on my meals at both places.

Edited July 26, 2007 by nsxtasy (log)

[nsxtasy]

Okay, now that 2007 is over, let's see how I did (repeating from the first half where necessary)...

1. Lose weight: Not done. This is my ONLY specific goal for 2008.

2. Quince: Done. But disappointing.

3. Fine dining: Done! I hit a bunch of places on my "to try" list: Sweets and Savories, Avenues, Vie, North Pond, Shanghai Terrace.

4. Tallent: Done. But disappointing. Fortunately, I found several excellent places in Indiana.

5. Thai food: Done (Thai Pavilion 2, TAC Quick, Sticky Rice). None as good as Thai Sookdee, my favorite and standard for comparison. At this point I'm done trying other places, and henceforth I'll be happy to keep going back to Thai Sookdee.

6. Pizza: Done (Burt's Place, Pequod's, Ricobene's). But disappointing. Then again, I'm happy to keep going back to Giordano's and Lou Malnati's, both of which continue to be outstanding.

7. Barbecue: Done (Smoque). I liked their barbecue, although not quite as much as Carson's, but reasonably close. Smoque's is much more smokey flavored, whereas Carson's has more sauce flavoring. Both are nice and meaty, not much fat. I was really disappointed with the sides at Smoque, though.

8. Hot Chocolate: Not done.

9. Chocolate Box: Done. But disappointing. However, I tried a lot of chocolatiers in the area, and found others that I liked a lot. See separate topic.

10. The Lobby Restaurant in the Peninsula: Not done. Funny, because this year I went to both Avenues and Shanghai Terrace in the same hotel.

11. Close by places: Mostly done (all of those mentioned except Chef's Station).

In a mid-year post above, I listed the highlights and lowlights of the first half of the year. Here's how the second half turned out (excluding brunch visits, fast food, etc):

Wow, Incredible (worth traveling long distances to dine):

one sixtyblue (Chicago IL)

Lola (Cleveland OH)

Everyday People Café (Douglas MI)

Oakley's Bistro (Indianapolis IN)

Vie (Western Springs IL)

North Pond (Chicago IL)

Margaux (Sheboygan WI)

Oceanique (Evanston IL)

(All of these places were simply marvelous. Tallgrass wins the award for best meal of the year.)

Very Good (worth recommending to others):

The Cabin (Ashland OH)

Flamingo's Seafood (Mount Prospect IL)

Stoney River (Deer Park IL)

Va Pensiero (Evanston IL)

Buttonwoods at Sycamore Farms (Terre Haute IN)

Oliveto (Oakland CA)

Passionfish (Pacific Grove CA)

Melange (Pacific Grove CA)

Bistro 22 (Lake Zurich IL)

Lao Sze Chuan (Chicago IL)

Thai Sookdee (Evanston IL)

Pete Miller's (Evanston IL)

Giordano's (Evanston IL)

Lou Malnati's (Evanston IL)

Just Okay (worth visiting if you're in the neighborhood):

Light Bistro (Cleveland OH)

Sun Luck Garden (Cleveland OH)

Kincaid's (Fishers IN)

Revolver (Findlay OH)

Smoque (Chicago IL)

Restaurant Bloom (Grand Rapids MI)

Sol de Mexico (Chicago IL)

Thai Pavilion 2 (Skokie IL)

Journeyman Café (Fennville MI)

Pannenkoeken Café (Chicago IL)

Disappointing, seriously flawed (worth forgetting):

Real Seafood (Toledo OH)

Siam's House (Niles IL)

Claim Jumper (Wheeling IL)

Dreadful (worth warning others away):

Nothing that bad, thank goodness.

Honorable mention to the breakfast/brunch places I most enjoyed (at least two visits each):

Walker Brothers (Wilmette and Glenview IL)

M. Henry (Chicago IL)

Bongo Room (Chicago IL)

Edited January 2, 2008 by nsxtasy (log)

[ulterior epicure]

Forgive me for the deviation, but I want to know more about Pannenkoeken. I've never heard of it in Chicago! I lived in the Netherlands for sometime and I love the hearty dish. Are Pannenkoeken's particularly authentic?

[nsxtasy]

Forgive me for the deviation, but I want to know more about Pannenkoeken.  I've never heard of it in Chicago!  I lived in the Netherlands for sometime and I love the hearty dish.  Are Pannenkoeken's particularly authentic?

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As I have never had them anywhere other than at Pannenkoeken Cafe in Lincoln Square, I can't vouch for their authenticity, one way or the other.

However, they left me yearning for some other pancake specialties in Chicagoland that I enjoy much more - such as the apple, German, or Swedish pancakes at Walker Brothers, any one of which blows away the pannenkoeken IMHO.

Edited January 6, 2008 by nsxtasy (log)

[elfin]

I have just a few-

1. Stop overeating. Save the calories for something special-not just a bag of Cheetos or mediocre fries.

2. Go to Prarie Grass with Ron and Julie.

3. Try new places rather than reverting back to the old spots-albeit thay are great.

4. Entertain, entertain and entertain. We have so many folks we want to have over.

5. Finally (somehow) use the mango paste I bought in some Latin American country.