Chicago: Your favorite thing(s) to do - Page 3

If you are going to go to a city and do the tourist thing, my bad.

Make sure you go to a good steak house. Some of the best cuts of meat you can ever buy at a restaurant are to be had. Gibson's and Wildfire are noted. In particular the Horseradish crust on the filet at Wildfire is quite tasty. /getting hungry thinking about it

Great thread BTW!

Just exactly what I need to know what I can do and where to go to.

I'll be in Chicago by the end of this year. Great!

Hm. I've lived here for 10+ years, and I agree with some of what's been posted and disagree with other stuff. Thoughts, in random order:

Oh, and I can be rather opinionated. You've been warned.

Skip deep dish pizza. It's just a giant cheese bomb. A very interesting alternative is Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder, on North Clark. Plus it's close to Old Town and Lincoln Park, Yuppie Central.

The Art Institute is pretty much fantastic, and it's on Millenium Park, which is, too. The Museum of Contemporary Art is just ok. Much more style than substance.

Tru has gone downhill quite a bit, and isn't even LEY's flagship now. That would be L2O. Trotter's is an institution, although it's not what it was 10-15 years ago. I would suggest Blackbird on West Randolph (although it can be loud). If you want steak, the Capital Grille on St. Clair destroys everywhere else in town for food. Gibson's can't be beat for scene, though. (And yes, Chicago is the current tops for food in the US, imo.)

The architectural boat tours are great.

I have no idea what it is that people here love so much about Irish bars, but you don't need to plan on hitting a specific one. You'll see one about every 25 feet.

Drinks at the top of the Hancock is cool.

There's some great shopping on Oak St. and Michigan Ave., of course. If you do that, have tea at the Drake on Michigan. Very classy.

Wrigley is pretty great, but skip the bleachers unless you just need an excuse to get drunk on beer in plastic cups.

Time for work. Maybe more later.

Thank you so much.

I think I read that they are expanding and turning the Chicago branch into a flagship.

Hey now, there are plenty of wasps in suits in Hyde Park. There's a law school and a business school and a med school down there... though I did witness a drive-by shooting in HP (Woodlawn, technically, but still).

Eat Eat Eat. Chicago has amazing food and I went there for the first time in April, just to eat. I won't lie, of course I did touristy stuff between meals. The deep dish pizza was ho hum. Not very good. You won't believe this but in college, my roommate's dad would order deep dish from Chicago and overnight it to him for his birthday. We'd bake it in our dorm's communal oven and it was delicious. I don't know why but I was expecting that when I had it in Chicago and it was not good. Avec - Terrible salad. Extermely over salted (yeah on salad) and extremely sour. Everythign else was top notch like the chorizo stuffed dates and the spaghetti. Boka - Yummy but remember it's sort of a trendy bar/club too so you are dealing with that. Not nearly as much attitude there as LA though. Chicago in general that is. Alinea - Need I say more? The Gage - great lunch spot across the street from the Cloud and the Museum of Art. No lines, good food, fair prices. North Pond - Delicious. Great brunch there. I love the public transport of Chicago. Blew me away. I also felt very safe, then again I was on Michigan Ave most of the time. Navy Pier is a waste of time. Hancock Tower is awesome. Didn't know you could have drinks up there. Where would that be? Heard many good things about Violet Hour. Didn't get a chance to go. There's St. Alfred's there too which is a great streetwear store. I didn't go to that either though. If you like tea, like me, there are like a dozen places up and down Miracle Mile that have tea time.

Signature Room. It's on the 95th floor. Great view of the city from there.

that's where I take guests to chicago, I'm there pretty much every month, fantastic place.

^^ Not only that, the view from Hancock rivals that of the Sears Tower ... without the HUGE line that you will get at the Sears Tower.

I will put in a plug for my college buddy's restaurant, Sepia (Randolph & Jefferson).

Rather than quoting:

1) The Berghoff reopened as a shell of its former self. The lunch counter is gone and so is Roberto and the rest of the staff that worked their for decades. I knew the end was near when they put the stools in the bar.

2) Conne you will get murdered wandering a block or so outside of Hyde Park. In Hyde Park you will die of boredom. The students are unbearable and sex is verboten (not that you would want those kids anyway). There is not a decent place to eat there.

3) The Signature Room is free to enter and has (expensive) drinks. The observation deck costs money and is dry.

4) The Barney's is awful. They are building a less suck version around the corner. Despos is across the street though.

5) The bar at the Peninsula is the high end meat market. It can be very entertaining and horrifying, often at the same time.

For the truly adventurous, the city has some vast subcultures, like the hundreds of thousands of Poles, which are almost impossible to enter. Be sure to report back any successes.

Interesting, I've not had anything bad there. The dates are truly awesome. I think I'll always prefer Blackbird though (next door, same owners).


Same executive chef, less sceney and more relaxed, and not far away, is Perennial. I might be biased, though, as it's my local.


It is truly amazing. I've not been to Per Se, WD50, El Bulli, etc., but for me Alinea is a total reset of what a restaurant can be.


Amen to both of these.

Agree, a total waste of appetite.


When I lived in Chicago, my brother always insisted that we go there when he visited. The place (and food) is definitely unique, but I'm still not convinced about it....


I would definitely second this recommendation. I have eaten at Blackbird many times over the years, and it is still my favorite Chicago restaurant.

The Vietnamese restaurants around the intersections of Argyle and Broadway Streets are cheap and good. Tank Noodle, Hai Yen, and Ba Le Sandwich Shop are among my favorites.

http://www.haiyenrestaurant.com/
http://www.balechicago.com/

If you like live jazz, a place called The Green Mill is located within walking distance of the Vietnamese restaurants.

http://www.greenmilljazz.com/

Chinatown is nice if you're got a desire for dim sum. I like a place called Three Happiness.