Inside Area 1Tuna TartareYellowtail CarpaccioSpicy Scallop and Mexican Dance MakiShrimp and chicken yakitoriHandroll
***** (5 stars)
Excellent quality fish is the highlight of this popular Broadway sushi bar. The maki is great, but it's plates like yellowtail Carpaccio and Tuna Tartare that really let the fish shine through.
Surpisingly, though, the very best thing we had came from the robata grill: two skewers each of chicken and shrimp. The proteins were great, but it was the bed of sauteed onions and jalapenos that really took this dish over the top.
Service was friendly, and it's BYOB.
Yellowtail Sushi Bar and Asian Kitchen 3136 N Broadway St Chicago, IL 60657
InteriorInteriorExteriorWinnie the Pooh & Friends… Four donuts comboTokyo Rooster SandwichHot Rooster Sandwich with wasabi fries
***** (5 stars)
The concept of flat 2D illustrations on all the walls makes for a fun place to eat, but the food is also excellent. The chicken is super moist on the inside and very, very crispy on the outside. I recommend the Hot version of the sandwich. It's much less spicy than, say, Nashville hot chicken. I think it's just right.
I also really liked the wasabi fries, which are nicely crisped fries with a drizzle of creamy wasabi sauce.
The menu and ordering are all done through the QR code on each table, and food just magically shows up. Pretty cool.
The world used to be full of places like this, where you could get almost any kind of food, well prepared, at any time of day. Stella's is a great homage to the classic diner. Without a lot of overboard decorating, or servers in character, it's simply what it claims to be: an American diner.
We had a tuna sandwich and a Reuben sandwich. Both were excellent. The accompanying fries were hot and crisp on the outside, moist in the center, and the cole slaw had just the right tang.
There's also an extensive list of shakes and malts. I highly recommend the Butterfinger shake!
Service and food prep were quick and friendly. In temperate months the sidewalk almost doubles the seating.
Stella’s Diner 3042 N Broadway St Chicago, IL 60657
Counter order quick serve place with a fairly extensive menu. I wasn't a fan of the nachos, which used liquid cheese and didn't have a lot going on, but I loved my three taco plate. Lots of fillings and toppings, they needed none of the red and green sauce that accompanied them, as spice levels were perfect. My favorite was the pastor, but the carnitas was also excellent.
The first thing you need to know about The Hutch is that if you are going at lunchtime, you are going to have brunch, regardless of the day of the week. There are a couple of non-brunch items on the menu, such as a cheeseburger and a spicy chicken sandwich, but otherwise it's all brunch at lunch.
We had the chilaquiles and the spicy chicken sandwich. The chilaquiles are topped with scrambled eggs. The corn chips tasted very authentic. The spicy chicken sandwich was quite good. Instead of the normal Nashville or sriracha-type sauces, they use a slightly sweet bourbon sauce, which was a nice twist. The accompanying fries were excellent.
I really like the French 70 wine cooler I tried. It was a very refreshing mix of sparkling blanc de noir, lemon juice, and bitters.
Service was fast and friendly.
Hutch American Bistro 3301 N Clark St Chicago, IL 60657
I've been wanting to stop in here for a while to pick up some bagels for breakfast the next day. I finally got around to it and was surprised to discover it's really more of a deli than just a bagel shop. So I'll need to come back for the full sandwich treatment next time.
It's also noteworthy that they serve packages of bagels you can finish cooking at home. If they'd had Everything Bagels this way on my visit I would have tried them. As it was I just got a couple of already cooked Everything Bagels to go, and they were quite good.
Taste Of New York Bagels & Deli 3268 N Clark St Chicago, IL 60657
ExteriorInteriorFree chips and salsaBeef nachosMixed EnchiladasTamale
**** (4 stars)
This little space on Broadway features very good Mexican American food in a low-key environment. They do a bustling to-go business, and also have a handful of tables.
The nachos were good, and almost like chili on refried bean-covered chips, served with a corn tortilla cop of sour cream and guacamole.
The mole sauce is quite good.
Perhaps our favorite item was the tamale, which was definitely the most authentic Mexican preparation of anything we tried.
Food prep is very fast, and service is friendly. It's BYOB.
DownstairsUpstairsChopstick restsOmakase menu and cocktailsYuzu SuikaScallop, kinmedai, sea bassOra king salmon, Tasmanian ocean trout, kanpachiGrilled toro, chutoro, akami tunaOyster and pearls, Sawara, Shima AjiNeigiforo (basically odds and ends between akami and otoro), black codTomago
***** (5 stars)
This is a delightful omakase experience upstairs, and a really cool space downstairs. I liked that the omakase was available with table seating, as I prefer to spend my dinner chatting with my companion rather than focused on the chef, but here you have both choices.
The omakase consisted of 13 pieces of nigiri and two maki, plus a small bite for dessert. The quality of all fish was good, although I have had better — and better compacted — rice elsewhere. Since the chef took responsibility for the saucing and wasabi, a few pieces seemed perfect, others somewhat bland. This is not the level of fish you are going to get at a place like Kyoten, but it is also about a third the price!
A wine pairing is available, but we opted for a bottle of Cremant and one of White Burgundy, and they provided perfect pairings at less cost, and allowed us to avoid wines we aren't interested in.
ExteriorInteriorMenuPotstickersChive dumplingHot and sour soupCrabmeat Wrap with SeaweedBacon Cheese Potato Roll
***** (5 stars)
This is a great neighborhood Dim Sum place, with a medium sized dim sum menu plus a full assortment of tradition American Chinese restaurant dishes for the less adventurous.
Meals come with a delicious pot of jasmine black tea, and lunch specials are very reasonably priced.
We sampled a variety of Dim Sum. The pot stickers, green chive dumplings, and crabmeat wrap with seaweed were standouts.
Food came from the kitchen quickly and piping hot. They also do a LOT of carry out business.
Esme is as much into the artistry of presenting food as the actual flavors. That is not to say that the food isn't great; it is. But each course is accompanied by a description of who made the very beautiful dishes it is served on. You probably don't care. We certainly didn't. But they were beautiful.
There are also descriptions of the artist who created the paintings currently on display, and the sculptures that accompany some courses. You probably don't care about those either. We didn't.
But it's fine. If that's their passion; props to them for sharing it. I'd be less forgiving if the food wasn't both breathtakingly lovely (all of it) and very tasty (most of it).
But then there is the wine. Problems with the wine abound, and threaten to ruin what would otherwise be a Michelin quality meal. The first problem began before we even arrived. The on-line winelist is missing the page for white wines. Since the current summer menu features mostly fish, this is a rather big problem. Fortunately, when we arrived we discovered the real wine list contains that missing page, and we ordered a nice white to accompany the meal.
The second problem was that it seemed as if they had never served a bottle of wine before. Not only was the wine not ready because it hadn't been chilled, once it was served, it was as if the glasses were invisible. No one ever refilled our glasses, and at one point one of them, when emptied, was actually cleared from the table. We finally resorted to putting the bottle on the table so we could serve ourselves. I realize that the emphasis here is on wines by the glass, and a pairing flight, but come on.
Speaking of the pairing flight, one of us had that, too. And not just the regular flight, but the "reserve" flight. I can't imagine what was reserve about it, other than the $250 price. Not only were the wines mostly pedestrian, they were, with two exceptions, laughably, colossally poorly matched to the food. The white bottle we ordered literally went better with every course.
So how can I give a restaurant five stars with such ludicrous wine service? Because the food is beautiful and delicious. Just order a bottle of wine you know, or pay the corkage fee to bring your own, and you will have a much better experience.
One final suggestion: at the end of the meal we received the obligatory menu describing our courses. At least we think we did. There was almost no relationship to the descriptions we'd heard through our servers' masks. Please stop making these trendy. And please just hand them out at the start. We know you want us to focus on the food, but with such complex dishes, and masked servers, it helps to have a reference to understand the ingredients of the dish as we're eating it. Plus, it would be the perfect place to list who made each dish, for those who care.
