100 E. Ohio St, Chicago
This is recommended by the cab driver. Our first meal in Chicago. We ordered the pizza at the door before we were seated - as the deep dish pizza takes approx. 45-60 minutes, we got ourselves a small one, with all the toppings. We got minestrone soup for entree, I always liked minestrone soup. This soup is a lil unusually compared to others I had before, it's slightly thick and creamy(almost felt like tomato soup), but it also has a bit of smoky flavor, as if BBQ sauce or bacon been added. Nice touch. The pizza came another 30min later, size of a dinner plate, but DEEP. 2 slices down, and I'm very full already. Carol liked the crust very much. To me, I still like the normal pan pizza better. The deep-dish is just too thick for me, I like it with more topping. The bread dour feels like soggy...
Sayat Nova Armenian Restaurant
157 East Ohio Street, Chicago
http://sayatnovachicago.com/
We found this place by accident, it's on our way to the hotel. The is out 2nd meal. Neither of us had Armenian food before, and the menu items look interesting so we decided we give it a try. It an early dinner, we got there by 6pm-ish, the restaurant has about 3 tables of people already.
We got:
- Stuffed Eggplant: Carol liked it, but it's so-so to me.
- Sarma Dinner: grape leaves stuffed with minced lamb, vegetables, spices and rice. Carol says it's an acquired taste for Sarma - the grape leaves taste sour...
- Kebab Combo: lamb and chicken, with broiled vegetables and rice. I always liked lamb kebab, it's tender and yummy, however, the serving size could be a lil bigger.
- Paklava pistachio(desert): pastry stuffed with pistachio, it's super sweet that my teeth hurt!
- Mahalebeya: Rice flour custard with crushed walnuts and cinnamon - mmm... the texture feels almost like soft tofu. Good thing, it's only a touch of sweet.
- Armenian Coffee: come in espresso sized cup and tastes quite bitter, and with alot of coffee at the bottom. I usually don't like bitter coffee, but this one is actually quite good - just to wash down the over powering sweetness of Pistachio Paklava...
Cafe Iberico
739 N. LaSalle Avenue, Chicago
http://www.cafeiberico.com/
We were torn between having steak or tapas, we finally agreed on tapas. It's listed as best value. We got there around 11.30 or 12, only a handful of tables were occupied, but the place is very big. Right at the door, there's a bar, and a few small table, but as the waiter lead us into the restaurant, wee see big dinner areas to the left and right, and a stair leading to down stairs. We were seated at the back of the dinning area near the food counter. Yes, they sells food stuff to go. The walls, near us are lined with jars and cans of olive oil and pickled veggies. It's like dinning in a big pantry. Have a nice cozy feeling to it. Shortly after we arrived, the place start to fill up. The price is very cheap, so we ordered a bunch of stuff.
- Beef tenderloin skewer with fries and caramelized onions: very yummy, the onion is very sweet and beef cubes tender.
- Grilled shrimp with olive oil, garlic and wine: it's very garlicky, but very fragrant and delicious.
- Steamed mussels with marinara sauce: very tender black mussels in creamy sweet tomato sauce, we can't get enough of it.
- stuffed dates: this is a weekly special not on the main menu. sweet dates stuffed with cheese and something else, and wrapped in thin slice of ham. Tastes slight salty and Sweet at the same time.
- Iberico paella traditional style: shrimp, clam, calamari, pork, fish with saffron rice. Mmmmmm, very yummy.
The tapas dishes are mostly around $5 each, and paella are around $8-$9 each that enough for 2 people. Despite the cheap price, however, the serving size are quite big. For example, the grilled shrimp, we had about 3 each. In comparison to Cascal on Castro St(Mt. View, CA), it's $7-$8 but had only 4 shrimps in it, and the paella is a bit larger but at a whooping $30. Iberico has very good food at a very affordable price. By far the best eat we had in Chicago. As you can see, we really love our food :-)
We loved the Cloud Gate(The Bean), had had a lot of fun around the bean, taking photos at different places around the bean. You get different reflections depend where you are, how close to the bean. Bummer I couldn't find a bean souvenir model.
