to out-of-towners or visitors? what in your opinion delivers the BEST and MOST AUTHENTIC dining experience in Chicago?

For me its always been Ricobene's. Every day. All day.

Ristorante Agostino for Italian

Hopleaf for Belgium/European/Gastropub

Cafe Iberico for Spanish/Tapas

Kumas Corner for Burgers

Gene and Judes for Hot Dogs

Pequod's for Pizza

Johnnie's Beef for Italian Beef and ice

Schmaltz for jewish deli

Bob Chinns for seafood

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Staropolska

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Fuck the city

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Wild Hare

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the kind of list I would expect from someone who lives 1.5 hours away from the city.

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We can't all be heroes.

Actually, some of those places have taken a pretty significant drop in quality. Johnnies isn't what it used to be. Hopleaf is skimping on the sandwiches and they don't have the curried mussels that I thought were their best dish.

All that said, I'll fight for Schmaltz over Manny's or any other Jewish Deli. They have the best soup and no one can prove otherwise.

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most of my rec's are from my general area of the city. Here are a few...


Mexican: Taquerita San Juanito, El Habanero, Cafe Tola, Carnitas La Esquinta

Fried Chicken: Honey Butter Fried Chicken

BBQ: Smoque

Burger: Red Hot Ranch

Persian BBQ = Kabobi

Swedish: Tre Kroner

Morocan: Shokrah

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So Honey Butter Fried Chicken is worth the trip? The Gus' World Famous Chicken that opened in Fulton Market was decent and I had my issues with Budlong not cooking their breast thoroughly. Only other place I've really liked in the city has been The Roost.

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I assume out of towners looking for something authentic in the city want a steak

If you want all the circuses along with the food you can send them to Gibson's in the Viagra Triangle. There are plenty of other really good steak places where they get treated like a king for $150 per person. Sometimes its fun to spend, even for an old cheap ass like me.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Have you been to the Stefani steakhouse in your neighborhood?

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I'll never understand how he keeps getting money to open restaurants. Or why people would eat at them.

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yea HBFC is really good. I wouldn't say it's worth the drive from the suburbs unless you have other things going on in the city, but it's worth the drive from anywhere in the city just about.

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Heaven on Seven on Wabash

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You know me like that.

Downtown prices in Lincolnwood and a shitty wine list.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Hello Sushi Bar and Thai Cuisine on Devon Ave

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"Now comes good sailing. Moose. Indian."

This

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"Now comes good sailing. Moose. Indian."

Been too long.


Cucina3 (Forno Rosso folks)
https://chicago.eater.com/2019/2/21/182 ... orest-view

This place is solid and right in my neck of the woods.

Highly recommended.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

I have not. My wife has. They have some kind of women's night during the week where they raffle off some name brand purses.

I think that restaurant's clientele is people from Northbrook who don't want to go downtown and wouldn't be seen in Rosemont.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Mr. Greek Gyros @ Jackson/Halstead for the proper Chicago "experience" -- altho honestly I'd say the best gyro/s I've had lately is @ King's Gyros @ Central/Milwaukee. Their gyros have been a tick better than my usual #2 gyro spot, Central Gyros @ Central/Belmont (which is the gyro place to go to if you want a sit down experience with a fine teenage/20something polish waitress.

In the realm of gene and Jude's type places there's also Jimmy's red hots @ Pulaski/Grand. Same general deal/cuisine as Gene and Jude's, just less ballyhooed and a little more ballyhood if you catch my drift. Think of it as a DL Felony Frank's type endeavor =P

Otherwise hmmmm you can never go wrong with Uncle Remus at Madison/Austin. Harold's The Chicken King on Milwaukee a lil bit SE of Milwaukee/North/Damen.

Speaking of Milwaukee/North/Damen methinks Flash Taco right there is another indelibly Chicago place. Then in that vein you've also got.... Uhhh... It's called Taco Jalisco or something? The lil Mexican joint @ Chicago/Sacramento/Grand is a quality spot that gets the job done without the pomp and circumstance of, say, a Nuevo Leon in Pilsen (another sit down / waitress place... But now that I think about it didn't it burn down a few years ago? Or something like that?)

And then my awesome lil burger spot called coast burger @ that mall by the Thompson center (but not the actual Thompson center) is long gone so uhhh.. I guess I don't really have a go-to burger joint outside of maybe that black/dark horse place on Sheffield by Addison right there. I remember their game day burger specials being extremely worth your while

And uhhh yeah from there I'm struggling to think about Chicago experience places... I guess Lou Malnati's counts for Pizza even tho there's nothing special about it.

Shit, is there still an Ed Debevic's open downtown/ish? If so I can heartily recommend Ed Debevic's as a proper Chicago dining experience even tho I don't remember anything about the food itself outside of it being pretty good to pretty darn good. The service with a shit eating smile is what you go to Ed Debevic's for!

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I bought gift cards there for our annniversary last year and then never made it.

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Pequod's for pizza is my quick and easy answer. And Johnnie's if I know someone will be in the suburbs. But other recommendations might be based on where a person is staying. Or what their interests are. My sister and her family that now live in Sacramento love visiting Wicker Park when they visit. Kill me.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

If visitors are staying in the Loop, I tend to recommend places on Randolph: Little Goat for breakfast and Cruz Blanca for dinner.

I used to recommend Lao Sze Chuan until Tony Hu went to jail for tax fraud and it went downhill quickly. A shame, I miss their three chili chicken.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I concur. The dry chili chicken was quite good.

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You know me like that.

Great place. I haven't been there in a few years, but this joint is awesome.

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If they are over 75, then you can't go wrong with Jameson's Charhouse -- they love that place.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Pepe's