I’m not much of a bar person, but I really like Bar Louie. They have a great outside dining area, and surprisingly they make one of the best salads in town. The chop chop salad has iceberg lettuce, bacon, tomato, carrot, avocado, garbanzo beans, chopped egg, cucumber, tortilla strips, and house dressing. I also really like their pretzel sticks, which come with three very good dipping sauces. Service has always been efficient and friendly.
This place is about beer, not food. I sat outside on a lovely evening and tried a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout from a bottle. It was excellent. It took a while for my server to show up, but once she did, she was friendly and efficient. I also had one of their enormous pretzels, which was pretty good, although I would have preferred it with a sampling of mustards rather than just one.
Although the list of beers may seem overwhelming, they are clearly labelled as to origin and style, and the list is online, so you can plan before you go. If you’re into beers, this is a great place to sample them.
This is very authentic tapas. In fact, except that the plates are larger, it is extremely similar to Tapa Tapa in Barcelona. I tried the ceviche, the asparagus, the grilled squid and the grilled mussels. The ceviche was my favorite. It’s a fully cooked version, and the shrimp and squid were tender, and the diced peppers and onions nicely marinated. The grilled mussels, served like fajitas, were also good.
The wine pours are a bit small for the price, but the dessert coffees at $3.95 make up for it. Try the Matador, which has Spanish vanilla liqueur in it.
Service is a bit uneven, but if you’re not in a hurry that’s okay. The place is very busy; it was packed on the Tuesday night I went, so that could account for it. The outside dining area is very nice on a warm evening.
Considering the owners are not originally from the South, this is a remarkably authentic dining experience.
I had the lunch special of a half blackened catfish poboy and a cup of gumbo. The catfish was the perfect spiciness, still moist, and not muddy, and the bread was fresh. Gumbo was a tasty, rich mixture, served with the rice separate on one side of the cup, which was an interesting approach. My meal came with a pair of corn meal pancakes rather than muffins, which is a bit unusual, but tasty. At under $7 it was a good buy for lunch.
The unsweetened peach tea was very tasty; it’s hard to find good unsweetened tea in the South. The breakfast items and salads I saw also looked good.
I love the funky atmosphere. The space is decked out like a bait shop, and red checkered plastic tablecloths brighten things up. There are also four tables out on the sidewalk.
This place is popular due to its close proximity to Northwestern. I have to admit that Chicago deep dish pizza isn’t my favorite style: I don’t like crust that tastes like saltine crackers, and I prefer the pizza to be more about the sauce and toppings than about dough. So I find nothing noteworthy about Lou Malnati’s pizza. It’s a plus that they offer a gluten free variety, which I haven’t tasted, but might be better.
I will say that the service is friendly and efficient, especially considering how busy they are. Frankly I think the best pizza in Evanston is the one we order delivered from Sarpino’s.
This is an okay fish restaurant in a town that has good sushi places but no really great seafood places. The food here is similar to what you’d find at a Red Lobster, and the atmosphere not that much different, either. Service is fine, but seems stretched a bit thin. Probably best if you’re in the mood for fried seafood.
In a world filled with nasty, weedy Starbucks coffee that has to be diluted with milk and sugar just to make it potable, it’s easy to forget what coffee can and should be. Coffee Lab reminds us of just how great an experience a superb cup of unadulterated coffee can be.
The pour over coffee made here extracts exactly the optimum brew from the beans, with no bitterness, no matter how strong the coffee. It’s a time-consuming process, so don’t go if you’re in a hurry. As with anything, to do it right takes care and attention to detail. But if you think coffee needs to be “fixed” with cream and sugar, you owe it to yourself to experience the real thing at least once.
I would describe Cross Rhodes as more of a diner than a restaurant. With a different menu it would be a typical greasy spoon breakfast place. The food is conventional Greek fare. I had the Gyro dinner, which was a large mound of sliced lamb served over vinegar fries with sliced tomato, onions, greek yogurt and a pita. Quite tasty. The hummus appetizer was also fine, lemony, and fairly thin in consistency, with pita for dipping. Service was fast and friendly, and I was greeted by the staff upon arriving and departing. The place was busy, and I think it is this friendly atmosphere as much as anything that accounts for it. No credit cards and no alcohol.
This trendy new Evanston hot spot bursts out onto the sidewalk with patrons every evening, but it’s possible to find a table at lunch and in the afternoons. Before 4:30 the emphasis is on sandwiches, afterwards on small shared plates. Our favorite was the salmon salad, a baguette slice topped with salmon, mayo, dill, red onion and celery.
There’s an interesting drink list with a short but thoughtful selection of beers, and quite a few interesting bitter aperitifs. I love Amaro, and there were four on offer, plus a sparkling wine mixed with Campari and grapefruit, inexplicably called an lsd.
The funky interior has no matching tables or chairs, and adds a fun off beat sense to the fairly intimate (and often noisy) space.
I’ve been going to El Cholo for so long I can remember when the kid’s menu was spaghetti! If you don’t remember when the place was a little house, you won’t remember that. Since then they’ve added a bar, the world’s best margaritas, the best nachos anywhere, guacamole, and about 200 seats. But the number 1 dinner is identical to the one they served back in the 60s, and probably back in the 20s, when they opened. Sure, it’s not 25 cents any more, but what is?
If you’re going to El Cholo for authentic Mexican food or for Tex Mex food, you won’t find either. The fact is, El Cholo invented what they serve, and it’s simply El Cholo food. For example, their “taco” is meat rolled in a corn tortilla and fried, sort of like a taquito, but then buried in lettuce, tomato and so on. What is it? Who knows, but it’s good, just eat it! The cheese enchilada has green onion in it, and is smothered in a delicious red sauce. Paired with a taco it’s called a number 1, and I’m making myself hungry just describing it.
Service is always friendly, and it’s not unusual to have a server who has been working (and eating) there for 30 years. It’s a fine tradition to uphold.
