Telepan

Brunch at Telepan - supposedly one of the only "good places" in the Upper West Side.

Meh. Was only ok. Definitely understand that people don't put their all into brunches, but it was just ok.

Muffin/pastry basket was hit or miss. Coffee cake was delicious.

Kris had the lemon verbena creme crepes with strawberries. Was probably the best dish. He then had the fallen pancake souffle with brown sugar bacon & huckleberry syrup. Was just ok.

I had the house smoked brook trout on a corn blini & green onion sour cream. The sour cream was great, as was the blini, but the trout was overwhelming. I then had the coddled eggs with
scrapple, collards & sweet pork sauce. The scrapple and sauce were very good - but the overall dish was just so-so.

Gina: yum
Kris: yum

Pisticci

Some items here are delicious, some are entirely mediocre.

The mussels with white wine sauce (appetizer) are freaking amazing.

The maltagliati with lamb and ricotta is RIDICULOUS. As in, the eggs benedict of pastas. I only want to eat this dish every time I come or order out from here.

I had the polenta and meatballs. Meh. Nothing special. I didn't like the polenta.

The vegetable ceci was not very good.

Eggplant appetizer was only ok.

The mushroom fettuccine with truffle oil was also only ok. I wanted to like it more, but it wasn't fabulous.

For Morningside Heights, this place is good. And it's cute inside. But it's just so so overall.

Gina: yum

Bob Chinn's

Touristy crab shack type place run by this crazy asian republican man. But INCREDIBLY popular with tourists AND locals. Was delicious. The NY strip steak is ridiculously, surprisingly good. Very flavorful.

Crab was good too. The Alaskan King Crab was ok. The Kona crab was shitty. The sweet snow crab was fucking ridiculously delicious.

Garlic knots were doused in butter but good. Would repeat a visit IF was in the immediate area - but not worth a hour drive.

Technically, this place is not in Chicago, it's in a suburb.

Kris: yum
Gina: yum

TAC Quick Thai

pretty consistent Thai food. cheap, so a good deal. nothing spectacular, but if you're in the mood for Thai, this is the place to go.

gina: yum
kris: yum

Frontera Grill

Touristy place with a celebrity chef. But it was still pretty good. We went for brunch. I had a tex mex version of eggs benedict. of course, loved it. kris had three types of meat or something. very good. small portions, so not a steal, but was good.

Gina: yum
Kris: yum+

Lou Malnati

Delicious. FREAKING DELICIOUS.

Deep dish pizza. "Butter crisp" crust.

Normally I don't like deep dish pizza - but their tomatoes are delicious. As is the butter crisp crust. As is everything. OMG. So good. I liked it more than Zachary's in the East Bay.

The Malnati Salad it also so good.

Sausage is better than pepperoni here. Even Kris admits it.

Technically, not in Chicago - it's in Schaumburg.

Kris: yum+
Gina: yum+

Green Zebra

A great upscale vegetarian place. Small plates - asian fusion inspiration. Don't remember every detail... but it was a great experience. Some of the highlights are below. Service was fantastic.

Blue Cheese Beignets, roasted mission fig, bearnaise, port wine

Semolina Gnocchi, heirloom tomato, favas, sage

Corn Soup, cornbread crouton, black pepper sweet cream

Prospera Farms Chicken Egg, smoked potato puree, parsley and country sourdough

Kris: yum +
Gina: yum +

Schwa

With the exception of the dessert (which was close to atrocious), the dinner was fantastic. Our favorites were the quail egg ravioli and the cauliflower soup. Kris liked the prosciutto consomme salad a lot.

This was an incredible dinner - very interesting, but tasty. Definitely will return every time we're back in Chicago (if we can get reservations).

Gina: YUM
Kris: YUM

Amuse (Thyme ice cream and thyme and strawberry fruit roll-up)
Prosciutto Consomme Salad (arugula sauce, prosciutto, melon, prosciutto gelee)
Cauliflower Soup (curried cauliflower cream soup with white chocolate and dark chocolate on the side)
Phad Thai (instead of noodles - jelly fish)
Pine-Cone (uni icecream, sugar cone, and pine cone gel)
Quail Egg Ravioli (quail egg yolk inside ravioli with butter sauce and cheese)
Tripe (panzanella, bread salad, tomatoes)
BBQ (short rib, creamed caramel popcorn, watermelon soup)
Olive oil cake