CHI - SAINT'S ALPS TEAHOUSE & GOURMET

There's no celebration like Lunar New Year! I'm super sad not to be in Rochester to celebrate New Years and see my dad do all his ritual prayers and see mom sweep the bad luck out of the house but I'll be damned if I don't celebrate it somehow here on my own! This includes two parades and way too much eating in between stumbling upon lion dances in the street.

This is my first time on my own living in  a big city that actually has Chinatown and all of these wonderful things in time for New Years so I was ready to take part in the celebration, starting with lunch! I'm lucky to have new friends in the program that are Chinese and know all the good spots to eat in here in Chicago because there's only so much venturing that I want to do on my own. Of all of their choices we ended up at Saint's Alp Teahouse. 

LOCATION: 2157 CHINATOWN PLACE CHICAGO, IL 60616 (b/t Wells St and Princeton Ave)

I'm Cantonese so I'm not super familiar with Taiwanese food and I asked my friends Peiyang and Beiruo what was good and they pointed to several dishes on the menu that they liked or that were a little more traditionally Taiwanese. We ordered flake almond shrimp with mayo (which is super American) but always a fan favorite to all. We each ordered our own rice sets which come with a hot or cold tea with tapioca pearls (I drink mine cold but was the odd one out), a side of broccoli, tofu, and rice with a traditional taiwanese ground meat mix on top, and I ended up ordering the beef skewer meal. Beiruo got the same as me and Peiyang ordered the curry fish meal.

I personally am not a huge fan of tofu but it was only a small side and ended up being a nice palette cleanser between bites of the rice. The Tai meat mix on top of the rice was super good but also quite salty so I enjoyed the tofu and broccoli as breaks. The beef skewer (and bites of Peiyang's curry fish) were both so good and the whole set offered a really good balance overall. This also ended up being a really filling meal for around $10 and I ended up with the leftovers so I can honestly say it was a successful meal!

We finished just in time to see the parade pass by and walked around enough to digest this filling meal for us to stop off and get New Years pastries nearby because we are eating machines for sure. This was a great first New Years on my own; good vibes and full stomachs with new friends  

CHI - Pho 777

I'm finally back in Chicago after a month of being home for winter break. I can easily say I missed it in Rochester and I'm a little sad to be back on the grind here but school is a must, so I'll keep trekking along. 

Quick stop in Little Saigon before mom drove back home and we had to make a stop for Pho! 

LOCATION: 1065 W ARGYLE ST., CHICAGO, IL 60640

Apparently mom and dad came to this restaurant when they moved me to Chicago but I was at orientation so this is my first time in this neighborhood. Mom was also very cryptic about her opinion of the restaurant until after I told her mine. 

I'm the only one that was on the band-wagon for Pho while my mom and my cousin were about the pork chop rice platters. I can easily say that I probably should've gotten the rice as well. Mom told me after we started eating that she and my dad didn't really enjoy the Pho here last time but she's always up for letting me make my own mistakes and form my own opinions so there we were.

I ordered a bowl of Pho Dac Biet or basically the Pho beef special with all the variations of beef (tripe, meatballs, eye round, flank steak, brisket, and soft tendon) because I was feeling like beef that day and you might as well go all in if you're gonna do it! 

The service wasn't too bad for a weekend and the restaurant had maybe 3 or 4 other tables besides ours with two very quick waitresses that seemed a little bored to be honest. The food came out pretty quickly and I had pretty high hopes for a real authentic bowl of Pho from Little Saigon. The portions were right for a traditional Pho and the noodles and amount of meat were very fair for the order. The only thing I had a problem with was the broth. With Pho, broth is everything, and when it's not right, you might as well order rice because what are you doing. This broth, while full of flavor, was overwhelmingly sweet for what Pho should be. I felt like there was too much cinnamon and/or star anise and that just ruined the whole bowl. I couldn't taste any beef-y flavoring and that was the whole point of the order. Disappointed, I just ate the noodles and left a bowl full of broth at the end.

While some people may be fans of Pho777, I'd like to try another restaurant in Little Saigon for Pho that tastes more like Vietnam to me.  

CHI - Little Goat Diner

I've been dreaming of trying out Little Goat Diner since I moved to Chicago 3months ago and I finally made it!

LOCATION: 820 RANDOLPH ST., CHICAGO, IL 60607

My cousin was feeling better after these past few days and her stomach was up to try something a little out there so I finally got my wish and we headed to Little Goat. Of course I showed her the website before we went and we both fell in love. The illustrations are fun and whimsical and super crazy which just makes me happy to play around with. They of course carried over into the menu when we got to the restaurant too which was perfect and make me smile. 

Also walking up to the place and seeing that happy spinning little goat on the rooftop was the perfect welcome on this chilly day. Surprisingly we were seated right away and we decided to sit at the counter though a booth was available. We could see into the kitchen and I can easily say i was happily distracted by the fun and happy workers. Everyone was really nice and professional while looking like they were enjoying themselves. 

The menu is a mish-mash of a lot of different things and it was exciting to read through and try to figure out what to get. My cousin is pretty picky though and just ended up with chicken fingers and we ordered a side of fries to share. These fries were shoestring style and seasoned perfectly and had a nice crunch to them. For my meal I went with The Fat Club which is a smoked turkey, ham and bacon, havarti, avocado, cabbage, and tomato with mayo, and a special sauce on fat toast. This sandwich is stacked so tall there was a slice of toast in the middle for support. I made a great decision. This was a great sandwich with a great balance in the middle. The toast was a little hard and did that thing where it scraped the inside of my mouth but it was definitely worth it. I will say that if you're picky, this isn't the best place to go. Also it can be a little price especially since the menu is a la carte and we had to pay extra to add things like fries to our meal. The portion sizes are generous to me, at least the fat club sandwich was very filling and was enough for two meals. If i was with someone that was interested in trying something a little out there, I would go back for sure. 

CHI - Toast

Lunch Time! My cousin has been in town visiting for the past couple of weeks but turns out we haven't gone out that much (at least not anywhere super noteworthy). But today we didn't have much planned so we figured lunch out would work. She's been a little sick the past few days so we didn't wanna try anything too adventures and figured Toast would be the safe choice. 

LOCATION: 2046 N DAMEN AVE., CHICAGO, IL 60647

To start off, Toast was right next to the bus stop so that was perfect in terms of not having to walk out of the way and there was almost no chance of getting lost or not being able to find it. The dining room was pretty small and there was a semi large group of people standing outside so I was worried it would be a wait even at 1pm on a Saturday but because there were just two of us it was pretty quick.

The staff was pretty quick at their job and paid a fair amount of attention to us, but while they were casually dressed, felt to me like they were giving of an air of stuffiness. A lot of them seemed like they thought they were too good for things and this was a turnoff for coming here.

The menu was pretty standard for a brunch place and I ordered the Crabby Benedict which came with a side of potatoes while my cousin ordered Chocolate Chip Pankcakes. The eggs were cooked perfectly, the english muffin was toasted well, and the crab weren't too salty or overpowering. The potatoes were great and the cook and seasoning on everything was just right. Portion sizes weren't too crazy and I managed to finish most of my meal. My cousin said her pancakes were light and fluffy and the distribution of chocolate chips was perfect.

Overall not a bad brunch experience. This place is a little out of my way so I don't know that I would make the effort to come back but if I was around the area I would consider stopping by.  

CHI - Eggy's

Our search for poutine has led us here. My cousin is in town and of course we had a poutine craving because I'm me and will bring up poutine any chance I get. I also, however, left the restaurant search up to her which means we looked up 3 different places and wandered around the edge of Millennium Park on a chilly day. Did I mention I'd had a full day of class and it was 2pm and I hadn't eaten all day? By the time we got to Eggy's my bar was set pretty low. I just needed food. Luckily, Eggy's came through.

LOCATION: 333 E BENTON PL., CHICAGO, IL 60601

We were those people that showed up an hour before close but I was hungry dammit and I was going to be that pain in the ass! Apparently we weren't the only ones because two larger groups came in after us so I felt a little less bad.

Turns out that the poutine my cousin found at this place was actually a Breakfast Poutine but poutine is poutine so we ordered it anyways. It had one poached egg (ours was overcooked and therefore didn't run at all to my disappointment), cheese curds (the biggest I've ever seen), (breakfast) sausage gravy, and of course french fries. Not exactly what I was hoping for but for a breakfast poutine, it was alright. The breakfast sausage gravy was a little strong but it definitely reminded me of breakfast so I guess they did a good job in that sense. 

I also got a Grilled Cheese Sandwich with avocado and a side of sweet potato fries while my cousin ordered some chocolate pancakes. My sandwich was pretty good, nothing out of the ordinary. The sweet potato fries were also pretty good, not too crunchy which I'm not a huge fan of.

Overall our meal was pretty average, nothing too extravagant or adventurous but I was so hungry it definitely hit the spot.

I did notice however, that the other two tables that came after us were having problems with the two waitresses working that afternoon. We were the only three tables in the whole place and it was hitting the end of their shift but each of these two tables got orders that were wrong and while the waitresses apologized and fixed them, it didn't seem like they had a really good excuse as to why they messed up and when they went back to fix the orders they seemed to have some attitude about it. Mind you this is an open dining room where you can see into the kitchen so it might not have been the best idea to complain about other customers when everyone can see you. With only three tables and two waitresses, it also shouldn't be something that happens 2 out of 3 times. I'd hate to be here when it's actually busy during a peak lunch hour.

Suffice to say, I wouldn't come back. While the food was good and we didn't personally have problems with the waitresses, it's out of the way and not worth the travel for an average meal that might not be as good if they were busier.