Sikia Restaurant washburneculinary.com/facilities/sikia In an industrial part of Englewood populated largely by empty lots, factory buildings, and fast-food restaurants is the 77-year-old Washburne Culinary Institute—and inside of that is Sikia Restaurant, where Washburne students prepare and serve food in a room full of white tablecloths, tasteful artwork, and soothing music. Sadly, the $7 three-course meal […]
Category: Food & Drink 2015 Critics’ Picks
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best place to try whiskey before you buy
Fountainhead Market fountainheadmarket.com Buying a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine you’ve never tasted is fairly low risk—even if you hate it, you’re only out $10 or so (unless you drink better wine than I do). Buying craft whiskey, which generally starts at around $40 a bottle, is a different story. I’ve had […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best $3 lunch
The sandwiches at Xi’an Cuisine xiancuisinechicago.com I read a quotation once to the effect that people who eat sandwiches have given up on life. I don’t agree with this. In fact, I think in many ways we’re experiencing a sandwich renaissance in Chicago, where any bored office worker can hop on the Red Line, get […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best use of food waste
Nance Klehm, the Ground Rules spontaneousvegetation.net/the-ground-rules During the last year and a half, ecological systems designer, landscaper, horticultural consultant, permacultural grower, and forager Nance Klehm has undertaken an ambitious composting and bioremediation project called the Ground Rules. Each week her group collects some 1,000 gallons’ worth of food waste from local businesses like Owen & […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best burger no one’s talking about
The THT Burger at Harding Tavern thehardingtavern.com Since it opened last spring, Logan Square’s Harding Tavern has become one of my favorite low-key neighborhood places to grab dinner and a beer. So it’s both a blessing and a curse that the unassuming sports bar from the owners of Cafe con Leche is quietly serving one […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best food writer (of “your mama” jokes)
Dennis Lee of thepizzle.net For his generally revolting blog the Pizzle, “Dannis Ree,” as he calls himself, has eaten bull cock, cat food, and diarrhetic escolar. He’s juiced an entire meal of surf and turf, cooked Taco Bell sous vide for 48 hours, and made a party dip designed to maximize flatulence in fellow food […]
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Best peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Beurrage beurrage.com When you think of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, most likely you think of two pieces of white bread hastily slathered with Skippy and Smuckers and slapped together, shoved into a brown paper bag, and smushed in the bottom of a backpack until lunchtime, at which point it’s gobbled down in a […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best new cookbook from Chicago
The Big Jones Cookbook store.bigjoneschicago.com A category like this has more candidates than you might expect, and it’s no slam on people from Mindy Segal to Anupy Singla to say that there’s one obvious winner here: Paul Fehribach’s The Big Jones Cookbook. Organized by regions of the south, it’s a cookbook built on cookbooks, as […]
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Best sausage that brings the funk
Soppressata from ’Nduja Artisans ndujaartisans.com Ever since it burst onto the scene with its spicy, spreadable Calabrian meat butter, salumi start-up ’Nduja Artisans has been expanding its production line with heritage meats like Wagyu salame di manzo, Wagyu bresaola, Berkshire hot coppa, and a black-label ’nduja made from Mangalitsas and Ossabaws. But it’s the new […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best comeback(s) from disaster
5 Loaves Eatery 5loaveschicago.com The kind of place every neighborhood wants, 5 Loaves Eatery is a brightly painted, friendly breakfast spot making delicious soul-food staples like chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits. And food with soul it is: the name comes from the five loaves that Jesus multiplied in Matthew, and the owners give […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best combination of pizza and liquors and jazz
Marie’s Pizza & Liquors mariespizzachicago.com Marie’s Pizza & Liquors—an old-school, family-run charmer in Mayfair that’s conveniently attached to a package store—had us at pizza and liquors. The tavern-style pies they’ve been slinging since 1940 are solid and the pitchers of beer are cold, but visit on a Thursday night to be transported to a bygone […]
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Best Hot Doug’s stand-in
Hot “G” Dog hotgdog.com During Hot Doug’s waning days last summer and fall, when lovers of encased meats mourned by waiting in nine-hour lines, it was hard to tell which aspect of the Hot Doug’s experience they would miss more, the specialty sausages and duck-fat fries or Doug Sohn’s genial presence. But now at least […]
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Best vegan deep-dish
Kitchen 17 kitchen17.com Deep-dish pizza is a pretty unlikely candidate for a vegan imitation. Can you guess why? Because a single traditional slice typically features a threatening cliff of mozzarella—never mind the chunks of sausage and pepperoni struggling against the grease that seeps out from beneath the layer of marinara on top. But the unpretentious, […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best soup dumplings
Guan tang jiao zi at Qing Xiang Yuan Dumpling An alternative to the difficult-to-make and notoriously unreliable buns known as xiao long bao, guan tang jiao zi, another version of soup-filled dumplings, are pot-sticker-size bundles of love inside of which the meat filling has been mixed with water, effectually creating stock when the dumpling are […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best Polish food in a Korean restaurant
Bing bread at Parachute parachuterestaurant.com I don’t know why this is, but it’s a thing I’ve observed often enough to share: go to a Polish restaurant and you will probably see Koreans eating there. So from the day Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark’s Parachute opened, it’s seemed perfectly natural that the meal should start with […]