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Home » Food & Drink » Restaurant Review

Category: Restaurant Review

Dawn Lewis of D's Roti & Trini Cuisine with delicious dishes of “buss up shut,” Chinese chicken, doubles, and dhalpuri
Posted inRestaurant Review

Dawn Lewis of D’s Roti & Trini Cuisine has a sweet hand

by Mike Sula May 11, 2022May 12, 2022

​Nobody just wakes up and says, “I’m gonna make roti today.” Not for the first time, anyway, and not without preparation. So says Dawn Lewis, who over the last four years earned the title of “the Roti Lady” among Trinidadian expats exiting frenetic soca fetes at the South Loop club Bassline, who grew dependent on […]

Dishes from the reimagined Pippin's Tavern
Posted inRestaurant Review

A Viagra Triangle dive rises under chef Amanda Barnes

by Mike Sula March 16, 2022March 30, 2022

Used to be, if you worked up a hunger bending your elbow at Pippin’s Tavern, you could vanquish it with a dog, a polish, a beef, or a burger from Downtown Dogs next door. Over the 48-year history of this Rush Street Irish dive, its charms never included food prepared with deeper thought, effort, or […]

Avenida Peru dishes
Posted inRestaurant Review

Avenida Peru takes it to the street

by Mike Sula February 16, 2022February 17, 2022

Karlo Caceres and his mother, Cecilia Descalzi, threw out the couch in the living room of their tiny two-bedroom Jefferson Park apartment. They replaced it with foldable tables stacked with aluminum trays and plastic carryout containers and bags. This is where they staged the pickup and delivery meals Caceres advertised each week on Facebook under […]

Pig & Fire chef Roel Estanilla
Posted inRestaurant Review

Roel Estanilla makes a very presentable pig

by Mike Sula January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

A lion’s purr revving to a roar. The sound of a crack racing across the bald face of a mountain. Thunder ripping across the sky. All arresting sounds for sure, but the phenomenon of Roel Estanilla breaking into the crispy, copper skin of a roasted cochinillo lechón could drown them all out.  That sound is […]

Moonwalker Cafe Breakfast Sandwich pic by J. Kirby Torres
Posted inFood & Drink

Moonwalker Cafe is the scratch kitchen every neighborhood deserves

by Mike Sula January 4, 2022January 4, 2022

When Arlene Luna moved back to Chicago in December 2020 she discovered that all of her old classmates from the now-defunct Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago had left the life. “Everyone that I knew from back then is no longer in the business,” she says. “I came back and started looking up a few […]

HD Cuisine dishes
Posted inRestaurant Review

The Malaysian family recipes at HD Cuisine are worth a journey

by Mike Sula November 10, 2021November 17, 2021

There’s one table and one small booth inside HD Cuisine, a tiny Malaysian restaurant in a suburban Wheeling strip mall. Altogether there’s enough space to seat 11 people. If the weather’s nice and your timing is right, you can enjoy your nasi lemak, beef rendang, or Penang Hokkien mee at one of two tables set […]

Clockwise, from the center: khanom chan, blossom-shaped steamed cakes; a khanom pang-sangkhaya set; “buddy buns;”  "sibling" cakes; taro chiffon cake; Khanom Tokyo
Posted inFood & Drink

Habrae Cafe has your good luck Thai sweets

by Mike Sula July 20, 2021August 18, 2021

A couple introduce Forest Park to Thai desserts, old and new.

Adobong manok at Boonie Foods
Posted inFood & Drink

Boonie Foods imagines Pinoy food past, present, and future

by Mike Sula May 12, 2021August 18, 2021

Former Arami chef Joe Fontelera’s pandemic pop-up settles in at Revival Food Hall.

Jamaica-born chef Ricardo Blake just wants to be authentic, and he’s got the unforgettable jerk chicken to prove it.
Posted inFood & Drink

St. Bess aims for Jamaican domination

by Mike Sula April 28, 2021August 18, 2021

A veteran cook has no use for your jerk egg rolls and rasta pasta.

Clockwise from left: The Compass Steak Dog, the Yeah Man Jerk Salmon Hot Dog, and the Bronzeville Bourbon Steak Dog
Posted inFood & Drink

Bobby Morelli is the sausage king of Bronzeville

by Mike Sula April 13, 2021August 18, 2021

A father-and-daughter team sling loaded wieners from a storage container.

The steamed dumpling banh bao is the showstopper on Giống Giống’s eight-item menu.
Posted inFood & Drink

Giống Giống means the flavors of Vietnam and Guatemala are kinda ‘same-same’

by Mike Sula March 30, 2021August 18, 2021

Two chefs join forces for an unlikely but fitting fusion.

The majority of Kapitan's menu is nyonya-focused, with a mix of curries, kuih, and more.
Posted inFood & Drink

Aye-Aye, Kapitan

by Mike Sula February 2, 2021August 18, 2021

The owners of Serai open the country’s only nyonya restaurant, devoted to the food of Malaysia’s Peranakan culture.

Posted inFood & Drink

You don’t mess with Teta at Evette’s

by Mike Sula November 9, 2020August 18, 2021

Grandma would approve of this Lincoln Park Lebanese-Mexican mashup.

Posted inFood & Drink

Meet Dinkey DaDiva, creator of the Jerk Chicken Egg Roll

by Mike Sula October 28, 2020August 18, 2021

The Egg Roll Lady has 75 varieties in her arsenal.

Posted inFood & Drink

Bokuchan’s ghost curry holds up in transit

by Mike Sula October 13, 2020August 18, 2021

It’s Shin Thompson’s pivot to Japanese soul food, from a virtual kitchen.

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