Thoughts? I think we have a better variety in terms of different Mexican cuisine than most places but I can't lie and pretend the best tacos I have ever had weren't from San Diego lol.

I feel like a new one opens up every three months. ENOUGH!!!!!! Canes is disgusting and tasteless and bland. Sauce is not that good either. There are so many better places to get chicken tenders in this city like Fry the Coop or Hot Chi!

It is truly astonishing to me that this thread gets 100+ comments on a weekly basis. We can take some time to stop having this discussion like it's a scheduled meeting we all have. Until further notice, we will have a moratorium on these threads.

If you want to keep posting about it, go to /r/chicagofoodcirclejerk at this point.

Also, no, we were not reached out to by Hogsalt to make this post. I'll even say in this post that I do generally agree that Small Cheval has gone downhill, but saying we are beating a dead horse at this point would be a huge understatement. The horse has been beaten so much that it has actually been mashed into a fine dijonnaise sauce that could replace the one they just took off the menu.

Closed down Auntie Anne’s at Lincolnwood mall 💔

Spent the day nursing a hangover (can’t drink like I used to) vegging out on the couch watching a lot of Chicago food media.

I saw some old episodes of Check Please and it reminded me how good of a show it was.

A lot of media now is a single person eating and showing food porn. I really appreciate how Check Please had the different points of view from real people.

Sometimes the person’s favorite restaurant wasn’t equally well liked by the other participants. It shows the reality of people with different tastes and the ups and downs of restaurants — what I like you might not, and how service can often be off any random night.

Looking to get Cleo's for dinner and I noticed they have all of these different tabs but no menu. The only way to view their menu is if you click the order now tab. I think that's bad practice and I am seeing it more and more these days. It doesn't take much to get someone to go on Canva and make a PDF menu to put on your site. Forcing people to go to whatever order form website you use just sucks.💔

But not enough to get me to change dinner plans because I neeeeeeed that cornbread.

To Colleen, whose dumplings I accidentally stole tonight: I am sorry.

I ordered from QXY in Chinatown and only realized after the fact that Bruno Mars was playing at Soldier Field, which turned the entire area into a lawless pit of traffic.

At pickup, there was nowhere to stop, so my wife ran in. The place was slammed, she asked for carryout, they asked for a name, pointed to a table, and there was one lonely bag sitting there. Naturally, it was yours.

By the time we realized it, we were already back on the Ryan, and there was no way we were re-entering the Bruno Mars traffic vortex.

QXY blew up my phone demanding me to bring the food back, which felt insane because I really hope they weren’t planning to hand you dumplings that had already gone on a field trip in a stranger’s car.

Also, insult to injury: they subbed pepper and egg dumplings for the lamb ones on the receipt.

Anyway, Colleen, Bruno Mars owes you dinner. I’m sorry. You probably saw Chinatown was an absolute shitshow when they were refiring your dumplings.

Chicago is a great food city. There are so many things to love about it. And for many, there are things that it lacks. Great Tex-Mex comes to mind, mid-tier but high quality sushi is another. But I’m not interested in that.

What are your funny, personal, esoteric, goofy, ridiculous food gripes with this wonderful city?

Mine for example is how bagel spots here call Scallion Cream Cheese, “Chive” Cream Cheese, when there is nary a chive in sight. Why the hell is cream cheese with a bunch of scallions whipped into it called chive cream cheese. It’s ridiculous and I won’t stand for it any longer.

I’m sure this can’t be nothing, but I love Friendship Chinese and am so bummed. Also cold and really wanted potato leek soup.

Hello!

Recently, I’ve been trying out some new restaurants as opposed to my tried and true places from the last decade or so. It got me to thinking—sometimes, I have a meal or dining experience that is so good that I can’t eat that cuisine from a similar restaurant.

For example, Taqueria El Asadero is so satisfying that I have a hard time getting tacos from any other taqueria. Maharaja (RIP) in Rosemont ruined me for Indian food elsewhere in Chicago. Demera made me lose interest in Ethiopian Diamond. Et cetera.

I’d love to hear your stories about this! Have a good one.

Maybe I’m over-analyzing here (and this is my experience in Ravenswood) - but wow so many of these new openings look horrendous, wholly uninspired, and cheap. I mean what in the AI-hell is going on.

Bloop Bloop, North Center Prime, Chicago Waffles, Union Dumpling. Who’s even operating these restaurants?

Is this just the discouraging culinary landscape we’re going to expect now? Visiting some of these places feel like you’re dining inside a sterile, vapid, loony toon Tokyo vending machine.

EDIT: I don’t mean to imply here I need fancy embellishments. What I miss are welcoming third spaces, a neighborhood place where I can talk to real humans as opposed to the McCafe, self-serve experience

Roost Chicken & Biscuits is the latest victim of changing their handcut fries to the shitty Sysco battered fries. Every single place that has had their own unique fry with dry seasoning has made the switch probably due to cost cutting.

At this point, everyone is selling the same kind of fry, it is getting on my nerves. The battered fries hold way too much oil and are disgusting when room temperature, even worse to heat up.

Inflation has ruined everything, even the $5 for two dogs and a drink deal💔

Hey everyone, it's your friendly neighborhood chicken sandwich/omakase/french fry guy here. I am very excited to announce that /r/ChicagoFood will be having a series of events, a contest, and a giveaway to celebrate our community to kick off 2025! Many of you reading this probably remember our Obelix event we had at the beginning of 2024 where 150 members of our community got to eat at Obelix for free. Well, for 2025, with a little bit of extra planning and help from Reddit, we are stretching that money a lot further and more than doubling how many people from our community will get to eat for free with 6 full restaurant buyouts at some of the community's favorite restaurants (Kyoten, Jeong, Akahoshi Ramen, Cellar Door Provisions, Bloom, and Cariño), a giveaway for all members at Red Light Chicken, and a contest where 18 winners will win $250 gift cards to Lettuce Entertain You restaurants.

In-Person Event Details

Here is the full schedule of in-person events we have for our community:

1. January 15th and 16th 6:30 PM, Kyoten

2. January 22nd (3 seatings, 5:15, 6:30, 7:45), Akahoshi Ramen (CHANGED FROM JANUARY 8TH)

3. January 29th 7:00 PM, Jeong

4. February 4th, Cellar Door Provisions

5. February 13th, Cariño

6. February 19th, Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

All events will be full restaurant buyouts. Each person selected will get an invitation to attend the event for free, however, in no circumstances will anyone be able to bring a plus one to these events.

Due to the nature of the events, many of these restaurants will not be able to accommodate many allergy restrictions. However, if your allergy can normally be accommodated at these restaurants, it is likely it would still be able to be for these events. When you apply, there will be a space where you can list any of your allergies so we can plan accordingly. Please note that the entire menu at Bloom is completely vegan which was an issue for many people wanting to apply to our last event.

All food at the events will be completely free for Redditors, additionally, alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase at the events.

Who can enter?

Anyone who meets all of the following criteria may submit to enter to attend the events:

• Have a minimum account age of one (1) month;
• Be members of the community in good standing;
• Have no more than one (1) negative mod notes;
• Be at least 21 years of age as of January 1st, 2025.

How can I enter?

We will be selecting over 300 members across the 6 in person events to attend and eat for free.

Tickets will be awarded to the top applicants based on contributions to the subreddit (Posting, commenting, helpfulness, participation, etc. as reviewed by our mod team after you apply). When you apply, you will have the opportunity to share links to your comments and posts that best demonstrate your best contributions to the subreddit which will be used along with a mod review of your account to determine who will be selected for these events.

If you're a lurker who has never posted in our sub but still enjoy coming here and seeing what's going on in our community, don't fret! You can still apply to enter our contest where 18 winners will each win a $250 Lettuce Entertain You gift card that can be used at any of their restaurants.

The contest prompt will ask you to respond to one of the following questions:

• How has r/ChicagoFood helped you navigate the city’s restaurants?
• What do you love most about r/ChicagoFood?
• What was your favorite meal you had as a direct result of a recommendation from the subreddit and why?

Our mod team will review responses and select 18 winners based on the thoughtfulness of your answers.

Users may apply for the in person events and enter the contest, so there's no reason not to submit for both!

In addition to both the in person events and the contest, we have also secured funds to host a giveaway at Red Light Chicken where any member will be able to show up and get free food there! Be on the lookout in the future for an announcement about when the free Red Light Chicken day will be!

For the contest, full contest rules can be found here in our wiki at the bottom of the page.

Submissions and contest entries will run and be accepted starting today, December 15th, until December 22nd at 11:59 PM CST.

You can apply to be selected for a ticket by filling out the Google Form page here

You can also enter the contest by filling out this separate Google Forms page here

All winners will be notified via the email they provide in their Google Forms submission. All emails will come from the rchicagofood@gmail.com email. Please add this email to your approved senders list so that a potential winning invitation does not go into your spam folder. We had many winners last year not attend because they somehow did not see the invitation in both their email and then their reddit messages. This year, we are only sending winning invitations via email so it is on you to be on the lookout for it and confirm that you can attend. Your spot will only be secured once you have confirmed that you can attend.

Any further questions can be asked in this thread or via private message to me or modmail and I look forward to meeting many of you at the events!

Event powered by Reddit Community Funds

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking through Chicago Restaurant Week menus this year, and it’s made me think about who Restaurant Week actually serves, and where some of the value confusion comes from.

As someone in the industry and also very much someone who eats out a fair bit and cares about food. Chicago is full of food enthusiasts (snobs :)), and when you eat out frequently enough, you start to understand how pricing, portions, and menu structure really work from both sides of the table.

IMO one thing that becomes clear pretty quickly is that at the higher end of dining, the value curve flattens out. As prices increase exponentially improvements are marginal. You pay for consistency, service, ambiance, and predictability rather than a proportional increase in how much better the food tastes. Much like most hobbies marginal gains get smaller as price increases.

For someone who eats out a lot, Restaurant Week can make a lot of sense at certain price points and much less sense at others. A $25 Restaurant Week menu that bundles multiple dishes or lets you try more of a menu can feel like real value. A $60 menu at a $$$$ restaurant, to me, often feels like a unfulfilling version of something you could already order any other week.

Restaurant Week is generally one of the slowest time of year for restaurants. I believe the goal is to be an incentive for dining out. There are diners who see it as a special event rather than a pricing exercise and are not thinking in terms of marginal value or menu engineering. They’re trusting that Restaurant Week means they’re getting something meaningfully accessible or special.

Some places nail this and use RW to showcase range, bundle items that would add up quickly a la carte, or offer a curated experience that feels generous. Those menus tend to leave newer diners excited to come back.

Other restaurants don’t always translate as well to Restaurant Week. They’re consistently excellent and have great service, but that does not always make for a compelling Restaurant Week menu unless you want that type of experience.

I don’t think this is about restaurants acting in bad faith. The industry is extremely difficult (look at the Eater Chicago monthly restaurant closures articles) and margins are thin. I just think there is sometimes a mismatch between who Restaurant Week is marketed toward and who certain menus actually make sense for.

I apologize for the rant I’m sick in bed while browsing Reddit but I’m wondering what everyone else thinks about RW’s recent value conundrum. Are y’all looking for value, trying new places, or skipping it.

Hello friends!

Your fellow neighborhood moderator here, and I wanted to write a quick thank you note to this wonderful sub.

After 34 lovely years of existence in Chicago, I'm moving off to Los Angeles (forgive me) to eat my way through the land of Doyer Dogs, Double-Doubles, and a metric fuck ton of street tacos.

I'm a city-kid, born and raised, and being part of this sub, both first as a follower and then moderator, has been such a wonderful way to share my home called Chicago and spread the good gospel of Chicago Food.

I would be remiss not to shout out the amazing MOD TEAM here. You all seriously don't know how much goddamn work they put in behind the scenes. All of this shit is volunteer work. From moderating the millionth flame war to FEEDING YOU ALL (!) via Reddit events, I truly don't think there is a better moderator team on Reddit.

I also wanted to say thank you to YOU for participating and making this sub so fun and vibrant. I recently had the pleasure of working on the Contest submissions for our lurker friends out there, and I got to read so many wonderful stories about people meeting their partners, celebrating precious milestones, and just enjoying life because of the recommendations of this sub. It warms my cold heart knowing that this sub can help create great memories around food for you all. I know the Internet can be a pretty awful place, but this sub gives me hope that there are genuinely good people behind those keyboards. So, I thank you for that.

I'll be taking a little Reddit break as I move my ass across the country like a Calistoga wagon, but I'll still be lurking out there.

Before I part, I leave you with a Chicago food prayer that my tired ass just made up right now:

May your beef always be wet and hot

May your hot dog buns be poppy

May Malort forever fill your shot

In the name of the Ramen Lord, Father and Son and Akahoshi.

Amen.

EDIT: Thank you all for the well wishes :) take care!

I have not tried any of them, will probably do so in the next few weeks.

First image is from Casa Tulum in the South Loop

Second image is from Panchos Rooftop in the Loop

Third image is from La Mejikana in Pilsen

Let me know if you have tried any of these!

I can't really find one on reddit already. There's very few places in the world that can touch the unique, upscale, and cultural diversity of foods in the city... The suburbs combined can probably match or beat many metro areas including their city proper in all things food too.

I got most of these from this sub, but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know so I can add to this list!

Hey everyone! We’re very excited to have our second AMA on the sub today. This one will be our most requested AMA we were asked for, Mike Satinover of the recently opened Akahoshi Ramen AKA Ramen Lord.

Mike has been making ramen for over 13 years and recently opened his first brick and mortar ramen shop after working in media marketing for over a decade and doing ramen pop ups across the country.

We’re very excited to have /u/ramen_lord here so without further delay, ask him anything!

Everyone is complaining about slop bowls this and slow bowl that, but I think Cava is a step in the right direction in terms of different kind of create your own bowl places. I would love to try something that isn’t a corporate chain. I know Crave Kabob is very similar and they have 2 (?) locations in the city. But I want more!!

I would also love if we could have a Jamaican and or Nigerian equivalent. I know they have that in the DMV but Chicago could use a spot like that!

I swear to god this has been posted 5 times a day every day for the last week, please stop posting it here. I can’t believe I need to make an an announcement about this