Chicago: Food

Since there are tons of places to eat, we did a little research to narrow our options based on where we would be going. We didn't hit all of the places we planned for, but we did make it to a few. Sorry, but for some reason, we didn't take any photos while we were eating. So I've thrown a few other random photos in from this trip to Chicago for those who are more visual.


Downtown: Tulips were abundant

We ate Chicago-style hot dogs ("The Dog") with fries at Hot Doug's (they have a wide variety of options, though; check out their menu). Apparently, this place is really popular. Despite the fact that it was mid-afternoon, rainy, chilly, and the restaurant is sort of away from the main attractions, the line weaved around the block (and there wasn't much shelter for those outside). It was good, though. And Doug, the owner, was very nice. They closed at 4pm that day (it was a Friday), but they still served those who were standing in line before closing time.

The next day, we ate deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati's. Both the food and service were good, but we also want to try other pizza places in the future, since there are so many in Chicago.


View from Shedd Aquarium



 
Alexis and I ate lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at the Navy Pier on the day we had to go home (Ed left early for work), since I had never eaten there. I got the "Bucket of Boat Trash", which was really good. We also split a dessert of cinnamon bread pudding (a la mode), to celebrate our birthdays. We highly recommend it! I'm going to try to make the bread pudding some time, though. And we totally passed the pop quiz our waiter gave us on Forrest Gump trivia.


Navy Pier

We also gave grubhub a try (a food delivery web site) one night for dinner at the hotel. It worked really well for us. They even delivered to our room door. We ordered Chinese and they didn't skimp on the portion sizes! We also ordered smoothies (from the Chinese place) because they had odd flavors (we tried cantaloupe).
So, Ed and I have officially checked off "eat pizza and hot dogs in Chicago" from our 2011 goals. Okay, so that was more of a sub-goal ("Do" Chicago), but whatever. It counts as part of the "doing Chicago" experience. And that officially wraps up the series of Chicago posts for this trip!