Hamburger Mary's

Hamburger Mary's
5400 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL
Neighborhood: Andersonville
Hamburger Mary's website

One word to describe the atmosphere at Hamburger Mary's: FUN! This burger and beer joint in Andersonville is kitschy, retro, and campy. Added bonus: they brew their own beer!


Well they have more than just burgers on the menu here, but we did not come to Hamburger Mary's to try their fish-n-chips. I got the suggestively raunchy sounding Guacamole B.J. burger. The B. and J. stand for Bacon and Jack cheese. Add a heaping dollop of guac and a side of sweet potato fries and you've got one tasty burger. The burgers price in at about $10 a piece, but each is a half pound of natural angus beef goodness. Jenn got the blackbean mushroom "burger": a vegan blackbean patty topped with a trio of sauteed mushrooms (shitake, portobella and button) and melted swiss cheese. The nice thing about this place is that for any of their unique burger styles you can choose either beef, turkey burger, blackbean burger, chicken breast and even lamb or buffalo. As for the beer: good but not great. I think our consumption of delicious microbrews throughout the years has spoiled us to the point where good homebrewed beer is always better than domestic macros on tap, but nothing to really write home about.

Guacamole B.J. Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

Mushroom Blackbean Burger with Seasoned Fries

Needless to say, both of our burgers were excellent. The atmosphere is great and the prices aren't too bad for the quality you are getting. Our one minor complaint was with the service. I think I asked for a bottle of ketchup at one point and didn't receive any for about ten minutes. But hey, it WAS a busy night. Despite this minor blunder, Hamburger Mary's is pretty amazing. We give Hamburger Mary's an 8.6 out of 10.
Quality of Food: 9.3
Value: 8.5
Atmosphere: 9.1
Customer Service: 7.4
Overall: 8.6

Al's Italian Beef

Al's Italian Beef
169 W. Ontario St.
Chicago, IL
Neighborhood: River North
Al's Italian Beef website

The third restaurant featured on the Chicago episode of Man vs. Food (Lucky's and Gino's the other two) is Al's Italian Beef, another historic Chicago staple that has received a bunch of accolades and recognition over the years.


If it's good enough for Man vs. Food, we figured we should give Al's a shot. I don't consider myself an expert on Italian beef, so I'm not one to say whether this is the best Italian beef around. I got my sandwich dipped and topped with both sweet and hot peppers. While the sandwich is delicious, it is sloppy and messy as hell, but I guess that is expected. Jenn got the veggie sub, which was possibly the only vegetarian option on the menu. We also got the cheese fries, which were tasty yet dangerously artery-clogging.

Italian Beef and Cheese Fries

Veggie Sandwich

Al's Italian Beef is good fast food, but not great. Al's is greasy, messy, fattening food, but hey, isn't all fast food? Despite this, it is still a Chicago staple and worth a visit or two. We give Al's Italian Beef a 7.6 out of 10.
Quality of Food: 7.7
Value: 8.2
Atmosphere: 7.0
Customer Service: 7.4
Overall: 7.6

Wishbone

Wishbone
3300 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Wishbone's website

We haven't really been out for breakfast that much in Chicago yet. Well, our search for our new favorite breakfast place did not take long.


Our good friends Brad and Lindsey told us we NEED to go to Wishbone for breakfast. So we did. And we were not disappointed. Our first indication that we would not be disappointed was the fact that it was crowded on a cold, snowy, sub-zero morning. I figured I would have a hard time choosing what I wanted for breakfast, but as soon as I saw the words "Crunchy French Toast", I knew I had to get it. Crunchy French Toast is french toast dipped in corn flakes and they were excellent. The crunch of the corn flakes and the soft chewy texture of the french toast worked well together. Jenn got the corn cakes: pancakes made from corn meal, fresh corn and scallions and served with a sweet red pepper sauce. Jenn liked the fact that this unique take on the pancake was not a typical breakfast food. She especially liked the red pepper sauce, which was sweet yet zesty. She also got a side of cheese grits which she loved.

Crunchy French Toast

Corn Cakes and Cheese Grits
Wishbone is a great place for breakfast or brunch and as we noticed when we were there, is very family friendly. The portions are huge and the prices are very reasonable. We are definitely coming back for more! We give Wishbone an 8.9 out of 10.
Quality of Food: 9.3
Value: 9.0
Atmosphere: 8.6
Customer Service: 8.7
Overall: 8.9

Sayat Nova Armenian Restaurant

Sayat Nova
157 East Ohio St.
Chicago, IL
Neighborhood: Streeterville
Sayat Nova's website

We always try to experience new food and culture here in Chicago, and recently we gave Armenian food a try. We decided to go to Sayat Nova, an Armenian restaurant in the Streeterville neighborhood. Armenian food is similar to Greek, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine. A sampling of Sayat Nova's menu includes kebabs, cous cous and lots of lamb.


Seeing as I've never had Armenian food before, I decided to try a little of everything with the Armenian Combo, which consists of cheese boereg (baked phyllo bread stuffed with creamy melted cheese), sarma (grape leaves stuffed with minced lamb and vegetables), eggplant and kufta (Armenian-style meatballs made of minced lamb and topped with a yogurt sauce). It may not sound very appetizing, but the kufta was actually pretty amazing. The sarma was also delicious and the boereg was flaky and gooey, a perfect combination. The one thing I didn't care for was the eggplant which was soggy and bland.

Armenian Combo

Jenn got the Vegetarian combo: cheese boereg, Armenian spinach, taboule, rice pilaf and hot plaki (a sort of pureed tomato soup with beans). Each dish was flavored with the right amount of spices and all the vegetables were fresh. Each of our meals also came with a house salad of fresh greens topped with a unique mint vinaigrette dressing.

Vegetarian Combo

We also had to try the Armenian beer known as Kotayk, and while it was a pretty ordinary tasting lager, we can at least say we've tried Armenian beer. We finished off our meal with some pretty amazing paklava.

Paklava (aka baklava)

Our only complaint was in the value department. The dishes were each $16, which wasn't too bad because it was quite a bit of food and very filling, but we had ordered the cheese boereg appetizer, thinking it could adequately be shared by two people. The $5 appetizer consisted of a single measly boereg, and needless to say, we were a little disappointed. While it may not be the best value out there, Sayat Nova offers an authentic and delicious array of Armenian cuisine that is definitely worth checking out. We give Sayat Nova an 8.3 out of 10.
Quality of Food: 8.4
Value: 7.7
Atmosphere: 8.4
Customer Service: 8.6
Overall: 8.3

Best Chicago Restaurants of 2010

Although our blog has only been in existence for about 8 months, we'd like to take a moment to give further praise to some of our favorite Chicago restaurants we visited in 2010.

Best Burger
The Bad Apple: Great tasting, innovative burgers at a reasonable price.

Best Thai
Opart Thai: Hip Thai restaurant with excellent curry.

Best Pizza
Pequod's: Deep dish that's not too deep, plus great sauce and carmelized-cheese crust.

Best Mexican
Garcia's: Generous portions for a great price. Massive burritos and great guacamole.

Best Bakery
Bleeding Heart: Organic bakery with creative line of cupcakes.

Best Breakfast/Brunch
Coobah: Creative Cuban take on brunch that's not too pricey.

Best Lunch Special
Pequod's: Personal one topping pizza plus drink for $5.00!

Our top 5 favorite restaurants of the year:
1. Opart Thai
2. Pequod's
3. The Bad Apple
4. Margie's Candies
5. Garcia's