The Original Gino's East - Chicago

When it finally stopped snowing, we went to go take pictures with the Bean! (Formally known as the Cloud Gate). It took us a gazillion pictures, but we finally got the hang of it:

Snowy Bean

Reflective and pretty Bean

It was nice, Millennium Park reminds me of Central Park in NYC, but the Bean is more entertaining and fun. 

Later that night, we went to Gino's East (we bought a Groupon $30 for $15) and we were originally planning on eating Deep Dish Pizza our first night in Chicago, but our flight landed way too late for u to make it to Gino's on time. 

Good thing Gino's East was so close to our hotel - it was like -35 degrees Celsius with windchill tonight! 

 

Writing is on the wall! And Menu

House Salad (came with the pasta and it was huge)
Some kind of raspberry vinaigrette dressing and some romaine lettuce, croutons and a sad tomato and onion.

Baked Mostaccioli with marinara sauce, ricotta and mozzarella
I loved baked pastas and this one was super cheesy! The marinara sauce was okay and the crazy amount of cheese made it better. It was nice to have something while waiting for the deep dish pizza.

We had no idea it would take 45 minutes to an hour for the pizza to come out.

Medium Meaty Legend Deep Dish Pizza
Wow - this was huge! The pizza had a ton of sauce. I think it was more meat sauce than anything else actually. 

Oozy gooey mess when translated onto a plate.
I don't know why I thought a deep dish pizza would keep the same shape as a normal slice of pizza, but this definitely destroyed any illusions I had about eating the pizza with my hands. The fork and knife came in handy. I thought the pizza was okay, but the crust was awful. It was like hard slightly bitter and stale bread. I like sauce on a lot of things, but this was a little overwhelming.

Overall: Despite waiting a full hour for our deep dish pizza, our service was decent. The restaurant had all these signatures from people visiting from all around the world - so it was entertaining looking at signatures. The food was okay - I'm not really a deep dish pizza fan after trying for the first time here. (Update: OMG Cold Deep Dish Pizza is DELICIOUS! Way way better than fresh from the oven deep dish pizza - day after pizza is the way to go).

Website: http://www.ginoseast.com/

Yolk - Chicago

We spent a lovely snowy and frigid morning waiting in line to get into the Shedd Aquarium (Illinois Residents Weekends are insane):

 
The marine animals were great though! I loved the Aquarium!

Then we went to the Art Institute of Chicago and saw some classics:

However, we actually started our day right by grabbing brunch super early at Yolk:

Good thing we got there early too because the line-ups were INSANE and the non-stop snow sucked.

We probably stared at the menus for a good 15 minutes trying to decide what we wanted because we wanted to try EVERYTHING!

West Coast Crepes with pancakes on the side $11.99
Avocado and mushrooms blended with scrambled eggs, melted jack and cheddar cheese and then folded into two sweet crepes with seasonal fruits
We weren't too sure how avocado in a crepe would go, but it turned out pretty well. The crepes were hearty and filling and had a nice thick chewy texture to them. We never imagined the pancakes side would basically be another meal in and of itself. Absolutely nuts! I love the gigantic portion sizes in America :D


Smoked Salmon Scrambler with side of Red Velvet French Toast $11.99
Cream cheese, red onions, tomatoes and smoked salmon with side of capers and red potatoes (3 eggs)
The smoked salmon scrambler was really good! It had the freshness of the tomatoes, tangy red onions and it was all scrambled with the egg and salmon and accentuated with the salty capers and yummy red potatoes on the side.


Red Velvet French Toast (extra $3 upgrade)
Thick slices of red velvet cake with swirls of cream cheese dipped in batter and grilled. Then topped with strawberries and whipped cream
Hands down, this was the most decadent and delicious part of brunch. The red velvet french toast was to die for! Delicious red velvet and rich creamy cream cheese icing with this perfectly battered and crispy outside from the french toast - WOW. And it's made even better with strawberries and real whipped cream and syrup on top. YUMMY!

Overall: Yolk is definitely one of the best brunch places I've been! The Red Velvet French Toast is just fantastic! The service was quick and despite the huge line ups, they never tried to push us along to finish faster. Quite frankly, I was surprised we managed to finish all our food since there was so much of it, but it was SOOOO GOOD we couldn't help ourselves. Great place!

Website: http://eatyolk.com/

The Cheesecake Factory - Chicago

More stunning views from the John Hancock Building:

There's a bit of trend whenever I go to the States...I always try to stop by the Cheesecake factory now to grab a slice of cheesecake and luckily, this one was right below the John Hancock building. 

This restaurant is massive! 

 
Oooo Cheesecake Heaven


Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake
OMG! Can we say bliss?
One of my better cheesecake decisions - sweet caramel, crunchy pecans, smooth and creamy cheesecake and fluffy whipped cream. Yum!

The line up at the take-out counter was long (and the line up for the restaurant even longer on Valentine's Day), but it was well worth it.

Website: http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/

Cafe Spiaggia - Chicago

Chicago is stunning at night: 

  

View from the Signature Lounge on the 96th Floor of the John Hancock Building

Spiaggia was way too expensive, so we decided to splurge at Cafe Spiaggia instead! 

     

My hot water with lemon could not be any cuter. 

Some cheese flatbread and nice crusty Italian bread with olive oil and balsamic

Gnocchi with wild boar ragu and Parmigiano Reggiano
Ooo...this gnocchi dish is definitely one of the best gnocchi dishes I've ever had! Definitely one of those "WOW" moments. The pasta was perfect! The gnocchi were soft little pillows of delightfulness and the wild boar ragu was spot on. The best part? Not too salty at all (despite all the cheese we asked the waiter to put on the dish for us). Absolutely Amazing! I'll have dreams about this dish for years to come...


Bucatini with guanciale, onion, San Marzano tomato, pecorino Romano
While the gnocchi knocked our socks off, the bucatini fell a little flat for us. The thick lengthy pasta was interesting, but the spicy sauce didn't really seep into the pasta the same way it did for the gnocchi.


Tiramisu
Valentine's Day is the best day to splurge! Haha. We saw so many people ordering the tiramisu, that we just couldn't resist. Big portion! It was pretty tasty with the ladyfingers soaked in amaretto and espresso. Great way to finish off the meal.

Overall: Great experience at Cafe Spiaggia! Service was attentive and the food was really delicious (and reasonably priced for a higher end restaurant). Love the Gnocchi (a must try).

Website: http://www.spiaggiarestaurant.com/cafe

Frontera Grill - Chicago

Early morning in Chicago (view from our hotel)

We went to Museum Campus and checked out the Adler Planetarium and Field Museum

Skyline view from the Adler Planetarium

(I wasn't a big fan of the Planetarium - it seemed very chaotic and disorganized and there were tons of people because Illinois residents got to get into the museums for free on the weekend)

Field Museum with a clear view of Sue! 

The Field Museum is FANTASTIC! I would highly recommend it when you visit Chicago. 

We made brunch reservations for Frontera a month in advance and good thing too! It was super packed on the first come, first serve side. We were looking forward to this too! Rick Bayless was the winner of Season 1 of Top Chef Masters and Frontera Grill has won numerous awards and accolades. 

 
Brunch and Lunch Menu
We decided to order one from each side and took our waiter's recommendations.

Mixed nuts as a starter

Gorditas: A trio of Xalapa-style masa cakes in chipotle black bean sauce. Each cake was topped with (a) scrambled eggs, (b) grilled chicken, (c) chorizo, beef and plantains and homemade crema & queso fresco.
Usually I associate Mexican food with messiness (and deliciousness), so this was an interesting plate with a contemporary feel to it. The masa cakes were okay: the egg and chorizo cakes were a little forgettable, but the chicken really stood out and it was seasoned perfectly and was oh so tender.

We also got the Enchiladas with Steak & Eggs (but I forgot to take a picture - food blogger fail).
The enchiladas were fresh-baked corn tortillas rolled around spicy steak'n'eggs roasted tomato-serrano chile sauce and a melted blanket of Samuel's hand-made Indiana Jack Cheese and black beans.
Note: "spicy steak'n'eggs" is literally SPICY steak and eggs. OMG - our mouths were on fire from the serrano chile (because they used the chile pretty liberally).


Bread Basket
Wow - I was super impressed by this bread basket! It was so delicious! Freshly baked bread and all these delicious flavours. I loved the Mexican bun and the custard bun with multi-coloured sprinkles on top. The butterfly cookie was also flaky and yummy.

Overall: It was a nice Mexican meal and Frontera is clearly a super popular brunch spot (the line up was pretty crazy!). The bread basket is a must order!

Website: http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/frontera-grill/

Purple Pig - Chicago

We booked a weekend getaway to Chicago through Expedia.ca for about $500 flying Porter Airlines and staying on Mag Mile. It was our first time in the city - so we had a lot to look forward to!

Yay! Chicago

Originally, we planned to start off our trip with Deep Dish Pizza at Gino's East, but unfortunately, by the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was 11:30pm CST (meaning no pizza since the restaurant's closed).
Instead, we did a quick search on Yelp and discovered Purple Pig was still open and it was a 7 minute walk from our hotel. Perfect! A few people gave me recommendations to try the Purple Pig - so it's really a win-win foodie situation. 

 
It's surprisingly still busy for midnight eats, but we got seated very quickly and the waiter came by after 15 minutes to take our order and to tell us that the kitchen would be closing soon.
  
Since everything here is tapas style, we decided to order two dishes since we didn't really want to eat a super filling meal this late at night.

Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes
Super tender and just melt in your mouth delicious! It was a tad on the salty side (which may be because we literally just landed in Chicago an hour ago and might have been a little dehydrated - interestingly, I just read this article recently about how in-flight your tastebuds change).


Pig's Ear with kale, pickled peppers and a fried egg

All mixed together
Again, this was another really salty dish. However, I think it was supposed to be on the saltier side with the salted pig's ear, salted kale chips and sour pickled peppers. The jiggly fried egg, crispy kale and crunchy pig's ears made an interesting texture combination and it was fun and playful, but I probably wouldn't order it again (too much salt).

After our two courses, we decided to grab another one since we weren't really full.
So we ordered the porchetta panini

There was a lot of pesto on the panini: pesto inside the sandwich and outside the sandwich.
Unfortunately, the pesto sauce was really salty. The porchetta was nice and flavourful, but the pesto may have overwhelmed us. Decent sized portion for $11.

Overall: They have some really interesting and innovative pig items on the menu, but we found everything really salty (either because it was really salty or because we just got off the plane and our taste buds were dehydrated or something). Of the three dishes, I'd recommend the milk braised pork shoulder.

Website: http://thepurplepigchicago.com/