Potbelly Sandwich (Midway Airport) - Chicago

We saw this crazy long line up outside Potbelly Sandwiches, so we decided to split a sandwich to see what made their sandwiches so special. 

The guy taking our order said the most popular sandwich was A Wreck

On Brown bread with salami, roast beef, turkey, ham & swiss cheese as well as lettuce, onion and mayo

It was good - but I still didn't see what all the hype was about. Maybe it's a Chicago thing? 

 I found it was a decent sandwich: warm & toasty with fresh ingredients and reasonably priced...but I didn't find it anything extraordinary.

Website: http://www.potbelly.com/Shops/ShopLocator.aspx?PotbellyShopId=007

Blackbird - Chicago

I love that Chicago has a free zoo open year round! Even though it was freezing, we went to go check it out. It was rather empty, but it was nice! No crowds to fight and no yelling & screaming children.

So cute!!!

  
Patagonian Cavy, Pygmy Hippo, Giraffe (sticking out his tongue!)

Blackbird has won a few James Beard Awards.

Maybe I should have done a bit more research before picking the restaurant. It seemed a little pretentious with most of the customers all business formal eating the prix fixe meals and here we were wearing double layers of leggings and jeans and hoodies ready to brace for the cold walk through Lincoln Park Zoo after. 

 
Prix Fixe Menu and Bread

Roasted Cauliflower with almond yogurt, grapefruit, hazelnut, chives and red streak
It's a beautiful mix of colours, flavours, textures on a plate, but I couldn't help thinking - that's it??
This is the start of the three course meal and it was a few pieces of charred cauliflower, tiny slivers of tangy ruby red grapefruit and yogurt.


Dry-aged beef tartare with smoked mushrooms, crispy grains, dried tomatoes, and cress
Probably a way better choice of appetizer - less white space on the plate compared to the cauliflower (and I always thought vegetarian dishes got larger portions since vegetables are usually a lot cheaper than meat). The tartare was nice and there was good texture with the crispy grains.


Hanger Steak with smoked potato fingerling, charred cabbage, sour cream and black garlic
The hanger steak was nice...portion sizes were a bit tiny again. Lots of charring of food here with charred cabbage.


Faroe Islands Salmon with apple cider-miso glaze, sunchokes, rapini and chamomile vinaigrette
A decent lunch sized portion of salmon! The apple cider-miso glaze and chamomile vinaigrette were pretty interesting, but I almost felt like the flavours were competing with each other rather than complementing each other.


Bourbon gooey butter cake with whipped goat cheese, caramelized strudel, pumpkin pie, pecans and sorghum
This looked really cool. I couldn't really eat it because the whipped goat cheese was way too overpowering for me. Another case where there's a lot of competing flavours with the pumpkin, pecans, strudel, butter cake - but in this case, the whipped goat cheese overpowered it all.


brownie sundae with chocolate ice cream, amarena cherries, smoked oat crunch and whipped cream
Tiny! I probably didn't really appreciate the nuances of the smoked oat crunch or amarena cherry - but the rich dark chocolate ice cream was good.

Overall: As out of towners, we had some issues locating the restaurant since it was further away from the Loop and there's no bus service there - so we walked. The service was okay, we found the presentation of the food lovely and the food was decent, but we didn't really get value for money for the $25 prix fixe meal.

Website: http://blackbirdrestaurant.com/

Magnolia Bakery - Chicago

Chicago River Walk

I kinda like the pace of Chicago over NYC.
It was FREEZING, but it's kinda lovely and peaceful.
I thought the Loop subway system was kind of stupid - we spent most of the weekend walking or taking the bus up and down Michigan Avenue because the subway couldn't get us to where we wanted.

We were casually strolling and saw Magnolia Bakery! The Chicago version!

OMG! We made it on PISTACHIO DAY!

We had a big 3 course lunch planned, so I grabbed a mini pistachio cupcake because I can't resist.
I'm guilty of raising my expectations too high whenever I see a pistachio dessert, but I can usually say most pistachio desserts usually meet my expectations purely because I can taste the pistachio flavour. In this case, I could see the pistachios on top, and feel little chunks of the nut get caught in my teeth in the cupcake part, but the icing fell flat for me - so it didn't really work for me.

Overall: It's nice to see the cupcake chain expanding, but unfortunately I didn't get the same experience eating cupcakes in Chicago that I did in New York.

Website: http://www.magnoliabakery.com/

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/