r/chicagofood

Thank you

Hello! A bit of a weirder request but have been looking for any creamy noodle dishes that are a bit spicy and have Asian flavors, think like a grown up bowl of buldak ramen but not actually ramen. Any of your favorite Asian noodle dish recommendations would be most appreciated! Thanks

Hey Everyone! Planning to make some lemongrass chicken banh mi for a group of friends next weekend, i know where ill be getting most of the ingredients but we all know the right bread can make or break a sandwich! Where are you all buying bread to make banh mi?

Looking for a cooking class for a bachelorette in October for 8 girls! Want to keep the cost at $100 per person or even under and seeing most for around $150. Any recommendations? Or is there any recommendations for a super fun experience at around the $150/person range?

Anyone know of any bakeries with really good donuts? Nothing speciality or fancy just a regular old fashioned soft, pillowy, yeast risen donut?

TL;DR Most disappointing restaurant I’ve been to this year. Bland across the board. No salt. No spices. One dish was inedible. Our server was a sweetheart though!

I went with my wife, my best friend, and his wife. Price point is $$$. I’d eaten at Mirra earlier in the week and mostly found it enjoyable, so given Zubair’s reputation in Chicago, I had high hopes. However, Muhājir was flavorless and completely uninspired from beginning to end.

I thought it quite interesting that the word “Muhājir” literally means one who emigrates (often in search of a better life) and, thus, carries some raw, emotional weight around it. Our group, all 4 of us being people who emigrated here from South Asia & Central Asia in search of a better life, it’s a name we thought would promise some real soul and story. However, the food felt like it had left that story behind somewhere. Funny enough, after the first few dishes, I was the one looking to become a muhājir (again) and migrate straight out of the restaurant lol.

Our order

Veg:
- Thaali: Comes with four dips, papadam, and some focaccia. One dip was mushed fava bean with some crushed red pepper on top, another seemed to just be lightly sautéed tomatoes, and the third was a green creamy dip but forgetting exactly what was in it. They were all extremely bland. The only interesting one was a pickled eggplant, but it was overly salty. The focaccia was rock hard on the bottom.
- Heirloom Tomatoes: We ordered this one because the server highly recommended it, and it was bland, unsalted. Heirloom tomatoes that were simply cut into chunks and topped with this mulberry achar sauce. The mulberry achar sauce was nice, but the tomatoes weren’t salted and dish was overall bland and uninspired.
- Salad: A salad with papaya, ginger tea vinaigrette. This was nice, very simple, some good crunchy texture and refreshing. Extremely small though, 5-6 bites worth of food.

Sea:
- Grilled Prawns: 4 grilled prawns, forgetting the makeup of the sauce it came with, but the prawns themselves were not overcooked. Yay. Prawns were good but the sauce was weird. Sweet, no salt. It did not pair well with grilled prawns.

Land:
- Goat biryani: This was by far the worst dish of the night. The rice was crunchy and undercooked, we had to send it back because it was inedible. We never got a new biryani. The goat meat was fine, but again, from the bites I had, no spices and no salt. It was bland crunchy rice.
- Beef Cheek Nihari: This dish was okay. Beef cheek was tender and nice. The actual gravy of the Nihari lacked any spices or salt. It had that deep meaty flavor but it wasn’t accompanied by any spices or salt so after a couple of bites it just wasn’t enjoyable.

Dessert:
They comped us their “rose” dessert, which was a nice gesture, but the dish itself actually felt a little insulting. It was one very thin strawberry slice, an airy white-chocolate element thicker than whipped cream on top of the strawberry slice, and some strawberry essence around the plate. A truly weird dessert.

Service:
Our server was a sweetheart. Real shoutout to him!

Overall Verdict: I expected a lot more for the price and reputation. Almost everything suffered from the same problem, lack of salt and seasoning. Little creativity and what creativity was on the menu felt uninspired and forced. Wouldn’t return.

I’m going to be visiting Chicago next weekend and I’m looking for restaurant recommendations for a family of three, including one 11-year old. Hopefully something delicious and not crazy expensive. We’ll be grabbing dinner on Friday night after visit the Art Institute. We love Thai, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Nepali, Japanese, German, darn near anything. Any recommendations?

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Hello,

As the title says, I'm looking for good food fairs/festival to attend. I been living in the suburbs for all my life (28f) but I don't go into the city of Chicago unless its an event or outing with family/friends and I see so many festival but cant atted them sometimes but I would to go to one for the first time. What are some good food fairs to attend? I'm looking at Panda Fest and Fun Food Festival to attend but what are some other good options?

Thank you.

Colombian Food Catering

Hey there!

I'm wondering if there were any recommendations of catering Colombian food for a wedding here in Chicago?

Ideally looking for some late night street food such as:

Empanadas

Arepa (queso / choclo)

Hot dog (colombia style)

Papa criolla / picada

Ideally someone could come out and grill it up fresh but was curious if anyone had any experience with local vendors.