Reza's




Awesome bread served throughout meal

We went out to dinner at Reza's in Oak Brook (there are also 3 locations in Chicago) for a bit of Middle Eastern food with a Persian flare. We didn't know too much about the restaurant except we pass it a lot when driving around Oak Brook.



Vegetarian Combo Entree

We just ordered entrees but they were really large and came with a lot so we still had food to take home.  We ordered a vegetarian combo and a kabob dish.  The vegetarian combo is an entree but because you get to create your own combo from lots of choices we chose items that would typically be appetizers on their own. We were able to choose 5 items for the combo and it came with rice.

The combo included:

1. Falafel (balls of ground chickpeas and herbs) - we wish we had a few more of these; they were not "mealy" or too hard

2. Hummus (mashed chickpeas with tahini) - this wasn't that exciting but a good standard

3. Baba Ghannouj (mashed roasted eggplant with tahini) - this was tasty but we had better baba ghannouj at Al Bawadi in Bridgeview

Feta cheese and radishes

4. Dohmeh (grape leaves stuffed with rice, yellow peas, caramelized onions and raisins in a tomato sauce) - this was tasty and they were warm grape leaves - which Nick prefers

5. Kashkeh Bodemjan (a Persian specialty; mashed roasted eggplant, caramelized onions, whey, flavored with garlic and mint) - this was even better than the baba ghannouj.  This is now a new favorite for an eggplant dish (right behind Eggplant Parmesan in Nick's mind).  Apparently this is more of a Persian dish so that is why we may not have encountered it at other Middle Eastern restaurants which may have leaned more to Arabic or Palestinian fare.

Barg Kabob

The other entree was called the Barg Kabob.  It was a tenderloin, with cous cous and grilled vegetables. The kabob was very tender and beautifully spiced. There were large chunks of moist beef with enough cous cous to feed 5 people.

Both of the entrees came with soups - we had the choice of tomato lentil or chicken barley and we tried one of each.  The tomato lentil was kind of boring, but the chicken barley was surprisingly tasty with large chunks of vegetables and a large flavor profile.

Also we have to mention that before the soup we were brought a small plate with radishes and feta cheese and a giant plate of baked bread.  The bread was amazing! It was almost the consistency of a pita bread, but since it was served on a large platter it reminded us of the way spongy bread is served in Ethiopian restaurants. We ate with with the radishes, cheese, soup and with the dips in the veggie combo dish.

Chicken Barley soup

Nick was worried about the location; it was a bit out of the way from other places.  It is located in an apartment/condo building and the parking situation is a bit awkward. We were the first ones in the restaurant for dinner. They were blasting Frank Sinatra music which we thought was a bit strange, but then later in the meal they switched to more Mideast/Persian music.

Final thoughts on Reza's:
Food - good filling food that came in super large portions.  We both had enough for leftovers without even ordering a separate appetizer.
Service - the service was really great.  Now granted we were the only ones there for a while.  But the waitress was very helpful in guiding us through the menu.

Atmosphere - really nice interior (this used to be the French restaurant Fond de la Tour many years ago).  They do have a few different dining spaces and in one of them there is buffet set up.  We looked through the reviews before we went and a lot of people didn't seem to like the buffet so we went with the regular menu which worked out well for us.

Sushi Station

We went to dinner at Sushi Station in Rolling Meadows (there is also a location in Elgin).  We had seen this restaurant on Check Please about a year ago and the concept sounded intriguing.  It is like Japanese fast food and it is different than any other sushi restaurant we have been to.  You sit at either a bar or a table surrounding a conveyor belt filled with different kinds of sushi.  When you see a type of sushi you want you open a door to the conveyor belt in front of you and pick it up. The color of the plate the sushi is sitting on determines the price of that item. (wood = $.50, white = $1.25, pink = $2.25, blue = $3.25, green = $4.25, yellow = $5.25, purple = $6.25) We mostly saw blue, pink and yellow plates and 1 green plate item.

There is a menu and if you don't see an item you want on the belt you can order it. Also there are appetizers and nigiri (sushi pieces) available to order.

We grabbed the following:

Spicy Tuna Roll

Spicy tuna, masago and tempura crumbs - good sweet flavor and crunchy texture, one of Nick's favorites of the night

Scallop nigiri

Scallop - Nick wasn't in the mood for this, so just Natalie tried it.  It was spicier than she had imagined because it wasn't marked as spicy on the belt.  This wasn't a roll so it was just the scallop, rice and apparently something spicy.

Hanako Roll

Hanako roll - crab, cream cheese and green onion.  This was a larger roll, with a sort of flower design to the sauce on top of it. It was hard to get the whole flavor of it in your mouth at once because it was so large - more of a 2 bite sushi.  It's always harder for us to eat the larger pieces because they tend to fall apart.

Philly roll - salmon, cream cheese and avocado.  Good standard combination. The avocado was a nice touch.

Philly Roll

Spider roll - soft shell crab and cucumber, drizzled with unagi sauce - good crunch to the crab, wasn't too chewy

Spider Roll

Lobster salad - with crab and cucumber, one of the 2 least favorites of the night, best thing about it was the spicy mayo

Lobster salad

Paradise Roll

Paradise roll - toasted coconut flakes, shrimp tempura and avocado.  This was a truly unique combination.  We've never had coconut in a sushi roll.  The sweetness of the coconut was nice with the shrimp and avocado.  We liked it enough to get a second serving of this.

Dragon Roll

Dragon roll - eel over a California roll (crab, cucumber and avocado), topped with unagi (eel) sauce.  We actually ordered the dragon roll because we didn't see it on the belt.  It was really the only thing on the menu that had eel in it.  We didn't really enjoy the dragon roll as much though - the eel didn't taste like eel we've had at other places.

Final thoughts on Sushi Station:
Food - tasty and quick; some great rolls and some others we didn't like as much.
Service - there isn't a whole lot with service happening here because you can pick your own sushi off the conveyor yourself. But there is a waitress to get drinks and anything you do order.
Atmosphere - really neat idea (apparently there are places like this all over Japan).  This way you can try more types of sushi than by going to a place where you would get a roll with 6-8 pieces. It is really too bad that this isn't closer to us because it really is a fun concept and we could see going there a lot (especially for lunch).  This restaurant was really busy, especially for a weeknight. We had to wait a few minutes to be seated, but since you can get through a meal pretty quickly there is high turnover at the seats.  We sat facing the conveyor belt which was nice so we both could see the options in front of us.

Golden Steer

French Onion Soup

We went to dinner at Golden Steer, a steakhouse in Forest Park.  We have seen it featured on both Check Please and Chicago's Best, where it was described as being a great deal and it definitely was.  Unlike your traditional steakhouses, you get a full meal with both a French onion soup and a salad, instead of everything being a la carte.

The interior decore is very "dated", it looks like you are in the 1970's. But we expected that from having seen the interior on TV. This is probably why they can keep their prices lower.

Salad

We went on a Friday night so that we could order the prime rib (it is only offered on Fridays and Saturdays). It was just as good as prime rib we have ordered at other places.  It also came with a choice of potato and we got a baked potato.

Prime Rib

The other entree we ordered was the Beef Stroganoff.  It came with mushrooms and onions and was served over pasta.  This dish wasn't as good - there wasn't much sauce and the steak pieces weren't tender.  Most Stroganoffs we have had are more creamy.  The last beef Stroganoff we ate was on an out of town trip a few months ago and was much preffered to this.  Nick liked the meat in this dish but Natalie really didn't

Beef Stroganoff

Both of our dishes came with French onion soup which was very good.  There was so much cheese that was baked all over the top of the crock - the cheese overflowed so there was melted cheese down the sides of the crock.  The dishwasher must be powerful to clean these things.

The salads were pretty standard, with lettuce and tomato.  The dressings were good and they came with a house made crouton which tasted great.

Final thoughts on Golden Steer:

Food - really good deals for the prices. We enjoyed what we got but wouldn't get the Stroganoff again.  But soup was good enough to go back for in and of itself.  There was more than enough food so we had some to take home.

Add caption

Service - good service. the waitress warned us not to eat much bread so we would save room for everything  but that still didn't work

Atmosphere - nice neighborhood feel; we were pretty much the youngest ones there - maybe the decore has something to do with this.  There might have been another table with a couple of young people at it but they were they with a larger group that included much older diners.

Maggiano's

We have been to Maggiano's many times in the past (but so far this is the first time since we started the blog).  There are a few Maggiano's locations in the Chicago area, so Natalie has been frequenting them since the early 90's. Nick had never been to one before moving to Illinois. If you don't know what it is - Maggiano's is traditional Italian fare and usually they serve huge portions. We decided to go this time (to the Oak Brook location) because we had a coupon.

Chopped Salad

Maggiano's has a regular deal on their menu where for $12.95 you basically order 2 entrees. You eat one of the entrees at the restaurant and you take the other entree home with you (it is already packaged and labeled for you).  This is available on all of their 8 classic pastas dishes, but not any specialty pastas.  In addition to this deal, our coupon gave us a side salad for just $2 more.

Chopped side salad - iceberg lettuce, diced tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, avocado and crispy prosciutto, served with a house dressing. Good chopped salad, nice to have before heavier pasta.

Four Cheese Ravioli

Natalie ordered the Ravioli for the restaurant and the Lasagna to go.  Nick order the Ziti for the restaurant and the Eggplant Parmesan to go.

Four Cheese Ravioli - ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella and Provolone.  Served in a pesto-alfredo cream sauce with a touch or marinara. Large ravioli with nice combination of cheese.  The pesto-alfredo nice was really nice with the ravioli and it really didn't need the little bit of marinara sauce - probably just there for color.

Baked Ziti

Mom's Lasagna with Italian sausage and meat sauce - good lasagna, it was bit difficult to get the piece heated all the way through in the microwave because it is so sizable.

Taylor Street Baked Ziti with Italian sausage, pomodoro sauce with melted Provolone and Parmesan. Nick felt this was tasty and fulfilling pasta.  It was a huge bowl so he couldn't finish all of it so had the rest wrapped up to go. So he had 2 more meals out of this experience.

Eggplant Parmesan - good eggplant, but not nearly as awesome as the eggplant parm he had at Rosebud a few months ago.

Final thoughts on Maggiano's:

Food - good traditional institutionalized Italian fare.  Great value for the price, got 2 or 3 meals out of this.

Service - pretty good, we were kind of stuck in a corner but that didn't prevent our server from getting to us

Atmosphere - this restaurant is always busy; we actually made a reservation through open table on our drive to the restaurant just to be safe.  It probably saved us about 10-15 minutes by doing this as we were able to walk right in.

Courtright's

Rack of Lamb

Amuse Bouche

As a continuation of Natalie's birthday celebration, we went by ourselves to Courtright's in Willow Springs. We had heard about them a few months ago from them receiving a Michelin Star. They have also been featured on Check Please and we checked out that video before making a reservation.

You can order food a la carte, but most people (including us) seemed to order prix fixe menus. We had the 3 course meal where you can choose an appetizer, soup or salad, an entree and a dessert.  Monetarily it works out to be a slightly better deal to order this way - unless you choose the least expensive appetizer and entree available.

Baked Brie

Before the courses came out there was an amuse bouche of gorgonzola cheese and figs.  Also they brought out a bread basket with prezel and ciabatta rolls, and other breads.

First Course:

Baked Brie and Pistachios with Raspberry Coulis - the crunchy pistachios were nice with the smoth brie.  Nick felt the Raspberry was a bit tart, but overall the combination was nice.

Marinated Shrimp

Passion Fruit Marinated Shrimp with Summer Salsa and Vanilla Corn Coulis - a nice combination of flavors - interesting to have the fruit, vegetable and seafood flavors all at once. Nick felt it was a bit small, but at least we each got to have a shrimp.

Second Course:

Australian Rack of Lamb with roasted tomatoes, baby zucchini, eggplant caviar, french beans and a rosemary lamb sauce. Very tasty. The lamb was tender and Nick loved the zucchini.  The eggplant caviar was really just an eggplant puree.

Buffalo Strip Loin

Grilled Buffalo Strip Loin with truffle creamy quinoa, roasted baby beets, grilled asparagus in a red wine sauce. We both like this dish best.  The buffalo obviously tastes a lot like beef, but much leaner.  Natalie absolutely loved the quinoa (probably because of the truffles).  The vegetables were also great.  Overall the whole dish was complex and satisfying.

Third Course:
Creme Brulee - with peaches, raspberries and nectarine sorbet.  It was a pretty typical creme brulee, but it was presented in a not so typical fun bowl (with a candle to celebrate Natalie's birthday),

Blueberry and Brioche Bread Pudding with mint ice cream - the bread pudding wasn't too heavy.  Natalie thought the combo of the blueberry and mint might be a bit strange, but they complimented each other.

Creme Brulee

In order to celebrate Natalie's birthday they put a candle in her dessert. We noticed that pretty much every other table had one (or two) candles in desserts as well.  So this seems to be a special occasion restaurant more than anything.  I guess with the higher prices you might not be frequenting this place all the time.

Blueberry Bread Pudding and ice cream

Final thoughts on Courtrights:

Food - the food was definitely a step above other American/European restaurants. All of the dishes were well thought out and creative. Very rich and indulgent food without feeling too heavy. We noticed a lot of other tables were ordering the 4 course meal (where you get a soup or salad and an appetizer), but we felt the 3 course was more than enough food.

Service - our waiter was nice enough but he seemed a bit stiff. There was another server that brought all of our food to the table and described it for us.

Atmosphere - beautiful setting with big windows looking out to a lovely garden. The restaurant itself looks almost like a home. It is located across the street from the infamous Willowbrook Ballroom.

Cooper's Hawk

Pretzel Roll Bread before the rest of the food came

We had heard about Cooper's Hawk from a few different friends, so we decided to try it to celebrate Natalie's birthday with her parents. We went to the restaurant in Burr Ridge, but they also have 5 other locations in Illinois and locations in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.  They are known for being a winery, but they also have great food.

Appetizer Sampler

Appetizer:

Cooper's Hawk Sampler - included over the border eggrolls (southwest eggrolls), tenderloin sliders, chicken potstickers, and mini crab cakes.  The appetizers were pretty typical of American restaurants in general.  They were all good and each item came with its own dipping sauce.

Entrees:

Sea Scallops sauteed in wine butter sauce served with jasmine rice and asparagus.  The scallops and rice were really great, but the asparagus was a bit tough - like they didn't chop off enough of the bottom part of the asparagus stalk (one of Natalie's bites was too tough to chew).



Sea Scallops, Asparagus and Jasmine Rice

Cooper's Hawk Farm Grill - 3 medallions, blue cheese crusted beef tenderloin medallion, maple, mustard and pretzel crusted pork tenderloin medallion, and parmesan crusted lamp chop, served with asparagus and whipped potatoes.  All three of the medallions were amazing. Nick's favorite was the pork - which you can order on its own. Each medallion had its own unique and bold flavor.

Farm Grill

Since it was a celebration of Natalie's birthday we received a complimentary birthday dessert of a white chocolate truffle, a chocolate covered strawberry and berries and cream.  The server actually brought out 2 of these plates because at first she didn't remember the special occasion. The chocolate truffle was the best item and you can buy those at their shop in front of the restaurant.

Final thoughts on Cooper's Hawk:

Dessert Plate

Food - tasty American fare with both upscale and casual food options

Service - not great, our server wasn't completely attentive (maybe because we didn't order any wine)



Flatbread we got to try

Atmosphere - lively, the restaurant was very full by the time we left. If you are a wine drinker, they serve wine at your table in giant decanters.

Uncle Julio's

Chips & Salsa

We went to dinner at Uncle Julio's in Lombard.  We had heard about this place from a few different friends. In Illinois they also have another location in Chicago as well as restaurants in Texas, Florida, Georgia and Washington D.C..

They bring out chips and salsa before your meal.  We had read some reviews where people loved the chips and we can see why.  They were very light and served warm.  The salsa that is served with the chips had a bit more of a kick to it than we would expect from this kind of place.

We ordered:
Fajitas Especial - with chicken, beef and grilled vegetables, with cheese, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, rice and beans on the side. Typical fajitas; nice grilled items and good flavor. Nothing exotic or unique.

Fajitas Especial

Steak and Enchilada dinner - 6 oz carne asada, 1 cheese and onion enchilada with El Paso style red sauce, with rice, beans, guacamole and pico de gallo on the side (we used a couple of the tortillas from the fajitas to make tacos out of this as well). Typical Tex-Mex fare.

Final thoughts on Uncle Julio's:

Steak and Enchilada Dinner

Food - chips and salsa were definitely great.  The entrees themselves were good but nothing super spectacular.  Pretty typical of Mexican chain restaurants. With all of the more authentic Mexican options in the area, we probably wouldn't go back.
Service - a little slow at times - there was a family right next to us with 5 children that came after we got there so that kind of slowed up the service we received
Atmosphere - family friendly, there were 2 tables with multiple children very near us.  We were able to sit out on their patio because it was a nice night.