Siam Marina

Chicken Satay

We went to dinner at Siam Marina in Calumet City.  It is halfway between where both of us work so it was a good place to meet.  We have seen it featured both on Check Please and Chicago's Best.  Also Natalie had been there for lunch a couple of years ago. Right now the restaurant is located in Calumet City by the River Oaks Mall but will be closing this location at the end of February 2013 and moving to Tinley Park in the future.  Another interesting fact is that the owner formerly worked at Arun's Thai - the super fancy Thai restaurant we went to last summer and loved.

Tom kha kai shrimp soup

We purposefully ordered a lot of food knowing we would take a lot home and knowing how much we had loved the food at Aruns.

Chicken Satay - chicken marinated in coconut milk and curry, served with peanut sauce and cucumber salad.  This is one of Nick's favorites -  nice large strips of chicken draped in warm sweet peanut sauce.  The sauce was a little creamier than peanut butter but not as sweet.

Tom kha kai shrimp soup - spicy savory broth of coconut milk, galanga, lemongrass, bell peppers and mushrooms. One of Nick's sisters' favorite dishes from when she was in Thailand so she told Nick to order it whenever he found it on a menu. This was a very large portion, much bigger than we thought.  The coconut and lemongrass was great, sweet and tangy.

Ceramic duck for duck curry

Thai banana curry duck - red curry duck thickened in coconut milk, tomatoes, Thai greenery and basil.  We heard about this dish from the bit on Check Please and it looked fun. The presentation is amazing - it is served at the table in a ceramic duck.  The curry was a bit spicier than we anticipated but this was cut by the sweet components and the slices of banana.  

Thai banana curry duck

Chicken pad thai - stir fried rice noodles with bean sprouts, scrambled eggs, cabbage, and peanuts in a light sweet and sour tamarind sauce.  We had to try the Thai food main stay.  It was presented almost like a cobb salad would be with all the components in their own little sections. It was our least favorite dish of the night - but that was only because everything else was so exceptional.

Mussaman curry with beef, potatoes, red onions, pineapple and roasted nuts.  This was Natalie's favorite - not too much spice and all of the flavors worked very nicely together.

Now this was a lot of food we ordered.  We hadn't had Thai food in a while and wanted to sample a bunch of different things.  Don't worry we took a lot home to be consumed over several more meals


Mussaman Curry with beef

Final thoughts on Siam Marina:
Food - great Thai food. We ordered the Tom kha kai soup because it is not found on all Thai restaurant menus.  We are sad that we it won't be at this location very much longer because we would totally go back to meet after work again.

Chicken Pad Thai

Service - well we both met each other here right after work so the dinner rush really hadn't started yet.  They were friendly and the food came out very quickly.

Atmosphere - definitely a bit more refined than a neighborhood Thai restaurant.  Nice decore and tablecloths on all of the tables.

Big Star

Panza taco (pork belly)

Al pastor taco

We went to lunch at Big Star in Wicker Park.  We had heard about it on Chicago's Best and have passed it several times while driving through Wicker Park and Bucktown.  Big Star has a small food menu consisting of some tacos and they were on Chicago's Best for their Sonoran hot dog - but that was just too large of a dish for us to order.

Fish Taco

Veggie taco with potatoes

We opted for some tacos and chips.  We tried 4 different tacos. They are each pretty small so we ordered a few to start with and then ordered a couple more.  We liked the pork belly and the al pastor (also pork) tacos the best. The al pastor taco also has grilled pineapple and onions with it - the pineapple really is a fun twist on a traditional taste. The pork belly (the taco is called taco de panza) was nice and tender and came with queso fresco, onion and cilantro.  We also tried the taco de papas - potato - and the fish taco.  The potato taco was super spicy because it came with a chipotle sauce; a bit too spicy for Natalie.  The fish taco was good but the fish was fried which isn't necessary for being in a taco - it dried the fish out.

Chips

Final thoughts on Big Star:
Food - tasty but can get similar fare for less at traditional Mexican restaurants
Service - friendly, ok with us ordering a little at a time; we sat at the bar but it seems like you would get the same experience at the tables
Atmosphere - From other reviews it sounds like Big Star can get really busy at night for dinner, especially in the summer.  It looks like there is an outdoor eating area in the summer as well as a walk up take out window. Seems like a good neighborhood hangout spot. Also keep in mind, the place is cash only - the food isn't expensive individually but several tacos could add up.

Horchata and ginger beer

Lao Beijing

Wonton Soup

We went to lunch in Chinatown at Lao Beijing. This was different than our dim sum experience from a couple of months before. It had a huge menu with some things we had heard of (Americanized versions of Chinese food) and some dishes we had never heard of (or wanted to every try-like salt and pepper squid). We tried to stick to items we had heard of.

Steamed Buns

To start we had Wonton Soup.  It was a little bland for Nick's taste in wonton soup, but it was a good dish to warm us up on such a cold day.

We had ordered some pork steamed buns at the same time as the soup and would have preferred them to come as an appetizer.  Instead they came out after all of our other dishes.  They were tasty, but we definitely prefer the the ones we had at the dim sum restaurant - they were more fresh and lighter.  But these steamed buns did have more more meat filling.

Pineapple Chicken

We ordered three different entree type foods so we could try more things and knowing we would be taking a lot home.  The pineapple chicken was kind of like a sweet and sour dish, but made even more sweet with the pineapple in it. The Honey Crispy Shrimp was the best dish we had.  It was sweet, spicy  and crunchy all at the same time.  Lastly we had noodles with pork.  This dish had an overwhelming amount of garlic that was too much for Natalie but tasty for Nick (so he got those leftovers).

Final thoughts on Lao Beijing:

Honey Crispy Shrimp

Food - It was a good but not great meal.  The honey crispy shrimp was the best, but not enough to draw us back there in the future.
Service - we experienced some very poor service.  There seemed to be some confusion over who was our server.  We placed the soup and steamed buns order with one waiter and the other items with another waiter.  It took at least 30 minutes to get other food after finishing our soup.  We figured they just forgot about the steamed buns.  But we saw tables all around us getting food.  So maybe it was because we weren't "regulars" that we didn't get better service.  Who knows.  We just felt we were sitting there for a long time and the restaurant wasn't even completely full.

Noodles with pork

Atmosphere - the space is small and clean, just not as "Western" friendly as other establishments, but we are in Chinatown after all.

Karyn's Fresh Corner

We went to dinner at Karyn's Fresh Corner in Lincoln Park.  We have seen this restaurant featured on Check Please and on the Hollywood Mom's Club. 

Nachos

Karyn's is a vegan and raw restaurant.  We don't know how they make this food but it tasted good for being vegan and raw (not cooked over 104 degrees). Nick was very hesitant at eating here and figured he would be eating a lot of salad and beans but the food was overall really good and of course guilt free.

Nachos - corn tortilla chips, with guacamole, sweetened sour cream, black olives, marinated red onions, caramelized jalapenos.  The chips weren't as crispy as a traditional corn chip but that didn't matter.  They were thick and sturdy enough to hold all the tasty topping.  The sauces had a bit of a kick to them and overall the dish was large enough to share.  Since the chips were presumably slow baked and not fried it felt much lighter than regular nacho platters and we felt a little "healthier" partaking of them.



Empanadas

Empanadas - flax and corn masa pastry dough stuffed with three pepper chorizo and house blend chili spice.  Served with a side of authentic raw chocolate mole and a salsa verde.  Nick thought he would miss the meat in the empanadas but the flavor was dynamic enough without it.  The mole had a slow build-up of heat. The salsa verde and the pepper chorizo was a little spicier than Natalie usually prefers.  The exteriors of the empanadas weren't as crisp as we are used to but that wasn't missed at all.

Portabello Napoleon

Portabello Napoleon - thinly sliced Portobellos layered with scented vegetables, fresh herbs and a cashew blue cheese, drizzled with homemade primavera sauce. This was probably more of a dish you might expect from this restaurant because of the emphasis on the mushrooms, but we don't understand how they make their "cheese". Nick was happy that the blue cheese wasn't too powerful.  The dish was served warm and layered the mushrooms with other sauces.



Caramel Fig Crepe

Caramel Fig Crepe - sweet crepe with citrus essence creme, fresh figs, candied pecans, caramel yacon syrup.  Thsi was light and tasty and who can refuse figs and caramel.

Really rare and raw shake - nutmilk, dates, banana, vanilla.  The shake was nice and sweet and you felt like you were in a tropical location  Nick wants to try and make this at home.





Mint Julep - usually we don't drink mint juleps because of the alcohol (the only non-alcoholic version Natalie has come across was in New Orleans Square in Disneyland).  The juice was tasty, but it needed to be drunk quickly after stirring it so it didn't separate.



Beverages

Final thoughts on Karyn's:

Food - If you hadn't told us we were at a vegan/raw food restaurant we wouldn't have been able to tell.  By using fresh ingredients and a lot of spices the flavors were all really nice and left nothing lacking in terms of taste.  If we could figure out how to cook like this we would definitely incorporate this into our diet more.  The idea of vegan food doesn't seem that exciting but we could definitely subsist on dishes like this without feeling like we were missing out on anything.

Service - there is a sign to seat yourself.  We wished the waitress had explained a little more how they make the foods because we don't really understand it all. A weird thing about the bill is that you can pay with a credit card but they only accept cash tips.

Atmosphere - this is located in Lincoln Park and suprisingly they have their own adjacent free parking lot. In addition to the restaurant, they have a store, a greenhouse and a classroom as part of their entire complex. The restaurant is small but assuming it was full there is ready to eat food available for purchase at the store.

Redstone

We went to dinner at Redstone in Oak Brook Terrace.  We had passed by this restaurant several times and wanted to give it a try.  It is tucked a little out of the way compared to restaurants at the nearby malls.  We also bought some gift cards at the nearby Costco which saved us 20% on our meal.

Buffalo Shrimp

Buffalo Shrimp - with buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing.  Our waitress advised us to order an extra shrimp (for a total of 6 shrimp) so we wouldn't fight over who got the last one and she was right. These were jumbo butterflied shrimp slathered in buffalo sauce and swimming in blue cheese dressing. We were a little doubtful of this combo but we were wrong; the heat in the sauce brought out the sweetness of the shrimp.

Lodge cornbread

Lodge Cornbread with maple butter.  It came served in a large skillet which was cut into 6 pieces. Between this and the shrimp we could have been done for the night.  The cornbread was also tasty but what knocked it out of the park was the maple butter. The cornbread was thick and moist. It was deliciously dense and not grainy. The busboy was a little ambitious and cleared out our bread plates before we got to have seconds and it was just taunting us while we waited for our dinner.  Maybe it was for the best; otherwise we may have filled up on the bread and not had room for the entrees at all.



Halibut with potatoes and asparagus

Parmesan crusted halibut - with garlic mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, tomato marmalade and caper beurre blanc. It was a light and flaky crust nestled on a bed of mashed potatoes.  The sauce made this dish even better than expected.

Braised beef short rib - with garlic mashed potatoes and root vegetables.  The tender fall apart meat soaked up all the favors. The root vegetables were roasted and sweet and filled us up quickly.



Braised short ribs with potatoes and vegetables

Final thoughts on Redstone:
Food - All of the food was good and the portions were huge.  We had to take home cornbread and half of our entrees. The waitress told us their specialty was their rotisserie items.  We're not sure that any of the food we ordered was actually prepared that way.
Service - we had a friendly and helpful waitress. She thoroughly explained the menu to us since it was our first time there.

Atmosphere - the restaurant had a cozy lodge-like setting.  It had a very large bar in the middle. There was dim lighting and dark woods.  For dining in the summer, there is a large patio area that looks like it would be a lot of fun on summer nights.



Wedge of cornbread

Pleasant House Bakery

Inside the steak pasty

We went to dinner at Pleasant House Bakery in Chicago.  We had heard about them from a few different sources - Chicago's Best, Check Please and Pot Pie Paradise on the Travel Channel.  We went to their brick and mortar establishment but they also have a food truck around Chicago. They specialize in traditional and modern savory pies.

Exterior of the steak pasty

Steak Pasty - we wanted to try this as we have had pasties before (in Northern Michigan). The pasty was a bit dry and small by comparison to ones we have had in the past. In addition to steak it had potatoes, rutubaga and onions in it. A pasty kind of looks like a calzone.



Exterior of the mushroom and kale pie

Mushroom and Kale Royal Pie - there are 4 different pies to choose from (steak and ale, chicken balti and cold pork pie are the others).  The mushroom and kale pie had assorted mushrooms, kale, scallions and Parmesan in it. It tasted great and we totally could have each eaten our own. It had well blended flavors. The crust is light and flaky and the center is warm and juicy.

Inside the mushroom and kale pie

Deluxe Chips with gravy - kind of like a poutine dish.  This came with bits of skirts steak, cheddar cheese and gravy.  We really enjoyed this dish as well.

Final thoughts on Pleasant House Bakery:

Food - they have a fairly limited menu but it all is homemade right in their restaurant.  The pie was definitely better than the pasty. We were a bit hungry as we left but that was on purpose because we had dessert waiting at home.

Service - you order your food at a a counter and then it is brought out to you when it is ready

Deluxe chips with gravy

Atmosphere - the space is pretty small, there are only about 6 or 7 small tables.  The decore is a bit sparse.  It looks like they do a large carryout business.