Palmer Place

Pretzel Bites

We ate dinner at Palmer Place in La Grange.  It has been has been featured on Chicago's Best. We have eaten here a couple of times before but this is the first time we were able to eat outside in the Biergarten.  It was a nice day and most everyone was doing that.  They have a large outdoor space on 2 levels. When we first moved to the area this is the place in La Grange where everyone told us to go.

We started out with Pretzel Bites and a honey mustard dipping sauce.  They taste exactly like a doughly pretzel would taste but in minature form.

Mexicali Burger

There are over 30 hamburgers listed on the menu so it is really difficult to decide. We went with:

Mexicali burger - with jalapeno jack cheese, guacamole and pico de gallo.  A bit messy but we both love guacamole so it is okay.

Benchmark Burger - it was listed as a new burger on the menu.  Is is a more specialty burger with a blend of prime chuck, brisket and short rib.  It was topped with Cheddar cheese, smoked picante ketchup (spicy), roasted red pepper remoulade, bacon, tomato and pickle slaw.  The ketcup was spicy.

Benchmark Burger

The menu said that the Benchmark Burger was chosen as the 2011 People's Choice Award Winner, Chicago Gourmet Hamburger Hop in Millenium Park. That is part of why we ordered it.   

The burgers can come with a variety of sides - we chose fries and potato salad.  The potato salad left something to be desired so try something else. 

Maybe Natalie is getting burned out with hamburgers.  Yes these were good burgers but all hamburgers are starting to meld together now.

Final thoughts on Palmer Place:
Food - large burger selection which should accomodate most people's preferences.
Service - it sure seemed like it took a long time to get our food out.  Another table got pretzel bites a little before us, but we thought when we saw the place coming (kind of in our direction) that they were for us since so much time had elapsed.
Atmosphere - fun atmosphere, local hangout for groups









White Chocolate Grill

We have eaten at the White Chocolate Grill once before a few years ago and wanted to try it again.  They also have 2 other locations in Arizona and Colorado. They are known for the grilled entrees so we ordered items that had steak and pork in them.

AZ Egg Rolls

AZ Egg rolls - basically southwest eggrolls, served with a jalapeno ranch dressing and salsa. They were served very warm.  Nothing overly special about them - typical southwest style egg rolls.

Filet Mignon Cobb Salad - good steak flavor, also included tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, avocado, blue cheese, marinated mushrooms, croutons and bacon with a vinaigrette.  The marinated mushroooms were a bit over powering but the rest of it was great.

Filet Mignon Cobb Salad

Pulled Pork sandwich with pickles and a side (Nick chose broccoli) - there was some confusion on this dish.  We were brought out the BBQ pork tenderloin instead of the pulled pork sandwich but they took it back and fairly quickly brought out the sandwich (they comped our dessert for this oversight). 

Pulled Pork Sandwich

White Chocolate Brownie - all of the desserts are listed as desserts for 2, they are a little larger on purpose, and because of the restaurant name they list the desserts first on their menu so you remember to save room. This dessert includes a warm Blonde Brownie, freshly baked and topped with French Vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, whipped cream and white chocolate shavings. So this was great.  With a restaurant called the White Chocolate Grill you have to try a white chocolate dessert.  It was warm and gooey and delicious.

White Chocolate Brownie

Final thoughts on White Chocolate Grill:
Food - The grilled food was good; the dessert was great so save room!
Service - we thought it was taking a long time for the entrees to come out considering we ordered a dinner salad and sandwich. Then when they brought the wrong entree we understood why.  They quickly tried to remedy the situation and quickly brought out the pulled pork sandwich.  They also ended up not charging us for the dessert to smooth things over so that was nice.
Atmosphere - very busy and loud for a Tuesday night.  It looks like the place to be for happy hour.









Bop n Grill

Philly Cheese Steak Egg Rolls

We went to dinner at Bop n Grill in Roger's Park.  We have seen it featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives and Chicago's Best and despite being located on the furthest north part of Chicago (therefore furthest from where we live) we wanted to try it.

What we ordered:

Philly cheese steak egg rolls - this is an appetizer that is only available Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. They limit the amount one can order to 2 egg rolls and once they are gone they don't make any more for the day.  They were cooked to order - served hot and fresh. It is a fun twist on both a cheese steak and egg rolls.  Nick wished there were more cheese.  Maybe it was bit overhyped - it was tasty but we wouldn't need to go there on a weekend specifically for this dish. This is one of the dishes featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives.



Kimchi fries

Kimchi fries - also featured on DDD. These fries were pretty great. The fries were topped with caramelized kimchi, scallions, bacon, cheese sauce and sesame seeds. We were worried the kimchi might be a bit much for us but it was milder than we thought and gave the whole dish a nice heat. But if you need more heat, they had sriracha sauce on hand. We ate the fries with a fork to get all of the toppings in one bite. These fries were also featured on Chicago's Best.

Umami Burger

Umami burger - also featured on DDD. This is their number one selling burger. Topped with truffled mushroom, sun dried tomato, bacon, smoked gouda and togarashi mayo. Umami is known as the 5th basic taste after sweet, salty, bitter and sour. This was the quntessential umami taste - juicy burger with both salty and sweet components.  Mushrooms are high in the umami taste which is why they were on this burger. It wasn't an overly large burger; we split it in half and each wanted more.

Chicken Katsu- panko crusted chicken served as a dinner platter with rice, kimchi, a side salad and katsu sauce.  This was featured on Chicago's best.  Of the 4 things we ordered this was the least impressive.  It was a nice tasty fried chicken dish but not something we would order again. Not much to say about this compared to the Umami burger and the kimchi fries.

Final thoughts on Bop n grill:

Chicken Katsu

Food - a different way to fuse Korean and American styles.  We really haven't eaten too much kimchi in our lives but this made it more accessible.

Service - there is counter service where you order your meal at a counter and then wait for your number to be called.  It took about 15 minutes for us to get our food which seemed to be the normal wait time because they cook everything to order. We happened to get to the restaurant right at a moment when it was raining pretty hard outside.  This worked to our benefit because it kept some other customers away for a bit longer.  We didn't have to wait to order at all.  But while we were eating (and the rain stopped) many locals walked in.

Atmosphere - Bop n Grill is located right in the middle of the Loyola campus in Rogers Park. So there are a lot of college age customers.  We felt that except for one other party we were the oldest customers there. After the rain stopped we got a sense of the more normal busier atmosphere for dinner. We loved the food but this is literally one of the furthest restaurants from our house so it would be hard to return.