Anna's Asian Bistro

We went to dinner at Anna's Asian Bistro in the West Loop of Chicago.  We found out about it from Chicago's Best.  Otherwise we probably would have walked right by it because it doesn't stand out too much from the street; and it is on Lake street so the facade kind of gets covered up by the El trains.

Stuffed Fried Avocado

When the title says Asian they are correct - the menu is huge and covers pretty much all Asian fare: including Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and even Filipino.

We went there specifically to try the Stuffed Fried Avocado - avocado stuffed with spicy tuna and tempura fried.  This was the item featured on Chicago's Best.  It was really good and we could have easily had more of it. It was warm and spicy and crunch all at the same time. Kind of like having sushi, except with avocado instead (which we love).

Lumpia

Since we saw some Filipino items on the menu we couldn't resist because we don't find them that often.  We had lumpia which are small egg rolls/spring rolls with chicken and vegetables. They were nice and crunchy but pretty standard Filipino fare.

For an entree we had Panang Curry - chicken with green peppers and basil in a peanut coconut curry sauce. The sauce was great.  The only disappointment is that there wasn't quite enough rice for all the sauce - but that seems to be the case with all curry dishes at any restaurant - there is only a small scoop of rice included with the entree.

Pancit Noodles

Unagi roll

Filipino Pancit noodles - we had to try another Filipino dish.  Pancit is thin noodles and in this case it was served with eggs, vegetables and shrimp.  Nick thought it wasn't quite up to the ultimate Filipino standard (something about how the noodles stuck together), but Natalie enjoyed it.

Panang Curry

We also had a black maki roll with unagi.  Don't know what the "black" in the title meant but Natalie loves unagi (eel).  Nick thought it was pretty standard/nothing special.  We've had better sushi elsewhere.

Final thoughts on Anna's Asian Bistro:
Food - the avocado and tuna was amazing.  The entrees were good. The other appetizers were just okay.  What was interesting was having the variety of Asian options in one restaurant. But since they were trying to do every type of cuisine they weren't outstanding in one category.
Service - pretty good but there weren't that many people on a Tuesday night when we went
Atmosphere - it is easy to miss it from the outside, kind of non-descript, but looks nice inside

Weber Grill Restaurant

The giant grill is really cool!

We went to dinner at the Weber Grill Restaurant in Lombard.  There are 4 locations - here, Chicago, Schaumburg, IL and Indianapolis. We haven't been here to eat in over 4 years - it was one of the first restaurants we went to when we moved here.

Pretzel rolls (probably from Labriola across the street)

What we ate:
Bruschetta - Nick felt like having bruschetta; the bread was grilled so that is why it was on the menu. The bread wasn't as crispy as typical bruschetta - but it was novel that it was grilled.

Bruschetta

Korean BBQ steak salad - so the last time we were here (4 years ago) we ordered a steak salad and it was amazing.  But since it has been so long since we have been to this restaurant of course the menu has changed and it is now a Korean BBQ steak salad.  The flavors were good but not as great as the salad from 4 years ago.  It was a little weird but the steak came out sizzling on a griddle (like fajitas would be served).  So it was odd to be putting really hot steak on colder salad greens. The steak had a kimchi flavor to it (hence Korean steak). Korean flavors are "in" right now, but we missed the old, more traditional (but gourmet) steak salad.

BBQ combo

Salad with sizzling steak behind it

BBQ combo with pulled pork, brisket, mac n cheese and sweet potatoes.  The meats were great, especially the brisket - it was so tender you could cut it just with a fork.  But this is a "grill" restaurant so we would expect the meat to be great.  The mac n cheese was good, not great and the sweet potatoes were a bit disappointing.

Final thoughts on Weber Grill Restaurant:
Food - the food was good but we would probably return and get more traditional steak fare than bbq as we have some other bbq joints we prefer.
Service - good service; our waiter was friendly.  The location of our table seemed to be near where a lot of waiters were milling about so it was a little distracting.
Atmosphere - when we drove up to the parking lot we were worried because it was quite full looking.  But there didn't seem to be that many people in the restaurant itself.  Maybe they were in a back private room or in the large bar area where we couldn't see them. It was a little busier when we left. They do carry out and one odd thing we saw in the parking lot when we left was people "tailgating" - literally they had the tailgate of their SUV open and they had put up a card table with chairs.  It looked like they had gotten food from a couple of different nearby restaurants as PF Changs, Uncle Julios, Champs and DMK Burger are right there (we've never seen that before - maybe it was an unique date night).