Chi-Town DINE-aries

Jason's Deli - South Loop

Jason's Deli in South Loop on Roosevelt & Canal is an awesome deli chain restaurant. The best part about it......You get FREE ICE CREAM! Yes, I said FREE! My roommate was the one that introduced me to this place since she always goes to the Jason's Deli by her work close to Warrenville. To find out that there was a Jason's Deli 5 minutes away from our apt, she was super excited.

The New York Yankee sandwich that's a definite favorite for roomie & me. The combination of the bread, meat, & mayo (NOT mustard) is incredible.

The New York Yankee sandwich is the BEST! Do you see all that meat? I mean seriously, this sandwich is humonogous! I was only able to eat half a sandwich, and I saved the other half for dinner. They also have half sandwich specials as well.

The Italian Cruz Po'boy was pretty good according to my guest. His only complaint was that it had too much vinegrette in the sandwich.

Molly's Cupcakes - Lincoln Park

Molly's Cupcakes in Lincoln Park is by far my all-time favorite cupcake place. I have an obsession with cupcakes and for some strange reason, I always crave them. I learned about Molly's from my roommate since she had went there with her cousins after a Sunday brunch. The way she was describing the cupcakes made me mentally salivate. I told myself, I definitely need to go there some day.

A couple weeks later I went to Molly's with some friends of mine, and from first glance I was impressed. This wasn't just your average bakery. Molly's was very spacious and had cute swings for seats at their counter. You can even play board games there. Cupcakes & board games, a great combination! It also had a water station so you don't have to bug the workers for a cup of H2O.

My friends & I ordered Dirt & Worms cupcakes which is served in a flower pot. How cute! It had a cupcake at the bottom, ice cream of your choice on top, and gummi worms sticking out. This is a definite must-have!

I was so in love with Molly's cupcakes that I decided to make a Molly's cupcake cake for my friend's birthday. I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and got a cupcake stand, then filled it with Molly's cupcakes. Unfortunately, Molly's isn't cheap and some of the specialty cupcakes cost between $3.50-$3.95 each. So this birthday cupcake cake burned a whole in my wallet.

The flavors you see in these pictures are Cookie Monster, Cookies n Cream, Strawberry Shortcake, Tiramisu, Boston Creme, Peanut Butter Nutella (possibly voted best cupcake), and some red velvet, chocolate, and yellow mini cupcakes.

Instead of doing a photo cake, I put photos on top of the cupcake tier. I had to save money somehow cuz I already spent a fortune on cupcakes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Sweet Honeybee Bakery - Ravenswood

Sweet Honeybee Bakery in Ravenswood has great cupcakes, and they are the cheapest cupcakes in the city. Only $1.90 per cupcake! I love that since cupcakes are usually more expensive at specialty bakeries. Unfortunately, when my friend and I went to go visit the bakery, Montrose Avenue was under construction so we had to drive around to get parking on Damen. The owner was super nice & was very patient with us as we were contemplating our cupcake decisions. Surprisingly, the bakery is Filipino-owned but didn't have any of the standard Filipino baked goods (mocha cake, ube cake, etc.). They strictly only serve American and Italian baked goods. The frosting on the cupcakes were good and there was a great variety in cupcake flavors to choose from. On my visit I bought 20 cupcakes, a dozen to bring for get together later on that night.

Here are the flavors of the cupcakes below:
Red Velvet, Strawberry with chocolate chips, Banana with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting, Tiramisu, Rocky Road, & Oreo
(Rocky Road was the best flavor out of the bunch)

Le Sucre Cakes - Niles

Out of desperation of my usual cupcake crave, my boyfriend suggested that we go check out this bakery that he swears is better than Molly's Cupcakes (my all-time favorite cupcake place). So my boyfriend, my roommate, and I drive from the city to Niles in the middle of rush hour. Did I mention that we took local all the way there? Yeah, we took no expressways, and it took us more than an hour to get to Le Sucre. Therefore, these damn cupcakes better be worth the trip! I bought a dozen cupcakes and the since the bakery was closing soon, the owner decided to give us 3 cupcakes for free.

However, when we got home and tried the cupcakes, I was not impressed. The only cupcake that blew me away was the Blueberry cupcake. It was very moist and just awesome. However, all of the other flavors could not even compare to Molly's. I remembered that this bakery only used organic ingredients. The cupcakes were not as moist as other cupcake places. So, in the end, these cupcakes were not worth hour-long drive.

Cupcake Flavors:
Blueberry, Chocolate with white frosting, yellow cupcake with frosting, & coffee flavored cupcakes

San Soo Gab San - Bowmanville (north of Lincoln Square)

San Soo Gab San is one of my favorite Korean Restaurants. My boyfriend & I came here for our 12 year anniversary dinner. As you can see through the pics, we REALLY like this place. I LOVE Korean BBQ & I like that fact that you get a great variety of side dishes with different kinds of kimchi, seaweed, and veggies. This arrangement works out perfect for us since my boyfriend loves kimchi & I don't. Therefore, we are able to devour most of the sides.

If' you're not familiar with Korean BBQ, the grill is actually on the table and you cook the food yourself. Since I'm not a cook, I leave the grill master job to him. Definitely, get the bulgogi. That's a must have. If you have a bigger group, I would invest in the Group dinner specials. You get appetizers, an entree (Chap Chae), and a selection of meat per person. FYI, it is A LOT OF FOOD. So make sure you go there with an empty stomach.

Our table before we started grilling with all the sides

BEFORE:

My boyfriend paying the bill

This is the damage we did at the end of our meal

AFTER:

Adobo Grill - Wicker Park

My co-worker visiting from NYC suggested that we go to Adobo Grill in Wicker Park for dinner one night. It was a good dinner of guacamole, margaritas, & Mexican food.

The famous Adobo Grill Guacamole