Saturday, March 12, 2011

recommendation: restaurants downtown chicago for cocktails and dinner with the girls

a coworker sent the office an email looking for restaurant suggestions to get drinks & dinner on a Friday night. the pre-reqs were - not too expensive, "downtown" (loop, river north, west loop), and good food. here's what i came up with:

LuxBar in gold coast - i went here for the first time last month for lunch and it seemed pretty good. decent prices, delicious bloody mary, nice but not too nice vibe, nearby other bars...

La Madia in river north - our new favorite, love love love the pizzas here. my friend evie introduced me to the pepperoni (giant thin slices) with truffle oil... mmm.... and you can also get half glasses of wine, so when you are debating - should i have another? should i not? i want one? but shouldn't have one? you can just order a half glass!!! pizzas are well priced and i highly recommend getting more than you need and taking home leftovers.

Mercat a la Planxa - I haven't been here yet but its nearby my house in the Blackstone Hotel. Seems to have a good vibe, people say the drinks are good and its tapas so always fun with a group of gals to get a bunch and share!

Mercadito - my sister loves this place and continues to go back without me even though its on my MUST TRY SOON list. hmph. apparently they have great fish tacos and lots of fun salsas.

Feast - admittedly, i've only been to the gold coast location and didn't love it - solely based on the fact that they put us at a table in an empty room when there were tons of tables in the room with other diners. it killed the atmosphere! that said, i've heard the bucktown one is awesome, friends and sister are always ordering to-go from here, so i feel as though i should give this place another chance.

any other ideas? happy dining!

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