minireviews

John Barleycorns - about 2300 N. Lincoln Ave.	I had walked by here a million times before going in once for a late night meal, and I am happy to report that for bar food it is actually pretty good. I've had an excellent cheeseburger and even better buffalo style chicken breast sandwich. There are a few nice looking female servers and there is plenty of room. There is also a nice outdoor patio for the warm months.
Ofie - on Sheridan Road near Irving Park	I saw a review of this place on TV, and it looked interesting. They have some really exotic West African food, which actually was really good. HOWEVER, this place is tiny and there seem to be some big problems with seating, slow service, incompetent service, and an endless wait for your food to arrive. And we were even warned not to order several menu items because they take an extra long time to prepare. If you go, go early and plan on staying out late. A few highlights include that they take reservations, but don't seem to really honor them, and they don't have a bar or waiting area, so they send you to the bar across the street with a promise to call you, but they never call, so you have to keep checking back. We were warned away by several other diners who had been waiting a long time, but we stayed anyway.
El Chino - about 1500 N. Milwaukee Ave.	One of several little dive mexican restaurants along Milwaukee Avenue, this one is my favorite so far. Where else can you get a good, tasty, and filling sit down dinner for under five bucks? The atmosphere is simple and cheap, but the food is quick and the service is reasonable. They serve chips and salsa - I like the salsa although it is hot and can leave your mouth burning before your food arrives.
Luna Blu - about 1500 N. Milwaukee Ave.	Great looking place inside. Mostly Sicilian food, although they seem to be trying to "mediterraneanize" the menu. The menu is really limited and I would have liked a lot more choices. What I had, pasta with sausage, broccoli, and a tomato and gorgonzola cheese sauce, was very good. Business was not very good on a recent Saturday night, and I suspect some big changes will be forthcoming. (Note: its out of business now!)
Brother Jimmy's - on Sheffield, about 2900 North	This is one of my very favorite places in Chicago. I love Carolina style barbecue, which is the specialty here. They have a good variety of southern style dishes, including ribs, cajun food, salads, and different kinds of barbecue. Its a fun, friendly place, with pleasant service and a lively crowd. If you can't handle dining in a sports bar type environment, however, you won't like it here.
Hinky Dink McKenna's - basement of Marshall Fields, State and Randolph	Nice looking place, however, I had a bad experience here. First, they sat my party at a table in a narrow space between two aisles between two doors to the kitchen. It was constant in, out, in, out, and brushing by us on both sides. Pretty hard to believe. Then, the menu was difficult to find anything very tempting, although I ended up with a chicken caeser salad that was actually pretty good. Our waitress kept referring to all of us as "ourselves", as in "and for yourself?", which I find to be a strange use of language. Finally, they were oblivious to the fact that this was a lunch with working people who needed to get back to work in a timely fashion. They were particularly slow about bringing the check, which I always find aggravating, and then even more slow about taking care of it.
Strega Nona - Southport near Grace (about 3800 North)	This is a really nice place, with great food and a really nice, kind of romantic atmosphere. I had some kind of pasta with lobster which was excellent. Salads, breads, wine, everything was really good. Prices weren't too bad, although this is a little fancier place than I usually go.
Andie's - Clark, just north of Foster (5200 N), in Andersonville	Next door to the more popular Reza's, this has been nicely remodeled and has a really nice, light, open space. The meditteranean food is good, with a lot of choices. I don't always know what to order, but most of the things I've tried have been good, and the prices are quite reasonable.
Soul Kitchen - corner of Damen, Milwaukee, and North Avenue	An interesting and appetizing menu, with lots of interesting choices, and I highly recommend trying it. There are always a lot of great looking people seen eating here, and they generally seem to be having a good time. When I went here last, my nervous first date managed to spill her drink directly into her dinner, both of which they promptly and courteously replaced.
Houlihan's - Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive	I like this place - great fish tanks, lots of tables and adequate room, good food, an abundant menu, and a good deal on Friday Night appetizers. I recommend the Jambalaya highly.
Como Inn - near the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Halsted	I had never been here in my seven years in Chicago, but when I finally did, it was a very pleasant surprise. I will be sure to take people here more often in the future. Its in kind of a strange location, surrounded by freeways and urban stuff, but the inside is a whole different world. Very pretty and elaborately decorated, with excellent traditional Italian food, although its a little on the expensive side and it features stuffy male waiters. The small rooms and private booths make a rather large restaurant seem very comfortable.
Havana - across from the Merchandise Mart on Hubbard or Kinzie, near Orleans	Great looking place and fun place with an exciting menu of Cuban and other varieties of Latin American food. The new management was very helpful and friendly, though there was a rather snooty hostess the night I dined here.
Tilly's - Halsted, near Armitage, around 1900 North Halsted.	Yet another great looking and fun place, set in an old flower shop. Its nice in the summertime, with outdoor tables and an open, sunny environment, and its also nice in the wintertime with its large fireplace and exposed brick interior. The round bar and bar area is lively, the food is good, the menu has a good variety of Italian, Mediterranean, and other influences, and the prices are reasonable.
Big Bowl - on Cedar, near State and Division	A busy, bustling place with a really nice interior and great Asian foods. I especially like the Pad Thai, but didn't care too much for the home-made ginger ale. A part of the famous Lettuce Entertain You chain of restaurants, so you can count on good management to make sure the food and the service are excellent. You can also count on a lengthy wait, especially on weekends, but its worth it..
Flattop Grill - on North Avenue, near Sedgwick	Assemble your own meals, but you don't have to cook them yourself. I've heard about this place for several years but hadn't been there yet. Now, they are hugely successful and have several locations, but its still a great concept and a unique eating experience. So here's the deal - you get a bowl, and you go through a line that looks a lot like a salad bar, where you fill up your bowl with various ingredients, including rices, salad type items, meats, sauces, spices, and other ingredients that don't fit neatly into any of those categories. Then, you decide if you want it cooked as a salad, wrapped up in one of those chinese pancake/tortilla type things whose name escapes me, or a couple of other ways. Its quite a decision process, as they have twenty something sauces, and a wide variety of ingredients. But the good thing is you can go through the line as many times as you like, so you can experiment with different creations. My first effort was pretty tame, but on the second try I threw in bean sprouts, rice, thai peanut sauce, thai spices, fresh garlic, cucumbers, and gouda cheese, for a delicious combination which left me tasting of garlic for days. So the bottom line is that its unique, fun, lively, tastes good, and its priced right. I highly recommend it - just go easy on the garlic and the thai spices.
Red (Previously The Damen) - at Roscoe and Damen in Roscoe Village	Great brick oven pizza here, in a very friendly neighborhood type place with a bar in front and a nice looking restaurant with no windows in the back. The waitresses and bartenders are friendly and cheerful, the clientele is relaxed and fun, they stay open late, and you can't beat the pizza. I always go for the Pizza Quattro Formaggi (4 cheese), although I'm sure the others are good as well.
Ben Pao - On Illinois near Dearborn in the River North area	When this place was about to open, a few years ago, I read a great article in the Sunday Tribune (thats the Chicago Tribune in case any of you Greeley Tribune readers were confused) about all of the painstaking detail that Rich Melman and his associates went to in creating this place from the ground up. To make a very long and interesting story short, they went to a great deal of effort in every detail of the design, from the menu to the decor, all the way to the tables, plates, and napkins. Its similar in some ways to the Big Bowl described above, but bigger and fancier. The menu was interesting and the food great. I've only been here once, but I definitely need to go back and try some of the other menu selections.