North Side Review: The Chicago Diner

Chicagoist often thinks of restaurants like friends, and thus our experiences with restaurants are oftentimes described in terms of human relationships. For example, one restaurant we eat at is a go-to kind of friend; always open, never a hassle, no complications. Another restaurant we like to go to keeps letting us down because our expectations are too high ... and yet, we keep going back for more.

Sometimes we feel like The Chicago Diner is the kind of friend that we talk up a lot, maybe too much. The kind that has been so hyped up, that when someone new is introduced to her, they are bound to be underwhelmed. Which is not to say that in theory we don't love The Chicago Diner. We do. It is more that the last few times we've eaten there, we've found it sort of disappointing.

The Radical Reuben ($9.50) is a force to be reckoned with; the savory sliced seitan topped with sauerkraut, vegan thousand island dressing and swiss cheese has singlehandedly brought us back to The Chicago Diner more times than we can count. The flavors perfectly mesh, the seitan doesn't taste too strangely faux, and the thousand island dressing — vegan, mind you — tops off the whole concoction. It comes with one side dish, as all the sandwiches do; the French Onion Soup is a consistently excellent choice.

We also tried the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger. We had high hopes for this dish; many advances have been made in vegetarian bacon production. And while there wasn't anything wrong with the burger per se, we felt it lacking in some ways. Not enough sauce, not enough bacon, not enough cheese, just sort of not enough in general, even though the actual burger was immense.

We also tried the Polenta Fiesta (tender sun-dried tomato polenta, topped with oven-roasted sweet potatoes, garlic sauteed spinach & onions, melted cheese, with spiced black beans & Spanish rice, salsa). All of these ingredients, and it just sort of tasted boring.

The Chicago Diner has a small selection of booze, with your standard beers offered at reasonable prices and some interesting organic wines.

Before people go and bash Chicagoist as a meat-loving carnivore, know that this particular Chicagoist was a vegetarian for ten years, so our complaints have nothing to do with not eating meat. Like a good friend with whom we've lost touch, we just wish things could go back to being the way they used to be — back to the days when every dish we ate there was delicious.

The Chicago Diner is located at 3411 N. Halsted Street; 773-935-6696; Open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.