Evanston's Zoba Noodle Bar needs a little more polish before it shines. more ›

If you have a lot of cash and a lot of faith, you may be able to skip the process of getting tickets to Next as they announced the sale of season tickets. more ›

If you're tired of boring old pad thai, head up north to Sticky Rice for a taste of Northern Thai cuisine. more ›

Get a first glimpse of the new menu. more ›

We must admit, we were not at our computer last night. So, we missed the initial conflagration of "Future Next Themes" - a flood of food writers, chefs and diners proposing ridiculous themes for the next menu of Next. A couple of days ago, Time Out gave us the next 4 menus for Next restaurant, including "Childhood," an idea that everyone seems to both love and feel a deep need to mock. more ›

Any illusions we ever had about Chicago not being a great city for vegetarians have slowly been cast aside. It seems that the more we explore the culinary highways and byways of the Windy City, the more superb meat-free fare we find. It seems that there's a nice vegetarian surprise around almost every corner. Our latest came from a little place on Devon in Rogers Park. Blue Elephant is a little Thai restaurant that is small on space, but big on fresh vegetarian taste. more ›

Don’t be misled by the “pho” in the name--this quintessential hole-in-the-wall restaurant offers what might be the hottest, spiciest Thai in town. more ›

If the title has you a little confused, you can rest assured that this is indeed a restaurant review. A play on the name of the eatery, however, was too good to pass up. If you are going to name your restaurant after most folks' favorite season of the year, it better live up to the moniker. We have written before about the dangers of setting the bar high on your food and service by choosing a name with grand connotations. Thanks to the fun, fresh flavors we encountered at Edgewater's Summer Noodle & Rice, we can say that here the name is more than apropos. more ›

Well, this seems inevitable. The insane amounts of hype and anticipation around Next restaurant's new Thai menu led to a collapse of their computer systems last night when tickets finally went on sale. What Time Out's David Tamarkin called an "explosion of bourgeoise anger and first-world vitriol" (and we call just another example of why anonymous internet commenting leads people to be idiots) happened on the Next Facebook page, reminding us that you're only popular until you're not. more ›

If you didn't happen to get one of the reservations (that sold out in 2 seconds) for Next's new Thai menu, we've got a Monday treat for you. A video, released by the restaurant on Friday, which goes behind the scenes and shows off many of the new dishes. Like everything released by the Next/Aviary team, it's absolutely gorgeous - and will make you want to stuff your face full of cilantro, if you're anything like us. more ›

- Next's new menu, an interpretation of Thai cuisine, starts this weekend. Tickets went on sale yesterday at 4:45, and, according to Next's Facebook page, "every table was in held mode within 2 seconds...." So, if you didn't happen to get one, what can you do? The tickets released were only for this weekend, so you have plenty of time to eat their Thai food. Our suggestions? Follow them on Facebook, and be flexible - if Paris 1906 is any indication, after a couple of weeks there were plenty of night-of tables. Also, they have a new logo and the new menu is up on their website. more ›

Beyond the standard purveyors of salads and veggie sandwiches, finding more exotic and exciting vegetarian lunch choices downtown can be a challenge. Not that there is anything wrong with either of those choices. Sometimes, Simply Thalia to the food court at Block 37, deciding where to have a more inspiring veggie lunch just got a little less difficult. more ›

Some of the best Thai food in Chicago can be found in a pocket of Lakeview just north of Wrigleyville bordering Buena Park. There you’ll find this tasty Thai treasure, Tac Quick. Unlike most dilapidated Thai restaurants, Tac Quick (Tac is an acronym for “Thai Authentic Cuisine”) is sleek and modern inside, with dark reds and blacks adorning the walls and dim lighting throughout. Don’t let this slick interior deceive you, as it still charges low prices for large portions. more ›

In today’s soup, we move onto an entirely different set of flavors. Rather than onions, celery, crushed red pepper or sausage, this soup has some new ingredients: curry paste, coriander seeds, coconut milk, ginger. The end result is a creamy broth that, depending on your taste, can be as spicy or as savory as you like. Play with the optional ingredients, try something new, or substitute something familiar - this is a very versatile soup and a good introduction to some basic Thai spices. We bought all of our ingredients at a normal grocery store - the “Thai Kitchen” brand is usually reliable. more ›

We’re always looking for interesting chicken recipes, but we find most are either incredibly bland or mouth-numbingly dry. We prefer whole roast or rotisserie chickens, but often boneless skinless chicken breasts are the only convenient option on a weekday night. This is an easy dish with a nice Thai twist and you can finish it in less than thirty minutes. It’s also got a nice spicy, citrus flavor for a summer dinner out on the balcony. more ›

Drinking wine can be an experience to savor and that experience is heightened when paired with some great cheeses. BIN 36 offers a nice atmosphere to do both these things. Chicagoist dined at the downtown location and not only enjoyed wine and cheese, but indulged in some of Executive Chef John Caputo’s cooking. more ›

In just a few short weeks, will hit the airwaves and we're counting down the days to the March 12 season premiere. In addition to placing the city's restaurant scene at the forefront of the series and the backdrop for the competition, there are three chefs with local ties competing for the title of "Top Chef." more ›

The New York Times Magazine ran an interesting interview yesterday with Frontera Grill's Rick Bayless, with accompanying photos taken at his Bucktown home. Bayless cops to not cooking Mexican at home, which makes sense since he's around it five days a week at Frontera and Topobolampo. Bayless also grows a substantial amount of the produce for Frontera - about $25,000 worth - in his backyard, which is in line with his localvore sensibilities. more ›

After months of spying and accounts of shooting around town, Bravo finally announced the contestants for the next season of "Top Chef" today (you can read the release here). While the lineup of chefs vying to impress Padma and company are largely from the coasts, three of the contestants have Chicago ties: more ›

GrubHub users concerned about how your Thai food delivery impacts the environment needn't fear. Last week the online restaurant delivery service began purchasing carbon credits to offset the environmental costs involved with delivering to customers here and in San Francisco. more ›

Like many Chicagoans, we cried a little in 2006 when the Berghoff restaurant closed its doors after 108 years in the loop. While the Berghoff was never known for its “gourmet” cuisine, it did serve up hearty portions of German cooking and nostalgia for old Chicago. We were delighted to see that part of the Berghoff legacy would carry on “17/West at the Berghoff.” more ›

After cooking our Thanksgiving dinner from scratch while holding our toddler, we’d like to never see the inside of a kitchen again. Thankfully, Chicago is rife with take-out deliciousness. Our new favorite is Ta Tong, a local Thai and sushi dive in Lakeview. Most Chicago neighborhoods have one: a hole-in-the-wall place that serves up some awesome Asian food. Ta Tong makes one of the best Pad Kee Mao ($6.95) dishes we’ve eaten in Chicago. We... more ›

When we first began writing this post we considered giving it another title: "Get on your hands and knees and crawl". We decided against this title because the actual subject of the post wouldn't be immediately clear, and the event we speak of deserves perfect understanding. If you like sweets, the Andersonville neighborhood or the Swedish American Museum, then the Andersonville Dessert Crawl is right up your alley. For $20 (in advance) or $30... more ›

For all of our talk about the great food in the city, Chicagoist has been known to slack a little from time to time. For example, it probably isn't the best use of our money or daily caloric intake to chow down on the Thai lunch special from down the street a couple of times a week. But we do anyway. And we know a lot of parents probably operate similarly; they know a Lunchable... more ›

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and... more ›

Oh, how we wished we would have spent more time at the Bongo Room before we had our baby. This trendy Wicker Park eatery, famous for its sugary brunch specials, lives up to the hype. Taking a child to eat there, however, requires some savings and a bit of strategy. First, the food is as rumored: tasty, sweet dishes make up a good portion of the menu. We tried their chocolate French toast ($10.75, pictured),... more ›

Chicagoist needs your help. This weekend, we were getting ready to go out for some delicious Chinese food on the north side when we had a realization; we have no idea where to go out for Chinese food when dining north of Chinatown. In the past we've sung the praises of Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and so on, but when it came to finding a Chinese restaurant to head to on a Friday night, we... more ›

For 25 years, Thai 55 in Hyde Park has been serving up quick Thai food for Hyde Park residents and U of C students. But did you know that there's a smaller restaurant on 31st Street in Bridgeport, just west of Canal, with the same exact menu? The full name for Bangkok Thai 55 is "Bangkok Thai 55 Authentic Thai Cuisine, Formerly Thai 55 in Hyde Park Since 1982 to 2004." It isn't as long or obsequious as a Fiona Apple album title, but still a mouthful. The confusing restaurant name, which smacks of sibling rivalry if not false advertising, is one of many problems we have with Bangkok Thai 55. Another problem is the door buzzer, which we don't think is necessary for this particular stretch of 31st Street. This isn't some bar where drunken cops hide out for the length of their shifts. It's a Thai restaurant. Still, we were let in with little delay and no interaction outside of placing our order, which consisted of one egg roll ($1.50) and one drunken noodle with chicken entree ($7.50). As we sat in the empty and tiny dining area, we realized that every time we passed Bangkok Thai 55, the dining area was empty. more ›

With the exception of Arun's, going out for Thai food in Chicago is pretty predictable. Most places are mom-and-pop, family-owned joints that serve a standard (and usually delicious) selection of Pad Thai and other noodles, curries of various types, and deep-fried appetizers. Delicious? Yes. Innovative? Not so much. Despite these perceived shortcomings, Chicagoist loves eating Thai food nonetheless. Which is why we were intrigued to read about the opening of Sura Thai Bistro on the Chicago MenuPages blog. more ›