Chicago Anniversary Food Tour!

On Thursday, Nate and I took the train to Chicago for an eating and drinking anniversary adventure. We consulted Yelp and Urban Spoon for the most affordable and highly rated places and tried to go to a few of them. Wandering around with an idea of maybe having a plan is one of my favorite things to do. Thank goodness for the $5.75 24 hour CTA unlimited ride pass. 

We started at Hannah's Bretzels, mostly because I love pretzels and wanted to try one of their fancy whole wheat pretzels. Also, we were going to embark on a sushi trek and needed something to hold us over before our long ride over to the shop. The pretzel was pretty good, except they called it a "bretzel" and described everything using the adjective "über."

 

I felt like Bruno was going to pop out at any moment and commit carbicide with us. 

After that we headed out to a place with one of the highest ratings for the Chicago Area on Yelp: Lawrence Fish Market. We went from the Loop all the way to Albany Park, but the journey was worth it. I wasn't sure what to expect. The place had such high ratings I pictured it being a fancy sushi place and looking exclusive. We walked up to a storefront that looked like a place you might pass by and ignore because it looks kind of shady. It is take out only and one of the only places to sit was an old van seat. 

Incognito pic... I was really nervous about eating the fish there.

We didn't call in our order like Yelp suggested but it only took about fifteen minutes for us to get our three rolls. If I would have known how DELICIOUS and fresh the sushi would be, I would have suggested we order a party tray and not eat anywhere else for the rest of the day. It was awesome. The prices were the cheapest I've ever paid for good sushi and the people there were so nice. 

There weren't any places to sit, so Nate and I took our sushi treasure box outside, wandered around the neighborhood until we found a foreclosed house, settled on the curb in front of the house, and devoured our fish. Our impromptu picnic was the highlight of this food tour.

You guys might think I'm joking, but I am seriously considering taking a day trip to Albany Park to get a party tray (only 30 bucks!), putting it in a cooler, and having a sushi party at our house. 

After that we wanted some German, so we headed over to Lincoln Square and spent the rest of our evening there. Before our German food, we had a Fat Tire and some more seafood at the Greek restaurant Barba Yianni Restaurant:

Sidewalk beer... the best kind!

Cold octopus and kalamari salad... pretty good expect for a lack of big octopus chunks. :(

Then we wandered around a little bit more and had another drink and appetizer at one of the cutest French restaurants I've seen: Bistro Campagne

My favorite kind of patio lighting. 

The food and atmosphere reminded me of eating in Paris. This is why I love big cities-- there are so many amazing food choices. I wish we had unlimited funds so we could fully eat our way through Chicago and then move on to other cities. I might be 300 pounds, but with all of the walking I'd probably keep it off. Or not. The unlimited funds will never come so we'll never find out!

Prince Edward Island mussels steamed in Belgium ale.

We washed down the mussels with an Old Tom Collins. I have found my summer drink. 

At this point, I was like, "Dude, can we really eat any more?" We had to celebrate the Hub's German heritage and decided to give it a shot at one of our favorite places: The Chicago Brauhaus 

Yum, beer. Or... bier?

We decided to split one pretzel and a sausage plate:

Did I mention that I love pretzels?

Homemade sauerkraut... I can't make it like this!

We couldn't finish the pretzel because it was as big as my upper body...

We wandered around Lincoln Square for little while longer until I made room for some dairy free gelato. I mean, we already ate our weight in appetizers and carbs...

As a lactose intolerant lady, I had to jump on the dairy free gelato. 

Then we headed back to our Priceline hotel (I do not recommend the Hyatt, but you take what you get on Priceline) and proceeded to fall into a food coma. 

We're just two kids full of love and a variety of meats.

We headed back to good 'ole Michigan the next day and I'm still full! Maybe for our next anniversary we will find ourselves exploring food in other Chicago neighborhoods. We talked about saving up for a NYC food adventure. We would have to count calories until our next anniversary and schedule at least three days for that kind of eating! We'll make it happen someday. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!