Habibi wrote:where the hell else should I be eating? Any good Mexican?
For Mexican, longtime favorites from Rick Bayless
Frontera Grill and Topolobampo are a short walk from the Loop. For tapas, check out
Mercat a la Planxa from Philadelphia-based restauranteur (and native Chicagoan) Jose Garces. Excellent small plates places in River North (walkable from the Loop) include
GT Fish & Oyster,
Sable, and
Quartino.
And there's our delicious local specialty of deep-dish pizza at
Pizano's on Madison. If you're in the far northwest or southeast corners of the Loop, you may be closer to
Lou Malnati's on Wells or at 8th and State, respectively.
One difference between New York and Chicago at lunchtime is that many of New York's high-end temples of haute cuisine (e.g. Per Se, Le Bernardin, Marea) are open at lunchtime and you can eat less expensively than at dinner. Our very highest-end places aren't open for lunch, but several of our second-tier places are and offer three-course prix fixe menus for $25-26, including the previously-mentioned Topolobampo,
Naha, and
Blackbird, all of which are walkable from the Loop.
There have been numerous
prior discussions of Loop lunches but most haven't been updated in 3-4 years or more, and plenty of places have opened during that time. Also during that time, the West Loop (walkable from the Loop) has blossomed, so that lunch choices now include the
French Market (you mentioned Fumare),
Salero for cuisine from Northern Spain,
La Sirena Clandestina for South American,
Embeya for pan-Asian,
Carnivale for Latin fusion,
La Sardine for French bistro fare, etc.
Most of these are nicer "white tablecloth" type places. They're not
that expensive at lunchtime, and they know how to get lunch customers through quickly, but they're probably not going to be part of a regular rotation the way places geared towards quick, cheap eats are.
Last edited by
nsxtasy on January 15th, 2015, 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.