Once a month my mom and I have been going out for lunch at high-end restaurants in Chicago. We've decided to start a blog about the places, experiences, and our reviews of the lunch. My mom is a professor at Columbia College in Chicago, and I am a graphic designer at law firm in the Loop. LUNCHICAGO was initially my mom's idea - wanting to check out the "fancy" restaurants for lunch to get the experience and getting a better deal with lunchtime prices.
Today's our first blog and lunch date for 2011. We're going to the Lockwood Restaurant and Bar in Chicago's famous, Palmer House (17 W. Monroe).
This was a great start to the year! Mom ordered the Butternut squash soup and Ahi Tuna burger. I had the Asparagus risotto and a side salad, and an iced tea. The Ahi Tuna burger was by far the winner of the meal! The manager, Brian Gray, mentioned that it was just added to the menu two weeks ago! Well, we hope it stays! As my mom put it, "Mmmmm mine is way better than yours!". This is not to down play the risotto, but the Ahi Tuna burger has that "special something".
The bill (with tip) was just over $70.
Anne's comments:
We really liked the ambiance of the restaurant for the 'lunch crowd' too. . .not too noisy, plus we mentioned that we were both on limited time for lunch. The waiter was attentive and managed to serve our food in a timely fashion keeping us both within a reasonable, but not rushed lunch hour. The manager stopped at our table and checked on our lunch, a nice guy. The manager mentioned that the Ahi Tuna burger was new on the menu. The chopped cabbage with the special dressing made the sandwich tangy which was a great balance for the grilled tuna with cracked pepper (yikes, I hope I described it correctly). The pieces of fruit on the top of the fruit cup that I ordered with the sandwich were starting to get that crazy wrinkly look to them on the edges. . .the fruit underneath was fine, just the top few pieces. Maybe they sit in the refrig without a little cover on them. . .hmmm. We thought we should share dessert, since this was our first official lunch for the blog. We shared the chocolate/banana torte. . .so yummy. The chocolate covered banana's over the crust filled with mousse, was light and delicious. A great way to end the lunch. This was a great beginning for our lunchicago reviews. We do look forward to ideas for February, we also have some thoughts about our next venture too! Hopefully, we will give you some great ideas this year for neat places to have lunch in the loop [and surrounding areas, when the weather is better]. How about the blizzard business???
