Penne for My Thoughts

Hey Mambo is a super fun Italian restaurant downtown. I know both the executive chef, Nicole Brooks and her son and I decided to go here one night with a friend. As I just mentioned, I know people involved with this restaurant. I am going to try to not be bias at all but I wanted to disclose that. I do want to mention that Hey Mambo also has pizza. I'm not going to review it here because I try to only review one experience but I will say that it's worth trying. When I went, it was pretty busy. I was very lucky  when my friend and I got a seat outside. Let me say, sitting on the patio at Hey Mambo is really fun; I especially enjoyed watching the downtown bustle going on around the restaurant. Nicole comes over and winds up serving us pretty much the whole night. I could tell it was busy and that they were slammed. It's wonderful that the executive chef is willing to do anything to help but I feel like there should have been enough servers so that she didn't have to. An

My parents and I decided to go grab some food and they recommended Marley's which is on 71st and Sheridan. I'm really glad that they did! It has a nice, casual sports bar atmosphere, great food, great service and great beer specials. It is also incredibly family friendly. Just a note- I don't like sports but I still loved being here. It has a good vibe for both the sport fanatics and the sport indifferents. First, we ordered the cheese bread (shown on the above). The cheese bread is amazing. It is a great balance of the cheesy garlic-y goodness. Plus, it comes with ranch and marinara both of which help to complement the bread sticks in great but different ways. Then, we got the Stagger Lee which is an amazing pizza that is loaded with pepperoni, Italian sausage, black olives and jalapenos. If you don't like spicy, you can ask for it without the jalapenos or do what we did with half of our pizza and ask for green olives instead. Man, this pizza was delectable.

A group of friends and I decided to go the The Vault which is a really neat downtown restaurant that has a modern spin on 70's decor. The Vault is really interesting on the inside in a good way. I love how it's called the Vault because it's location use to be a bank. So, we get there and are seated quickly. Normally, I would recommend making reservations because it is a smaller restaurant and can fill up quickly. I've found that the Vault has some tasty and interesting twists on drinks, so, I always get a drink when I'm here. I ordered Gin Tonica which is a gin and tonic with grapefruit, black pepper and star anise. One of my friends ordered a normal gin and tonic and another ordered a mai tai. Gin Tonica (left) and the Mai Tai (right) We got the drinks quickly. Man, mine was soooo good. It was like a traditional gin and tonic with more floral notes. I would drink this drink all day. My friend's mai tai came out in the best cup ever! I didn't try it b

I wanted to go to a new restaurant and then I read an article about Golgi Gui, so, I thought that I would snag a friend and would give it a try! Golgi Gui serves traditional Korean dishes as well as Korean fusion dishes (a mix of Korean food with other cuisine influences like American or Mexican food). First off, this place was in kind of an odd place, so, if you are going here and are wondering, 'am I in the right place?', you probably are. It's in the middle of a kind of run down looking shopping mall but the inside is not run down. We were quickly seated and we tried to order the Boba Tea (bubble tea). We were told that they were out. From what I gathered, they are out of it a lot. So, don't get your hopes up on getting Bubble tea here! We were then offered another alternative that was what the waitress said was 'similar'. She never said the name of this mysterious beverage but it was disgusting. It was sickly sweet and the flavors clashed and tasted wron

My mom, sister and I decided to go out to brunch the other day. It was a nice day, so, we decided to go to Wild Fork because they have nice outdoor seating. We get there and were told that there was an hour wait for the outdoor seating, well, looks like we are eating inside. We wait for a while for a table  inside. The hostess that took us to our table was wearing a Very unprofessional outfit. It looked like she was at a club, not at work. We get seated and it took a while for a waiter to get to us. There was a very large party seated behind us and I guess that he cared more about that tip than ours. When he finally came over, I ordered grapefruit juice and my mom ordered a bloody Mary.  Her bloody Mary tasted like plain old tomato juice. It was disappointing. Also, I always put just a little sugar in my grapefruit juice but there was no sugar on the table. When I asked the waiter, he brought it over but I didn't have a spoon to stir it in. So, again, I had to wait for the waiter

 A group of friends and I decided to try Hop Bunz- a new burger place on brookside. I normally read up on new restaurants before I go there but someone other than me recommended the place. So, I really didn't know what to expect. We get into the restaurant and there is a line right in the middle of the place which is a little odd but the waitstaff was really helpful and friendly, so, it didn't feel too weird. We get in line and order and then sat down. I really like the feel of this place. It's casual and kind of industrial. It's definitely fun. I ordered the Juicy Lucy which is a burger stuffed with cheddar so that when you bite into it, the cheese oozes out. The idea of it just makes me so hungry. It was pretty good but honestly the cheddar wasn't sharp enough, so, I couldn't even taste it. The burger was really good but it overwhelmed the oozy cheese! I'd definitely eat another burger here because they were tasty but I wouldn't order this one. The

So, my friend's birthday was earlier this month. I asked him what he wanted to eat and he replied Burn Co without a thought. Burn Co is am absolutely amazing barbecue restaurant. They have incredibly long lines and usually run out of meat towards the end of the day, so, if you come a little later in the day, be prepared with a couple of options to chose from or you may wind up disappointed when the pork AND the ribs AND the brisket is sold out (this happened to me the first time I went here). Fun fact: they go through my weight (125 lbs) in BBQ rub each week. Dang. They recently moved to an awesome new location on 18th and Boston. It's a lot bigger but the bigger location allows for bigger crowds! We went at 10:25 and got in line (yes, there was a line at 10:30 am). The wait is not bad at all if you go super early. So, I highly recommend eating a light breakfast and coming then! I ordered the burnt ends which was a special for the day as well as their creamed corn. Oh my wo

My family decided to go to El Guapos because my mom and I were craving margaritas. El Guapos is a downtown favorite. It has a very popular rooftop bar that is open during nice weather. El Guapos has phenomenal margaritas and atmosphere but the service and food falls flat. Food- The Stringy Lettuce in the Guacamole. That small dish was $6. Our group started out with guacamole. We were very disappointed in the size. It looked like a side of guac. Not only that but at least a fourth of that size was lettuce. The lettuce added a good crunch but it was basically a bunch of stringy lettuce being used as filler. The guacamole itself was really really tasty but it was not worth the price at all for the small amount of actual guac we got. The chips and salsa were pretty good. There was nothing special about them but I sure did eat quite a bit of them. My tasty strawberry margarita. We also ordered both strawberry margaritas on the rocks and normal margaritas on the rocks. They b

I've always had a place in my heart for an amazing cookie. I'm a baker myself and it requires talent to knock my socks off with a pastry. Queenies delivers this and more. It has tasty breakfast and amazing pastries. I took my mom there for brunch and we were so happy that we went! Food- So, I ordered the tomato tart with a side of grits and my mom ordered the quiche of the day.  Her  quiche was a bacon and mushroom quiche and my tomato tart is a homemade crust filled with tomatoes, caramelized onions and cheddar cheese.  Her quiche is on the left and my tart is on the right. Both came with a small, undressed salad. I forgot to take a picture of the grits. I was so excited for them that I ate them right away. The quiche here is amazing. It is creamy and the crust is delectable. The bacon is not floppy at all and gives the quiche an amazing bacon flavor that doesn't overpower the quiche. The tomato tart's crust is the most amazing thing. It is like a not sw

My mother went to Napa Flats a while ago and absolutely loved it. She told me that I had to go and my family happily obliged. My sister eats gluten-free and Napa Flats has an extensive gluten-free menu, so, she was especially excited. Unfortunately, the experience did not live up to my mom's hype. The service was bad (at one point she rolled her eyes at us) and the food was not impressive at all. The waitress even served us our appetizer and she gave us normal bread but told us it was gluten-free! My poor sister got pretty sick because of that. Food- First, we ordered the Palo Alto Dip with gluten-free bread. The dip is a tart and creamy dip with sun dried tomatoes, artichokes and green onions blended with ricotta and cream cheese. Palo Alto Dip with the not gluten-free bread  We made sure to double check with the waitress that this was the gluten-free one and she said it was, so, we began feasting. The dip came out super hot, creamy and delicious. A super good