FoodMayhem

Lou Malnati’s Lou Malnati’s has several locations. Luckily, one is just a few blocks from our hotel. Good thing we didn’t make a long drive for this one. All four of us thought it stunk!

Starting with the Stuffed Spinach Bread, it looks so damn good, especially when you cut it open and the cheese oozes out. There was no spinach flavor though, just green stuff that looked like pesto mixed into the not-so-great processed cheese. The shell/crust, whatever you want to call it, was hard and crunchy.

Next, the Malnati Salad: romaine, black olives, chopped tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, genoa salami, and gorgonzola cheese. The ingredients were fresh but the dressing was so sugary, even Lon didn’t want it, nor did our friends, and the bowl left half full.

For pizza’s we ordered “The Lou” figuring that the name was a good sign, but it was terrible. It’s made of spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes, with a blend of mozzarella, romano, and cheddar. Part of the problem is that they just use bad cheese, processed junk. The vegetables were not seasoned. The crust, this one has their signature butter crust, tasted no different than the other one, both were flavorfless cardboard.

The sausage pizza had edible chunks of sausage, and the rest was pitiful. Again, bad cheese, the sauce had no flavor, cardboard crust.

The Peanut Butter Pizza was the only thing anyone at our table liked, and how bad can a warm peanut butter cookie with ice cream and caramel be?

What a sad sad way to end our eating trip of Chicago. All four of us, of varying taste preferences unanimously agreed, Lou Malnati’s was absolutely terrible.

For our last breakfast in Chicago, our plan was to go to Pasticerria Natalina, but alas, they were closed. A bakery not open before 12 noon? What’s up with that? We were starving and headed to my list of back-ups and decided on Toast Two Toast Two. We loved their signage, and the inside is lined with toasters.

Compared to most of our experiences in Chicago, it took quite a bit longer to get our food, but once we ate, the complaints were gone. Lon ordered the Chilequiles, recommended by our waitress. The plate of rice, tortillas, salsa verde, chihuahua cheese, over-easy egg, and avocado, was a distinct breakfast. Each component was packed with flavor, so rich and savory that it gave this vegetarian plate a meaty feel.

Lon had to add meat to his meal (because he’s Lon) so we got a side of Apple Chicken Sausages stuffed with Gouda. We didn’t taste much gouda but they were still tasty. The skins got a bit tough to chew, but we still polished them off.

I ordered the irresistible Pancake Orgy: a cinnamon apple, a lemon poppy, and a banana pecan, topped with raspberry granola, yogurt, and fresh fruit. These were thick but fluffy soft pancakes, with very light flavors and light sweetness. I could have done without the granola which makes your mouth drier, but the yogurt was inspiring. I’ll be pouring yogurt on my pancakes at home. I always love variety and having three wonderful but different pancakes is just so awesome! I couldn’t even pick a favorite.

We left extremely full, feeling lucky that we got in before the line formed outside. We would definitely be back if we lived in Chicago.

I expected Moto Moto to be more gadgety, maybe more scientific. The website doesn’t really reflect how comical and playful their food is. It was fun and almost childish, allowing adults to play with our food. Right from the beginning, your menu is presented on an edible butter cracker with a dollop of marscapone, a perfectly cooked asparagus, and asparagus puree. The cracker was too salty for me but so fun to eat.

We chose the ten course (as opposed to the 20 course) because 3 hours is really long enough and I think they mixed in a couple of things from the other menu for us. Let me apologize now for how bad the photos came out. I’m still a very amateur photographer and the lighting was dim, and the candlelight kept flickering. The first course was the Liquid Center Scallop (can’t remember what the liquid was now) which came with a carbonated lemon half. Citrus and seafood, always a good match. The texture of the scallop was interesting to me, reminiscent of Asian fish cake, a soft smooth one.

The Octopus was very tender, extra meaty, but a tad stringy. It was served with a little dropper filled with liquified greek salad. It tasted exactly like tomatoes, cucumbers, vinegar and oil, light and refreshing.

The House Made Chile Pequin Quail was a gourmet take on buffalo wings, the ultimate perfection of the concept, making this one boneless, ultra juicy, quality poultry. I savored each bite with little pieces of celery and carrot, making well rounded mouthfuls. I wished for more. The little info tag tasted of the same spices.

The Cuban Cigar was where it started to get deceptive. I felt like Alice in Wonderland as I ate out of an ash tray. The tender pulled pork wrapped in thin crispy collard greens (texture was almost like nori) was a little smoky, impressing me with their wit.

The Mozzarella Caprese was fresh, soft, and milky mozzarella encased in a tomato gel. I wish the tomato gel had a stronger flavor to match the great cheese.

The Beef Brisket melted in your mouth, was not greasy, and sat on wonderful beans. The slaw, frozen in liquid nitrogen, was a little weird for me because it was like slaw flavored sorbet strings.

Road Kill was a test of stomach strength, eating meat with maggots made of rice, seeing the smear of blood (beets), and the brain (made of mushroom puree). Lon loved this dish (and licked it clean) but this was the only one I couldn’t really eat. The meat seemed like sauced formerly dry meat, overly spiced (heavy ginger), and the mushroom brain was uber strong too and we ddin’t know not to eat so much at once.

The palette cleanser was scenic beach set up, with an edamame ice cream, a star fish made of apple puree, frozen raspberry rocks (that rocked), and a liquid ball of lightly curried coconut liquid.

The first dessert was blueberries suspended in a yuzu gelee, a bit of cake underneath, and a foam on top. It was light with interesting textures, but not spectacular had it not been for the ultra fresh scent of yuzu.

Seems like Chocolate is always the way to end. This boat shaped dish caught everyones’ eye, filled with deconstructed s’mores. A smear of marshmellow is topped with a chocolcate shell with a liquid caramel center, a teeny chocolate cake, and a popcorn ball. We were told to break the chocolate and let the caramel leak out forming a river of flavors. The popcorn ball was to be eaten last whole. The popcorn flavored liquid that gushed out was disgusting but after that was gone, you get the sensation of popping in your mouth for quite some time, kinda like pop rocks.

Lon liked this meal a lot more than th
e one at Alinea. For me, although Moto has a completely different feel, it was a similar experience in that I only really loved 3 dishes (quail buffalo wing, beef brisket, coconut palette cleanser). The rest was mostly pretty good, but also pretty regular in flavor to me. I did enjoy the experience though. It’s new, exciting, fun, and witty, and gives you a glimpse of the chef’s personality.

On a side note, the restaurant is located in what seems like the meat packing district. As you walk in and out, it smells like rotting meat, which isn’t very appetizing.

We waited on a 40 minute (roughly) line to eat at Hot Doug’s Hot Doug’s, a kitschy place with a pretty impressive menu. Doug’s offers lots of different meats (one vegetarian dog) and several toppings and a wide range of prices. Of course we wanted to try the Chicago-style Dog with “everything” (pickle, relish, mustard, tomato, caramelized onions). We didn’t realize that the relish (you can see a bit on the right side) would be radioactive green, which means food coloring, so I couldn’t eat it. I took a bite from the other side though and I wasn’t missing much. Other than the poppy seed bun being really soft and fluffy, the rest was just very regular. Lon didn’t think this was a good representation of Chicago dogs.

We also ordered The Marty Allen, made of beef, pork, and garlic, and your choice of toppings. This one was pretty tasty (it was Lon’s favorite), tasting as described, but not something I’d wait 40 minutes for again.

The Bagel Dogs were terrible, wrapped in chewy, flavorless dough. The taters were good though.

My favorite was the Three Chili Wild Boar Sausage. The chilis were stuffed with creamy dip-like stuff, sitting in some type of remoulade, and the meat was extra flavorful pork.

The Duck Fat Fries were sadly nothing special, not even that great for regular fries. Only a few pieces were crispy.

With two drinks, this meal was $21, not bad, but not great. It certainly doesn’t deserve the line that moves rather slowly.

This morning, we went to Meli Cafe & Juice Bar, had one of the best breakfasts ever, and I’m debating going back tomorrow. They had so many awesome things on the menu that if I lived in Chicago, I would be a loyal regular.

They make their own marmalades… I loved both the strawberry and apricot, and their whipped honey butter is even better. It’s ultra light with a touch of honey and you could seriously eat this in spoonfuls.

I ordered the Crimini Omelet, made with chunks of pancetta and tomato, and a sprinkling of parmesan. The giant omelet is tender, well seasoned, and full of flavor. The baby red potatoes are the freshest potatoes ever. They might just be growing them behind the building. Again, perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, and chives add that extra one two, that just knocks it out of the park. Most dishes come with a nice little wedge of seedless watermelon and a choice of toast. Even my multi-grain toast was thick and fluffy, not the cheap stuff.

Luckily, Lon ordered the other dish I was eyeing, the Cinnamon Bun Breakfast. This is like the sampler plate of breakfast wonders. Neither of us have ever had a cinnamon bun french toast and this was just better than I expected, sweet but not overly so, soft and fluffy, packed with cinnamon. It was as if they took a Cinnabon, sliced it in half like a roll, and made french toast out of it! It comes with the same great baby red potatoes I got, the same watermelon, a few slices of bacon, and the softest scrambled eggs. Lon requested the addition of provolone and it was insanely good.

Lon also tried some of Justin’s Corn Beef Hash, which got the thumbs up.

Everything just tasted so fresh and made with good quality ingredients. This beats New York breakfasts by miles and yet it was cheaper. Our waitress was sweet and the service was super fast. Anyone going to Chicago? Make note to have breakfast here!

Alinea Alinea.
Exec chef Grant Achatz calls the food “ultra modern emotional”
The space is clean and modern, very Tribeca, with comfy seats and a spacious table.

We made reservations about two months in advance and this dinner was highly anticipated. Surprisingly, we came out with such differing opinions that we decided to write this post jointly.

Steelhead Roe
Coconut mousse (?) topped with salmon roe, encased in a candy cilantro tuile. Served on the end of a vanilla bean.

Jessica: This is one of the three that knocked my socks off. As soon as you pick it up (like a lollipop), you get a whiff of vanilla. The thin candy tuile breaks delicately and your mouth fills with the roe juices, mixing with some light coconut.

Lon: This was an exciting presentation that set the bar for the meal. Two bars were set though. The presentation bar was set extremely high. It seemed so delicate yet held together perfectly; it was playful and inventive. The presentation, led smoothly to the aroma, and then finally a mismatch of taste. The second bar, of flavor, was set very low. The overly sweet tuile stuck to my teeth and didn’t blend with the salty roe. I found the dish unenjoyable to eat. However, the technical competence to produce it was remarkable.

Butter
Certain dishes were paired with breads, and two types of butter were given: a goat cream-based butter and cow’s cream-based butter with lava salt.

Jessica: I liked both, incredibly smooth and milky. The goat cream butter was more distinct though.

Lon: Both were amazing, I’ve never had any like the goat butter. I preferred the cow butter, particularly due to the salt.

Tomato
Tomato flavor presented in many textures including gelees, crisps, diced cubes, etc. Served with basil sorbet, frozen mozzarella foam, and olive oil.

Jessica: This was a very interesting play on familiar flavors in unfamiliar textures. The whole thing was very light and airy, refreshing, I’m not sure how we don’t have a pic of this one but it looked like a piece of art with white coral and colored cubes here and there.

Lon: The frozen foam was remarkable: light as air, yet coating my mouth as heavy as cream. It was a dish in and of itself. The playful use of tomato was really enjoyable, even though tomato gelee doesn’t do it for me.

Cauliflower
Five coatings (?), three gels, apple soup. A rich apple-flavored soup with various textured elements of cheese, nuts, etc. topped with a super thin sliver of dried cauliflower.

Jessica: This was the second of my three favorites. The warm apple soup was poured on at the table. I imagine it’s so that the different cubes didn’t get soggy. There were nutty ones and cheesy ones, each crunchy on the outside to different degrees, softer on the inside. Little pieces of fried cauliflower and a dehydrated cross section garnish the dish. The simplified way to describe it would be a warm soup with different flavored croutons. It was comforting and just a wonderful combination of flavors.

Lon: This was my favorite dish of the night, I easily could’ve finished a big ole bowl of the soup, especially with a bunch of those various crouton-like cubes of varying tastes in it. The cheese one and the nutty ones were absolutely astounding.

Lobster
Popcorn essence in a solidified sauce, clarified butter in a sphere, curry accents over nuts and lobster pieces. Mango-Lime gelee with pepper.

Jessica: This was described to us as “things that go with butter.” The lobster was cooked perfectly, no complaints, but nothing stood out to me here.

Lon: With the exception of the mango, which seemed odd and out-of-place (but still tasted delicious by itself), this plate was masterful. The sphere of butter was so playful, adding to the whimsy of solid popcorn sauce, which by the way, really tasted like popcorn. The lobster did nothing special, but the various other elements were great. I cleared this plate, and thought that it’s only downside was that there was an unpopped corn kernel on the plate which hurt my teeth.

Wagyu Beef
After arriving frozen via liquid nitrogen (standing as a centerpiece through a few courses), the thawed wagyu slice is placed over a fried maitake mushroom set in a smoked date sauce, then topped with a blis elixir dressing and edible flower.

Jessica: First off, I love Wagyu Beef! The only reason this didn’t make my favorites is because Wagyu Beef with mushroom and a vinegary drizzle is pretty familiar.

Lon: This was a fun dish. I’m not sure the wagyu’s arrival and on-table defrosting made any sense, but it was entertaining and did become a conversation topic, as it likely does for every table. I loved the fried (maybe?) mushroom with the beef. The paste it sat upon was incredibly rich, too strong for the dish, perhaps about 1/3rd the amount would’ve been perfect.

Hot Potato
Hot and cold potato pieces topped with a slice of black truffle drop into a pool of potato soup that arrives in a small wax cup, by releasing a pin.

Jessica: I just don’t like cold soups, especially such rich ones, so this wasn’t for me. The potato p
ieces were cooked perfectly though.

Lon: To me, this tasted like almost raw potato in a pool of cream, which is fine, but nothing noteworthy. This was the first time, that I recall, I ate black truffle, and it did nothing for me. Sorry pigs and dogs. While Justin, Jessica, and I partook from the regular tasting menu, Shayna had the vegetarian tasting. I was upset that they delivered this dish twice as two separate courses to her. She wouldn’t let me complain to the chef about it though.

Lamb
A cube of salt-diet lamb (raised in Pennsylvania) is plated with a large, fried potato nest attached to it. It sits in a puree of sunflower and is joined by a sweet spice mixture that has sunflower petals, sunflower seeds, and other spices and vegetables.

Jessica: The lamb was medium-rare, just the way I like it, pairing perfectly with the texture of puree and chunks of vegetable. Execution was excellent but again the dish was familiar. (BTW, I’m not complaining about perfect yet familiar dishes. I think it’s wise to have a few more recognizable dishes mixed in.)

Lon: The lamb tasted very good, but nothing special (it was just correctly cooked, good quality lamb). What was interesting was how the potato nest was affixed, I can’t even describe it. Somehow the potato and lamb were fused. Similar to my issue with the wagyu dish, the paste (sunflower) under the meat was way too strong, totally overwhelming the dish.

Black Truffle
A single ravioli filled with a black truffle soup sits atop a spoon floating in a hollow plate. A flake of parmesan and cooked romaine rest on top of the ravioli.

Jessica: Last but not least of my favorites, I’m not even one to gush about truffles, but this ravioli was the most perfect pasta dough. This spoonful was heaven in one bite.

Lon: This was a completely mediocre attempt at fulfilling a soup-dumpling concept. The delivery of the dish was sensational, with the spoon seemingly floating in mid air — just beautiful.

Duck
Deconstructed mole dish of duck cube, duck confit, mole, duck gelee, tomatillo, and tortilla dust, served in a glass on a plate. Surrounding the glass are elements of mole (chili, almonds, tortilla, etc.)

Jessica: This dish arrived with an army of scents. I was comforted and relaxed by it and the fall colors were beautiful. We weren’t instructed how to eat this one so I’m not sure if I did it wrong but my first bite, a large chunk was not favorable, overly spiced (not spicy), throwing me off a bit. The shredded confit underneath was much better.

Lon: Let me put it like this: the top half (vertically speaking) of this dish made me want to spit it out; but I forced it down. It was overly nutty and almost burnt tasting. The cube of duck breast did nothing to help. The bottom half succeeded at providing an excellent mole flavor; and it was truly brought to life by the perfect shreds of duck confit.

Concord Grape
Concord grape juice filled in a yogurt-based spherical container, topped with the tiniest mint leaf and in a pool of sauce from long pepper. The container bursts as you bite down on it.

Jessica: When you break the ball, you get a rush of concord juice, basically liquid candy, which was ok, but then you finish with eating the broken ball, which is like eating wax.

Lon: If you love Welch’s White Grape Juice, you’ll like this dish; unfortunately I don’t drink grape juice.

Transparency
A sugary sheet made of yogurt and flavored with rose petals and raspberry.

Jessica: The very thin sheet allows for the perfect amount of tangy flavor to melt on your tongue.

Lon: I’d say this was the winner of the evening. A remarkably perfect execution of flavor and texture.

Watermelon
A cube of watermelon, with coriander and tamari (soy sauce) accents and bonito atop floats on the end of a wire bobbing in front of you. It is intended to be eaten off the wire with no hands and in a single bite.

Jessica: I like bonito and I like watermelon, but I guess not together.

Lon: And for me, this was probably the loser of the evening, although closely tied with the pumpkin dish below. The fish and soy flavor simply does not match watermelon. The three of us who ate it seemed to be in agreement on this one.

Bacon
A single strip of bacon with a zig-zag of butterscotch and shreds of apple and thyme leaves. It arrives dangling from a tight rope.

Jessica: This just wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. The bacon was a little too light and I guess I’m spoiled by Lon’s slow cooked maple basted bacon.

Lon: I’m a bacon fan, plain and simple. I’ve eaten it as a lollipop, covered in syrup, heck even covered in white chocolate. But apparently Alinea couldn’t get it right. This strip of bacon tasted exactly the same as the cheap container of “Bac-Os” from the supermarket.

Pumpkin
A large pillow is delivered to the table with smoke, scented with autumn aromas, wafting from it. The wavy plate is placed on top of the pillow with a cylinder of pumpkin mousse, filled with soft gruyere. A smear Blis maple syrup is applied along the plate, along the plate are dollops of various flavors, such as rum.

Jessica: We were told to mix the stuff together, which in over simplified explanation, I’ll call a deconstrcted parfait. Soft smooth pumpkin, cheese, and maple, some crunchy stuff, felt like eating something like a yogurt and granola or cereal type thing. A few bites had some strong rum which were too strong for me. The dish itself would’ve been nothing impressive but it was served on big white pillows that really set an entire atmosphere. You could see the curls of smoke coming up and smell the cabin and fireplace, which turned an ordinary dessert into a fall retreat.

Lon: Ok so this was the loser dish. I could not eat more than two bites. Each flavor was WAY too strong, overwhelming. Justin commented that he ate it by combining all the parts so that they balanced out a bit. I tried that but it seemed a bit like turning up the radio to drown out sirens. It’s still too loud. I left over 90% of the dish and got a nasty look from the waiter when he cleared it.

Chocolate
A soft sheet of ganache, cocoa powder, a fennel (?) ice cream, fruit jams, and a slice of fig. On the other half of the plate is a pool of pine-flavored cream with olive tapanade.

Jessica: My picture does not do justice to how beautiful this plate was, such a piece of art. The flavors were only ok to me. The chocolate ganache sheet, the most prevalent part was a disappointing chocolate to me because it was very regular. The pool of cream with olive tapenade (luckily on the side) was disgusting to me.

Lon: It seems pretty hard to screw up a plate of chocolate, but Alinea did. The ganache was mediocre and the ice cream was nasty (although that was more of a personal preference than an execution issue), and the pine soup was nothing interesting, albeit unusual. I give them credit for producing an absolute work of art, but sometimes it’s better to look at art than eat it.

Dry Caramel
A powder of caramel in a shot glass. As the powder hits your tongue it becomes chewy, salty caramel.

Jessica: Interesting but quite salty. I’m not a huge caramel person anyway.

Lon: I had more fun pouring water into the shot to see what might happen, then I did putting the dust in my mouth. Have you had “Astronaut Ice Cream”? This is Astronaut Caramel, nifty for the kids, but not delicious. I’m not a fan of salty caramel.

Summary

Lon: Alinea stinks. Sound harsh? It should for the price. I found the service inconsistent: at times down to earth and cool; while at other times snooty and pretentious. The food was beautiful throughout, but totally sacrificed flavor for experimentation. As I repeated throughout the evening to my friends, at the end of the day, taste is the most critical factor in food. Everything else is secondary. This food was not delicious. Weird and experimental: sure. Delicious: no (with the few exceptions I mentioned, such as the great apple soup). My advice to the chef: don’t deconstruct a dish if you can’t put it back together again.

Jessica: Ok, I have to agree that for how expensive it was ($220 per person), I expected more of the dishes to be incredibly delicious and really only a few were. However, this was certainly an experience and I like that the Chef himself describes his cuisine as “emotional”. Like art, each dish carried me through a story, or feeling, or evoked my senses differently. I did also find the service inconsistent so I’m a bit torn about Alinea. I really did enjoy my evening, but for the first time ever, it wasn’t really about the flavors. It was really just the whole experience, like being at Disney World for the first time.

We kind of changed the schedule around a bit and ended up at Bob Chinn’s Crabhouse Bob Chinn’s Crabhouse for lunch today. We weren’t that hungry after our late and massive breakfast so seafood ended up being a nice light choice.

We started with Blue Point Oysters, large, fresh, and juicy. Some were a bit sandy though and two were not flipped.

When the Select King Crab Legs arrived, I was a bit disappointed at how small the portion was for $39.95, just 3 legs.

But, they were the best crab legs Lon and I have ever tasted, juicy, thick, and tender. I like them plain and Lon likes the citrus mayo sauce. We marveled about how meaty and perfect they were, talking about them half way back to Chicago.

We loved the utensils too. They opened the legs easily and you can keep them.

We were still hungry so added on the Jonah Crab Claws, served cold. They come nicely cracked so that you don’t have much work to do, but eat the very robust claws.

Both dishes came with a choice of white rice, fried rice, vegetables, or french fries. We opted for the fried rice which was pretty decent.

We weren’t that hungry (read: stuffed and ready to be trussed) but on any other day, I would have taken advantage of the salad bar add-on for just $3.95, and the garlic bread looked and smelled like garlic heaven. I actually can’t believe I declined them.

Thanks to everyone who voted for Bob Chinn’s. We were definitely very pleased!

Several years ago my family and I attempted to share breakfast together at Walker Brothers The Original Pancake House in Wilmette, IL Walker Brothers. After a fiasco there (long story) we ended up elsewhere and I didn’t get my pancakes. During this trip, it was critical that we eat some of those famous pancakes, and we did!

Jessica hung about the hotel room this morning while I slept in, until a late 8:30am CST, which is very late for me. After slowly getting myself together, we got in our rental car and started driving. It was about 30 minutes driving, but fortunately there was no line. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t busy. Even at 9:45am(ish) they were doing quite a bit of business and handling it very well. Heck, even before we got to open the menus we were drinking our coffee and tea.

In an interesting change, Jessica already knew what she wanted to eat — the Apple Pancakes. Walker Bros. is famous for these treats and they are impressive. We’ll come back to that. I carefully read through the menu and then asked the waiter for a suggestion amongst the classic pancakes. He said the blueberry and the banana were the two most popular. I selected the Banana Pancakes; we also ordered a side of hashbrowns and bacon.

Have you ever seen the movie “Defending Your Life“? Through the stay in Judgement City the citizens can eat anything they want, as much as they want, and the food is picturesque, always tastes great, and is ready almost instantly. Well, this is about as close as I’ve ever gotten to that dream. Our food was ready almost instantly! It seemed as if they turned around and had it in hand.

The Apple Pancake set down on our table and the table almost collapsed under the shear weight. It was about nine inches across and two inches tall, steaming hot, piled with apples, and gooey with brown sugar and cinnamon. It was exactly what we thought it would be, although much sweeter than Jessica had hoped. The taste was like that of a giant cinnamon bun, filled with apples. No matter how hard she tried, Jessica just could not eat the whole thing, although partly because it was too sweet for her.

My stack of pancakes was laid out in a perfect pinwheel with a large dollop of whipped, milky butter in the center. The waiter was incredibly thoughtful and let me know that many people request the Tangerine Suzette Sauce on the side, I thought that sounded like a wise idea and it worked out well.

These are the best pancakes I ever ordered! I do recall one time my friend’s dad made slightly better, but they were never repeated and he wouldn’t share the recipe, so I guess those are disqualified since one time could be a fluke Unlike other banana pancakes, the bananas were mashed into the batter, so the flavor was consistent throughout the pancakes. The pancakes were perfectly cooked, moist, and super fluffy. The whipped, sweet butter added just the right touch. Keeping the sauce on the side allowed me to use it on some of the pancakes; use some real maple syrup (not that terrible corn syrup at other places). Jessica felt the pancakes had a bit of a baking powder taste, but I didn’t detect it at all. I would order these seven days a week and twice on Sunday.

The Hash Browns, were thick shreds of lightly pan fried potatoes with tons of melty cheddar cheese and lots of chunks of ham. My amazement continued, as all our food truly looked exactly the same as in the menu and was so appealing. We were a bit upset that the potatoes themselves were completely underseasoned and slightly undercooked, but that didn’t seem to stop us from cleaning the plate.

My one complaint about the experience was the bacon. While it was definitely thick-cut, probably cut on location, and likely baked (so that it wasn’t greasy) it had no particular flavor other than the cured flavor. It’s a bad thing when I don’t devour all the bacon in sight.

The whole meal was served piping hot, Jessica’s coffee cup was refilled constantly, the service was incredibly friendly and helpful (which seems to be a consistent theme around these parts), and the price was good. We particularly liked the masterful way Walker Bros. had staff dedicated to their specific tasks: people just filling coffee; people taking orders; people delivering orders; people at the register; etc. Everything moved along smoothly and quickly, yet we never felt rushed. This is a New Yorker’s dream. Sadly there is nothing like this in New York. No place to get a breakfast close to this fast and good and inexpensive.

So it took years for me to finally try it, and driving back to Chicago we hit a TON of traffic, but to have a phenomenal breakfast that made me feel like I had died and gone to heaven (or at least Judgement City), it was all worth it.