Oiistar

Happy Anniversary to us! Chicago Food Boys is now 1 year old! For our celebratory lunch, we were trying to decide if we should revisit a place we had all loved, or if we should try something new. Two of our favorite meals were the ramen at Urban Belly and at Slurping Turtle, so we decided maybe we should try another ramen place. We went to Oiistar in Wicker Park, another ramen place which has gotten good reviews.

Max:
Oiistar is an Asian Fushion/Japanese restaurant. It is located on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park. They are known for their ramen and steamed buns. First let me start with the atmosphere. It's kinda dark and modern. Definitely an asian fusion looking place. But of course, it's really cool looking. Now, let me talk about the food. We started with some steamed buns. I got the Tempura Shrimp. it comes with tiger shrimp, thai chili mayo, fennel slaw, and roasted sesame seeds. The tiger shrimp is amazing. It's perfectly cooked and delicious. The thai chili mayo really complements the tiger shrimp. The fennel slaw is about average, but goes well with the sesame seeds. After that, we all ordered ramen. I got the Musclemen ramen. It comes with mussels, onions, chili peppers, scallions, and bonito miso. The broth was a little spicy, but still tasty. I feel that they didn't need to put so much chili peppers in it though. The noodles were really good. I don't know what kind of ramen noodles they were but they were great. The overall ramen was pretty good. The service isn't the best. One of us ordered the Pozolmen. And our waiter said that it was his favorite ramen if you like it spicy. But he didn't say that it was going to be PIPING SPICY! Seriously, I tried it and it was like eating a ghost pepper fresh off the vine. And when he came back and asked us how much we like the ramen, we said that one of us got the Pozolmen and it was way too spicy. And he said - well I warned you it was going to be spicy. But that wasn't true. All he said is that it was spicy and that it was his favorite ramen. He didn't warn us about it like it was going to be REALLY spicy. But anyway, back to the review. Oiistar is overall a good restaurant, so I give 4 plates to Oiistar.

Otto:
I started with the BBQ Beef steam bun as an appetizer. I asked for it to be plain (just the meat and the bun). It was the best steam bun I have had yet. I got the Chadolemen Ramen, which was also beef and normally comes with vegetables too, but I asked for it to be just the meat and noodles and broth, which they said was no problem. It was really really good. The broth was really good, and after a while, it got to be a bit too spicy for me, but it was still amazing. It was a gigantic bowl of ramen, and I only eat a little bit of it, so we took a lot home. I would give it 4 plates.

Ruben:
It's been one whole year folks of Chicago Food Boys. hard to believe right?

So for our blogaversery lunch we went to a ramen place in wicker park called Oiistar. You might ask why ramen for our blogversery. well, we we're just in the mood for some ramen thats it. Everybody walked in with excitement. we sat down at our table not knowing what to expect. The menu i thought was very interesting they had a wide variety of buns, ramen, and some American Japanese appetizers. We all decided to get one bun and one ramen cause that's what the waiter recommended. I ordered the goki bun a barbecue beef bun. I thought it was very good the beef was a little to chewy for my taste but it was still okay. The garnish on the bun, i liked it. it went well with the beef but i would have to say my favorite part of the bun was the creme fraiche which was very sweet but not so sweet and the bun also had hot sauce so both the sauces really complimented each other very well. The ramen i ordered the chadolemen which is not on their online menu. for some reason so i had to look on yelp to see what it was called which is very weird to have a item on your physical menu but not your digital. It actually had a mix of beef brisket and ground beef which i thought was pretty good. I think i liked the broth the best, though it was spicy and had a lot of flavors that you could smell and taste. There was some bean sprouts and kimchi in the ramen to which were okay to but nothing special. I give oiistar 4 plates.

The Food Boys

Inside

Cod Steam Bun.

Max's Tempura Shrimp Steam Bun.

Ruben's Goki bun

Otto's Ramen.

Max's Musclemen Ramen.

Ruben's  Ramen

Max and Musclemen.

Slurping Ramen.

Otto and noodles.

La Creperie

Today we will be reviewing La Creperie on Clark and Diversey.

Otto:
It was a very nice evening when we went here, and the outside seating in the back was very pretty with all the string lights and the rest of the decorations. For my entree crepe, I got the very plain crepe with butter and sugar because I was just in the mood for a simple crepe. I've tried many crepes like this, and this was one of the best I've had. There's not much to explain, though, about a plain butter and sugar crepe. For dessert, I chose the caramel and salted butter crepe, and that was very good and very very caramel-y. It was sitting in a puddle of caramel when it arrived. But it was a delicious puddle. I loved it. We spent kind of a long time having dinner here, and for some reason, toward the end, we sang a couple of rounds of Row Row Row Your Boat. At the end of our meal, a man came over to us and told us how nice it was listening to us singing. It was the kind of place and the kind of night that this seemed like the right thing to do, and it was a very fun night. I would rate this place 4 plates.

Ruben:
I am always up for a good Crepe, this was my first time at La Creperie. The atmosphere of the place feels very french with little golden LED'S all over, we got a table outside on their awesome patio which is basically a back yard cause it has a garage and everything but they made it look awesome. There menu has a very wide selection of Sweet and Savory Crepes. One thing that was not so great about La Creperie is that they have very slow service probably took 40 minuets for our food to come but on the bright side our server was very nice. I got the Boeuf bourguignon which is a beef crepe with a sauce and carrots and celery. I thought my crepe was a little too saucy and heavy the sauce was so thick almost the density of Gravy, personally if my crepe has a sauce i like it to be thin. The reason why i got this crepe is that they didn't have a lot crepes that were low on dairy except the plain crepe. For desert we got a Banana Nutella and the Salted caramel. Out of the two i preferred the salted caramel it was salty it was sweet the caramel was homemade and full of flavor one of the best sweet crepes i have had. On the other hand the banana Nutella was just average. Also here is some history about La Creperie it actually burned down once and closed once in the years it's been open. La Creperie is a nice place although it is not my favorite crepe place i would go there if i was in the neighborhood i give 3.5 plates.

Max:
La Creperie is a French restaurant that is well known for their delicious crepes. La Creperie has been around since 1972. And they burned down once. But then they reopened. And last year, the chef closed the restaurant and planned to retire, but then he decided to reopen it. We came here for dinner and we thought we should go here because me and my brother Otto went here a while ago and we liked it. Though I can barely remember it, because it was such a long time ago. But let's talk about the food. We started with some escargot. It was delicious, and went really well with the bread that came with it. After that, we ordered some crepes. I got the Poulet et fromage de chèvre. It comes with     chicken, roasted tomatoes and goat cheese. The chicken was a little too dry. The roasted tomatoes were pretty good. But the goat cheese was delicious. It went very well with the roasted tomatoes. I guess all of the crepe was good except for the chicken. Also, something funny happened. For some reason we started singing Row Row Row Your Boat, and after we stopped, this older guy came up to us and told us that he was delighted to hear us sing that. It was a pretty funny experience, so I give La Creperie 4 plates.

Escargot appetizer. 

Dessert crepe.

 

Essence of India

Today Otto is reviewing Essence of India in Lincoln Square.

Otto:
We have been wanting to go here for a long time, but they are usually not open for lunch. We finally made it for dinner, and I am so glad we did, because this was pretty good Indian (although I don't know that many Indian restaurants, even though I really like it, because we usually go to the same couple of places). Everyone there was extremely nice. We got the Murg Tikka Masala (skewered boneless marinated chicken cooked with Indian spices and herbs in a cream sauce). I absolutely loved this. (I always love chicken tikka masala, and this was some of the best I've had, but once again, I haven't had it from that many places.) We also got Achari Gosh (lamb with ground cumin, rye, fennel and fenugreek).  The lamb was too tough or chewy for me, so I didn't eat very much of it. For me, it wasn't nearly as good as the chicken tikka masala. Their naan was warm and buttery and amazing, and I loved it and dipped it in my chicken tikka masala sauce, which I think is the best way to eat naan. I give them 4 plates for the food, but 5 plates for their service (they were just so very nice, they even tried to figure out a dish we had liked from another place and wrote it down for us so we can get it next time we are on Devon Avenue).

Slurping Turtle

Konnichiwa, everyone! Today we will be reviewing Hubbard Street's Slurping Turtle.

Ruben:
 I have been wanting to try this place basically since we started Chicago Food Boys. We went here for  Max's 13th birthday dinner, and let me say thank you to Max for picking this place. I walked into Slurping Turtle with high expectations and when I walked out my expectations had been delivered. Let me start off with the wonderful atmosphere and location of this place, right on Hubbard street in the north loop. What could be a better location for a ramen place than that? The decor of Slurping Turtle fits it very well, it was modern and it was just the right amount of fanciness of a ramen joint I would say. They had beautiful Japanese paintings on the wall and hanging lights above with long tables to seat a big party. Another thing that I really liked about the atmosphere of the restaurant is that you can see the kitchen, you get that aroma blasting through the restaurant and you can see that beautiful dish being formed right there in front of your eyes. Now let me talk about the food what you have all been waiting for. We decided on some appetizers. They were Fried Brussels sprouts, fried chicken fried in duck fat and a beautiful selection of steam buns. Let me start with the fried brussel sprouts. they were the best sprouts I have ever had! They were so flavorful. I don't know what kind of seasoning they use but let me say it tastes like heaven. The fried chicken fried in duck fat was also amazing. I love things fried in duck fat think about what are belgian fries fried in Duck fat anyway there was also a salad with the chicken that was great. Now what you have all been waiting for the Steam Buns the things that are so soft that you could sleep on them. I got the pork belly steam bun it was amazing anytime I have a steam bun  I just close my eyes and enjoy the moment of the soft bun filled with delicious pork and onion seriously Trader Joe's where are the frozen steam buns?.
okay enough about the appetizers now the Ramen! oh yeah I'm talking about the real stuff here not the thing the college students eat with chicken powder and noodles i'm talking real ramen with a spicy broth with amazing noodles pork shoulder bok choy and a asian meatball. I got the Tan Tan Spicy Ramen. The broth was great very spicy though it was literally red! That's how spicy it was, but it was very good well seasoned and so flavorful. The pork shoulder just melts in your mouth, the meatball was pretty good i thought it was just okay also it fell apart  and it got kinda all in the broth, the bok choy was bok choy but i liked how there were some greens in the ramen. I loved Slurping Turtle and I will be back soon. Keep it up Slurping Turtle and compliments to the Chef or Chef's and Happy Birthday Max! I give 4.5 plates.

Max:
So before I say anything, I should let you know that my birthday is actually in October. And we went here on my birthday, but we never had time to publish the review. So I'm glad I'm writing this right now. So! We have been wanting to review this place since we first started our blog. We had always imagined that it would be delicious, but it was in the middle of downtown so it was far away, and very expensive, but since it was my birthday we decided to go. The atmosphere was awesome, fancy, and cool. It feels like the perfect place to eat a bowl of Ramen in. We started off with some drinks. We all got Ramuné. It is a Japanese drink where there is this ball of glass that you push down into the drink to give the water below fizz. That was very good. Then, we got appetizers. We ordered Fried Brussel Spouts. They were Great! Some very tasty sprouts. Second, we got some Bao. (If you don't know what Bao is, they're kinda like dumplings). I have not had that much Bao in my life, but it's sooooo good! There were four different kinds of Bao on the menu. They had Roasted Chicken Bao, Pork Belly Bao, Shrimp Tempura Bao, and Vegetarian Bao. All of them were good but I liked the Shrimp Tempura Bao the most. After that, we got our food! I got the Tonkotsu Ramen. It has thin homemade ramen noodles, silky pork broth, pork chasu, bok choy, pickled mustard greens, braised woodear mushrooms, and chili oil. It was delicious!!! Especially the pork chasu, I ate all of that first. The broth of the Ramen was also delicious! It had quite a good aftertaste and flavor. The bok choy went great with the Ramen broth. I didn't love the braised woodear mushrooms, and I normally like mushrooms. I just didn't like them that much. But everything else was great. Also, before I end the review, I want to mention that my waitress overheard that it was my bithday so when we all finished our meals she gave me a free cream puff!! It was amazing! This place has GREAT service and food and atmosphere, so I give Slurping Turtle Ramen 5 plates.

Otto:
As already mentioned, we were here for Max's birthday because we have been wanting to try it for a long time. For appetizers, I kind of liked the Bao, but it was hard to eat around the condiments in it, which I did not really love. But the duck fat fried chicken was really really good. For my entree, I got the Red Miso Ramen, which comes with homemade ramen noodles, chicken, bok choy, scallions and sweet corn. I just ate around the bok choy, scallions and sweet corn to get the noodles, the chicken and the broth, but the part I ate was amazing. Mine also had an egg that had a little swirly red detail on it, and it was really good. I think the broth here was the best Ramen broth I have ever had. Actually, the thing I ended up liking best in the whole experience was actually the broth, but from what I understand that is actually the key to making a really good Ramen. The broth is pretty hard to make, and it was so interesting that all of the broths for our bowls were different. Our server was really really nice. I give it 5 plates.

Menu

Logo

Ramuné

Otto

Ruben

Ramuné! Cheers

The adults at the table got a wine called Otto's Constant Dream.

Fried Brussels Sprouts

Duck Fat Fried Chicken

Bao

Tonkotsu Ramen

Spicy Tan Tan Ramen

Red Miso Ramen

Surprise dessert, a vanilla cream puff.

We all shared it.

Max at 13!

Spencer's Jolly Posh

Hello Today we will be reviewing Spencer's JollyPosh located on southport Avenue.

Otto:
I have known Spencer's Jolly Posh from the Logan Square Farmer's market for a couple of years. I get their sausage roll almost every time we visit the market, and I've always loved it, and we sometimes buy their sausage and rashers to take home to make ourselves. So I was really excited when we decided to go here. The restaurant includes a small store which sells a bunch of British stuff that I hadn't seen before and some things that I already knew and really liked. I got the Banger Sausage Sandwich, which was described in the menu as two of their homemade sausages on a toasted bun. At the Farmer's Market, this same sandwich comes on a baguette, and I really like it that way, but I was willing to try it on the bun. We also ordered chips (which are British french fries). The chips came out pretty quickly and were very good, and we ate these while waiting. And waiting. And waiting for our food. When it finally arrived, there was only one rather small patty-like sausage on a very large bun. You couldn't even see the sausage on the closed sandwich, and so we asked the server about it, she said the sausage was split in two (it's a link sausage, and when it is split, it is flattened out), and that's what they meant by two sausages. But I knew this wasn't right because I have had this same sandwich many times before, and when I told her this, she said it was probably different at the farmer's market. After Ruben also mentioned that he had the sandwich at this exact location and it was two sausages, the server said she would get me an extra sausage and not charge me for it, which we thought was kind of silly, because clearly the menu said TWO sausage links, and this should not be given to us as a favor. It took them so long to make me an extra sausage that my current sausage patty got cold, and we had to ask them to reheat it. The fact that it took so very long and then was wrong and then that we had to argue about whether to not it was wrong and then another long wait kind of ruined the whole experience for me. And when it finally did come, I didn't actually like the  bun very much, so I ate the sausage mostly plain, and it was so greasy that it made my head hurt. That has never happened when I've eaten their food at the market, so I think I can only give this location 2 plates. (My usual experience at the market would be a 4 plate rating.) At least there was a good selection of British chocolate bars to choose from at the end of our visit.

Ruben:
I have been here once before and it was great! So I walked into Jolly Posh with high expectations but little did I know it was gonna be a lot different this time. We got seated and ordered some Fizzie pops aka english Sodas, I got a fizzie pop called tango, it's an apple soda that almost tastes like sparkling apple cider. Then we ordered, I ordered the banger Sausage sandwich which I have had once before also we got some Fries/chips with that as otto explained in his review the fries came way too early and were not served with the sandwiches which I thought was very odd usually restaurants are pretty good with timing when the food comes. So after a 40 minute wait and I have no idea why it takes that long to put a sausage on a bun, so it comes and I see the sandwich and I'm like what the heck is this it looked like a sausage burger and there was only one on the sandwich and they were supposed to have 2 so we sent it back and we got our 2 sausages we ate and paid the check. As we were walking out, the waitress did give us one of their sausage rolls as an apology for the mix-up, so that was nice. The first time I went to Jolly Posh it was a wonderful experience the sandwich was great and Spencer him self came to our table and asked how our food was so I really do hope Jolly Posh works out these problems cause it is a very cool place in Chicago. We were about head out but we could not leave without British chocolate of course so we all get a bar and we try each others my favorite was the Aero it was a chocolate bar but there were bubbles inside.  So I will not be going to Jolly posh soon but since i think it has potential i will try it one more time. I give Spencer's Jolly Posh 2 plates.

Max:
I've never been to any location of Jolly Posh before. I have only ever tried their bangers at the farmer's market. Ruben told me that this place was great. So we all walked in prepared for some good food. The atmosphere is really cool. They have a shelves filled with british grocery items that you can buy. Before we ordered, we got some English sodas. I had Club Lemon, Otto had Lilt, and Ruben had Tango Apple. We all really liked them. Then after that, we chose our meals, and got a side of fries to share. The fries came fairly quickly, but our meals came really slowly. The fries were really good. After then we got our meals. I got the Back Bacon sandwich, it was really good, not amazing, but good. The meal would be really plain if you didn't get at least one topping, I got the Baked Beans as my topping. They complemented the bacon very well. The service was incredibly slow. I mean how long does it take to put a sausage in-between two buns, right? Ruben and Otto's Banger sausages only had 1 sausage split in to two, and the menu said it had two sausages. It made the meal look really sad. This was a huge disappointment, so we told the waitress right away. When she came, we explained what happened and that we wanted a second sausage, and she said that she wouldn't charge us for two sausages. BUT OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T CHARGE US FOR TWO!!! Why would she charge you for a second sausage when the menu says it comes with two? But at least she didn't. After that, we were all kinda disappointed, and Ruben and Otto didn't even like their sandwiches all that much. This is the end of the review. But before I'm done, I think that Spencer's Jolly Posh Could be really good, but we just weren't thrilled after the wait and the issues with our meals. I give 2 plates to Spencer's Jolly Posh actual location, but I will still keep on visiting them at the Farmer's Market.

Outside.

Wallpaper.

Crisps.

Ruben's Fizzie Pop

Otto's Fizzie Pop

Max's Fizzie Pop

Cheers, mates.

Delicious fries.

Otto and Ruben's Sausage Banger

Max's Back Bacon sandwich

British Chocolate Bars

Blustery day, but yummy chocolate.

The Smoke Daddy

Hello, Today we are reviewing Smoke Daddy in Wicker Park.

Ruben:
Smoke Daddy is truly the The Daddy of BBQ In Chicago. I walked in and i just loved the atmosphere of the place. it was country, it was modern, it was smokey. also they have added a new addition that is all windows so there is great natural light place. We decided to sit in the new addition cause we have never eaten in there. it was very nice. high tables and decor. also they have like a glass door that works like a garage door that they open when its warm out. we got to see it when it was opened so that was really cool. We started off with some nice cool root beers. Then We had some pulled chicken for an appetizer. the sauce on that thing was the bomb! Smoke daddy makes there own sauces and sells them at local small grocerys around Chicago. there are 3 sauces. Mustard Q, Sweet and Smokey. and Original. I liked the mustard a lot. I have never really had a mustard BBQ sauce so that was a really wonderful new experience. the other two were also awesome. Next for all of us, we ordered the rib sampler. all three kinds of ribs. baby back, St. Louis, and rib tips. and all of them were phenomenal. I liked the baby back a lot. great flavor. the St. Louis very good. also great rub on both of them. the rib tips were good but way to much fat and Cartilage. but the meat itself was very good. We got Lots of sides. coleslaw which was pretty good nothing special. baked beans which were okay. I'm not a huge fan of beans. and then fries. half sweet potato half regular. the funny thing was the regular fries were hot, but the sweet potato were not. we told the waitress and she got us new fries right away. What I just explained to you might have seemed like a lot of food Warning we did not eat all of it. One more thing another great thing about Smoke Daddy is that they have live music a lot of the time. and even my dad's band has played there. Smoke daddy is a great BBQ place and I am definitely going back. I give 5 plates or ribs.

Max:
The Smoke Daddy has bean in Wicker Park for a while now. They're pretty famous around Wicker Park. They even have live bands performing inside. The atmosphere is authentic BBQ. They have recently expanded the restaurant, it makes it feel much less claustrophobic. We got the pulled Chicken as our appetizer. It was pretty good. And we got the Sampler as our shared meal. Our waitress messed up our order of sweet potato fries, well, I don't actually know because when she brought our fries, they were cold. Maybe they were sitting around for a while before they delivered them? I don't know. But anyway, when the sampler came, I knew it was gonna be good, because it looked it and I have been here before and I have liked their food. there were three different kinds of ribs, Baby Back, St. Louis, and Rib Tips. The Baby Back were good, although they were pretty much tied with the St. Louis. So I liked them both. The Rib Tips, were AMAZING!!!! There were three different sauces, Original, Mustard Q, and Sweet and Smokey. The Rib tips were best with the Sweet and Smokey Sauce in my opinion. It gave it a Chicago BBQ taste. The Mustard Q was also good with the ribs but it didn't outrank the Sweet and Smokey. The Original is the most boring in my taste. It isn't bad, its just boring for me because I have it at home and I eat it with stuff often. Oh! I forgot to mention some of the sides. We got Smoked Pit Beans, and Coleslaw. The Smoked Pit Beans were delicious. Some of the best beans I've ever had. The Coleslaw was good. It wasn't Amazing but it was good. It had a little too much vinegar in it, but it was still okay. For dessert, we got vanilla ice cream. Which was good for me and Otto. But not for Ruben because he can't have dairy. But Smoke Daddy was delicious so I will give 5 plates to The Smoke Daddy.

Otto:
As Max and Ruben have already said, we go the Smoke Daddy Rib Sampler Plate with St. Louis and Baby Back ribs, and rib tips. I think I liked the rib tips the best. They were very meaty and didn't have much fat on them. My second favorite was the St. Louis, and then the Baby Back. But they were all delicious. I didn't like the Mustard Q sauce, but that might be because I don't really like mustard. My favorite sauce was the Sweet and Smokey. The Original sauce was also really yummy. We also got the pulled chicken as an appetizer, which was delicious. The regular fries were tasty. I didn't try the sweet potato fries, so I wasn't all that bothered that they were cold, but it was good that the waitress brought out hot ones right away when we mentioned it. And apparently they give free ice cream to kids for dessert. We had gotten root beers as our beverage and still had them left over at dessert, so I turned mine into a root beer float. That was a great surprise ending to the meal. Overall, I'd rate this place 4.5 plates.

Outside Smoke Daddy.

Pulled chicken appetizer.

Sauces.

Please turn your head to properly view this photo of our delicious meal.

Our server brought us a fresh order of sweet potato fries.

Some greens.

No non-dairy option for dessert. But free ice cream for those who wanted it.