Las Tablas Colombian Steakhouse.

http://www.lastablas.com/#!about-us

So Don and I decided to eat here tonight and it was great!! It was about a 20 minute walk to the restaurant. We ordered the empanadas for an appetizer. There were 3 kinds: cheese, beef, and chicken. We couldn’t eat all of them so we brought some home!! They were very good! I think the cheese one was the best. Out of all the empanadas I’ve had though I’d probably rate them a 3.5 out of 5 only because the ones with meat didn’t really have any taste to them…they needed some spice or something.

We both ordered steak…of course. I got the Entrana Steak (skirt steak) with beans, rice and a sweet plantain. Don got the Bandeja Paisa, which was a Colombian style rib-eye steak with rice, beans, a fried egg and a plantain. He loved his and my steak was great!! So tasty and juicy. We were stuffed.

This place is a little pricey. It was $60 for two of us, but we had an appetizer and one mojito-like drink. But worth it. I really wanna take my dad here because I think he would really like the steak! I would rate it a 4/5, because it was pricey and I didn’t think the empanadas were the best. Other than that though….it was great so check it out. So one restaurant down, a lot more to go!

So…hungry? Food Tour Chicago

One of the best things about living in NYC was the variety of different types of restaurants. After growing up in a small town in the Midwest, I hadn’t really been exposed to different types of foods. I’m a pretty picky eater but over the past few years I have wanted to try new foods. I met a friend in NYC, Sena, who shared the same desire to discover great restaurants in the city. So once a month we would get together (sometimes we would be nice and invite our boyfriends) and share a restaurant with each other that we found to be amazing. Sometimes we would just try a totally new type of cuisine that neither of us had had before. Now were not experts in food critiquing but we know what tastes good! And we are always on a budget so were not talking about your $50 per plate places. I’m talking about the real places.

So now it’s time to do the food tour of Chicago and find the best restaurants. It might take awhile because eating out is expensive, but I’ve been searching and already have a list of places to go. This time will be without Sena though 🙁 but when she comes to visit I will know the best places!

We have already tried a few pizza places in Chicago…but we haven’t tried any NY style yet only Chicago style. I have heard there’s some good NY style ones around though. Just down the street from out apartment though I believe Nancy’s has the best Chicago style stuffed pizza. I’m just basing that on about 5 different places I’ve tried throughout the years. Our favorite NY style pizza was in Brooklyn-Pizza Plus.

We have tried 3 different Indian places since moving to Chicago. We had our favorite place in NY, which was Panna II, but I kinda feel like 2 places here have surpassed Panna II…although none of quite captured the atmosphere of Panna hahaha. We found a Little India area in Chicago so that was exciting!! So many awesome little shops and tons and tons of restaurants. It was awesome, I can’t wait to go back and try another place there. The best Indian though in Chicago we have had I think has been Raj Darbar Indian Restaurant. We have also ate at Hemas Kitchen and Viceroy of Indian, which are very very close second bests. Raj Darbar and Viceroy both gave us the complimentary sauces and the bread/chips…don’t know the name. But Raj’s was better. All of the meals at these places have been amazing though. I think Raj wins because the Naan was amazing.

I’ve tried 2 Greek places so far: Melanthios and Athenian Room. Melanthios was pricier and I think Athenian Room might be better but I wanna go back and I have a few other places to try. At both places I had a Greek Burger.

So Food Tour Chicago…anyone wanna join or have any suggestions let me know!
Thai-Tac Quick
Chinese-Little Three Happiness, Mandarin Kitchen
Japanese-Ginza Japanese Restuarant
Mexican-Las Pinatas, Pancho Pistolas
German/Austrian-Resi’s Bierstube Restaurant, Mirabell Restaurant, Chicago Barvarian Food
Filipino-Pampango’s Cuisine Filipino, Isla Pilipina Restuarant
African-Vee-Vee’s African Restaurant, Zebda
Ethiopian-Ethiopian Diamond Cuisine
Turkish-A La Turka
Egyptian-King Tut
Greek-Santorini, Roditys
Southern Comfort Food-Big Jones, Wishbone Restaurant
Polish-Szatas, Old Warsaw
Cajun- Heaven On Seven, Lagniappe
Colombian- Las Tablas, Sabor A Cafe Colombian Steakhouse

This is gonna take awhile! Can’t wait to find some great places and awesome things in the city.

When will this feel like home…

I always hate the feeling in trying to make your new place feel like home. I remember when I moved to Bloomington…I hated it. It never felt like home, then about the time when I was comfortable with it and starting to really enjoy living on my own I decided to move to NYC. It took me about a year to fall in love with NY. At first I hated it…I was scared to drive, I was scared to do anything really. The apartment was so small. The lifestyle was just different. I missed my family and my friends and wanted to move back. Now after being here for about 4 months I feel like I barely know Chicago. I miss ny. It’s like some days I just crave it. It makes me wonder what Chicago holds.