Foodie in Chi-town

The man & I are big food lovers.  We appreciate a good meal that is both presented well, by plate, taste, and server.  We have had plenty of bad experiences with waiters and waitresses, so we put emphasis on the wait staff when deciding on going back to a restaurant or not.  I can go on and on about the waitress who threw  a fork at us after kindly asked or Mary, the brute, from Delaware but I won't.  I want to encourage readers to get to Chicago- now!
First, we could not believe how inexpensive the flight was.  We are from North Jersey and round trip it was $300.  We kept checking to see if both our names were on the itinerary, then if the tickets were in fact round trip.  It all checked out so it really was just $300.  O'Hare is Continental's hub airport, which keeps the cost down, (I think- but it did sound factual and good). Then we get there and everyone is INCREDIBLY nice! Again, we are from the tri-state area so niceness is not the first reaction to a new comer.  After we got settled in my friend's apartment we went out for the night.  The first stop was a bar, in the heart of the city.  Well, it's not some dingy place in NYC where 12 people can sit and 200 others are packed in like pickles.  This place was half the size of a football field with a downstairs, that had-get this- CLEAN MULTI-STALLED bathrooms- another thing rare in the NYC nightlife. Drinks were almost half the price than in the big city. Needless to say everyone was feeling good that night.
We are explorers so the next day we went out to- what else?- explore! We start the day early and right so the first stop was to explore an eatery, of course.  I will now take you to Hannah's Bretzel's.

The above mouth-watering image is prosciutto, arugula, goat cheese, with truffle oil on pretzel bread.  We still curse ourselves for not getting one for the plane ride. 

I am not a fan of deep dish pizza but in Rome do what the Romans do. We tried Lou Malnati's.  A little too much bread for my tasting but it wasn't poison. I come from New Jersey where Star Pizza is the only pizza.

We went to Coco Pazzo for dinner.  I didn't feel like traveling with the cam-cam but it was very good.  They had polenta and that is always a good sign. Our taxi driver from the airport was actually once a cook there and told us about it, and even drove us by it, without the charge.  That is something no taxi driver in the tri-state would EVER do- not one that I have met, anyway.  

The next day we went to Chicago's Greek section.  We went to town on this one. Melted cheese for an appetizer, stuffed peppers & pork, on the bone, for entrees.  

One last time with breakfast at Cafe Tempo.  Presentation goes a long way with me because if they are taking the care into then they are most likely taking that much care into the taste. Below picture perfect...

Let me conclude in saying that we did not travel to Chicago for just the food.  To keep from gaining an enormous amount of weight when we were there we did walk- alot! Also, the temperature was Artic cold, so I'm sure we burned a few cals trying to keep warm.  My advice go to Chicago- put some money on the Cubbies & eat some food!