Chicago: Day 4

Lake Michigan

We started our day with lunch because we slept so late (the bed was so much better than sleeping on a floor, and I needed to catch up on lost sleep from the past couple days). We set out to tackle the two remaining food goals on Josh's list: Chicago hot dogs and Chicago deep dish pizza. First, we headed over to Portillo's Hot Dogs. My cousin had warned us that there would be more condiments than hot dog in a Chicago hot dog, and he was right. A standard hot dog, for less than $2.50, comes with mustard, relish, chopped onions, sliced tomatoes, pickle, and sport peppers on a steamed poppy seed bun. It was a messy meal, but very, very delicious!

After that, Josh and I walked up the Magnificent Mile, which is really just like Fifth Ave in NYC, lined with stores that have way-too-expensive products for sale. We went up to Giordano's for pizza, but the place was PACKED. Absolutely insane. There was no way we were going to wait that long for pizza when we had dinner reservations at 6. So we swung over to Gino's East, figuring it wasn't as popular as Giordano's, and hell, there was a LINE to get INSIDE. So we called in an order to Giordano's and walked around until the pizza was ready (about half an hour because it's so deep). We picked up our small pizza, which weighed a few pounds at least, and brought it back to the hotel to eat. After all that anticipation, we thought it was going to spectacular, but it turned out to be very disappointing. The best part of the pizza was the sauce. The cheese was this very thick layer under the sauce and so bland. The crust was very thick, but not tasty. I thought it was a dough lasagna.




Dinner was at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion. They're not just in Chicago, and actually have locations all over the country. I had the prix fixe, and the best parts were the appetizer and dessert, not that the short ribs were bad, in fact, they were extremely tender and yummy. The ahi tuna sashimi was amazing. It was umami on a plate, sweet and savory and salty all at once. It was so so good. I could have eaten six plates of the stuff. The dessert was a strawberry cheese cake with kaffir lime essence. The crust was amazing, and the cheesecake was so light. Josh had the Alaskan halibut, which came with a vegetable roll. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing spectacular either. I thought my meal was better!



And so ended our culinary adventures in Chicago. We had a really great time, and the city and its people were so incredibly kind. The architecture of the historical buildings we saw was gorgeous (see above). We had the nicest bartenders and servers at all the restaurants we dined in, and we would be happy to eat and visit Chicago again!