Will arrive from Europe to Chicago next month for a Convention. We love japanese and thai food ( of course we'll try also local cousine). Any advise from locals and former visitors alike in the downtown area for good quality restaurants will be greatly appreciated. ( Not to expensive please, we're in a budget. Mid price will do).
Thanks a lot!!

Arun's was just voted one of the top restaurants in the city and it's Thai., but it is pricier. Big Bowl is good and in your price range. It's on Rush just south of Division. Search this site for many discussions of Chicago restaurants and check metromix.com.

Look into Le Lan. It is French-Vietnamese. Google Le Lan and their website will come up. Very trendy.

For Thai, look up Singha (Clark Street) and Star of Siam (Illinois Street, near Michigan Avenue bridge) on www.metromix.com They have the same owner and very reliable food.

For Japanese, Kabuki is a solid choice, but it's not downtown. It's on Clark Street near Fullerton Avenue in Lincoln Park.

A more upscale place with a pan-Asian menu is Red Light on West Randolph Street. Opera, in the south Loop, has gotten good reviews, but it's one I haven't tried yet.

Arun's is indeed quite expensive and not downtown it is pretty far northwest for those looking to stay downtown, (located around Kedzie and Irving). Kamehachi at 1400 N. Wells is pretty good for Sushi (not downtown, but a very short taxi ride).

I also like Big Bowl for reasonably priced Thai, there are two locations in the River North/NMA area. You can see the menu and locations here

http://www.bigbowl.com/

I've also had a good meal at Star of Siam but prefer Big Bowl.

Another place that I've heard good things about is Vong's Thai Kitchen which is also centrally located.
http://www.vongsthaikitchen.com/

Japonais is supposed to be one of the hottest restaurants in town right now but as their menu doesn't post prices, I think it might be on the expensive side
www.japonaischicago.com

If you also like Vietnamese food, there's a place that friends of mine like that is up in the Rush St. area called Le Colonial.

Thank you all for the responses.
I have your suggestions in my notebook and looking foward to visit this wonderful city...

When we were in Chicago this summer we had dinner and lunch at Vong. Lunch was a wonderful price-fixed affair that was very reasonable, extremely delicious, and included dessert (have the souffle--small but fabulous).