It has been years since we lived near Chicago, and suddenly we are going to be there this weekend on a business trip. Any retaurant suggestions for:

1. Saturday night - need a real meat eaters paradise. There will be three meat loving men, and one meat loving man's wife, me.

2. A restaurant for the meat lover and me on Sunday night. I would like a "new, cool & trendy" or a "romantic couple" type place, even though to look at us, trendy would not immediately pop into your mind. This could be any type of cuisine, hopefully not similar to our Saturday night restaurant. Not fond of fish, but love ethnic.

Price not really an issue, but nothing over the top please, and we are staying at the Crown Plaza Silversmith, at 10 S Wabash Ave. We will have a car, but prefer not to use it. So are also looking for a place we can walk to or take a short cab ride.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to make a suggestion!

A spin over to chowhound.com might have some suggestions (although I find its boards very hard to maneuver). Not being a Chicago native, I don't have a real feel for what's trendy there, but for the meat-eaters' paradise, how about a Brazilian churrascaria like Fogo de Chão (661 N LaSalle)? A glutton's idea of Heaven, and the meat comes to him! Not my trip, but....

Good suggestions, as a matter of fact, they ate at Fogo de Chau on their last visit!

metromix.com has a very good search function that lets you specify area, cuisine, price etc. I think you might enjoy the previous suggestion--talk about your big meat!

I think you should consider getting out your car and heading out to the Lincoln Square area--north on Lake Shore Drive, exit at Montrose (4400 north), west to intersection of Lincoln, Leavitt and Montrose (2200 west), where there is easy street parking. The drive is very pretty, and your destination, Charlie's on Leavitt (just of Montrose), is hip, new and cool, but without the attitude. Travel & Leisure includes it among the 100 hottest new restaurants, and Charlie's blend of bistro and American classic is really nice, and there are lots of nice wines by the glass as well as bottle. It's only been open a few months, and I've been there 3 times I like it so much!

Hey, HappyCheesehead, I think you're kinda cook & trendy!!!

Oops -- "cool & trendy"

Aw shucks, Budman! At least you didn't say I was kind of a Kook, though that might be a bit closer to the truth!!!

Chicgal, hadn't really thought much about after dinner, but you know your neighbors to the north go to bed early!

Since Hubby is working, dinner will be a bit later in the evening I think, so perhaps just a nightcap after. He will be up early the next morning and needs to be bright eyed and bushy tailed. Lives hang in the balance! Well, not really.

I would love to hear your suggestions.

Go to www.opentable.com and book a table at Cafe Spiaggia at 980 N. Michigan Rd. for a cozy dinner. Spiaggia is just across the hall and waaaaaay more expensive but Cafe Spiaggia gets better reiviews.

chicgal, I've always wanted to go to Le Colonial but can't talk by nonadventurous friends to try it. As soon as I say French Vietnamese they are voting for Italian. Please tell me about it.

Me too - as soon as I saw French Vietmanese - BINGO! I had wanted to go to Le Colonial in NYC a few months ago but never got there.

Thank you so much for the great recommendations! I will print this out and make calls from the car tonight on the way down.

Chicgal, I love all your suggestions, especially Le Colonial. I have been raving about this place ever since our last visit to Chicago.

Here are some suggestions:

Meat lovers:

Fogo De chou ( realize though that this is a chain)

Keefers (more than just meat but a great selection of steaks)

Chicago Chophouse ( I persoally prefer the Prime rib over the Steaks here)

Mortons is always a winner for meat lovers but this is also a chain

Agentine grill (tango sur) is a very neat place , I used to live down the road. It is really more of a latin american(agentine) style local storefront restuant. I highly recommoned as well as the other poster BUT - is it a bit of a cab ride and you have to Bring your own alchol(liquor store is a block away) - they do not accept resveations

Romantic for 2:

MK - I LOVE this place it is awesome
http://www.mkchicago.com/english/

I also agree with Cafe Spaggia

Another great italian is Gioco http://www.gioco-chicago.com/

I also Highly reccomend Opera (acorss from Gioco (actually owned by the people)
SUPER Trendy and good to http://www.opera-chicago.com/

Somthing Diffenrent but Romantic and trendy is Tizi Melloul. This a Morrocan/mediteranean place in river North. It is very neat inside and the food and drinks are very good. Very fun and unusual place. The food is moroccan but it is not to foreign for those you have not eaten this type of food before. It is really morrocan with alot of Mediteranian and European influnces
http://www.tizimelloul.com/


Also Check out the restuant finder at Chicago Reader
http://www1.chicagoreader.com/cgi-bin/rrr/form.cgi

it has tons of restuants and reveiew and ratings

- HAve a great time

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions!

Our group is up to 6 now and I am here to tell you, it is VERY difficult to get reservations tonight! We ended up with reservations at The Palm in the Swissotel. The concierge at our hotel laughed when I asked her to get ressies at Fogo de Chao for tonight. Turns out the earliest availability is 10pm. Hubby pooh-poohs me a bit about planning ahead, HAH! He better listen to me next time..... HAH!

Le Colonial is the choice for tomorrow. Really looking forward to it!

Okay HappyCheesehead...how happy were you with your selections?

The Palm was fine. Not a great steakhouse, but certainly good. I had a NY Strip and it was a bit more charred on the outside than I might like (it was a little more well done than the med rare I ordered) but really, just fine. I also got it "Oscar" style. Beautiful asparagas under the steak and crab with Hollandaise Sauce over it. We got an order of the onion strings/potato chip and an order of garlic string beans to share with the table. Beans were great. Place was a bit pricey, just my steak Oscar was $44. Total for our table of 6 was $775. That did include 3 bottles of wine.

Now on to Le Colonial. GO. Really great place. It was a warm, tropical atmosphere with shutters, palms, framed black and white photos of Vietnamese people and scenes on the wall, high tin ceilings painted red, votive candles everywhere. A perfect cozy counter-point to a blustery Chicago day. The restaurant was quite full on a Sunday night but the service was not hurried at all. Still on the expense account, we ate a lot. We shared appetizers of shrimp on sugar cane, wrapped in lettuce leaves and an order of spring rolls. They were good. We enjoyed a wonderful shared bowl of Pho more than the appetizers, and then I had a entree of stir-fry shrimp and asparagas. My husband had ginger marinated duck with a tamarind dipping sauce. Dessert was split between us, a luxurious vanilla ice cream over a macaroon and on a plate decorated with white and dark chocolate sauces, and two Vietnamese Coffees. Dessert was perfect after the spicy entree, but the Vietnamese coffee (Cafe du Monde Chicory coffee dripped over sweetened condensed milk) was too sweet.

Thank you all for your suggestions and I hope this thread will hope those going to Chicago soon.

You have lucky friends Chicgal! We completely enjoyed ourselves last night thanks to you. We looked the patrons over and came to the conclusion that it was mostly a locals place. We had excellent service too. My husband and I judge a place on how well the water glasses are kept filled and our cute water girl earned the place another A+.