Romance on a budget in Chicago....
 

I'm whisking my significant other away for a surprise trip to Chicago this summer. The kids will already be whisked away by extended family to go to the cottage without us.

So, we're looking for some nice, low key, inexpensive to moderately priced restaurants and eateries in Chicago. We don't drink (save an occasional cocktail for me), have moderate appetites, and would be looking to get 2-3 meals a day for $80 or less. Kind of like Rachel Ray's $40/day.... (We usually budget for, and stay under , $100/day for when we travel as a family, 2 adults and 2 kids).

We'll be staying near Grant Park, if that helps....

Good Luck!

www.metromix.com

Assuming that's $80 for both of you, this will be tough. A good lunch is usually ~$15 plus each by the time you're done. Dinner can be had for about the same if you stick with pizzas/pastas (not a bad choice in Chicago).

Suggest you go the the above website, pick the downtown, River North neighborhoods, choice of cuisine and the price range and see what it comes up with.

Also, if you're adventurous, you may consider ethnic neighborhoods where there are many in the wall holes that don't look like much but do have great and inexpensive food. Little Italy, German, Polish, Mexican, Chinatown neighborhoods. Unfortunately, with the exception of Little Italy all the other places are little bit out of the way.

I'm sure you will have a great time, regardless.

Chicago is great!

I meant:

holes in the wall... :-)

You aren't going to be going to higher end or touristy places. But hit at least one good pizza- maybe at Uno's or Due's.

You might get by at Golden Budha on Randolph or one of those downtown type Chinese of that price range. Look at Petterino's maybe for a supper. The last I looked Italian Village was also mighty reasonable at the lowest level- not upstairs. The Food Court in Watertower is always pretty doable with many choices.

The food in "cheap" places might not be altogether inexpensive because of taxes added and the costs of beverages and tip etc. But if you look at metromix and other threads of the past here, you'll find some that might fill the bill and are close to your Grant Park area lodging.

You can check the websites of these places b/c I can't remember exact prices. Some of my favorite less pricey places are: RoSal's, La Scarola, DeCero, and Cafe 28 (all are in different areas of the city.) There are some great pizza, beef, and hot dog places to check out too which are very inexpensive. There is a recent thread on that topic. Chinatown is a great call too. The Water Tower food court (Food Life) is really good...yes it's a Lettuce Entertain you but it's unique, tasty and offers a lot of options.

Jaysfan, very inexpensive meals in Chicago mean under $20 pp (not including tax, tip and drink). For those last three add at least another 25% on top of it. A moderately-priced meal in Chicago would run $50-65, maybe $70 pp. (The premier restaurants charge $200-$250+ pp not including tax, tip and drink.)

IMHO, you're simply going to have to re-think your dining budget or forego the romantic part. $80 divided by 6 meals (3 meals/2 people) = $13.34 per meal. $80 divided by 4 (2 meals/2 people) = $20.00 per meal.

An example for brunch: A guest and I went to Yolk on S. Michigan Avenue this past Saturday morning. I had an omelette (with a side of specialty pancakes, which we shared) and he had pancakes. I had tomato juice and he had coffee. Our bill was $31.00 plus a $5 tip. While this would be in line with your budget, if you are only having 2 meals a day (and their portions are quite generous), I certainly wouldn't consider Yolk to be romantic in any manner.

One suggestion I can make is to have a picnic at Millennium Park listening to a concert, if the weather allows. I normally recommend getting items at Pastoral: Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine - and their picnic baskets for two (I think they still are $39.99)- are within your budget, if you were only having 2 meals a day. See: www.pastoralartisan.com.

Again, if you were having only 2 meals a day and really skimped on breakfast/lunch/brunch (maybe going to a Corner Bakery and getting something very light), you could also try Russian Tea Time (1/2 block west of the Art Institute) for one of their dinner platters for two. (There are three of them, two are a little more than $50; the vegetarian is a little less - if they haven't changed their pricing.)

You can go out into the neighborhoods - which is great if you are buying CTA visitor's passes, and which I highly recommend if it is in your budget. But if you aren't, add $10 on for the trip ($5.00 pp RT). That will really cut into your dining budget.

Golden Budha, mentioned above, has been closed for quite some time.

What a great info post exiledprincess!

Below is listed some of the places we have enjoyed eating at in Chicago that would fall into your budget:
http://www.signatureroom.com/ The Signature Room lunch buffet is $18.00pp and has wonderful, wonderful views of Chicago and Lake Michigan!

http://www.cafeiberico.com/ Just a fun place to eat and the tapa's are really good!

http://www.theparthenon.com/ We find the Greek food to be good and have gone there for years.

How about bringing a bag of bagels and peanut butter and fruit into your hotel room and have breakfast in bed each morning? This will leave your food budget to 2 meals per day. We've done this often. Have a great time!

ps That Signature Room lunch buffet is Mon-Sat. Sunday is much more expensive.

Thank you, cd. Kind words.

This is a little OT because the OP was specifically asking about dining, but not too terribly so because it's all about romance as well.

Jaysfan, I don't know how long you are going to be in Chicago but here are a couple of things you could do:

If only for a couple of days, you might consider going to the SummerDance series for dancing under the stars. If you don't know how to do a particular style of dancing, there are lessons before the main event. See chicagosummerdance.com for details.

Buckingham Fountain has recently undergone a multi-million dollar renovation and has light shows each evening on the hour every evening until 11:00 p.m.

If you are coming for more than 3 days, IMHO, you might consider going out to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Metra still has their $5 pp *weekend* pass (for unlimited travel during the entire weekend). The Chicago Botanic Garden has free admission, although you could spend $5 pp on the tram tours, if you wish. (If you are driving, though, it costs $20 to park a car, more for a van/pickup/etc.) They have the Carillon Concerts on Monday evenings, the Hot Summer Nights dancing on Thursdays, and Music on the Esplanade on Tuesdays if you can't make it on the weekend.

exciledprincess, thanks for the cost breakdown and suggestions. I should have mentioned a couple of things -- we normally do muffins/juice/fruit in the room for breakfast if it's not included with our stay, and we couldn't possibly eat 2 American entrees between us :-) We find American portions to be larger than at home, and I'm a small eater anyway. We often order an appetizer each and a main to split. We don't normally eat three proper meals a day when we're travelling (excluding cruiseships!); we do breakfast, a meal and a snack. Sometimes a late night snack as well.

That said, we are relatively flexible, and this trip is a little different since my husband will be working from the hotel room some of the time.

cd - thanks for the links and the reminder about food in the room. (One downside to Priceline is that we end up at higher end hotels which don't include breakfast, I guess that's my excuse to add some $$ to the food budget).

We'll be visiting mid-week, which may help re brunch I guess...

Our train ride will include dinner on our last night, so I think we just have 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches and 2 dinners to figure out. If my husband would eat LunaBars like I do, it would be even simpler ;-)

Oh, and I've made a lunch reservation for our first day for the Signature Room at the 95th. I don't know my husband's work schedule yet, so I figured it best to get something to work around (and something we can change to another day if need be -- my big scheduling issue is trying not to interfere with the tours I plan on taking while he's working!)

I also meant to add, I'm coming to the conclusion that "romantic = dinner alone without family" ;-) so we're pretty easy to please on that front

Jaysfan, you just will have to check if the restaurants you choose will allow you to be splitting the entree. Some don't - and some will charge you for the extra plate.

exiledprincess: thanks for the reminder about the fees for splitting, or not being allowed to. We'll keep that in mind.

Jaysfan, I was thinking about your response above a little more and I wanted to ask you...

Just out of curiosity's sake, if you get two appetizers and one entree for dinner, doesn't that sometimes add up to more than to just getting two entrees (not even taking into account the cost if they charge for splitting)? I'm assuming that you don't mean breads or salads but something more substantial, is that correct?

Of course, it depends on the place, but most appetizers I've seen on menus (for inexpensive to mid-range places) run in the $9-13, maybe up to $15, range. Even salads run $8-12 (sometimes more if you get certain dressings or additional toppings - like seafood, etc.).

IMHO, it would be near impossible to get two appetizers and an entree for under $20 pp but I just wondered - and wanted to bring this to your attention because maybe it could save you a few bucks by not going this route?

You might also be on the look out for happy hour specials - Nick's Fishmarket is nice (alas, their happy hour food used to be free)

Hit submit too soon
http://www.nicksfishmarketchicago.com/events.cfm

We enjoyed dinner at Pizano's on Madison. Chachi the waiter was very friendly and gave me a free desert when my friends mentioned it was my birthday.

Gina817's suggestion of hot dogs, Italian beef, and pizza are good ones for cheap eats. If you stick only to the Loop/Near North/Magnificent Mile area, you can get a small deep dish pizza at Gino's East, Lou Malnatti's, Giordano's, or Pizzeria Uno or Due for ca. $12-20 (depending on toppings) and it will feed two people easily. Or a couple hot dogs at Portillo's or Gold Coast Dogs for about $6. Or an Italian beef sandwich at Al's or Mr. Beef for about $8. Not fancy, but filling.

A Blue Line subway ride to Belmont followed by a solid walk to North Milwaukee Ave. will take you to Red Apple, a Polish buffet spot (loaded with food like a Polish grandma would make) where you can stuff yourself silly for about $10 per person.

exciledprincess: by appetizers,I meant a bowl of soup or a small salad, something under $5, not the more elaborate amuse bouche or appetizers like grilled prawns or large salads or whathaveyou.

Here's our 'report'. We did very well on our budget, somewhat out of happenstance than design. We worked around the times for our walking tours, DH's work schedule and the heat.

Before we left, I made a small batch of banana-oat muffins. Not sure how much that cost, as it was all leftovers in the house. I also threw in a couple plastic bottles filled with milk so it wouldn't go bad while we were away. Total cost was probably about $2, and just part of our grocery budget, not the trip budget.

So, our food for 4 days was:

Tues dinner: muffins and milk, $0

Wed breakfast: hot meals in the dining car on the train, $0
Wed lunch: appetizer platter, pizza of the day at Edwardo's Natural Pizza = $27 incl tax and tip
Wed happy hour = Exchequer Pub drinks $0 (included in Architecture Foundation tour)
Wed dinner: leftover pizza, $0

Thurs breakfast: muffins, mini Luna bars, juice $4
Thurs lunch: Lunch buffet at the Signature Room, $67 incl drinks, tax and tip (Without the drinks, it would have been more like $45, but we wanted to splurge. It seemed fitting given the fabulous views and great time we were having!).
Thurs dinner: two soups, one entree (ravioli) at Rosebud on Rush = $30 ($33?) incl tax and tip

Fri brunch: continental picnic from Trader Joe's -- sparkling juice, herbed turkey slices, raw milk cheddar, apple, half box of Joe Joe's -- $12. plus last muffins
Fri dinner: Happy Hour at Bergoff's, wiener schnitzel, one Pepsi for our tour guide= $25 incl tax and tip (two other drinks were free as part of tour)
Fri snacks: wine, cheese and grapes in dining car = $0

Sat breakfast: hot meal and continental breakfast in the dining car =$0
Sat snack: chocolate bar = $2 (in shape of Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree of Life glass pattern!)

The only other food expenses were a couple of Luna bars left over from our last trip, the rest of the Joe Joe's and some animal crackers that DH bought. So, make that another $8.

Total: $175
That averages under $44/day for the two of us. I was surprised.
We didn't ever feel like we were going hungry or skimping, but just ate and drank when we felt like it. One of the many differences from travelling with our children who seem to need to be watered and fed a little more regularly ;-)


A couple of our money saving tricks for food and drink were (a) buying sleeping accommodations on the train which included meals and drinks (same or cheaper than a hotel room and flying) (b) booking happy hour tours which includes drinks at the end.

Generally this turned out to be a budget trip all the way around. I used Priceline for the hotel, and paid $156US *total* incl tax and tip for **two** nights in an upgraded King size room with river views at the Hyatt Regency. The train plus drive to/from Buffalo was roughly the same price as cheap flights between Toronto and Chicago ($600US), but much more relaxing, and included two nights' accommodation and breakfasts. We bought a basic membership for the Chicago Architecture Foundation ($67) and upgraded membership for the Frank Lloyd Wright restoration foundation in Buffalo ($100) which got us free and discounted tours-- and will continue to provide benefits throughout the year.

We also have a membership to a museum here that gets us reciprocal entrances and discounts at museums and science centers around the world, including 5 in Chicago which we'll hit next time.

Thanks again for all your tips. We look forward to returning to Chicago to see more of that beautiful city and to use more of your helpful tips :-)

Well, I'm so glad that you made your budget.

No, I was just talking about regular everyday appetizers at a lower- to mid-range place being in the $9-13 range. Soups and salads too. Cups of soup usually run $3.95-$4.95 at these places and bowls a buck or two more. Although you can go to some fast-food places such as Soupbox (nothing fancy, but good offerings), where the small soups run $3.95-$6.25 a bowl and large soups run $4.55-$8.00.

Amuse bouche, etc.: Of course, it depends on the place, but since it's likely you are discussing a higher-end establishment, you are talking in the mid-teens, etc.

I do have a question for you: Did you tip for those drinks included on the Chicago Architecture Tours?

Oops! Sorry, I posted too soon.

I was going to mention that the prices for salads and appetizers at Rosebud on Rush are in the ranges I stated above, as an example.

exiledprincess: The Chicago Architecture Foundation arranges for both the drinks *and* the tips, in advance. Apparently it didn't work so well when the tips were separate - people forgot or purposely didn't pay the tip! CAF ensures the drink plus 15% is taken care of.

On our first happy hour tour, we only had drinks and so paid nothing.
On our second, we tipped on the drink and food we bought.

We also often just share an app and a main, as at Edwardo's -- although after 15 years together, we still have trouble finding a combination of pizza toppings that we both prefer! We ended up compromising on a marguerita pizza because it was the special of the day.

We'd intended to go back for lunch on Friday to try the individual deep dish pizzas (lunch special) but my husband's work commitment ran overtime . And, we had leftovers from breakfast to eat up anyway.

Based on our experience, I think we'd have done okay even if we'd eaten out more. One regular restaurant meal plus one chain or take out, per day, seems to suit us well. Two restaurant meals takes up a lot of time away from sightseeing!

Jaysfan, thanks for responding back. I knew that the CAF docents didn't accept tips (and it was very nice of you to get a soft drink for yours in thanks) but I just didn't know about the drinks on those Happy Hour tours. It makes sense that they simplified that issued - plus keeps everybody happy. Which is what we like in the Windy City!

You know, the thing is that a number of visitors get shell-shock from Chicago's prices (not to mention our taxes), although Chicago's prices (not the taxes, though) are a lot less than some other major metropolitan areas (such as NYC). It's difficult to make generalizations about price ranges but you want to inform others of what to expect to pay for entertainment, dining, etc.

Of course, I want to help others and I don't want to be mentioning price ranges that are not accurate. Although I don't usually get appetizers, soups or salads, I do know what the prices are at the places where I've been to recently. And I do check online menus at others just to keep current.

Not to get OT: The other day I saw a review stating that one of the more inexpensive restaurants in town (which I go to somewhat regularly) was "overpriced" - when, in fact, it's really much lower-priced compared to others of the same level. Needless to say, that reviewer would probably be having fits if they saw the bills for a mid-range, expensive or very expensive restaurant. And in another review, another indicated that they had to pay an exorbitant cover fee of $15 pp (!) for a live music venue. Well, gosh folks, other venues are much higher - and it all depends on the performer, as well, as some command higher prices than others.

Anyway, this was a good opportunity to give some price information.

I just want to leave with this thought and this is no reflection on this particular post - but in general:

The restaurants in Chicago; the cultural institutions; the entertainment venues - they all have to make "X" amount of money for overhead and so forth in order to exist. If they don't make it, they are no longer there.

Those free entertainment options and events cost money - a lot of money, to be honest. If people (and that means visitors and locals alike) don't start spending a *little* extra, then they will be gone as well. And pretty darn soon, too.

I'm not talking about wildly throwing cash around which you don't have, but a reasonable amount.

exiledprincess, oh your comments were well made and well-taken. We didn't find Chicago to be overpriced, as we live in Toronto, a big city of its own :-) I hope I didn't sound as if I was complaining about prices! This particular trip just wasn't about the food or nightlife for us, it was about the walking tours, art and architecture. All of which was well worth what we spent!

Jaysfan, oh, I didn't mean you, but just in general.

I just took the opportunity to mention these things on this thread, since I had starting mentioning specific ranges above. I hope you didn't mind.

IMHO, there really aren't too many threads where the posters really get into the nitty-gritty of things, just mention generalities. I think it might be a good thing to do more often, to prepare visitors for the reality of their choice of destination.

Oh, yes, I agree the specifics are good. I can pick up generalities from guide books, for instance, but really like hearing about people's actual experiences.
Of course it is possible to go overboard - on the Disney fan sites, there are lots of trip reports which include calculations, to the penny, of how much time/money was spent by each person on each thing....which can be information overload. But, also useful when trying to figure out which package is a 'good deal'!

I didn't mind the info at all. I'd rather have more information than less, to sift through and consider.