Recommendation for dinner near Auditorium Theatre?

My husband and I will be heading to Chicago in a couple of weeks and taking in an 8:00 show at the Auditorium Theater. I'm looking for a recommendation for a restaurant that would be within a 10 minute walk of the theatre. I'm a rather adventurous eater, but my husband and dining partner would probably be best off somewhere with meat and potatoes on the menu (a steakhouse, perhaps?), or at an Italian or Mexican restaurant. We're flexible on price -- I'd be happy with a good value, but I'm also happy to pay a premium for a great meal and atmosphere to match. My only stipulation is that it not be a chain restaurant -- not that I would expect that from anyone on this board!

Also, if there's any great places nearby to grab a post-show drink, I'm all ears...

Thanks in advance for your time and input!

shmerri in Chicago Area

Windsor Eats

Hi Johnny,

Please don't judge Windsor's offerings based solely on the Chow posts! I get where you're coming from, but please keep in mind that much of what you find on here with respect to Windsor is people comparing the offerings to those of Toronto or other large metro areas. For a city our size, we actually have a lot of great restaurants. I'm not sure if we still do, but at one time we had more restaurants per capita than almost any other city in Canada -- mostly due to the fact that we have such a large U.S. city right across the border. That said, the industry has been hit hard by the perfect storm of tighter border controls, a close to par American dollar, and a struggling manufacturing sector (this region's bread and butter), so there might not be quite as much choice as in the past, but I tend to think it's just that the choices have shifted from the upscale offerings to more casual (but still delicious) ones.

Sorry to get off on a tangent -- but I feel I had to represent! ;-)

Anyway, here are a few recommendations...

One of my personal favourites is the Cook's Shop which is a cozy little Italian place downtown on Ouellette Avenue. This review does a better job of explaining it than I can: http://events.detnews.com/windsor-on/venues/show/72360-cooks-shop#

If you want something more modern, there's Motorburger (www.motorburger.ca) which opened earlier this year and seems to be generating quite a buzz. Though it's not an Italian restaurant (anymore) Motorburger is on Erie Street, aka Windsor's Via Italia or Little Italy...if Italian is your preference, that's the place to be. Nico Ristorante and Il Gabbiano are great choices on Erie St. It's not far from the casino either, so you could be there within a $7 or $8 cab ride.

If you like middle eastern food, Mazaar (www.mazaar.ca) is not to be missed. Be sure to make a reservation because it is definitely a hot spot, with very good reason.

I should also point you to my go to resource when it comes to finding local info about restaurants and wineries in the area -- www.WindsorEats.com -- just like your post title! It's got a food finder directory if you want to preview some menus. The blog is also worth checking out.

Hope that helps! Enjoy your stay in Windsor!

shmerri in Ontario (including Toronto)

Pizza in Windsor (not Windsor-Style?)

If you're looking for thin crust (whole wheat available) pizza in a wood burning oven, there's two in Walkerville that I love. One is Vito's on Wyandotte (http://www.vitospizzeria.net) and the other is Big Tony's (www.bigtonypizza.com). I also second the other poster's recommendation for the Caboto Club.

I'm not sure what you've tried already that you're classifying as Windsor-style, but I know people seem to rave about Anotnino's in South Windsor. I've only tried it once and it was good, but I didn't quite get what all the fuss was about based on that one experience.

Good luck and welcome to Windsor!

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Big Tony's
911 Walker Rd, Windsor, ON N8Y2N6, CA

shmerri in Ontario (including Toronto)

Recommendations for Girl's Night Out in Chicago

Thanks for the tip. I'm so glad you mentioned Quartino, because as it turns out I did eat there last time I was there and really enjoyed the atmosphere but I couldn't remember the name of it! It's actually the place I was trying to describe when I wrote my original post.

I'm liking the Quartino/Pops combo suggestion too!

shmerri in Chicago Area

Recommendations for Girl's Night Out in Chicago

Thank you so much for the plethora of great info and suggestions! Now I'm looking even more forward to our weekend! Thanks also for the reassurance that we'll be fine on $100 per person. A lot of the recent posts I had been reading seemed to focus on those restaurants that you mentioned as the exceptions and I hadn't been the one to pick up the tab on my last few visits, so I was a little worried.

shmerri in Chicago Area