Great Sea Chinese Retaurant

Location: 3254 W Lawrence
Cost: About $15 per person

Like many of my dine out driven friends, I've got a laundry list of places to hit up. When someone recommends that I check out their favorite spot, I jot it down on this list. In the rare case that I get to pick where we go to dinner I reference the list. There was this one spot that my buddy Alex told me about a week or two after I first started JEC. He told me this was his favorite place to get chicken wings and that the Chinese food wasn't bad either. When my parents wanted to meet somewhere north in the city to "split the distance" I told them to meet me at Great Sea.

Logistics
Great Sea is this dinky little spot on Lawrence in Albany Park. You'd easily miss it if you weren't looking. There's plenty of street parking, and driving is probably your best bet. I don't think they take reservations, and we got in at just the right time. There's not really a hostess. Rather, the owner hollers at you from a counter in the back of the restaurant to ask how many are in your party. It can be rather confusing, especially since so many people take out chicken wings from that back counter. The cost is what you'd expect with most entrees in the $12 range and a huge platter of wings at $16.

The Food
We got the ball rolling with a small order of the Egg Drop Soup. To be clear, the small bowl was way more than enough for the three of us. We also got the Spring Rolls and the Egg Rolls. The soup was rich and salty. The spring rolls were bland and dry so I would avoid them. The egg rolls were crispy, well stuffed, and flavorful.

The Egg Drop Soup

 The Spring Rolls

The Egg Rolls

We split the Mongolian Beef, the Cashew Chicken, the Shrimp Fried Rice, and of course the Chicken Wings. The wings are the house specialty and if the rest of the meal had been garbage, it would still be worth going for the wings. They're lollipopped and dressed in a sweet and spicy sauce. Everything else was standard and possibly too oily. The cashew chicken was missing cashews, but we were so content with everything else we didn't bother sending it back.

The Shrimp Fried Rice

 The Mongolian Beef

The Chicken Wings

 The "Cashew" Chicken

Overall
Great Sea may just have some of the best wings in the city. The other food is solid too. The trek to Albany Park isn't convenient by any means, but I'll be making it again soon. I'm giving them 4 out of 5 Pearls.

Max's Deli

Location: 191 Skokie Valley Road, Highland Park
Cost: About $18 per person

I played a lot of baseball growing up. I was a pitcher and third baseman for the most part because I had a strong arm. I would hit a lot of singles because I didn't have that powerful of a bat for home runs, and I was too slow to stretch anything into a double. Now I play 12 inch softball in the suburbs on the weekends and the tables have turned. Well, it's more like I have less back and knee problems than the majority of 40 year olds in the league. Either way, I play center field now and often throw out some over ambitious guy hobbling around third. Because half of our team lives or works in the suburbs, we play our games in Highland Park.

After a practice a few weekends back, Ian, Ryan, and I piled into the car to make the short trek back to the city. Ian suggested we grab some food first which is how we ended up at Max's Deli.

Logistics
Max's Deli is a rather large deli in the middle of this strip mall right off the highway. When you walk in, there's a deli counter and take out area to the left and a large dining room to the right. It looks just like Zweig's Deli used to look in Buffalo Grove. I don't think you can make a reservation, and with the exception of the morning weekend brunch rush, you're probably not in for a long wait. The cost is relatively cheap with half pound sandwiches just breaking $10

The Food
To nosh before our sandwiches got there, they gave us some complimentary dill pickles. They were round cut, large, and medium salty. I also ordered the Matzo Ball Soup to get started. The broth was simple and the ball was a little dense.

 The Pickles

The Matzo Ball Soup

Ryan got the Corned Beef on Challah, Ian got the Lean Corned Beef on Rye, and I got the BBQ Brisket on Challah. Although this may be sacrilegious, I've come to realize that I'm just not that fond of corned beef. These guys loved their sandwiches, but I would suggest you go for the brisket. It was juicy and doused in entirely too much of a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce. The toasted challah soaked it all up nicely. It also had this excellent texture where I didn't end up tugging at the meat at all.

The BBQ Brisket on Challah

 The Corned Beef on Rye

 The Corned Beef on Challah

Overall
Max's Deli has solid sandwiches at very reasonable prices. Amongst many other great north suburban delis, I think it holds its own nicely. If you live in the city, it's probably closer to go to Manny's which I would strongly suggest, but if you're in the area, Max's isn't bad either. I'm giving them 3.5 out of 5 Pearls.

Kings

Location: 5505 Park Pl, Rosemont
Cost: About $30 per person

My friends Amanda and Sal moved out to Arlington Heights together a few months back. Since many of their friends (myself included) live in the city, Amanda picked a restaurant in Rosemont to celebrate her birthday. She wasn't sure exactly where we should go, as long as it was in MB Financial Park. I got there a bit early and walked around to check the area out. I was nothing short of blown away. I'd never seen a group of restaurants pander to poor American taste before in my life. There was a corny themed Greek, Irish, American, BBQ, German, and Mexican restaurant. Like one article in the Tribune put it, its the "Epcot of Eats." Thankfully, instead of choosing My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, Amanda decided on Kings, the bowling alley / sports bar / 60's American soda shop themed spot.

Logistics
Like all of the neighboring restaurants, Kings is huge. We were situated in the bar area at a long table for our party of 12. We had a reservation which wasn't really necessary. If we'd gone bowling that might've been required. As far as parking goes, there's this one gigantic, confusing, communal garage where I got to relive that one Seinfeld episode.

The service was great. The beer list was one of those that looks like it's extensive but really just has a variety of InBev products. They do have frosted mugs though. The cost is reasonable with lots of burgers and sandwiches around $12. As expected, the portions are large and befitting of the setting.

The Food
To start we split a few of the Appetizer Samplers which had some spinach and artichoke dip, wings, buffalo chicken wontons, and cheeseburger spring rolls. The best item was the dip but there were only 4 crackers, making for somewhat of an issue. The other items mostly just made me feel bad about myself but tasted alright because they were properly fried.

 The Appetizer Sampler

The entrees I got to try were the Loaded Potato Pizza, the Steakhouse Burger, and the Steak Tip Sandwich. Amanda liked her pizza, but I don't know if mashed potatoes on top of crust will ever taste good to me. It was dry and salty. The burger had mushrooms, onion strings, and a horseradish mayo. If it hadn't been cooked past my liking it would've been great. The steak tip sandwich had a sweet glaze with plenty of jack cheese and sauteed onions on a thick ciabatta bun. The bread was somewhat crunchy and the steak was hard to bite off cleanly making the sandwich a mess to eat. The taste, however, was spot on.

The Loaded Potato Pizza

 The Steakhouse Burger

The Steak Tip Sandwich

Overall
You can tell from my intro that I was biased from the beginning of the meal. Each dish was solid except for one or two significant flaws. I'll go anywhere to celebrate a birthday with Amanda, but if you don't have to, I wouldn't haul out there for the food. I'm giving Kings 1.5 out of 5 Pearls.