La Condesa

Last night, Alex, Sasha, and I ate at La Condesa at 1001 N. Ashland. (Interesting note: Every review of La Condesa I found--TOC, Metromix, Trib--all gave only this address for the restaurant. But once we got there, we saw that it was a chain, with several locations on the west and southwest sides. 1001 N. Ashland is in a rapidly gentrifying area, while these other places remain largely working-class Latino neighborhoods. Hmm.)

Anyway, we went there because it was on TOC's list of the Top 5 margaritas in the city. The other places on the list either didn't serve food or served rather expensive food (or rather expensive margaritas), so we went to this one. And the margarita was really good. It definitely used fresh lime juice and had a good balance of flavors, though it was probably on the sweeter, less alcoholy side. We ordered a pitcher because it seemed more cost-efficient, and we certainly got a pitcher. In fact, we got three full glasses plus a beer-sized pitcher. The pitcher had a decent amount of ice in it, which probably saved us from really feeling the effects.

The food was really good too. I ate chicken flautas, which came with rice and beans and sour cream and guacamole. I really like the deep-fried goodness of flautas, but I wasn't really a fan of their chicken filling. It was kind of stringy. I think that always happens to me when I order chicken at Mexican food places, though, so I should learn to just not do it. Everything else, though, was excellent. The guacamole was relatively smooth and not too full of cilantro, just the way I like it.

Alex had cheese enchiladas. I had a moment of panic when I first looked through the menu and couldn't find anything vegetarian, and the seafood options were pricey. But then I spotted the enchiladas and felt much better about life. They had several varieties of sauces for the enchiladas. Alex got the Suiza sauce. We don't know what that means, but it was good. The enchiladas were loaded with cheese and cream and more cheese--I think several different kinds of cheese. Yummy.

Sasha had beef tacos. She said they were really good, but I didn't try them. Sasha and I both really wanted ceviche, so we split an appetizer of their shrimp version (Alex had some too). It was pretty good; I especially liked the addition of avocado to the fish and tomatoes. I think I prefer non-shrimp ceviche, though. I think it pickles better and has a better texture.

The chips and salsa they gave us at the beginning were pretty delicious too. I'm not a big salsa person, since it's usually too spicy for me, but I really liked this one. It had nice big pieces of tomatoes and onions, good for piling on a chip.

I think the margaritas were the best part though. They were really good.

Heartland Cafe and Paleteria La Monarca

Last night, Alex and I ate at Heartland Cafe. (That's a total lie, obviously, since I just said that last night we had Indian food. But we're going to go with it.)

Heartland Cafe, on Thursday nights, has $2.50 pints of Rogue beer. So we had a couple of pints each of Dead Guy. Actually, Alex had a couple of pints, but I could never get the waitress' attention to get my second. It's probably for the best. Alex and I like Dead Guy, but the big fan of it is my dad. We brought some back for him from Portland, and he told me that he thought it was really, really excellent. My dad can be a harsh critic, too.

I had a philly cheese steak-like sandwich that was made with portobello mushrooms instead of steak. It was really good. I have to say, every vegetarian philly cheese steak variation I've ever had (like those awesome vegetarian philly cheese steaks at the USAS conference) is far better than its meaty counterpart. But it's entirely possible I've never had an actually good cheese steak. Maybe in good ones, the meat would be less stringy and gross. I got sweet potato fries on the side, which were good, but I've had better. They didn't quite match the flavorfulness and crispyness of the Zen Palate ones.

Alex had a spicy bean burger and cornbread stuffing. His burger was quite good, though much of it fell off the bun, which was a little unfortunate. I've gotten really interested in variations on veggie burgers. (Another post, maybe?) The stuffing was good, too, though maybe a little dry. I'm not sure about that, though. I think it was dry if you're calling it stuffing, but it was definitely yummy if you're calling it something else.

What was really nice about Heartland Cafe was its outdoor patio. It was on a really leafy street right by the Morse El stop. It was a great place to sit and watch the neighborhood go by. Also, the Heartland Cafe is known for its support of progressive causes. In the bathroom, there were signs up for a "prostration for peace" protest on the Rogers Park beach. We had missed it, though. I think that's okay. The bookstore seemed to have lots of interesting books, newspapers, and magazines, but I wasn't really in the mood to check them out.

Paleteria La Monarca is at 6955 N. Clark, and was in the Time Out Chicago list of food to check out on Clark St. in Rogers Park. It's a Mexican bakery, but not really your typical one, as they also sell ice cream. I got rice pudding instead, which may or may not be arroz con leche in Spanish. It was okay, but I think I really should've gone with churros or funnel cake. Alex got ice cream. I don't think I tried it, but I think he enjoyed it.