While the atmosphere is more hole-in-the-wall than fine dining, the service and food are actually quite good. You get a decent selection of Mediterranean and Greek choices, from my favorite veggie appetizer combo with hummos, babaghanouj, tebouleh, and falafel, to tons of meat options for the heartiest carnivore. The portions are huge and it’s BYOB! It’s one of the few good values in Evanston—great meal for not huge bucks.

Tapas Barcelona is a nice setting for a meal with friends. It has a festive feel to it. If only the food were as good as the ambiance. While there are definitely some highlights on the tapas menu (Datiles Con Tocino being one of them) I did not feel like the selection of tapas was great. That and the price for the size of the dish didn’t seem to match. I am used to going to tapas where the rule of thumb is 1.5 to 2 dishes per person. Here, you definitely need to upside that to almost 2.5 or 3.

I do like that they have housemade sangria and, like I mentioned, this is a great place to go out with friends, so having a good supply of sangria is vital to that, but I don’t feel like you get the greatest bang for your buck.

I forget how good meat is sometimes… I’m not a huge red meat eater, but Korean BBQ is always an exception! With the super thin slices and great marinated flavors, its even better when done right!

Yes, I love the fact that Cho Sun OK is BYOB. But even better is that we found out there is a Jewel right around the corner!

Authentic Korean BBQ in a nicely ventilated spot… a great combination!

So, I’ll admit…I’ve never had a normal meal at Stained Glass. I’ve only had some of those company-sponsored meals where the menu is pre-set and/or it’s heavy appetizers.

But what little I’ve had of the real Stained Glass was still very good. For one meal, I had a scallop salad (great!) and a mushroom risotto (I like my risotto a little softer than what I had). It was all in a great setting with a tasty wine selection to top it off.

I would definitely want to come back for a special meal sometime!

I had heard good things about Noyes Street Cafe and decided to check it out on a cold, cold Evanston weekend day.

When I stepped in, I was pleasantly surprised by the setting. Great size, nicely decorated, I got worried that it was going to be a pricey meal by how it looked. I was nicely surprised again when we got our menus and the lunch menu was all under $10.

I ordered an omelet (still served in the afternoon) and was happy about this new find. However, that’s when all the nice surprises ended. The omelet came and it wasn’t bad, but it was VERY greasy. The side dishes were all a little too greasy or too salty for my taste. Everything was just a little off.

Oh well, it was still a big meal for not too much money… Can’t have it all in Evanston…

Really, I come here to study. It’s got free Wifi and caffeine (hence the name)—everything I need to figure out Finance. But when you study for hours and hours, you also gotta eat. Kafein is a cafe first, but does have a nice selection of soups, salads, and sandwiches made-to-order. Simple dishes…

What you should stay for, though, are the desserts! There are tons of original and creative milkshakes, sundaes, and other sweet treats to help you get through one more problem set.

If you need it quiet to study, though, don’t come here! Kafein keeps the alterna-atmosphere steady with a nice steady eclectic mix of music.

Wynkoop is spread out in a spacious building which makes it a good option for an indecisive bunch. On the main floor, there’s a normal sit-down indoor restaurant area, a walk-up bar area, and there’s two separate outdoor eating areas. Upstairs is a pool hall, with darts and shuffleboard and another bar.

We decided to take advantage of the temperate summer night that was not too cool and sit on one of the outside patios. It turned out to be a good people watching spot as the neighborhood is full of bars and restaurants and people walking from one to another.

As it is a brewery, we decided to get their sampler of 11 different brews. My favorite was the seasonal summer ale – a little citrus flavor, but still crisp…sorta like a Blue Moon with a slice of orange. Bonus for the seasonal—it had the highest alcohol content at 6.2%. The light ale received positive reviews too (we liked it better than their most popular ale) but the fun part was sampling them all. Just stay away from Patty’s Chili Beer….yuck!

Food-wise, I was pleasantly surprised. Being in landlocked Denver, we had pretty good mussels for an appetizer.

But the fun part is after the nice meal in a pleasant setting, we just had to roll on upstairs to have a fun evening shooting some pool.

So if you need something to eat and something to do, Wynkoop is the place!

If John weren’t the one who picked the place, I would have really worried about where we were going as it is located in a not-very-impressive location. But, it’s a gem hidden amongst strip malls.

While we waited for our table (surprisingly busy on a Thursday night), we got to pick some nice exotic drinks. You gotta try the Rasberry Mojito! The host at the door was extremely nice and tried to do as much as he could to make the wait bearable.

So when we finally sat down, we got the menu which was like a novel! So many dishes to choose from!!! I was intrigued by the variety and will have to come back if I’m in the area and do their special “7 course beef” menu.

Overall, this has a very nice ambiance; it feels modern but not stuffy. And the food and drinks are good and not too pricey. I’d definitely recommend it.

So I am a breakfast fan. I like my eggs and pancakes and other breakfast foods and I am particular about what I get.

Alana’s has an absolutely beautiful setting. It’s like a little cottage house and tables outside are set in a garden-like atmosphere. It’s almost like a little picnic among the trees. It is very beautiful on a nice summer day.

The food, though, was just okay to me. I guess I didn’t get anything that really stood out compared to other breakfast places. The potatoes were good, the coffee cake was good, but neither of them knocked my socks off.

I guess what they do have is a great scrambled egg menu with very different mix-ins that I haven’t seen. It was hard choosing which mix-in I wanted. But again, nothing spectacular about it when the dish came…

So come for the setting and enjoy your company. But don’t expect anything to write home about.

So, I am a noodle fan. I like em in every style – pho, spaghetti, chinese beef noodle soup… And, I LOVE ramen!

For those of you who aren’t familiar, restaurant-style ramen is a completely different thing than the dried stuff you buy at the store. And the quality of ramen at real Japanese restaurants vary quite a bit. Santa has mastered the ramen noodle.

This tiny little shop seats about 20 people max, and there is ALWAYS a line, but we lucked out and got seated in less than 5 minutes. The menu is basically ramen cooked different ways with a bunch of side dishes. The reason Santa rocks is that the flavor of the soup is embedded into every bite and the noodles are just thick enough and soft enough.