Evanston Restaurants

Tapas Barcelona has a great, ecclectic atmosphere, with bright colors, great iron work and walls plastered with old spanish movie posters. You can dine inside or outside when weather permits.

For those never who have never been to a tapas restaurant, think of it like a restaurant where you just order appetizers to share, and what wonderful delicacies they have!

They are open for lunch and dinner, but are closed from 2:30-5pm, so don't plan on a mid-afternoon snack or an early supper! I have made this mistake before.

Favorite Dish: The eggplant stuffed with goat cheese is about as good as it gets. Get a pitcher of margaritas and one of their specialty pizzas (I like the Barcelona) and a maybe the shrimp in garlic sauce and you are in business.

What a great experience - from start to finish!

Wine List - all Italian and a really appraochable Sommelier (unlike most you find)

Service - Casual but refined

Food - The best Italian we've had in the Northshore

This is my new go to place!!!!

Thanks Pensiero for a wonderful and memorable night

Favorite Dish: Zuppa Crema di Piselli - Truffled English Pea Soup, Caramelized Onion Flan

Wow!!!!!!

Tagliatelle al Tartufo - Housemade Fresh Tagliatelle Pasta, Exotic Mushrooms, Walnuts, Shaved Black Truffle, Parmagiano Reggiano, Mushroom Broth - Tossed in a Wheel of Grana Padano

Strawberry Cheese Cake - Amaretto Chocolate Wafer, Carmel and Raspberry Sauce

Due to the fantastic wine list (and the couple bottles we had) and their Sommelier's help "I cheated" and used their website for descriptions as not to get it wrong.

Jilly's is a small French restaurant in northern Evanston where we ate brunch with friends. It was not cheap, but we enjoyed it very much.

Jilly's has a French country feel and a very friendly staff. The menu features a mix of French and American items. The portions were large and the food was very good. The blueberry pancakes were especially tasty.

Jilly's is open for lunch and dinner, as well as brunch on the weekends. For brunch, they have a prix fixe option, which includes dessert and champagne.

Clarke's is a friendly diner in Evanston that is located a couple of blocks from the Northwestern University campus. It is open for breakfast, luch, and dinner, and its menu features a wide variety of dishes, including eggs, waffles, burgers, sandwiches, salads, and desserts. Its menu has a 1950s theme, and was fun to read, with a number of spoofs about 1950s college students.

Favorite Dish: We enjoyed the waffles, the burgers, and the sweet potato fries.

Chain-smoking students, college-town hipsters and intellectual wannabes hang here instead of at corporate Starbucks down the street. This is the oldest coffeehouse in Evanston.

Favorite Dish: They have sandwiches as well as baked goods. I like the coffee and the italian sodas.

Critical culinary acclaims that are too lengthy to list. Trio Restaurant's consistent national recognition has made it one of the Chicago area's highest rated fine-dining establishments. Executive Chef Grant Achatz (formerly of The French Laundry) has proven himself quickly with top-rated 4-star local reviews, Food and Wine Magazine's Top Ten Chefs for 2002 award and the James Beard Rising Star Chef award for 2003.

While now closed- it is important to note how many renowned Chicago chefs have passed through its kitchen:

Grant Achatz: chef chef/owner, Alinea

Darin Bieck: sous chef chef de cuisine, Spring

Michael Carlson: cook chef/partner, Schwa

Curtis Duffy: cook, pastry chef sous chef, Alinea

Gale Gand: pastry chef pastry chef/partner, Tru

Della Gossett: pastry chef pastry chef, Charlie Trotter's

Nathan Klingbail: cook sous chef/partner, Schwa

Shawn McClain: chef chef/partner Spring, Green Zebra, Custom House

John Peters: sous chef sous chef, Alinea

Michael Pagliarini: cook sous chef, Radius in Boston

Rick Tramonto: chef chef/partner, Tru, Osteria Via Stato

Favorite Dish: Trio is on the cutting edge of avant-garde cuisine, influenced by an array of global flavors and textures. The focus is on elegant, seasonally inspired ingredients, creatively showcased in four- and eight-course prix fixe and gastronomic twenty-course tasting menus, guiding diners through an unsurpassed dining experience. Driven by the energetic creativity of the kitchen, Trio's menu is always in a state of evolution making dining here an experiential adventure. Superbly orchestrated wine tastings, specifically selected for individual dishes, create the award-winning pairing progressions unique to restaurants of this caliber.

This is the place you go when you want more of an atmosphere with your value priced Italian food. The food is good, service is attentive, and it is a pretty place to eat. I especially like sitting outside in front of the restaurant during the summer.

While in Evanston, Illinois, where the Northwestern Hospital is located, my husband Allan and I had spent the day with our daughter and son-in-law in the Labor and Delivery room because Jill was preparing to give birth to their baby. Once the real "contractions" started, we left so that she and Eric could share their parenting experience. We did not leave the hospital for good; only to go out for dinner. We thought that it was appropriate to eat at Jilly's Cafe in honor of our daughter.

Jilly's Cafe is quite small with about 16 small tables. The room has stucco walls, dark wood beams on the ceiling, and wood on the bottom portion of the walls. There are, of course, linens that are crisp and well appointed.

The menu was somewhat limited for my tastes; however, they did have nightly specials as well.
There are appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, and desserts. Everything is al carte.

Favorite Dish: We started with wine; Allan drinks red, and I prefer German whites (Reislings). We both had salads. Allan's was the Mixed Greens Salad Tossed with Balsamic Vinaigrette. I had the Field Greens and poached pear salad with blue cheese, walnuts and red wine vinaigrette. They were fine salads but not extraordinary.

Allan's entree was a special of Leg of Lamb as about six chops. He said it was quite good. He really "raved" about the mashed potatoes that came with the meal.

I ordered an appetizer for dinner because I am not a larger eater. I order Crispy Spring Roll filled with Wild Mushrooms, sweet cherries, spinach, and Brie Cheese, served with Mixed greens and Raspberry Vinaigrette. It sounds delicious. However, it was not a crispy spring roll at all; instead it was soggy. I disliked it; therefore, I did not eat it. They did not charge us for it either.

The best part of the meal, as far as I am concerned, was the desserts. All desserts are homemade. Allan had a combination of 3 small desserts that they feature on one plate.
I had a chocolate cake with fudge icing, chocolate sauce and carmel sauce with ice cream on the side. It was delicious and quite rich.

If you look closely at the photo by clicking to enlarge, you will see the desserts in front of us.

Although it was not fantastic, I would suggest trying it; most people have a much wider range of likes in foods than I do.