I will be in Wheeling ILL,Any ideas for a dinner with a large group in that area?
Thanks
Bob Chins Crab House
Wildfire
Flemings
These are just north in Lincolnshire.
About 3 miles past bob chins on Milwaukee rd
Thanks,i love Wildfire,
someone mentioned coopers hawk winery,It certainly did not appeal to me lol.Any thoughts
Im not a fan of the wine. The food is good though, but if I had a choice between that and wildfire, im going to the steak house.
Please avoid. The restaurant is like a marriage between Red Lobster and Disneyland, complete with long waits, arrows on the floor and a gift shop as you leave.
Actually, I’m probably being unkind to Red Lobster.
I disagree with this opinion. I’ve never waited more than about 20 minutes for a table and normally I am seated immediately. The preparation of king crab legs or lobster is relatively straight forward so it’s difficult to screw it up. I’ve always left satisfied with my food. When I order fish, it is always prepared correctly. Also, they sell more seafood than just about any restaurant in the country (they might be #1, I think they were at one point) – so the inventory turnover is extremely high. That’s what I want for a Midwestern seafood restaurant. They have a very wide ranging menu with a huge number of options. It’s also very kid friendly. Yes, the decor and uniforms are, to be kind, tacky. But it delivers on exactly what I want from a seafood place.
The last time I was there in May, the famed kona crab was not sweet (a sign it was not fresh) and the onaga that I ordered was cooked well, but it was smothered in the disgusting seasoned salt that they sell at the gift shop. Honestly, it was like eating a salt lick. Service was abysmal too. Fwiw, we waited 45 minutes with reservations.
Our party of 10 agreed that the best thing that they served was the beef – exactly what I don’t want from a seafood place.
Sounds like a bad time. They move so many people through that I’m sure that they mess up a fair amount of the time. However, I’ve been there probably 50 times in the last decade and can not recall a single bad experience even when I was with large parties.
That’s another thing, I imagine that eating there is not entirely different than the feeling I’d get at an industrial feed lot.
Nine times out of ten, I’d rather eat seafood at a good restaurant than at a seafood restaurant. YMMV.
What was the name of that really nice, high-end restaurant that used to be in Wheeling, and what happened with it.
Le Francais? It closed some years ago and the chef died within the last year.
That’s the one. Couldn’t think of the name of the place and was bugging me. Unfortunately never made it there before it closed.
Le Francais? Jean Banchet sold it to Mary Beth and Roland Liccioni, who ran it for a decade, but Banchet returned for a couple of years. He then sold it to Don Yamauchi, who closed it in 2003 (blaming, in part, anti-French sentiment arising from the Iraq war). Never was the same without Banchet, though.
Paul, Michael Lachowitz of Restaurant Michael in Winnetka worked under Jean Banchet and Roland Liccioni and he’s putting our fairly traditional French dishes.
- disclaimer, I know him (he’s good friends with my uncle)
It’s certainly not high end dining, so you’ve got to go with reasonable expectations. Where I grew up there are many no-frills seafood places and those were always the ones I preferred.
I love Restaurant Michael. It’s not too far from Wheeling and Michael can accommodate large parties with advance notice. I remember one dinner we had a few years ago where it was clear we had too much wine for the number of courses, so he added one for us at the last moment. We probably had 10 guys at the table that night too.
Tuesday night is free corkage.
On the flip side, instead of la francais, there are two eating establishments on that corner now
Caribou coffee
Some taco hut.
Thamks everyone,I will check Michaels out or gear them towards Wildfire