Owner Samad Ahmadi and the dining room at Paradise

A. Jackson

Paradise in an Auto Garage

Paradise
5548 N. Broadway
773-275-6300

THE SIGN OUT front reads “Paradise: Authentic Persian Cuisine,” and his renditions of simple Persian and Turkish favorites like dolmeh and stuffed peppers are excellent—but Samad Ahmadi insists his business isn’t really a restaurant. “It’s a gallery,” he says. “Selling food supports me so I can show the next person.” The long dining room is crowded with the owner’s distinctive outsider art— expressionistic paintings on glass, plastic, and mirrors, murals, five handmade fountains, multimedia works that defy definition—and psychedelic strings of colored lights line the walls. At one end a balcony overlooks the space, a former auto garage; at the other a handmade stage is poised over an old Mercedes convertible.

Ahmadi, who’s 48, picked up a paintbrush for the first time in 1998, back when he was still running an auto shop in the building. “I stopped by a garage sale and I could tell the woman selling the stuff was pissed off,” he says. “I asked her, ‘What’s wrong?’” She told him her Cadillac wouldn’t start and that she’d just learned it would cost her around $1,800 to fix it. Ahmadi offered to take a look at the car, and when he did he discovered that all it needed was a new fuse. As a thank-you the woman gave him a set of oil paints and some brushes. “I’m not a painter,” he says he told her. “She looked at my face and she said I had something inside. A gift is a gift.”

Appetizer plate

A. Jackson

That very night Ahmadi made his first painting. He began with a realistic depiction of a pack of Marlboro Reds, but says that before long symbolic images began pouring out of him: “I painted for four hours straight. I have no memory of what I was doing the last few hours.” When he woke up the next morning he was stunned by what he’d created—“It was my life story,” he says.

The gift had come at an opportune time: Ahmadi’s marriage had fallen apart, and nerve damage to his spine was making his work as a mechanic increasingly painful. Art became his escape. “Every night I was dying to go home and paint,” he says. He began using his auto garage to house his work, then started using the cinder-block walls as canvases.

Although he’d worked in his father’s restaurant back in Iran as a child, Ahmadi had no other restaurant experience. Nevertheless, in 2003 he made his decision to turn the auto garage into a place that would showcase his work. He can’t bear to part with his works, so a real gallery was out of the question. Instead he took out a bank loan, built out a kitchen onto the space, and added still more art to the dining area. After two long years of work, Paradise opened last December.

“The moment I planned to open this place all my friends laughed at me,” Ahmadi says. “They said, ‘This isn’t a restaurant, it’s a museum.’ They asked me why I didn’t open a regular-looking restaurant. I said I wanted it to be different. That’s one of the things I love about this country—you can do things differently.”

Ahmadi came to Chicago on a blustery October day in 1986 with $28 in his pocket. He’d spent the previous four years trying to get a visa to the U.S. “I didn’t leave Iran, I escaped it,” he says of his departure from his hometown of Tabriz, in Iran’s northwest corner, in 1982. “It took me six or seven days to reach the Turkish border on foot. My dream was to come to America. As a kid we read books about America, land of opportunity. I didn’t have a chance to improve myself in Iran.” He traveled across Europe, doing manual labor in between visits to U.S. embassies in Turkey, France, Germany, Greece, and Austria. His visa application was denied again and again. In Italy, after eight months of trying, he finally got lucky.

He expected an Iranian friend then living in Chicago to meet him at the airport, but when Ahmadi arrived there was no sign of him. He went to his friend’s apartment in Uptown and, finding no one home, proceeded to sleep on a floor mat inside the building’s vestibule for the next three nights. “On the third day I had only $3 in my pocket,” he says. “I walked from here to downtown, stopping in any store, any shop, asking if I could give them a hand. Everyone looked at me strange—I was wearing the same white suit, white shirt, and white shoes I’d worn from Italy—and everyone thought I was a cuckoo or a druggie or an alcoholic.”

Finally, he found a sympathetic employer—a fellow Iranian—at the old Rush Street nightclub Faces. Told that he would need black clothing, Ahmadi asked if the club had a washing machine. He says he took off his suit, dropped it in the washer, then broke two black pens and threw them in after. “That afternoon my clothes were black,” he says.

Ahmadi worked at Faces doing “whatever that needed doing” for three months, and soon managed to find an apartment and rent an Uptown garage where he opened his auto repair business. It took him just three more months to move to a bigger space on Broadway, and over the next decade his business grew steadily—he added a body shop, a junkyard, and a towing service. In 1988 he met his first wife, also an Iranian immigrant. They married in 1989.

The converted auto garage

A. Jackson

At the time of Ahmadi’s divorce, though, things got tough. Over the next five years, at times unable to work because of his spinal injury, he was forced to sell two of the three buildings he’d acquired. In 2002 he went back to Iran for the first time in 20 years. There he met a woman his father had set him up with; they married last year. Trained by her mother and with six months of private cooking lessons in Chicago under her belt, Arozu Ahmadi does most of the cooking at Paradise. Her specialties include halim bademjan, an intensely minty warm eggplant dip; lobia, a cold appetizer of red beans in a garlicky, vinegary marinade with walnuts and onions; and dizi, a two-course dazzler consisting of a bowl of rich lamb broth and then the lamb itself, served with a melange of eggplant, potatoes, and chickpeas and a piquant tomato relish called torshi, redolent of fresh parsley, cilantro, dill, and basil.

As good as the food is, “every time people come in here I watch them and they can’t finish theirs because they’re always looking around,” Ahmadi says. “There’s so much to see that they can’t see it all the first time. And this place will never be finished. It’s all from my imagination.” —Peter Margasak

Eclectic Eats in Edgewater

Adria Mare
5401 N. Broadway | 773-989-4511
$$
MEDITERRANEAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | BYO

Adria Mare bridges the small distance between northern Italy and Croatia by billing itself as coastal Adriatic. On the menu that translates to a variety of aquatic edibles and the usual pasta suspects: penne, spaghetti, and four different risottos. The superb meal my companion and I shared was lovingly prepared from scratch. We began with a tart, smoky, garlicky black olive paté served on lightly fried pieces of wheat bread. Then came little tartlets filled with feta, boiled egg, and tomato and drizzled with a preparation of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and mustard. An enormous portion of seafood risotto teemed with practically everything that swims, scuttles, or glides through the sea. The tuna steak wasn’t quite as good, though it came with a delicious creamy sambuca sauce. We ended with a mountainsize piece of carrot cake. The only flaw at this spot is the decor, strongly reminiscent of Red Lobster circa 1975. Maybe that’s why Adria Mare isn’t packed to the gills—which is a shame, because this food deserves an audience. Chip Dudley

Alice and Friends Vegetarian Cafe
5812 N. Broadway | 773-275-8797
F 8.8 | S 7.3 | A 6.2 | $ (11 REPORTS)
ASIAN, VEGETARIAN/HEALTHY | LUNCH: SATURDAY; DINNER: MONDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED SUNDAY

The name refers to Alice in Wonderland; the menu consists primarily of vegan versions of pan- Asian food—Smoked Veggie Duck, Almond UnChicken, Korean BBQ, Japanese Don Ka Su—though recent additions include a veggie burger and UnChicken Drumsticks. Dishes that don’t use soy products are available, but most Raters rave about the meat substitutes. (Others wonder why this place has any Rs at all.) Most entrees come with rice and salad; there’s a large selection of appetizers, drinks, and vegan desserts. The walls are covered with bright mosaics and inspirational sayings. Raters say service can be slow. Holly Greenhagen

Arkadash Cafe
5721 N. Clark | 773-506-2233
$$
MEDITERRANEAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 2, OTHER NIGHTS TILL MIDNIGHT

I should have trusted my instinct and ordered a veggie appetizer combo. Instead, when pressed to decide, some demon voice from who knows where blurted out “doner kebab.” What I got was a plate of fatty gyros-style lamb on rice that rested like a ton of lead in the pit of my stomach. My companion opted for an offering from the “homemade specials” portion of the menu, choosing something called manti. Described as Turkish tortellini, it appeared as an abundant plate of little pasta dumplings drowning in a tangy yogurt-tomato sauce. We shared a decent appetizer of lightly breaded calamari accompanied with tarator sauce—a garlicky breadcrumb- walnut dip. As we gnawed through our respective stomach bombs, I caught sight of the veggie combo when it appeared on an adjoining table and immediately realized my mistake. It looked great. Not that people come here for the food. The real draw happens on weekends after ten, when the live music kicks in and belly dancers start shimmying. Kathie Bergquist

Caracas Grill
6340 N. Clark | 773-262-9900
$$
LATIN AMERICAN | LUNCH: SUNDAY, SATURDAY; DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAYSATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL MIDNIGHT | BYO

Chicago’s first Venezuelan restaurant is easy to miss—sandwiched between an upholstery store and a gas station on North Clark—but worth searching for, if only to discover specialties unlike the Argentine or Peruvian dishes offered at other local South American eateries. There are empanadas, but they’re big and fluffy, made with superfine white corn flour imported from Venezuela. The arepas aren’t the pancakelike disks Chicagoans might be used to but come stuffed two inches thick with smoky ham, tender and earthy roasted pork, shredded chicken, fish, or vegetables. Even the tostones are unusual, the plantains sliced lengthwise rather than mashed and topped with a savory mixture of chicken and vegetables stewed in a tomato sauce. The cochino frito con cachapa special was a pancake of mashed sweet corn filled with cheese, folded over omelet style, grilled, and served with large chunks of pork. Another dish, pabellon, is shredded beef stewed for hours in a rich tomato and onion sauce, served with porkladen black beans and rice along with slices of fried plantains for a sweet contrast. Laura Levy Shatkin

Chicago Rhythm Cafe
5230 N. Sheridan | 773-561-7340
$
AMERICAN, VEGETARIAN/HEALTHY | BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER: MONDAYSATURDAY | CLOSED SUNDAY, MONDAY

You could easily walk right past this storefront on a nondescript stretch of Sheridan, but the good old-fashioned hospitality on offer makes it worth a stop. Owner Shawn Nelson came out and introduced herself, and she didn’t hesitate to sassily ride her employees when she felt they weren’t moving fast enough. The space is divided in half, with a big-screen TV and comfy leather sofas and armchairs for lounging up front and cafe tables in the back. The counter-service-only menu has a bounty of drink options, including chai and Southern-style sweet iced tea. There are soups and sandwiches, but the hearty wraps are where it’s at: one with jerk chicken had serious spice; raspberry vinaigrette (just one of more than a dozen optional fixings) cut the heat nicely, and cucumber added some texture. Desserts—a satisfying apple tart and a molten chocolate cake that cried out for an accompanying espresso— were solid too. One downside: the cafe currently closes at 7 PM, though Nelson told us she’s experimenting with the business hours. Rob Christopher

Col-Ubas Steak House
5665 N. Clark | 773-506-1579
$$
LATIN AMERICAN, CUBAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11 | BYO

At Col-Ubas Steak House the grill man is Colombian, the kitchen cook Cuban, and the menu evenly split. Arepas, Colombia’s tortillas, are good starters; these griddled disks of cornmeal mingled with cheese are crunchy outside, luscious inside, and serve as a foil for spicier stuff, like Colombian chorizo, which doesn’t come in the familiar loose-meat Mexican form but is more like a Polish. We had grilled flat and rib eye steaks, and both were more gristle and fat than meat—a problem in a place billing itself as a steak house. These and other dishes are served with potatoes in red sauce, plump sweet plantains, and flaky fried yuca. Cuban meats were much tastier. Ropa vieja— pot roast stewed, shredded, and looking like “old clothes”—is very good, accented with crispy strips of fried plantain and benefiting from crunchycooked red and green pepper (nontraditional, but it makes up in flavor what it may lose in authenticity). Lechon asado, another Cuban classic, is a very large pork shank, big as a piglet and perfectly roasted, in a pool of orangelemon mojo criollo that’s somewhat tart for the meat. Col-Ubas is BYO, though some interesting South American soft drinks are available, among them Inca Cola and La Colombian, a citrusy cream soda. David Hammond

Edgewater Beach Cafe
5545 N. Sheridan | 773-275-4141
$$
FRENCH | DINNER: TUESDAY-SATURDAY; SUNDAY BRUNCH | CLOSED MONDAY

Once a hot spot, the Edgewater Beach Apartments are a celebrity locale no longer, but this charming if slightly musty throwback offers a taste of the Pink Elephant in its heyday. The fare is straight French continental, the brief menu pretty much split between surf (e.g., shrimp cocktail) and turf (tournedos of beef with green peppercorn sauce), with a bird or two thrown in for good measure. Roast duck had perfectly crispy skin; its Calvados sauce was sweet but not too sweet. Seafood tasted fresh, and steaks came with silky nouvelle French toppings like a marchand du vin (mushroom- wine sauce). On occasion the kitchen offers Asian specials reflecting owner Zung Dao’s Vietnamese heritage; a few small details like rice flour baguettes and Sriracha hot sauce nod toward the East as well. On weeknights the scene is more earlybird special than I’ve seen inside the city limits, and I doubt that the live piano music on weekends changes anything. But the sleepy resort vibe circa 1920s Miami is what makes this place so much fun. Kristina Meyer

Edgewater Lounge
5600 N. Ashland | 773-878-3343
$ AMERICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: MONDAY-SATURDAY TILL MIDNIGHT | RESERVATIONS NOT ACCEPTED

The tasty, creative sandwiches at this neighborhood joint offer the perfect excuse to go out on a sunny afternoon and get a day drunk on. If responsibility gets the best of you, the food alone is worth a visit. Not straying far from the soup-and-sandwich route, they execute both creatively. Tender, lean pork loin is served on caraway rye bread; the soup of the day when I visited was chicken-leek. You can also fabricate your own sandwich fantasy, combining smoked turkey, bacon, avocado, and cheddar on an onion roll, for instance. The sandwiches are accompanied by a heap of hand-cut home fries and freshtasting coleslaw, and the prices leave you with plenty to squander at the bar. Kathie Bergquist

Ethiopian Diamond
6120 N. Broadway | 773-338-6100
F 7.6 | S 6.3 | A 6.7 | $ (12 REPORTS)
AFRICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

At this large Edgewater storefront recently spiffed up by a chartreuse paint job there are savory watts (stews) with beef, chicken, lamb, and fish, but vegetarians never need feel deprived. Vegan options include a spicy red lentil watt; yellow split pea watt; gomen (oniony collard greens); slightly sour tikil gomen (cabbage and carrots); and a mild watt made with potatoes and large chunks of carrot, all served on injera, the large, spongy pancake made with flour from teff, a tiny grain indigenous to Ethiopia. For appetizers there are sambusas, samosalike pastry triangles stuffed with meat or vegetables and served with lemon and a tamarind sauce. Meat dishes include the classic doro watt, chicken stewed in a spicy red sauce with a hard-boiled egg; kitfo, described on the menu as “Ethiopian steak tartare”; and tibs, cubes of various meats or seafood available in a range of preparations and spice levels. There are African beers, served in frosty mugs, and tej, Ethiopian honey wine; service too is honeyed—the staff here couldn’t be more genuinely welcoming. On Friday nights from 7 to 10 PM Chicago legend Kelan Phil Cohran, a cofounder of the AACM and a member of Sun Ra’s band back in the day, dreamily plays jazz and ambient horn and harp to a synthesized backing. Kate Schmidt

The Fireside
5739 N. Ravenswood | 773-878-5942
F 6.7 | S 7.8 | A 7.0 | $$ (8 REPORTS) AMERICAN, BARBECUE/RIBS | LUNCH: MONDAY-SATURDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS; SUNDAY BRUNCH | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 5, OTHER NIGHTS TILL 4

From the outside it may look like a tavern, but inside you’ll find a home-style restaurant with a spacious patio that’s tented and heated in the winter and thankfully open very late. While offerings are extensive—from Cajun meat loaf to pizza and several pastas—many diners opt for the ribs, glazed in a sweet, tangy sauce. One Rater called the accompanying mashed potatoes and coleslaw “the best part of the meal.” Sunday brunch can also be good, and it’s a popular hangout on game days—whatever game it might be—as big-screen TVs dominate the bar. Laura Levy Shatkin

La Fonda Latino Grill
5350 N. Broadway | 773-271-3935
F 8.3 | S 7.7 | A 8.3 | $$ (14 REPORTS)
LATIN AMERICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY

The bulk of the dishes at this Edgewater eatery are Colombian— including starters like the wonderfully crisp spinach-and-mushroom empanadas, delicate arepas topped with mushrooms and cheese, and morcilla (blood pudding) with guajillo chile sauce—but Mexican and Cuban influences show up, as in the sopa de frijol negro (black bean soup, topped with raw onions and cilantro). Entrees like lengua en salsa roja (beef tongue simmered in a creamy tomato sauce with green peas) and arroz con camarones (yellow rice with shrimp, peas, onions, and peppers) are so generously portioned they’d be best shared, perhaps with soup or an order of churrasco (grilled loin of beef served with chimichurri sauce and sweet plantains). To drink there are margaritas, mojitos, sangria, and a concise but well-selected list of inexpensive wines, with glass prices ranging from $6 to $8. The servers are genuinely helpful and gracious. A lunch buffet Tuesday through Friday offers a limited sampling of the dinner menu for $8. Laura Levy Shatkin

Francesca’s on Bryn Mawr
1039 W. Bryn Mawr | 773-506-9261
F 7.9 | S 7.4 | A 8.3 | $$ (7 REPORTS)
ITALIAN | LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

Swank decor makes this, the eighth restaurant in Scott Harris’s wildly popular Francesca group, a bit upscale for the neighborhood. Handsome stained oak is used for blinds, an unusual ceiling pattern, and a divider between a row of booths and the exposed kitchen. The spacious bar area in the front has a few cocktail tables and booths; the dining room is bathed in natural light from two walls of windows. All the elements of the Francesca formula are in play, from the black-and-white photos of Italy to the short menu of salads, pizzas, pastas, and meat entrees. Delicately prepared red trout was a special one day, a generous serving topped with sauteed green peppers, spinach, calamari, and tomatoes in a rich seafood sauce. The crowd is laid-back--mostly middle-aged couples and neighborhood families. Laura Levy Shatkin

Indie Cafe
5951 N. Broadway | 773-561-5577
F 7.8 | S 6.9 | A 6.6 | $$ (16 REPORTS)
ASIAN, THAI, JAPANESE | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | BYO

Indie Cafe serves Thai and Japanese food way above average in terms of quality, presentation, and value. The Andaman Salad—a substantial melange of shrimp, scallops, and calamari tossed with red onion, shredded carrots, and a sauce made with lemongrass, lime, and hot peppers—perfectly balances sweet, salty, spicy, and crunchy. It’s a bargain at $8. The richness of the red curry and the subtle sweetness of the coconut milk in the Indie Signature Curry are likewise exquisitely counterpoised—it’s tempting to slurp the leftover sauce straight from the bowl when you’re done with the tender chunks of beef and potato. The sushi is delicious too. The Volcano Roll is nori rolled tight around thick slices of smoked salmon, yellowtail, crab, and octopus, with a luscious spicy mayo and speckles of bright red sriracha hot sauce on top. The individual nigiri, two to an order ($3-$6), are fresh, generous cuts of fish on delicately seasoned rice pillows. Everything is arranged beautifully: maki slices stand in a circle next to tiny mountains of ginger and wasabi and swirls of spicy mayo dotted with black sesame seeds; curries have sprigs of greens jutting out at acute angles and frilly herb garnishes. Indie Cafe is BYO; bring a crisp sparkling wine—Prosecco, champagne, cava—or a rounded acidic white from Alsace or Austria’s Wachau Valley. Laura Levy Shatkin

Lake Breeze
1116 W. Thorndale | 773-271-4689
$
AMERICAN | BREAKFAST, LUNCH: SEVEN DAYS; DINNER: MONDAY-SATURDAY | CASH ONLY

A quintessential hole-in-the-wall, this north-side diner nestled under the Thorndale el stop draws a diverse crowd with its menu of cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, and other classic cheap eats. The dark faux-wood paneling, lunch counter, and vinyl booths have seen a lot of wear, but it’s still a great hideout, especially for a 6 AM breakfast. Laura Levy Shatkin

Mei Shung
5511 N. Broadway | 773-728-5778
F 7.0 | S 7.2 | A 6.2 | $ (10 REPORTS)
ASIAN, CHINESE | LUNCH, DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11 | RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED FOR LARGE GROUPS ONLY | BYO

This Edgewater spot serves Mandarin and Taiwanese at reasonable prices. The room is simple but clean and often fairly empty, though that’s certainly not due to the quality of the food. The Mandarin half of the menu includes some typical dishes like moo shu pork, chicken, or vegetables, an excellent crispy duck marinated in aromatic spices then deep-fried, and shrimp with pea pods and water chestnuts. It’s the Taiwanese dishes that really wake up the taste buds—salted jellyfish (unusually chewy), stir-fried squid, clams baked with sweet basil, and a nice variety of noodle dishes like crab, shrimp, and scallops with soft fried egg noodles and pork-and-fish-ball soup with wide rice noodles, bamboo shoots, and black mushrooms. Service can be slow, but it’s always friendly. Laura Levy Shatkin

Metropolis Coffee Company
1039 W. Granville | 773-764-0400
$
AMERICAN, BREAKFAST | BREAKFAST, LUNCH: SEVEN DAYS | SMOKE FREE

At Metropolis, one of the few java shops in the city that roast beans on the premises, most of the baristas are trained in latte art, creating precise, leaflike patterns from milk and the espresso’s own crema, or foam. The vibe inside the shop is elegant but comfy: customers curl up with laptops (there’s free Wi-Fi) on the expansive couches, and rotating art installations (recently black-and-white photos of whirling dervishes) hang on the mustard yellow walls. There are a few sandwiches (Caprese, red pepper and Brie, prosciutto and Brie), bagels from New York Bagel & Bialy, and pastries from Red Hen Bread and Sweet Thang, but the focus is definitely on the java. The roaster stands in the middle of the shop, so customers can inhale the dark, rich, sweet aroma. Metropolis’s signature espresso is called Red Line, a light- to medium-bodied “secret blend.” The owners’ favorite house blend, however, is the Mojo, a combination of “very exotic, very funky” Yemenese mocha and aged, earthy Indonesian java. Anne Ford

Moody’s Pub
5910 N. Broadway | 773-275-2696
F 6.6 | S 6.8 | A 7.6 | $ (10 REPORTS)
AMERICAN, BURGERS | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: SATURDAY TILL 2, OTHER NIGHTS TILL 1 | RESERVATIONS NOT ACCEPTED | CASH ONLY

A good place to grab a burger and beer for lunch, dinner, or a late-night snack, even on Sundays. The menu is small, its centerpiece a burger that’s been called the best in town (it’s also been called the most overrated). Also available are fries, steak and chicken breast sandwiches, a dinner salad, and fried perch, shrimp, and chicken. The beer selection is limited, but the margaritas and sangria pitcher special are outstanding. In summer the large garden is the place to sit; in winter the two fireplaces keep it cozy—not to say smoky and very dark—inside. Good value for hungry (but not too fastidious) people on a budget—plus there’s free parking next door. Ellen Joy, Rater

Pasteur
5525 N. Broadway | 773-878-1061
F 8.0 | S 7.4 | A 8.2 | $$ (17 REPORTS)
ASIAN, VIETNAMESE | DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

Pasteur is lovely and romantic—ceiling fans spin lazily overhead and tall leafy plants lend the 180-seat space (including two private rooms) a certain degree of intimacy. The decor perfectly sets the scene for a luxurious dining experience that far exceeds the dent it leaves in your budget. Standout appetizers include chao tom (shrimp paste wrapped around sugarcane) and goi du du (a delicate papaya and mint salad). A seasonal special of deep-fried whole red snapper, eyeballs and all, is expertly filleted tableside; bathed in a tomato-garlic sauce, it’s spicy, tender, and food enough for two. Raters particularly enjoy the pho—beef broth served over noodles with strips of meat—and the lightly fried calamari. For dessert a variety of densely flavored sorbets are served in bowls of their own fruit (coconut shell, pineapple, etc). Martha Bayne

Pizzeria Aroma
1125 W. Berwyn | 773-769-4900
F 7.1 | S 7.6 | A 6.0 | $ (5 REPORTS)
PIZZA, ITALIAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11:30 | RESERVATIONS NOT ACCEPTED | BYO

A nine-table Italian eatery in Edgewater that’s equally good for dining in, taking out, or delivery. The red-tiled walls and a giant ceramic tomato next to two mushrooms carved below the counter give the space personality. The homemade pizza (the dough is rolled in a machine for uniformity) comes in thickor thin-crust versions with a vast selection of toppings, including herbs like rosemary and sage as well as jalapenos, pineapple, and artichokes. The best value is the pasta—about 50 varieties, including shrimp linguine (six garlicsauteed fresh shrimp in a huge bowl of nicely cooked pasta topped with a hearty, flavorful red sauce) and capellini con portobello pollo (angel-hair pasta tossed in pesto then topped with charbroiled chicken and portobellos). The calzone are huge, stuffed to bursting with any pizza topping, but unfortunately covered with too much heavy melted cheese. Salads—including an addictive one of mixed greens, fat slices of carrot, red onion, blue cheese, walnuts, and raisins—sandwiches, wings, and ribs are also on the menu. Laura Levy Shatkin

Queen of Sheba Cafe
5403 N. Broadway | 773-878-2352
$
AFRICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: TILL 11 EVERY NIGHT | BYO

The Coptic church has been dominant in Ethiopia since the fourth century (read: lots of fast days), so vegetables have come into their own in this cuisine. I had six for dinner, including tikil gomen (cabbage, potato, and carrot in a garlicky onion ginger sauce with jalapenos), misir wat (split red lentils with cardamom and cloves), yeabesha gomen (collards), and foul, simmered fava beans, tomatoes, and green peppers sprinkled with a little cheese on top. All the vegetarian offerings were quite excellently prepared and seasoned, cooked in “herbal butter” purified and mingled with fenugreek, cumin, and sacred basil. Beg wat is braised lamb—a rich, moist stew that works well with the injera, which readily absorbs the tasty juice. Doro wat is a very typical Ethiopian dish showcasing a chicken leg prepared with Berber red pepper sauce, a boiled egg, and ayb, a type of cottage cheese. No alcohol is served here (though you can bring your own), but there’s Ethiopian spiced tea, a dark blend that goes well with the food. If you’re feeling romantic, you might follow the Ethiopian custom of rolling some meat and veggies in the injera and popping it into your partner’s mouth (right hand only, please!). David Hammond

Ras Dashen Ethiopian Restaurant
5846 N. Broadway | 773-506-9601
F 7.6 | S 6.9 | A 6.9 | $ (14 REPORTS)
AFRICAN | LUNCH: SUNDAY, MONDAY, WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: EVERY NIGHT TILL 11:30

They serve the classics at this Ethiopian restaurant: a variety of chicken, beef, lamb, and vegetarian stews, all eaten without utensils. Each entree comes with three side dishes; servers will gladly select for you, or you can choose yourself. Injera, the sour, spongy pancakes that accompany the meal, are meant to be torn and then dipped into the dishes, which are served family style. Laura Levy Shatkin

Sizzle on Broadway
6157 N. Broadway | 773-465-9500
$$
AMERICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS; SUNDAY BRUNCH | OPEN LATE: TILL 2 EVERY NIGHT

Nothing at this laid-back watering hole is very original, but nothing’s particularly bad either. Chicken wings (served at lunch only) come with your choice of buffalo, barbecue, or peanut sauce; burgers are topped with chorizo and chiles or apricot mustard, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. The dinner menu offers burritos, fajitas, generous salads tossed in homemade oregano vinaigrette or cranberry dressing, and a grazing section of reasonably priced smaller dishes; pastas (with your choice of the usual sauces) are $8. The staff is extremely friendly. Laura Levy Shatkin

Thai Grill and Noodle Bar
1040 W. Granville | 773-274-7510
F 6.9 | S 6.7 | A 6.7 | $ (6 REPORTS)
ASIAN, THAI | LUNCH, DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | BYO

Served in an airy cafeterialike space on the ground floor of the Sovereign apartment building, it’s a wonder Thai Grill’s flavorful stirfries don’t put all the diners and dog ’n’ polish joints around Granville out of business. There are meal-size soups, delicious seafood dishes, and a vegetarian menu; spicy basil chicken, with hot pepper and vegetables, was made with ground chicken, a pleasant surprise. Portions are modest and the service friendly, and there’s a bubble tea bar at one end of the room. Ann Sterzinger

Vee Vee’s
6232 N. Broadway | 773-465-2424
$
AFRICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: MONDAY-SATURDAY TILL 11 | BYO

A deserted neighborhood restaurant serving Nigerian dishes—fufu, ugu (seasoned dried pumpkin), meat curries— plus some Caribbean fare like jerk chicken. The food’s fine, though not outstanding, but the service is slow and the language barrier substantial. That’s easier to overlook on Sundays, when there’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for $9.99. Marc Sirinsky, Rater

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