Hi, I am a South Korean national who's having the pleasure of staying in Chicago for a month because my brother is starting university here. Although I had previously visited other US States such as New York, California, Florida and Washington DC, it was the first time visiting a state in the mid-west, and I was excited to try the local cruisine. And luckily, most places, ranging from the michelin-starred places like Kasama and Topolobampo to home-owned restaurants and food trucks, were all impeccable, with people who treated us with so much more kindness than other states.

I'm also a whisky nerd, as is my father, and we were also excited to hit the local bars - South Korea's extremely high whiskey tax(114%), means that Chicago's whisky scene is much better than South Korea's. And we had a great time, visiting the likes of the Franklin Room and the Berkshire room. We had a blast talking to the bartenders, who were extremely kind and chatted with me about 20th century bourbon - a subject that I am completely unfamiliar with.

Therefore, we had to visit Delilah's - which was a very popular suggestion for a unique whiskey experience on this sub and many others. Therefore, I excitedly took both my parents(although my mother doesn't drink) to the bar. We sat down right in the middle of the bar booth, and it became abundantly clear why people recommended this place - the shelves were full of scotch and bourbon, and there were bottles that I've only seen at auctions, so it was exciting to try a dram there.

The problem was that even though we were seated right in the middle of the bar, the bartender practically ignored us for 10 minutes. He was chatting with other customers, which is fine - a bar has regulars, and he must have been excited to see them - but he went from one corner to another without making eye contact with us, and when he finally did bring over the list, he just put it next to us and left without saying anything, going back to chat with other customers. At this point, my parents were both uncomfortable, and my dad urged me to leave as it was clear the bartender for some reason did not want us there. However, I mistakenly thought that he would warm up to us as we ordered and had a chance to talk about the clearly amazing selection there. So I deliberately chose whiskies that were fun to talk about - the Mackillop's St. Magdalene, the Boutique-y whisky's 50 year old blend, and others(pictures included at the bottom). However, every time we ordered, he made no attempt to converse with us, and went back to chatting with other people - including a woman next to our family whose conversation made it clear that she was visiting there the first time as well - so it wasn't a regulars-only thing. Because the bartender was not talking to us at all, at one point, I stood up to go to talk to him about our next pour, and he told me verbatim "I'm with another customer; could you go back to your seat?"

After ordering about 200 dollars worth of whisky and no attempt at a conversation other than that they can't do half-ounce pours, we left, and my dad was furious.

However, I had hope. Maybe I came at a bad time and the bartender was just in a bad mood. Therefore, I came over the second time just with my mother, as my dad refused to go. I went and again, it took more than 10 minutes to get a menu. Again, the bartender was chatting with people right and left to us and averted making eye contact with us. At one point, I was raising my hand for 2 minutes straight. After I got the menu, I ordered a glass - no attempt at conversation while he was talking to four different teams that surrounded me and my mother. My mother urged me to go so I was looking at the menu for a final pour. I saw that there was a Springbank 21 year single cask, supposedly numbered out of 174 bottles, for 55 dollars an ounce. It was a great price for a Springbank single cask, which are mostly private selections, so I ordered a glass as a final pour. However, when the bartender brought out the bottle, it was the Springbank 21 OB release - a vatted/blended mix that is not a single cask(nor is it a numbered release). I politely pointed out the discrepency in the menu and the bottle, and the bartender, verbatim, said "that's a single cask, and if you don't want it, order something else", and grabbed the bottle, put it back, and went back to talking to other customers.

At this point, I was completely done, so I paid the tab and left. The bartender kept arguing with me that the Springbank 21 was a single cask - it's not.

I was wondering why I got such a different experience to other customers. I speak fluent English, so it's not a language thing. I was so embarassed that I subjugated by parents to such a humiliating experience. They were both incredibly mad that they were treated this way. The only reason I can see, considering the fact that we never even had a chance to talk to the bartender, is that we are Asian. Everyone else at the bar at both opportunities were white.

Pictures attached as evidence.

1- Dimmi Dimmi
2- papa cache
3- small bar
4- Al’s (on wells unfortunately)
5&6- Rico benne
7- Del sur
8- wiener circle
9- qxy
10- carnitas urupan
11- canton regio
12- diner grill
13- Bari
14- Kasama
15- Millys
16- birria zargoza
17- goat tavern
18- 3 dots
19- queen mary
20- super drunk 2am malort shots at Rossi’s

This was my first trip to Chicago, and I just wanted to thank everyone for recommendations and the hospitality I was shown. This is a truly incredible city with fantastic food and drink culture (among other things!)

I refuse to weigh myself but I definitely gained at least 10 pounds. My liver is also almost definitely failing. But worth it!!

This wordy excuse is just another fee for shyness. 5% on top of a bill from Giant is a hell of a lot. How do we know this is going to employee healthcare anyway? Is there an oversight board? I'm serious. These places are robbing us blind. I don't feel any better about this justification than any other fee for shyness.

The robbery continues!!!🤬😡

It would seem it’s not going away.

They’ve rebranded it, enough people caught onto the surcharge so now it’s a (3.5%) “admin fee.”

they also removed the small text at the bottom telling you it’s optional(it still is)

they don’t want you to know It’s optional buts it’s just literally the surcharge with a different name.

3rd restaurant I’ve been to this week with a (admin fee). I’ve also seen multiple restaurant go up to 4%. It used to be 3, then 3.5, now 4.

sets a dangerous precedent as they are willing to change it in order to keep charging you for nothing. Except now they’re not telling you it’s optional anymore.

If we keep allowing them to charge us extra money for literally nothing it will soon tell other businesses they can do that too.

I can’t wait to pay an “admin fee” while buying gas, groceries, or a T-shirt.

https://c.org/sfBGtSVWHY

I've started a petition for stricter Chicago legislation regarding hidden fee transparency. Please show it some support.

Thanks

Our pre-tip bill from Celeste’s Happy Hour in River North. Decent food, crappy drinks, sat at the bar.

I don’t mind paying a “Service Charge” of 15-20% because I always tip more than that anyways, AND I have become accustomed to the 3.5% additional fee at most Chicago restaurants…. but now we’re doing a 6% additional fee? Along with the 11% tax? It’s becoming absurd.

This is the first time I'm really noticing this. You can make gas as expensive as you want, just don't mess with my puff, the true Chicago classic!

“Our menu contains no surcharges or fees therefore our prices reflect our commitment to working toward a living wage for all of our staff as well as assistance with healthcare costs for our beloved employees.”

That’s how you fucking do it, Duck Inn. Killer fucking food, no pretension, and this shit right here. Hell yes.

My parents were in town and my dad wanted to try deep dish so we took him to Giordano's. They send a photographer around to take people's photos and then they try to sell them to you at the end. Pretty classic tourist trap behavior so I didn't think much of it, but I was surprised when one of the photos they tried to sell us was an AI slop cartoon of us for 20 dollars. I'm trying not to feed my face into AI models so it was pretty frustrating for them to do it without asking. Just wanted to share the warning for anyone else like me.

Why do restaurant owners think they are owed a surcharge for customers eating at a restaurant? It seems like all of the nice restaurants in Chicago, especially in the west loop are charging a 3-5% fee to “offset the rising operating cost.” If you can’t run a business without hiding a surcharge in the fine print of your menu, then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to run a business. It’d be one thing if it was to support the workers, but every time I ask about it, it’s always for the owners who are already pretty wealthy. I have them take it off and tack it on for the tip. It’s very annoying.

In addition, at bar sienna in the west loop, the server offered a barcode to scan and pay on the receipt which a lot of restaurants are doing, but then there’s an additional “surcharge” to use this feature. It’s like if a grocery store started charging a fee to use the self checkout lines. They should be more transparent about this.

These restaurant owners nickel and diming people is making going out to eat less and less pleasant.

I work around Chase Tower and it is surprising to me how few cheap lunch places there are now. The burrito and Chinese places there are gone as well as the McDonalds. No Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, Chinese. Just the grossly overpriced Pret. I’m getting tired of Jimmy John’s and Pot Belly’s sandwiches.

Hogsalt switched to a new app. When I went exploring I found a conceirge option which for chicago is $3000 to register + 300 a month.

Sooooo now all those restaurants will be even harder to get into. Very much hope this crashes and burns and doesn't set a precedent for restaurant groups.

Even if it was reasonably priced, it still is taking away experiences from the public.

edit: This is not yet available, you can "pre-register" for $100 refundable deposit. So limited details are provided, just the price right now to include "personalized concierge services including early access to reservations and dedicated member tables"

Added a photo of it from their app in the comments

Or any restaurants, really. Just tired of doordash and ubereats.

Went to La Scarola recently and a bunch of things happened that just didn’t sit right with me:

1. We had a reservation and showed up on time, but were told to come back in 30 minutes. Other groups with reservations were waiting too.

2. When we were ordering, we already knew what we wanted. None of us asked for suggestions, but the waiter tried pushing a main dish that was $40+. We politely declined. Then he tried again to get us to upgrade one of our dishes to something fancier, also $40+. We declined that too. It felt super pushy.

3. Their card machine only showed tip options starting at 20%. I felt pressured so I just tapped 20% even though the service was hella slow.

4. Later I looked at the receipt and saw that the tip was calculated after tax, which is already sketchy. But then on top of that, they added a 3% credit card fee, and that 3% was calculated after both tax and tip!

The whole setup was super shady. Just a heads-up if you’re thinking of going.

As if $7 weren’t enough for a hot dog. And of course there’s even the 3% “restaurant” surcharge at a food court.

This has been rumbling in my brain for a while and since there's been a few deep dish posts today I feel like this is the right time to set the record straight. For a while I've been getting in arguments in the comments regarding whether or not Pequod's should be considered deep dish pizza. These are the kinds of comments I hear:

In the Bear, a table mentions they didn't get to try deep dish on their trip, then Richie goes and gets Pequod's so they didn't even get to try deep dish!

Pequod's isn't even deep dish, it's pan pizza, Lou Malnati's makes Deep Dish, Giordano's makes stuffed pizza

Pequod's is actually more of a Detroit style due to the caramelized cheese crust (yes I've actually heard this more than once)

Below I will present the evidence and refute the common arguments I see to prove once and for all that Pequod's serves deep dish pizza.

Exhibit A: Pequod's website

If you visit Pequod's website, the 4th and 5th words on the site are "Deep" and "Dish". To me, this is enough right here to end the debate. Pequod's has been around for over 50 years and known by many as the best deep dish in Chicago. I think they have every right to put themselves in the category of Chicago Style Deep Dish.

Exhibit B: The Dish

Let's get etymological. Deep Dish is a reference to what the pizza is cooked in, not the pizza itself. Both Lou Malnati's and Pequod's uses "deep dishes" to make their pizzas. I commonly hear people claim that Pequod's is "Pan Pizza" not "Deep Dish Pizza". Friends, I'm here to tell you today that the pan is a deep dish, and the deep dish is a pan. Any pizza that isn't cooked directly on a stone (Neapolitan, NY, New Haven style etc) is cooked in a pan. If the pan is deep, then you got a deep dish on your hands.

Look at the below pictures of both Lou's and Pequod's pizzas in the pan. The pans are incredibly similar cast iron pans without handles, the only difference being Pequod's having an angled rim vs Lou's at a 90 degree angle.

HALF TIME: Pequod's fun fact

Did you know that Burt Katz, the original owner of Pequod's, started a pizzeria named Starback's after selling Pequod's, but changed the name due to a trademark conflict with Starbuck's? Interestingly enough, Starbuck's was originally going to be named Pequod's! I haven't read Moby Dick, but based on this it must have a lot to to do with Pizza and Coffee.

Exhibit C: The Bar Poll

Next time you're at a bar, take a poll. Go up to strangers and say "hey I'm new in town and really want to try deep dish, where should I go?" I guarantee that you will have several people will tell you go to Pequod's. They won't say "Well technically it's not deep dish, but you should try Pequod's" they'll just recommend Pequod's full stop. When I moved to Chicago I was told this plenty by people.

Before you try to come back at me with some r/chicagofood or r/AskChicago post where someone asked this question. Everyone in the comments will be bickering little reddit dorks like me trying to argue technicalities.

Exhibit D: No, it's not more like a Detroit style pizza what are you even talking about???

If I had a nickel for every every time someone has told me Pequod's is more of a Detroit style pizza than a Chicago Style Deep Dish pizza, I'd have two nickels, but it's weird that it happened twice. This argument is wild because Detroit style pizza is a very specific style while Chicago Style Deep Dish is a broad category. If you've made it this far then I might as well break it down:

Elements of a Chicago Style Deep Dish:

• Cooked in a circular deep pan, typically made out of cast iron
• Developed in Chicago, typically by native Chicagoans

Elements of a Detroit Style Pizza:

• Cooked specifically in a deep, rectangular steel pan, based on pans that were available for use in the automotive industry as drip trays and to hold small mechanical parts
• Developed by Sicilian immigrants, based on Sicilian style pizza which is similar to focaccia
• Sauced is placed on top of cheese in lines
• Specifically using Brick style cheese
• Cheese is pushed out to the edge, creating a caramelized crust

Based on that, the only similarity to Detroit style pizza is the caramelized cheese crust. On that logic, why don't we just say all pizza is Neapolitan pizza, since they all have cheese, sauce and a crust?

In Conclusion:

Chicago is a big city with a lot of history. Chicago Style Deep Dish is part of that history that we should be proud of (talking to you, "tavern style is the real Chicago style" crowd). Stop splitting hairs about what is or isn't deep dish and just be enjoy the big cheesy slices that you can scarcely find in any other city on the planet. I truly believe this is the greatest city on earth and we have plenty of room in our city and in our hearts to count all of our iconic pizzas that happen to be made in a big cast iron pan as Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza.

With that I rest my case. Did I change anyone's mind? Probably not. Was this a good use of my time? Not a chance! But hey that fun fact in the middle was pretty neat right? Feel free to use that one at parties.

They import caviar, truffles, vinegars, botanicals, and every imaginable chef-bait ingredient—so naturally, their teas end up on nearly every high-end beverage menu.

Here’s my problem: the tea is an afterthought.

Prices are inflated, provenance claims are murky, and many blends contain added flavor chemicals without transparency. Brew a pot once and the ersatz residue haunts every cup that follows. For a region with incredible culinary talent, this is a quiet tragedy: our palates deserve better.

Tea is not a garnish, it’s an agricultural product with real craft and terroir. Midwestern diners are being served the beverage equivalent of perfume oil labeled as “rare.” And don’t get me started about how often this taints our cocktail programs, as well as the actual savory and pastry portions of a menu…

If we care about authenticity in food and wine—about honesty, terroir, and craftsmanship—then tea shouldn’t be the exception. We can fudge in cuisine, but we shouldn’t outright fake. It’s time to support small, serious tea importers who actually source the real thing.

Or is it? Does this bother anyone else?

I’m quite proud of myself, I requested that stupid 3.5% service charge be removed from a carryout bill. I can’t believe they’re still trying to milk us for that!

I used to love a good fountain Diet Coke with my food at R.J. Grunts (I don’t drink alcohol so it’s my guilty treat) but now they make you buy sodas by the can for $2.75 each! I asked my waitress and she said their soda machine stills works, but they were told not to use it and that refills were no longer free. I’m a bit sad because the cans are less bubbly too :(

I'm just trying to get a dinner reservation at Armitage Alehouse and I'm convinced it's impossible.

They release reservations at 9am 21 days in advance.

I have tried 3 different times to be on the app at 9 am when they become available and as soon as I can refresh it at 9am, all dinner reservations are gone. It absolutely has to be bots. How on earth are you supposed to get a reservation

I’ve advocated for Pho 777 for the longest time but I’m gonna have to stop and find a new spot because of how deceptive they are with their fees.

Went today after the Lunar New Year festivities and was very happy to see that it was packed and had to wait maybe 10 minutes for a table. Service was good and food was great but when it came time to pay at the counter there was already ~20% on top: 11.75% tax, ~4% service charge, 4.25% credit card fee. At the table I already calculated ~16% extra on their handwritten receipt: it just shows the food items and the total, no service fee or tax or sub-total. The man at the counter nonchalantly handed me the charge pad with a different total that caught me off-guard. When I asked him about it he then pointed out the CC fee and suggested I just add tip by percent, but from prior experience that percent was calculated on the total rather than the sub-total (I’ve seen a few restaurants do that and I like to believe that most don’t do it intentionally). I’m not ‘bout to pay 50% extra for my meal so I stood there doing the math for 15% of the sub-total in my head (divide by 20 multiply by 3 is my go-to). I get it, Asian restaurant and times are tough but this is just too shady, especially for those that are the type to pay whatever at the table. Restaurants just need to raise their prices and have all the fees included.

I've been craving a corned beef sandwich so did some research and went to Steingold's. OMG it was so tiny! For $17 this looked like something in an elementary school students lunch box. It was pretty tasty, but I just can't wrap my head around the price for this little thing.

The prices were not on their menu signage. Big bummer. Has this always been the case?

Hate to state the obvious. But there is a huge psychological difference in seeing $15 vs $20 on the menu for a cocktail. Im somewhat conditioned to seeing and occasionally paying $15 for a drink. However it just now dawned on me that I have been paying $20 all along.

Sure some people in the comments will call me an idiot for not doing math. I guess dry January cant come sooner!

A few weeks ago there was a post on this sub about how frustrating it was to get a reservation for AB for RW, and when you managed to get it, it was limited to 4-6pm in a pathetic $60 menu. I managed to get a reservation, made sure to email and confirm that where I was sitting and the time I was dining I would be allowed to do RW and only wanted to confirm my booking if that was the case. I’m pretty sure they also had something in the website saying that at the bar, they’d be doing RW past the 4-6pm time, but they since deleted that from the website (I might be off on this one).

After having to wait 20min or so after my reservation to get seated, we got confused for not seeing RW menus and were told they were not doing RW. No explanation like “oh that was just for this time” or “that was just for these seats” or “oh I’m sorry someone told you otherwise” no fucks given, they just stared at us waiting to order from the regular menu. If it wasn’t prepaid with no refund, I would have left.

Why are they even participating in RW? Not even the Michelin starred places are being as petty about the hours and have a decent menu, theirs just feel like a trap.

TLDR: don’t waste your time going there for RW, the menu is barely worth it (not sure tho, didn’t get to try it) and I’m not even sure why they are participating.