ChiLuxe Travel

July 31, 2023 I was excited to try Boqueria Restaurant, which opened relatively recently in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. I’ve been trying to find a superb Spanish Tapas restaurant since my favorite – Salero – closed in 2018. While I found the food at Boqueria fine, there was nothing really too stand-out here. I think my favorite thing about this restaurant is the vibe here. The bar and all of the walls are decorated with canned Spanish food…

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Momotaro has been a staple for Japanese food and Sushi in the busy West Loop neighborhood of Chicago since it opened in 2014. I have been here about five times, and this time, we came to celebrate one of our wedding anniversaries! It was a very busy Saturday evening, and, unfortunately, the service was really lacking this time, and I feel like this place is starting to decline a bit in quality and service. This restaurant’s design is minimal and…

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I’ve been lucky enough to be hitting up some of my absolute favorite neighborhood spots over the last few weeks and bringing you all the details. Dusek’s is a restaurant in the Pilsen neighborhood on the south side of Chicago that has been around for about 10 years, and we have been coming here since about 2015 when we moved in to the area. This restaurant has ebbed and flowed as far as quality and service, and I’m here today…

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The Duck Inn has been a favorite of ours, and of many, since it opened in 2014. We moved to Bridgeport, a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago in 2015 and we’ve been frequenting The Duck Inn several times a year ever since. We’ve spent a New Year’s Eve here, Mother’s Day brunch, an epic tasting menu that was called the “Baller” with gobs of fois gras, and other insanely rich dishes, as well as many other evenings and…

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We find ourselves in Valparaiso and Chesterton, Indiana quite a lot. Our kids live here with their mom, so it’s often the case that we’re over here finding something to eat or some activities to do. We’ve been meaning to check out Blockhead for a while, and, after all, I’ve never heard of a brewery/sushi bar combo restaurant before, so we just had to go. Admittedly, I’ve been generally unimpressed with Valpo’s restaurant offerings over the course of the last…

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Taverna Violi is the new kid on the block at Oak Brook mall, having taken over the space that was formerly Mon Ami Gabi. Let’s just take a moment to shed a tear for the loss of that superb restaurant at Oak Brook! OK, moving on! Violi is a Greek Taverna, and this is not your regular old Greek diner. It’s most definitely a step up from even the old standard restaurants in Greek Town, and is a worthy replacement…

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Pasta Veneta is one of the newest restaurants in the poppin’ west loop area, and I visited here recently with my cousins. This place prides itself on making fresh pasta, and it shows. There is a sizable appetizer menu, but the mains are all primarily pasta based. The space is very open and very fresh and new, with a casual, bistro-type of feel. There is a very heavy straight-line/geometric shape thing going here, which is really cool. The lighting was…

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