Hash House a Go Go Review - Gold Coast - Chicago - The Infatuation

"Hash House A Go Go, more like Hash House A No No! You see that right there? That’s a horrible, poorly written joke. There was very little creativity, thought, or execution that went into that opening sentence. But guess what, this little exercise in word play is an analogy for the quality of food we think Hash House A Go Go is serving. Hash House has a number of thriving locations in Las Vegas, and would probably kill it in Times Square, Disney World, and the Mall of America. So why are we taking the time to write about this somewhat of a chain restaurant that would usually garner as much of our attention as a TGI Fridays? Because we feel like Hash House is deceptively trying to blend into an otherwise solid Gold Coast restaurant scene, prancing around as a viable brunch or lunch spot, and that’s just not the case. Don’t be fooled by the playful ambiance and appealing menu, because that’s the allure. Hash House’s thing is to serve portions so over the top and ridiculous that you’ll be awed without actually considering the taste of the food. The portions are not only extravagant, but they focus on dishes we like to love, particularly their “signature” sage fried chicken and waffles. And while the food is huge and appeals to the senses, it sure as sh*t does not taste good. There are too many restaurants serving quality chicken and waffles these days to be enamored with this dish solely because of it’s size. We would also like to point out that thing they do placing giant decorative rosemary and fried pasta sticks into most of the dishes. What does that even mean! It literally makes no sense. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice because we gave you another chance, shame on us. And fool us a third time even though we knew what to expect but the dining decision was out of our control, f*ck it, we give up. We told ourselves to keep it simple and everything would be fine, but that was not the case. Food Rundown Sage Fried Chicken and Waffles This is the typical dish that often wins people over. It’s the biggest order of chicken and waffles we have ever seen, but it’s not worth your time. The chicken is bad, and mass quantities of it do not make things better. Hash House Original Benedict Eggs benedict on a biscuit, served over griddled mashed potatoes, with bacon, tomato, spinach, and a red pepper cream sauce. The biscuit is dry, spinach aimlessly thrown over the top, and red pepper cream tastes more like pasta marinara. Corned Beef Sandwich The corned beef is fine, but it’s not meant to go between two pieces of overly buttered Texas toast. We once started dipping the fries into the benedict marinara, which was very much a low point. The Basic Two eggs any style, potatoes, fruit, and toast. You know how you can’t really explain why eggs and potatoes aren’t good sometimes, but you know you don’t like them? Exactly. French Toast Dipped in a banana cinnamon cream with pecan maple syrup. There was cream, and there was syrup, but “banana cinnamon” and “pecan” are overly generous adjectives. The French toast did come with a large and absolutely delicious baked plantain, so let’s end this review on a good note." - Sam Faye