F'burg F.
Google
I usually make a beeline for Portillo’s anytime I visit a city that has a location, especially when visiting Chicagoland. Today I decided to look at review and see what the locals really like and came across some older reviews in the local media (paper/TV/news) about this place, so I came here.
The manager who rang me up was excellent, very friendly, helpful, and accommodating. Their menu is pretty nicely done and since I love to try an Italian Beef and Chicago Dog when I visit places, they had a meal deal with a mini Italian Beef and a hot dog that can be done Chicago style. The deal came with a drink and fries and was only $12.45 – great price for all that food!
They will grill (open flame) your hot dog if you request, so I tried that as I’ve never had a grilled Chicago Dog. The food came up pretty quickly and was piping hot. The dog looked like a messy, it wasn’t on a poppy seed bun either, but the flavor was excellent and the peppers were spicy. Overall, I really liked it, but not nearly as much as Portillo’s.
The Italian beef weas just “ok” to me. The beef tasted decent, but was slightly dry and unflavored. The jus was decent. The bun was OK. The giardiniera was nice and spicy and was my favorite thing about this sandwich.
The fries were pretty decent… they looked and tasted like they were double-fried, which is nice. I had the need to visit the restroom while there, that was interesting. It’s literally a walk through their entire kitchen to get to. It was VERY clean though, which was nice. I did get to see “behind the scenes” while making this walk and the cleanliness of the kitchen and food handling was impressive, considering the front of house looks old and has signage falling apart.
Overall, it was decent, but didn’t hit like Portillo’s does for me.