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We are driving to Chicago this weekend for 3 nights. Does anyone have any info on dining? Especially with food allergies. We are staying near the Brookfield Zoo at the Holiday Inn(too much $$ for Downtown). Our plans are to go to the Field Museum, Sears Tower, Shedd, American Girl Store and Lego Store. We'll probably spend most of 1 day at the zoo. I'm getting anxious about feeding DD while Downtown and using the free trolley to get around. ANy advice would be great!
At any restaurant your dining at I would ask the server who you should speak to as the allergies are there and they should be able to tell you what is safe and what isn't.
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At any restaurant your dining at I would ask the server who you should speak to as the allergies are there and they should be able to tell you what is safe and what isn't.
I think talking to the server or even the chef is really the only way to be totally safe. Make sure you are specific too, I once asked if there was any dairy in the dough for a kind of soft pretzels, and the girl said "no, but they do contain whey." Well, whey is a milk protein! So be specific.
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Lettuce Entertain You is a company that has many restaurants in the Chicago area including downtown and Oakbrook (which is not far from Brookfield Zoo). Here's a link to their web site.
All of their restaurants have menus and contact information. I have eaten at several of them and enjoyed all of my meals. There's a wide variety of cuisines and prices. Most of them take reservations. You can send any that sound intersting to you an e-mail. I'm sure they would accomodate your needs with advanced notice. I hope you enjoy your stay! It's a great city! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Have fun! We were there for 3 days last weekend - we go to Chicago 2 x per year, but this was our first time at Brookfield Zoo. It was fun but butterfly house is not worth any extra money. If you have kids, the family zoo was GREAT.
As for food, also check Opentable.com - you can make reservations ahead, you can view menus, and you can leave comments about special needs. Recently we've eaten downtown at Quartino, which is yummy, plus noisy so kids can't really affect other people's dining experiences (our 5-year old loves it); VTK (Von's Thai Kitchen) which was fabulous; and Mambo Grill, where the hostess, owner and servers were really friendly and helpful. Have Fun!!
You've gotten some great suggestions. I would look into some of those We usually try to stick to nice chains when travelling--- they seem to be more allergy aware (though if I call a new restaurant, and speak to the manager, and they sound aware, then I'll go there). I don't know about Chicago, but if any of these chains are there, they are some of our safe zones---- Outback, Vinny Ts, Maggiano's, Mickey D's (in a pinch when we can't find anything else--- we'll do that a bit for breakfast when we're away, always feel safe there), even PF Chang's (we don't go there with the kids since ours is peanut, but I've been told that we could---they are very allergy aware there) . I know when you travel you want to try new places though--- so I would call and ask to speak to the manager or the chef--- usually I can tell right away if they are allergy aware or not. I also ask to talk to the manager as soon as we are in the restaurant, because servers usually are not aware (unless I have spoken to the manager on the phone, and the server says they are going to talk to the chef and come back with info, that's ok, but I won't go on just the server's info-- they're rarely informed).
Another thing to try even if your allergy is not peanut, many on this board have multiple allergies. Go to Peanut Allergy Boards. There's a Travel Section, you can either do a search for Chicago restaurants, or post a question about Chicago restaurants, you'll get lots of good info there. Really, don't worry if it's not peanut--- lots of people post there with other food allergies. Great source of info!
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Last edited by Happymommy; 06-06-2007 at 07:03 AM..
We are driving to Chicago this weekend for 3 nights. Does anyone have any info on dining? Especially with food allergies. We are staying near the Brookfield Zoo at the Holiday Inn(too much $$ for Downtown). Our plans are to go to the Field Museum, Sears Tower, Shedd, American Girl Store and Lego Store. We'll probably spend most of 1 day at the zoo. I'm getting anxious about feeding DD while Downtown and using the free trolley to get around. ANy advice would be great!
I'm not sure what food allergies you are dealing with, so I can't comment on that. But here are some restaurants that I suggest based on what you are doing.
For when you are downtown:
When we go to the American Girl Store, we either eat at Cheesecake Factory (in the bottom of the John Hancock Building) which is about a block away. Or we eat at Giordano's Pizza (MY FAVORITE CHICAGO DEEP DISH PIZZA). That is at 730 N RUSH ST. - kind of around the corner from American Girl.
The field museum and the shedd do not have anything really close to them, as they are on the Museum Campus which is kind of off by itself. They each have food available in them, but I probably wouldn't eat there for dinner. The Field Museum has a Panera and a McDonalds. The Shedd has its own restaurant, I don't remember what its called, Fish something or other. This might be a time to visit a deep dish pizza place downtown, if you didn't go when you went to the American Girl Store. They are all over.
There is also a Rainforest Cafe. It is located at 605 N. Clark Street.
We like to go to the Italian Village for Italian food. It is located at 71 W. Monroe Street . Italian VIllage Restaurants
I'm trying to think of something near the Sears Tower to recommend, but nothing pops out at me.
You may want to go to Millenium Park too. Your DD would think that is fun.
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. We had a wonderful time on our short trip. I had checked out the Lettuce restaurants and was prepared to go to Wildfire.-sounded great. It turned out that we were so busy and the kids too excited to eat much once we left the hotel. DD jumped for joy the entire time we spent at American Girl! DS loved the Field Museum. We had to cut the trip 1 night short as DS 10 started to get sick. He his worse today, his birthday, so we are glad we decided to come home early.
The food allergies that we have are milk and strawberries for DD and peanuts for DS. Thanks for the tip about Outback, I always forget about that chain. We have had great luck at Red Robin. I found one near our hotel and we were going to eat there today if we had stayed.
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