I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the windy city aka Chicago pretty much once a year for the past four years. Even though most of my trips are for work, I always make an effort to do some sightseeing…and eating 🙂

If you’re in Chicago, I recommend checking out the following places:

Cloud Gate: this place is also known as the Bean due to it’s shape. It’s in Millennium Park and it’s really an amazing thing to see because depending on where you stand, you can see the skyline of downtown in the reflection or see yourself with a kaleidoscope effect if you go under it. It’s usually pretty crowded here since it’s a major tourist point, but I think it’s worth it…at very least for the pictures 🙂

Bacino’s Pizzeria: we found this place from someone’s blog and it didn’t disappoint. Chicago is known for its deep dish pizza so we had to get some! Bacino has the cutest indoor/outdoor seating especially with this lovely summer weather they had this last visit. The pizza was cheesey and delish! It’s not hard to please me when it comes to anything with cheese though 🙂 It’s VERY HEARTY so this is place is not great for small eaters. Come hungry! I also had some of the homemade ravioli and mozzarella bread…like I said, I love cheese!

RPM Italian: my two friends, Crystal and Issy, highly recommended this place and I’ve heard of it since it’s owned by entertainment host/reality stars, Guiliana and Bill Rancic. The venue is very posh…and dark haha I have realized that dark restaurants with mood lighting are a sign of being fancy 😛 anyways, we order a salami and cheese platter, kale salad and I got the house made carbonara. Honestly everything was delicious! Well of course I loved the cheese platter because HELLO CHEESE 🙂 The kale salad was light and even I was willing to eat it (fun fact: I’m not a fan of vegetables…I eat them so I don’t die haha). And the house made carbonara was VERYYYY good! I was worried that it was too small of a portion (my eyes tend to be bigger than my stomach) but it was the perfect amount of rich cream and handmade noodles. Lastly I got the sorbet which was light and refreshing! I admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the chocolate sorbet because it was wayyyy too sweet, but I loved the raspberry and lemon.

Zed451: we found this place on Yelp and had no idea what to expect. The ambiance is calming and “hipster”…I don’t know how else to describe it haha but it looked like we were in Brooklyn if that makes sense. Anyways the restaurant is set as two courses: one is buffet style & the second is a meat selection that is brought to the table. The buffet was so elegant and had a range of fruits, bacon, oatmeal, yogurt etc. I admit I’m the worst at buffets because I hate feeling pressured to eat everything but I’m like a bird and was able to pick here and there 🙂 then came the highlight: homemade cinnamon buns, buffalo chicken & waffles and an assortment of meats. Overall I highly recommend this place for the ambiance & the delish variety of food. Price wise it wasn’t too bad at $50/person and that even includes glasses of OJ (we fancy haha). 

Insomnia Cookies: so I’ve had these cookies on the east coast before, but I never say no to cookies 😛 I got the smores, Reese’s peanut butter and mint chocolate chip cookies. I didn’t eat them all…at once haha but they are soft and their flavors are strong. These are perfect with a glass of milk…or in my case, a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream!! PS they deliver!

Soul Cycle – The Loop: yes, I know I’ve already written a post about my obsession with Soul Cycle, but this is just a shout out to the instructor Devin who I had the pleasure of taking a class from. I admit that I signed up for his class because he said in his bio that his guilty pleasure is “One Tree Hill” aka my favorite show ever 🙂 He ended up being a kick butt teacher and it really felt like I was at a dance club…on a bike. So be sure to check out his class if you’re in the area.

That’s all for now! Till next time Chicago ❤