Geja's Cafe

Type: Fondue
Fancy Shmancy Factor: 4/5
Price: $38-55 for 4-courses
Quality for Price: 3/5
Ambiance: Intimate, romantic
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Other: No children under 10

Normally I am not a big fan of going out to eat and then having to assemble my meals or cook for myself. I love fajitas, but there is something daunting about the idea of sitting down at a restaurant, having them bring you ingredients, and constructing the entree yourself. Fondue is one step less. They don't even cook the food for you. That being said, just as I will occasionally order fajitas at a Mexican restaurant, I will make an exception for fondue. Or, at least, for Geja's Cafe.

Geja's is probably one of the more 'fancy' or 'romantic' restaurants we've been to since we started the FoodLovers blog. When I say 'romantic,' I mean it in the traditional, carriage-ride-through-the-park, candlelit-dinner type of way. We had a Groupon and it was my birthday, so it seemed like an appropriate place to celebrate. Geja's caters to people that want a sure-fire romantic experience. It's not the type of place you bring a friend for dinner just to catch up or a group of people for dinner before going out on the town. Let's put it this way: if you bring someone to Geja's, you probably like them as more than just a friend. Because of this, it might not be the best place for a first date. I would say a first date to Geja's might be a little overboard, akin to taking someone on a twilight riverboat ride the first time you go out or showing up at their door with a dozen roses. Granted, some people might be into that, but I tend to think that style of courting isn't as popular as it once was. Just be warned: you might come off as a little over-zealous.

The ordering process is fairly simple. Essentially, you pick the meats you would like and they bring you out a salad and a cheese fondue course with bread and fruit. They also bring out another pot of oil and set it over a fire at the table to prep for the main course. The 'meal' shows up on a large tray with the raw chicken, filet mignon, and lobster meat (in our case), eight dipping sauces and an assortment of raw vegetables. We had color-coded fondue forks so we knew which ones we had placed in the sizzling pot of oil and could retrieve them when we figured they were probably done cooking. Since we had, in a sense, become the cooks, we received training in how to cook our meat. It went like this: "Chicken is three minutes, filet is two minutes, and lobster is one minute. Enjoy!" It was probably the most nervous I've seen Kristen with food since our first sushi experience. It's been a few days, though, and so far no salmonella symptoms.

Perhaps the best part of the meal came at the end when we were almost too full to enjoy it. When our server brought out the pot of melted chocolate, we somehow managed to stretch our stomachs a little more for dipped marshmallows, pound cake, and fruits, which we finished off with some espresso.

Overall, eating at Geja's is an experience and that is one of the biggest selling points. It's one of only a few restaurants in Chicago like it and the atmosphere and novelty is something that you pay for. However, for special occasions or a romantic night out, it is hard to match or beat. Just about the only thing more romantic than feeding each other bites across the table is the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp. So this just may be the closest to "perfect date restaurant" that we've come! But something tells me that we'll keep on searching anyway...

Elly's Pancake House

Type: Brunch (Contemporary American)
Fancy Shmancy Factor: 1.5/5
Price: $8-$15
Quality for Price: 3/5
Ambiance: Contemporary, Casual
Other: Open 24 hours
Neighborhood: Old Town

Who doesn't love brunch? We do. We especially love brunch after waking up at 4 am to drive to a suburb over an hour away, swim 750 meters, bike 15.5 miles, and run 4 more miles before driving back to the city by 10 am on a Sunday morning. After competing in the Lake in the Hills Triathlon last weekend, we decided a huge feast was in order. We waited in line for Elly's Pancake House, despite our rumbling stomachs, for almost 40 minutes mainly because we wanted to use our YouSwoop coupon. Nothing feels better after serious exercise than serious savings!

We were led through the huge dining room, which felt a bit like a cross between a warehouse and a school cafeteria with its sparse, white walls and tall ceiling, to a table in the far back corner right under a vent blowing frigid air. Had this been minutes after our race, we might have welcomed being sat in the refrigerated section of the dining room, but after our commute and wait time for the table, this was not the case. Far too hungry to care too much, however, we quickly ordered a couple of hot chocolates and focused on the menu.

Despite the name of the restaurant and the fact that pancakes, crepes, waffles, and the like comprised half the menu, we both chose omelettes. And after tasting the pancakes we necessarily ordered as a side, we were pleased with our decisions. Dan's Hawaii Five-O appealed to the pig-lover in him, consisting of both bacon and ham, along with pineapple and monterey jack cheese. It was lucky for me that he was in a pig-loving mood, since I acted like one with my own menu selections. Since my spinach and feta omelette with hash browns and toast didn't contain any meat, I also ordered a side of sausage patties each equivalent in size to 1/2 pound burgers. I tried to call it quits twice but Dan's looks of disappointment urged me on.

Compared to the filling, yummy omelettes, the pancakes just didn't stand out. To be fair, Elly's does have a section of Oven-Baked Pancakes where you can choose Apple or German Pancakes but since it said to allow 30 to 40 minutes of cook time, we skipped over them. Perhaps these would have been better than the ordinary pancakes we ordered, which we ate every last bite of, by the way.

As far as date-appropriate restaurants go, there are better brunch selections in this lovely city. While the price was good for the quantity (we spent less than our $35 coupon) and service was decent (save for the waiter telling Dan if he didn't decide what he wanted by the time he came back, he would get raw chicken livers), the restaurant itself didn't have a lot of personality. It was loud and bustly and the cafeteria feel instilled instant discomfort as the high school panic of finding friends to sit with during lunch came rushing back. But get past the painful childhood memories and the long wait time, and Elly's might be a good place for a casual brunch with friends. Not so much for a date--unless, of course, you just completed a triathlon and don't really care what you eat or where you eat it!