Mike's Chicken and Donuts/Mike's Sportbook and Meat Bar in Kenosha, WI

We FINALLY got to try this little spark of a place and OH BOY! The first few tries we were greeted with extremely long lines, crowded and well...packed full of people. So we tried again and stopped in for lunch on a Monday. Not too crowded, YEA! We found a table and eventually a server came over to take our drink order. I actually wanted a glass of wine (yes it is 5 o'clock somewhere) only to be told the wine wasn't cold, someone from the night before didn't restock. HMMM...ok. So I order a glass anyway and (shhh I added ice to the glass). We ordered an appetizer, baby portabellas stuffed with herb cheese. The mushrooms were marinated in merlot and au jus for five hours. Topped with crispy prosciutto. After a rather lengthy wait, we got our mushrooms and they were very good. We had placed our lunch order too so we were anxious to try our entrees.  One of our party ordered the fried chicken with honey and butter. Two ordered the crispy chicken sandwich and one had a small order of the wings. NOW, I will say it all tasted very good. Having said that, we actually tasted it about an hour and 1/2 after we got our mushrooms. I don't know what the issue is/was, but they must get their act together.  It was a humid/hot day and the AC was not keeping up. That added to our irritation. So, will be try this place again? Maybe. Maybe. 
 I will add that they have a cafe attached where you can sit and have coffee/cold drinks along with their unique donuts. I'd think you could order the same food from there too. 

Still Here

Diner 23 is still here and just trying new and fun places.

DMK Burger Bar

This place is very cool. Simple, clean and to the point. Craft Beers, pretty good wine list and the food? Delicious! Prices are right too. They have salads and some interesting apps but the thing is..the burgers. You choose what kind of meat or not meat you want and you choose toppings and off you go. FF are the best, we had the sea salt and pepper with house made ketchup. The ketchup had a kick, it tasted wonderful. I will go out on a limb and say that DMK has the best veggie burger I have ever eaten. Crisp, tasty and all around Yum. I chose the #8 toppings, mayo, red onion, bread and butter pickles, lettuce and tomatoes and a slice of white cheddar. The buns are soft but not too soft and hold on nicely to the contents of the burgers. It was very good. Service and staff were very good.

Warren's Ale House-Wheaton,IL

Welcome Warren's Ale House! Wheaton needs places like this. The menu is just right, not too much not too little. We might like to see a few more vegetarian selections on the menu but we are not complaining..yet :) Cubano sandwich with pork belly was amazing. Veal bratwursts.. juicy and delicious. Try the Bavarian pretzel with cheese and honey mustard sauces. Oh and they make poutine fries..bacon, cheese, mushroom gravy..MMMMMMM So good. They have an amazing beer list..that is the focus. The wine list is ok, they could tweak it with maybe less chardonnays and offer a few sauvigon blancs (New Zealand please) by the glass. Starborough and Kim Crawford are good ones. They have a full bar so if you crave a cocktail you will not be disappointed. The service is good and the staff friendly. I hope that this place does well and stays a long time. Parking is no problem. Warren's Ale House is located where the Red Robin used to be at Towne Square Wheaton. I will gladly give this place 3 triangles for food and service. The bar is amazing. The kitchen can be inconsistent. I hope they figure it out because we really want this place to do well.

http://www.suzettescreperie.com/ Ok you go there for yourself and navigate around.
Here is the thing. I want to love this place I want to say "Go, eat..be well." I can't. :(
They are seriously understaffed and service is inconsistent. The food is ok in parts but there are some major flaws in a lot of dishes. The space is quaint, the outdoor garden is beautiful but.. Today we went there and I ordered a spinach crepe. It was glop. There is a food network word..glop. It was awful and for $12.00 I did expect more. On the good side my dining partner's quiche was very good except the promised bacon in the quiche was..missing. Baked goods are good. The beignets are ok..but not that good. I have been there a few times and I often see stressed servers and uniformed managers.. Hmm..They have been there for a while..they should have their act together.

Cooper's Hawk Naperville,IL

This is a restaurant that is part of a chain. They have been open for 3 weeks. Cooper's Hawk bills themselves as a winery and restaurant. Most of their grapes come from Sonoma Valley, Ca. The wine we sampled was ok. They have many varieties. Their menu has a lot on it. Italian dishes, American dishes like burgers etc. Our opinion is if you make everything how good can it be? Cooper's Hawk needs to fine tune their menu. What are they about? Is it the wine? Our server did not know what a zinfindel was..because she brought a white zin..shudder...If you are a regular reader of this blog you know how I feel about sauvignon blancs..their version was ok. Not bad, not great. Two of my food adventure partners chose burgers. The food was good. Asian slaw was an alternative to french fries..it was good. The fries were ok. The fries at Portillo's are better. I chose mini crab cakes. I chose poorly. The crab cakes were fishy smelling, the breading did not adhere to the crab cake and the crab was canned. The worse part was the crab cakes were swimming in a soup of mustard sauce. I hate to do this but I had to send it back. Our server was very nice..seemed to be overwhelmed but nice. One thing I did not like is when you walk in you see a wine tasting bar..and a gift store. Cracker Barrel with wine? My first impression was not good but maybe after a while Cooper's Hawk will find their legs and go for a run. Right now I think there are too many people trying to do too many things with no direction. Sorry...I will be back and give them another try.

Sable Kitchen 505 N. State st. Chicago,IL

Diner23 would like to recommend not getting your car towed before you plan to go out to lunch at a nice Chicago restaurant. Total buzzkill.

Sable Kitchen is a very sleek place. It is connected to a hotel, but like Glen Prairie in Glen Ellyn, it pulls it off nicely. You walk into Sable Kitchen and you see leather chairs, bar stools and couches. The floor to ceiling windows give you a nice street view where you can people watch or..make sure your car is still parked where you left it, if you are lucky enough to park nearby. We ate in the bar. It was a bit later in the afternoon so the place was a little quiet. That was fine with us, we needed to chill. Sable Kitchen bills itself as a gastropub. Well, the food might reflect that but the ambiance is more..trendy be seen spot. They actually call themselves a gastro-lounge. Ok that will work.
Our bartender/server was very nice and chatted with us. He was right on with food recommendations. First of all..you have to try their deviled eggs with truffle oil and black trumpet mushrooms. We wanted to order more but..we had other things to try.  I had the Gruyere Cheese-Red Onion Jam-Watercress on rye bread grilled sandwich. It was so good. The grilled cheese sandwiches come with tomato bisque. Let me tell you, this tomato bisque is not your sunday afternoon Campbell's soup variety. It was so good, I was sad when it was gone. Another person in our party had the
Crispy Pork Belly Bahn Mi on crusty baguette with asian slaw and cilantro. This Bahn Mi was so incredible and tasty our friend wants to go back asap to eat it again. This is a lounge/restaurant so their beer, wine and spirits list is very good. You can get what you want here and if you try sometime you may get what you need. Diner23 gives Sable Kitchen 3 triangles for food and beverages and 3 triangles for their ambiance.