Harry Caray’s

Burger #X4: Harry Caray’s Steakhouse – Wagyu Burger – $15

Look it's me!

This is one of the strangest weeks in a year and a half for me.  I’m back in a relationship!  It feels weird, but 30 and single was going very well for me, so I didn’t plan on changing that.  You always find what you’re looking for where you last expected it to be. This week is my Thanksgiving week burger review coming out of downtown Chicago!  My ex-roommate and I didn’t really have family things going on for thanksgiving, so I we decided to visit another ex-roommate in Chicago.  Most of the decision had to do with my need for a lack of drama in my life and some much needed rest…and by rest I mean one of the craziest partying weeks imaginable in downtown Chicago’s hottest clubs!  With 12 hours notice, I left for the week of Chicago to go make some bad decisions.  Oh, and distance from family too, I guess.  I grew up in Wisconsin, which is an 8 to 10 hour drive during thanksgiving week.  One of my friends is from New Orleans and the other is from 1 hour south of Cincy but he moved to Chicago last year.  You can see how this can be an issue. 

This epic journey took us out on black Wednesday in 2011 in downtown Chicago.  Since this was a momentous occasion, and I had to do a burger for the week, it was decided that we’d hit a steak place.  I figured what the hell, a steak place has to have an amazing burger right?  This is how Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse got to be the 4^th guest burger place on my list.  Out of my 40 burgers, this was the 33^rd burger I ate in 2011.  This is obviously a top notch place, with high quality ingredients and a big following of upper class downtown Chicagoans.  We got there early and gazed at all of the pictures of famous actors, musicians, and celebrities who’d been there.  We sat in the bar, which felt like a sports bar you’d find anywhere else.  For black Wednesday, it got really crowded during dinner time. Luckily, we made it before the dinner crowd so we could have more time to check out downtown after we ate. 

Harry Caray’s menu is like Jeff Ruby’s Precinct in Cincinnati, but with a huge Italian section on the menu.  They were voted as the “best chicken vesuvio in the city”, which is half of a chicken roasted with garlic and white wine with quartered potatoes and peas.  I’ve never had this, so I think I’ll try to find a variation of it here in Cincy soon. Turns out everyone at the bar gets free Saratoga chips, and we found they were really crispy and flavorful for being free.  To start, we ordered the large calamari.  I’m not always trusting of calamari in a steak place, but my friends agreed this was some of the best we’ve had!  One of my friends tried the 32$ bison filet.  He liked it, but he wasn’t raving over it. 

The Wagyu Burger.

I know, this isn’t a burger place but an Italian steakhouse, but I got a burger anyways hoping it would be one of the best I’ve had.  The wagyu burger is the only one on the menu and it consists of American cheese, sautéed mushrooms and onions for 15$.  This doesn’t include bacon or any other cool options.  The meat was fresh and cooked medium in the middle, and it was quite juicy.  It wasn’t seasoned much, and it didn’t stand out like I would have expected from such a top notch restaurant for 15$.  The fries  were just average, and an especially big disappointment after having 5 guys fries for much cheaper.  This is one of those times where a fancy restaurant does one thing well, and just throws together the other things, like the burger just to put one on the menu.  I wouldn’t have this one again for the price, and I’d probably go to a different restaurant next time because it is Chicago and they have a lot of choices. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this added burger review.  It made it to #31 of 40 on my burger ratings, with 1 being the best.  If you are in downtown, there are some hot new places to try, such as Paris club, which had some amazing food we tried another day during our week vacation.