2ndCityGrub represents the personal reviews of restaurants in Chicago (and a few just outside of Chicago) that I've visited and dined at over the course of time since my arrival in mid-2000. I try to be honest and fair and let you know when I think something rocks but I'll also definitely let you know if I think something sucks for some reason or other.

The review system I use is a 10 point system and I have 3 categories: food, service and establishment. The 10 ratings are:

1 - Terrible
2 - Real Bad
3 - Bad
4 - Not Good
5 - Average
6 - Good
7 - Real Good
8 - Great
9 - Excellent
10 - Outstanding

To date I believe I've had only a few that received a 10 in any category and probably only 1 or 2 that received 10 in every category. One was Charlie Trotter's which had a good run in Chicago from 1987 to 2012 when the world-renowned chef Trotter himself closed it to pursue academic interests. Sadly Charlie Trotter died of a stroke just one year after he left. I feel very fortunate to have been a one-time guest at his amazing restaurant, that, at least for me, within my first year of beginning restaurant reviews made me realize what a true dining experience could be.

I don't discriminate among any restaurant. I eat at bars that serve food, pop-ups, food trucks, upscale places, dives, hipster haunts, a few chains that made their mark in Chicago either first or by chance, breakfast places, lunch places, dinner places, etc. You name it, I probably have been to it or to a place like it. And the great thing is, that, while sad when a place closes for whatever reason, a new one normally pops up in the place the old one used to be. One place actually got shut down while I was eating in it! That was when I learned about how seriously Chicago takes the permits they grant eating establishments.

Each year I average about 65-75 restaurants. Chicago is comprised of 77 official neighborhoods but a wholelot more unofficial neighborhoods exist that bring that up to about 130 and maybe even more that I don't know about. One example is Lakeview where inside Lakeview you have Wrigleyville and Boystown. I am attempting to eat at least one place in each of those neighborhoods so I added a map that pinpoints where the place is at to help show where that is in respect to everywhere else.

I learn about restaurants from driving around, while taking the L, from friends, web sites, local Chicago TV shows or from just general exploring. It never ceases to amaze me how many places I find out about that I've never even heard of. The City of Chicago web site states that there are more than 7,300 restaurants. That's just in Cook County.

Enjoy the site and in the meantime, if you live in this great city, do what I do and explore it - especially the food, because I think it's pretty amazing to have this many great choices in one city.

- Kurt