Restaurant Review: South Loop’s Eleven City Diner is a perfect 10
When I was young, I fell in love with delicatessens and diners. We had one in my suburban Chicago village, and I was endlessly fascinated by the ever-moving meat slicers, as well as the variety of meats, fish, sides and desserts available there. We never had lox and bagels at home. Or kugel. Or kreplach. Portions were huge. Desserts were freshly made and colorful.
My love for diners and delicatessens remains to this day.
In 2007, Brad Rubin opened Eleven City Dinerin the South Loop. He spoke with Eater.com in 2013about the concept for the hybrid delicatessen/dinner. “It’s a hybrid of what I fell in love growing up,” he said. “I’m not reinventing the wheel. I aspire to have an old school diner AND delicatessen.”
Rubin created Eleven City Diner “Out of our sincere respect for what family ‘dining rooms’ used to be.”
Another great thing about Eleven City Diner is that breakfast is served all day. Start with Coco’s Eggs, a healthy combination of feta, spinach, tomato and scallion. Avocado Bagel Breakfast is loaded with avocado, cherry tomato, feta, “a Little Seasoning,” and micro greens on a bagel. Black & White French Toast is challah French toast, white chocolate sauce, milk chocolate drizzle, with a “Good Pretzel Dusting.”
Lunches/early dinners are set with Bubbies Matzoh Ball Soup fills a bowl with a clear broth, savory with carrots and celery, with your choice of matzoh ball, egg noodle or rice. Salami Valor has “perfectly grilled, thick pieces of salami,” cut pastrami, cole slaw, and Swiss cheese, served with honey dijon, and served on grilled challah with fries. Sawyer’s Mile High is rare roast beef, turkey, mozzarella, and mayo on challah bread, with a slaw side. Pastrami & Egg Burger is anAngus steak burger, pastrami and a fried egg on top. A sweet and savory spot is the whimsically named Moshe Cristo, with ham, real roasted turkey, and melted Swiss cheese, served on challah french toast. I dare anyone to pour maple syrup on top!
For lighter appetites and vegetarians, Eleven City Diner covers you with (comedian and actor) Jeff Garlin’s Veggie Cobb, with mushrooms, carrot, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, and sprouts. The Amazing Kale is a sweet and healthy combination of orange wedges, green apples, black currants, grape tomatoes, candied pecans, white cheddar, and apple cider vinaigrette. Their Reuben Veggie Reuben is served closed-face with grilled red pepper, grilled portobello and mushroom cap, sauerkraut, spinach,1000 Island dressing, and Swiss cheese on rye.
Wash everything down with Eleven City Diner’s own root beer.
A recent Google reviewer was ecstatic:
“It’s a lovely restaurant with great food. We sat upstairs and had Ursula as our waitress. She was very knowledgeable about the menu and offered us different options that were not on the menu. The keto bowl, which my coworker ordered, was very nice. I ordered the Deli scrambled, which was delicious. Also, I ordered French toast. Overall, the experience was great. We arrived before the rush hour. When we came downstairs, the line was out the door.”
Eleven City Diner is located at 1112 S. Wabash Avenue. They are open Monday-Friday from 8am-4pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 8:30am-4pm. For more information, click here.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
