Boost The Bliss: Food

Levain bakery

167 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023

Have you ever eaten something so good that your brain shuts off, you lose the feeling in your legs, and your mouth feels like it is being fed with a golden spoon made by Zeus? WELL I HAVE... when I ate the dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie from Levain Bakery. It was a thick cookie that had a crispy outside with a gooey center. They have four flavors of cookies chocolate chip walnut, oatmeal raisin cookie, dark chocolate cookie with chocolate chip, and dark chocolate peanut butter chip. I tried two of them but my favorite cookies are the dark chocolate ones.
They have three locations in New York so there’s no excuse for not making a stop.

Carmine's

200 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036

The first thing I noticed about Carmine's was how friendly the staff was. It was an extremely busy restaurant and yet I never felt like my table was forgotten. I would recommend making reservations in advance. It is family style and I mean the portions are MASSIVE so you’re kind of force to do family style, so bring lots of people. I only had one friend with me so we ordered one thing, the Marinara pasta, and we couldn't even finish half of it. Overall everything tasted delicious! I've had a lot of Italian food in my life and Carmine's is a resturant I will never forget.

Grimaldi's
1 Front St Brooklyn, NY 11201 b/t Dock St & York St DUMBO
The pizza here was decent and you can pay extra for toppings but my friend and I just got the small regular pizza which was basically a margarita pizza. I'm not going to lie this was not my favorite place, I did not find myself saying "wow, this pizza is amazing". As for the customer service, it was almost nonexistent. Our table was so close to another table I constantly was getting a servers butt in my face. However, I have heard lots of good things about Grimaldi's so I would give it another shot, maybe with more toppings.

Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company

286 8th Ave New York, NY 10001b/t 24th St & 25th St Chelsea

I LOVED Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company for breakfast. They had a bunch of different bagels to choose from and a million different spreads. It was so hard to decide what to get, it all looked so good. If I lived in New York I would probably come here all the time. Here are just a few flavors of their spreads: Blueberry cream cheese, Bacon Honey Sriracha Cream Cheese, vegetable tofu (yes it's a spread), fig and so much more! The line was long but the staff was speedy and efficient. Also, there are many locations so look out for them!

FOOD DIARIES: NEW YORK

Levain bakery 167 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023 Have you ever eaten something so good that your brain shuts off, you lose the feeling in...

Wildberry Pancakes and Cafe

130 E Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60601

I'm not a fan of breakfast food, however, I can occasionally go for a good stack of pancakes. If you don't like pancakes then there's lots more to choose from and they even have crepes! I tried the blueberry pancakes and their signature berry bliss pancakes which were amazing. The berry bliss ones were very sweet but worth it and of course, you can't go wrong with the classic blueberry. This place is always poppin with customers but worth the wait.

Xoco

449 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60654

This was the most interesting Mexican restaurant that I've been too. This is one of Rick Bayless's restaurants. The atmosphere was not my favorite but the food was good and vegetarian-friendly. I'd say what most people love are the freshly made churros con chocolate. When I tasted that chocolate sauce I swear that Angels started singing. As my main course I ordered the vegetable soup which had corn, mushrooms, beans, zucchini, arugula, avocado and dumplings. It was decent, I just wished they had put more of the toppings in.

I also tried the Milanesa sandwich but without the meat and it was very delicious. The cabbage inside the sandwich was so tasty.

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

805 S State St, Chicago, IL 60605 ... And lots of other locations in Chicago

GET THE BRUSCHETTA. This bruschetta is easily one of the best things I ate in Chicago. I have no words to describe how much I loved it, so let's move on to the pizza. Of course, I had to try deep dish so I tried the "Lou" which was good and full of veggies. The pizza was massive and I'm glad I tried deep dish but in my opinion, it was too much pizza in one slice, which I know is crazy to say!

It has a warm environment and after a long day of walking this place was perfect.

The Hyatt Hotel Chicago

71 S Wacker Dr Ste 1, Chicago, IL 60606

Yes, I ate in my hotel. Yes, it was 7 degrees outside. Perfect excuse to stay inside :)

I had this black bean and quinoa sandwich and I was very surprised how good it tasted. I mean the "patty" would literally crumble in my mouth.

Pastoral

53 E Lake St, Chicago, IL 60601

I had the farmhouse veggie deluxe which had green apples, manchego cheese, avocado, cucumber, balsamic vinaigrette, dijon mustard and field greens. It was such a refreshing lunch and the service was really fast. There is only one table but I never had a problem getting a seat. Super delicious and they have lots of different sandwiches!

Brightwok Kitchen

21 E Adams St, Chicago, IL 60603

This is an Asian fusion Chipotle style restaurant. You get to choose the type of sauce you want (Thai basil was the best). Then you are given the option of rice or noodles. You also get to choose what type of protein you want or you can choose all vegetables. My favorite part is they cook it all in front of you in theses woks. The clean environment and fresh food makes this place the perfect place for a quick bite to eat.