Corosh

Ratings Guide:
Half handshake, half chest-bump hug – 5 stars
Chest bump – 4 stars
Fist bump – 3 stars
High five – 2 stars
Handshake – 1 star
Fone and fone – 0 stars
Manly ass slap – ½ star



Restaurant: Corosh
Location: 1072 N. Milwaukee


I guess the easiest way for me to describe my experience at Corosh is “surprising”. I was surprised at the menu, at how good the food was, at the atmosphere, at the lounge upstairs, and at the fact that the place had a Golden Tee ’05.

According to the sign outside the building Corosh serves Italian food. So, I guess I wasn’t surprised that there was Italian food on the menu, but I was surprised at the amount of choices I had. Of course there were pasta dishes to choose from, but they also had entrees that included pork chops, steak, fish, and chicken. And since I’ve just described every menu in Chicago, maybe it wasn’t that surprising after all.

But, the food was fantastic. I had some four-cheese pasta dish with some chicken added to it. Now, the chicken was nothing to speak of, and a waste of five dollars, but the pasta was really good and nice and creamy. I was kind of hoping for a huge bowl of pasta, but it was just a small dish of it (which is good for me, since, like a dog, I’ll just keep eating no matter how much or how little is in front of me). I also got to try a couple of other dishes, thanks to the fact I had company with me, and that the pansies can’t finish a plate of food. I had a bite of the steak special. Yawzas. It was cooked in port wine and mushroom something-or-other. It was so soft and chewy and flavorful and tasty and satisfying and good. Then I had a couple of bites of the chicken, which was made in another kind of mushroom sauce, and was cooked perfectly and for sure better than my pasta. Let me just quickly add that I hate mushrooms, so for two of the dishes to be cooked with mushrooms and still be incredibly good and satisfying, well, that’s saying something.

The thing is, I’ve never heard anyone talk about Corosh. So, I just assumed it wasn’t that good, which is why I was so surprised at how good the food was.

Now, I feel compelled to mention what might be the best deal in Chicago. On Sundays they have an all you can eat brunch for $12. They have a buffet, but also have made-to-order eggs, French toast, and pancakes as part of the deal. Granted, I’ve never tasted the brunch, but based on how good the rest of the food was, I expect that it’s well worth the money. And if it isn’t, at least you’re not spending a fortune. DISCLAIMER: I’M A SUCKER FOR ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES THE WORDS “ALL YOU CAN EAT”. So take this paragraph with a grain of salt. Or a pinch of sugar.

Anyway, I also had the calamari for an appetizer. Just fine. Had a Caesar salad. Just fine. Also had a brownie sundae for desert. Just fine. Nothing special here, but nothing disappointing either.

I struggled a bit with the final rating. All the entrees I had should merit a chest bump pretty easily. But, the way I typically do the ratings isn’t just based on how the food tasted, it’s based on my crave factor. Are there times when I crave this restaurant? See, to get a perfect rating, or close to perfect, you have to be the kind of joint that I crave. And I don’t think this place is it, which is hard for me to say, because I really liked the food.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about a place he loves to eat in his neighborhood. I checked it out and thought it was just OK. But, he agreed with me. He said he loves to eat there not because the food is great or out of this world, but because the food is always going to be good and never disappoint.

So I think that is where I put Corosh. The place is solid. If you eat there, you’ll be happy you did. But, you won’t think to yourself too often, “Man, I gotta go eat at Corosh.”

And my rating for a place that is simply solid? Fist bump. A good, solid fist bump.