Our road trip to Chicago is fading way too quickly into the past. Out of our whole trip, my kids’ food highlight was hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs.
We were told (repeatedly) we had to try two things when we went to Chicago – hot dogs and Chicago deep dish pizza. Never a fan of just stopping at the closest joint, I researched, looking for a good hot dog spot. There were several I would have loved to visit but logistically we weren’t able to make it happen, so I went with Portillo’s, which I later found out was a good choice.
Personally, I’m not a fan of hot dogs unless they’ve practically been blackened on a grill or over a fire, but foodie’s gotta try! I ordered a chili cheese dog because I’ve been craving one for some odd reason, even though I should have ordered an ‘everything’, then my husband and I split fries and a vanilla milk shake. He passed on the hot dog and ordered a beef sandwich with gravy.
The kids loved their hot dogs. Our 12 year old wouldn’t stop talking about them. Easy to please! My husband and I? That beef sandwich was the best! Forgive the pictures. We didn’t have very good lighting.
Oh, and I ordered chocolate cake. The menu said it was famous so how could I resist? They nailed it. The chocolate cake was chocolatey without being over the top and the cake was perfection. The best part is that I didn’t have to share because chocolate cake isn’t my husband’s thing. I have no idea what’s wrong with him on that one.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel for the night. We stayed at Comfort Inn and Suites Tinley Park this night and were happy to find yet another hotel that was affordable, clean, AND friendly. (Sadly something happened to my pictures so you can’t see what the rooms looked like.) The gentleman at the check in desk greeted me with a smile, told me the best place to park and way to get to our room, what time the pool was open until, and where breakfast would be served. He followed up with saying not to be afraid to ask for anything we needed as he was there until 11 and happy to help.
When we arrived at our room we noticed a few rooms around us were in the process of being repainted. Ours appeared to have been freshly done, using Sherwin Williams Paint (oh yeah!), and the room had a slight odor to it from being freshly painted. Once we were in the room a few minutes it went away.
I loved that the room we were in had a separate sitting area with a half wall. The kids sat in there and watched TV while we watched TV in the bedroom area. It was kind of pointless. We were all watching Food Network anyway – our favorite channel when we have TV access.
The beds were super comfy and we had pillow options – soft or hard, depending on what your preference. We all had a good night sleep even without tiring the kids out in the pool.
Breakfast, like most hotel breakfasts, wasn’t anything fancy. My children did discover that ‘danishes are way better than donuts’. Goodbye budget. My kids are going gourmet.
We give our dinner and stay 2 thumbs up!