Chicago : Chicago Cupcakes

These posts are not in order chronologically, sorry. Technically the first cupcakes we ate were from Chicago Cupcakes. The name of the place might actually just be "Cupcakes," but that's just too confusing. All of the cupcakes we tried there were good. Several of them were fantastic, but overall I think they weren't quite as good as the cupcakes from Molly's Cupcakes. Also, I took these photos on the table at the front of the (tiny) shop and just as I was snapping the last one they told me I couldn't take pictures in there. Luckily I was pretty much finished because, although the to go boxes do a good job of protecting the cupcakes, the frosting definitely wasn't as pretty when we got the them home.

Chicago : Molly's Cupcakes

Last weekend Christine, Mariann, and I were in Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Well, Mariann was already there but Christine (plus Ginny and Jocelyn!) and I were just visiting. In between the music we ate some yummy food and LOTS of cupcakes. We loved Molly's Cupcakes so much that we visited twice in one day. The cupcakes are that good. Seriously.

Mikado

Of all the Japanese restaurants in Bloomington, Mikado is probably the nicest. And by nicest I mean most expensive. The decor isn't particularly fancy or trendy, like Japanee or Sushi Bar, but Mikado has an air of classiness that the other restaurants don't have. But it's not so fancy that you can't wear jeans and a tee shirt. The wait staff wear dress shirts and are usually quite professional and attentive. The best thing about Mikado is their huge selection of creative and delicious specialty rolls. These tend to run anywhere from $7-$18 per roll, so I usually end up spending more at Mikado then at Japanee or Sushi Bar.

Olive Garden

Whenever I'm in the mood for giant portions of sodium+butter+cream laden pasta, naturally, I head for Olive Garden. This time, Mariann was down from Chicago for the weekend so we had a mini girls night out. Lots of people think Olive Garden is evil, and it probably is, but Bloomington is surprisingly deficient in Italian Restaurants.

Japanee

Japanee was pretty much my first Japanese food experience. Although my family has always been big on ethnic food, Japanese was never on our radar. Maybe because it tends to be pricier than Chinese, Thai, etc. Anyway, for our first few visits Japanee was called Japonais. They eventually changed their name because of the much more famous Japonais which totally had dibs. The restaurant is decorated in a sort of contemporary trendy style, with flat screen tvs and electro-indie music playing. The tables and chairs that are all just a tad too low or high to be comfortable. If you're going with a group, there are private karaoke rooms that you can reserve