5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Mr. Beef for their Wet French Dip Sandwich in Chicago, IL on this 14th day of July, 2012 - Mr. Beef in Chicago!

I'd heard about Mr. Beef through Rich Albrecht, a former boss and all around great guy.  I found myself passing through Chicago while on vacation this summer and knew that I had to go to Mr. Beef.  My co-travelers (Jessica and her parents) were good sports and didn't mind having a sandwich.

It was a hot and sunny day and we were on our way to the airport.  Here goes!

Here it is from the outside.  Nothing special but Chicago's a  really cool city.  It was about 90 degrees in the city that day and we were impressed by all of the available and usable waterfront.  (not in front of Mr. Beef but in general).  It's in the heart of Chicago downtown.

A view of the city from in front of Mr. Beef.

The fine guy making my sandwich.  Their menu is impressive yet simple and the place is pretty funny and classic.

Sarcasm gets points for me.  The place is not impressive,  very humble but very famous.

Here's their "Elegant Dining Room" which is really just a long shared table with the Blues Brothers at the far end.  They have video games behind me in the same room.  It makes it feel very fun.  It wasn't very busy there that day but we didn't mind.  The place still felt clean enough and nice.

Here's the video games looking the other way.  It's a really long table.

By default, they make their sandwiches "wet", which means pre-dipped.  I didn't mind.  They also have the option for Sweet, Spicy, or both.  This refers to the peppers that they add to the top of it.  I went with Sweet & Hot because I'm just like that.

Here's what you're working with.  It has really good beef.  The bread is not so sloppy that it's a problem and the peppers are really good.  Overall, it's a great sandwich.

Here it is in its raw form.  You see the green peppers.  It also has celery and carrots on it, which makes it fun.  The size is pretty good.

They have a ton of signed celebrity art on the wall and the place is clearly famous.  Note Andrew Dice Clay.  (I don't mean this sarcastically, but he's the only one I recognize from this smaller pic.)

Sign of Mr. Beef.

The Review

• Bread.  4 of 5.  The bread's good.  Nothing wrong with it.  It absorbs the juice well and didn't get overly sloppy since it was pre-dipped.
• Meat.  4 of 5.  Nothing wrong here.  Good meat.
• Non-Meat Toppings.  5 of 5.  The sweet and hot peppers were really good.  They made the sandwich.  I especially enjoyed the celery and carrot in there!
• Juice.  4 of 5.  Nothing wrong here.  I liked this as a 'wet' sandwich.  It was good.
• Overall sandwich.  5 of 5.  Best wet dip I've had so far.  The peppers made it fun.  It's not gourmet, it's just good!
• Overall Location and Experience.  5 of 5.  This was a really neat place.  A very classic French dip.  

2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not Quite There) Awarded to Taste of Chicago for their Wet French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 2nd day of January, 2012 - Pre-dipped (wet) Italian Beef

Taste of Chicago from the outside.

Note on the style of this review: I decided to use italics in this review to call out my opinions and commentary.  All commentary and opinion is tagged as italic.


Location: Taste of Chicago, University District, Seattle (on Yelp)

Type of Place: Fast food place serving authentic Chicago-style fare...I am not from Chicago and have been once.  This was recommended by my friend Lisa, who's from Chicago and loves the Italian Beef sandwich served here.

What I ordered: Vienna beef

A poster on the wall dedicated to the Italian Beef sandwich.  ...lots of fanfare for this sandwich here!!!

Another tabletop advertisement for the Italian Beef.  Hot and juicy, I guess that sounds pretty good!!!

Italian Beef Sandwich on the menu: "This savory sandwich comes with marinated beef on a French roll dipped in Au Jus.  Options include: marinara, Giardiniera, sweet peppers, mild peppers, sport peppers, or cheese (thinly shredded mix of white and cheddar).  $8.75

 
Notes on place/vibe:  Has a college vibe, football on tv, definitely casual, not very fancy at all



Notes on ordering:  Exotic toppings for the Italian beef like marinara, "sport peppers", "Giardiniera", etc.
I ordered the sandwich as "how you, the cook, would eat it" since there were so many options.

The getting of and eating of the Dip meal (dip-meal's a new term in the glossary)

The beef as it's served.  You see the carrots and peppers on the right.  It has lots of beef in it.  The beef was okay.

A view of the "medium wet" bun.  Not overly wet so it is a total mess but still wet.  You can see celery if you look at the bottom on the foil.

He told me that he did it "medium wet", which means a single dip of the bread/bun into au jus.  It resulted in a semi-but not overly wet bun.  For me, this was fine but didn't create enough moisture for me.  That's one thing that I really like about DIPPING the dip into the au jus is that *I* can control how much jus I get.  Additionally, having the au jus pre-applied makes it sloppy and I think get colder faster from the jus cooling.

Eating the dip:
Had this pickled mixture called "Giardenero" on it, which made it spicy.  The mixture included pickled celery, carrots, olives, and red pepper and made the sandwhich semi-sweet and semi-spicy.  The guy also included shredded cheese on the sandwich that I did not taste at all.  It came with fries.

Overall: I missed dipping the French dip but I got to have my first-ever "wet" (medium-wet in this case because that's how the cook preferred it) dip.  The peppers made it different and kinda good.  It was too dry for my liking and messy to eat as well.  The fries that it came with were only okay.

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	2	Standard French bread.  Not fancy at all.
Meat	3	It was fine.  Nothing to write home about.
Au Jus	2	Didn't really taste / notice it on this "wet" sandwich.
Overall	2	The giardineira topping was good and made this interesting but not enough.

Reason to go back: I would prefer to the the au jus on the side for dipping and try some of the other interesting toppings for the Italian beef that they provide.