Longman & Eagle

After spending Saturday night in Chicago, Ken and I met up with my friend Josh for brunch. Josh knows a lot of great places in the city (he introduced me to The Bongo Room a couple of years ago, which was one of the better brunches I’ve had in Chicago) and suggested we go to Longman & Eagle. We met up around noon and put our names down – the wait was pretty long for outdoor seating so we decided to eat inside, which reminded me of a rundown dive bar.

We started off with a little piece of bread from the kitchen – the server told us it was date nut bread:

It was really moist and more like pound cake than bread with lots of nutmeg. I wasn’t sure what kind of food the restaurant had, but the vibe was very similar to The Spotted Pig’s.

The brunch menu looked really good, especially the three dishes that we ordered. After lunch, I read that the restaurant is really good for dinner but their brunch is kind of overrated (completely agree about their brunch being overrated, especially for a Michelin-starred restaurant).

Josh ordered the chicken and waffles:

I didn’t try the waffle but the fried chicken was possibly the most bland fried chicken I’ve ever tasted. Josh said he preferred Popeyes chicken to Longman & Eagle’s and while we thought it was funny, I agreed. There wasn’t even SALT or PEPPER on the chicken! Completely not worth ordering.

Ken ordered the sausage and biscuits with gravy:

I’ve never really been a fan of white gravy; the consistency and look just doesn’t look appealing to me (although I have had a couple of Aunt Sonya’s plates that came with eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage and biscuits doused with white gravy without a single complaint back in Champaign). The food was just way too heavy for me and the saltiness of the gravy and biscuits made me feel a little dizzy (or maybe that was me having a mini heart attack from the food).

I ordered the wild boar sloppy Joe with a side of beef fat fries:

The wild boar sloppy Joe actually tasted exactly like the pasta sauce my mom makes with pork, tomatoes and bean paste. The fries were a bit too much for me, especially since I had just eaten some of Ken’s sausage and gravy biscuits that were already stopping my heart.

The prices at Longman & Eagle were extremely reasonable and the service was okay – I’d like to see what kind of food they have for dinner because their brunch menu was too heavy but their dinner would probably hit the spot on a cold winter night.