'Tony's Italian Beef' is spectacular. Located near in Chicago IL, getting there is a long drive…read morefor anyone who doesn't live in the area. But even 90 minutes in a car is worth it, especially if if you figure out a way to widen your journey, like combining Tony's with a trip to the Museum of Science and Industy: which is Fun & Food for the whole family.
I admire 'Tony's Italian Beef' mostly because of how much I despise the many institutionalized versions of homegrown Chicago restaurants that are spreding everywhere like a virus as delicious as their food might be: - like 'Portillo's', with 112 locations and more than a dozen foid items on their menu, - or 'Buona Beef" with 36 locations and a menu of around 70 offerings, - or even 'AL's' (my favorite) owning a mere 5 stores and having just 10 or so menu listings.
But 'Tony's Italian Beef' is not one of these. For them, here is here. That's it. If you aren't near Marquette Park on the South Side of Chicago, you're not anywhere near 'Tony's Italian Beef', because there is only one location.
One of the best things about 'Tony's Italian Beef' is also one of the worst. The menu at 'Tony's...' is so big, and so many things look and smell so good, that once you arrive, and it's a long drive from everywhere, you start to wonder: "Maybe I should try one of these other delicious-looking items."
I counted more than 120 menu choices when the listed variations are counted separately. 120!
'Tony's...' is way more than an Italian beef place. It offers chicken sandwiches, steak sandwiches, tamales, a full breakfast with pancakes, eggs, and Tony's McMuffins, fried fish, hot dogs, Polish sausages, salads, gyros, burgers, fries, shakes--the list goes on and on. Tony's owns the street it's on, with big signs offering big specials. It looks like its customer base consists of people who want a bucket of food for their family for cheap. I just don't understand why 'Tony's...' has so many options. I thought that it was due to insecurity. But after I watched customer after come in, saying "Hi" to everybody in the staff, and even giving one old guy behind the counter a hug, I realized that it was because everyone there knew everyone else, meaning that this was truly a neighborhood place.
Both times that I was at 'Tony's...' everyone I saw had an Italian Beef Sandwich & Fries. There was one hot dog lover, but the tomatoes were huge and unripe, so they could hardly eat it without everything falling out. But nobody had a gyro, a burger, or a tamale. The first time at Tony's, I ordered the Italian beef, dipped heavy, with sweet peppers on top and giardiniera on the side. As a bonus, because the menu is so big, I got a tamale. I love traditional Chicago-style tamales, which are nothing like real Mexican tamales. I also got fries and a drink. My girlfriend got the chicken cutlet sandwich and a Greek salad, which made me want to throw her out the window.
On my second visit, I ordered the same thing, except I got fries again. They were okay, but I've watched several videos in which people rave about Tony's hand-cut fries. They look delicious, and you can hear the crunch when people bite into them. Maybe I just caught them on an off day. The Italian beef sandwich with sweet peppers was excellent, especially with some yummy au jus on the side to make things extra wet. The giardiniera was tasty and hot, though it needed another month or so to marinate and soften. And they offered mayonnaise on their Italian beef, which is just wrong. And finally, the drive to get there was simply too long.
Would I come to Tony's again? Yes, if it was closer. But there's a Portillo's five minutes from my house, so unless I'm on a job that brings me closer to Marquette Park, I probably won't return.