About us
Window to the World
Attendance policies:
a) Three (3) no-shows without updating your RSVP (for standard meetups) and you will be banned from this meetup.
b) For any meetups in which food has been pre-ordered family-style, any no-shows may result in an immediate ban.
c) If you've RSVP'ed "YES" and changed your RSVP to "NO" within 3 hours before the event starts (Unless you have a REAL emergency), I will consider you as a "no-show".
Chicago is a wonderfully diverse city; each culture has its personality, language, customs, traditions, and cuisine. Each month we will explore various geographical regions by visiting restaurants deemed representative of the cuisines of those regions.
Each restaurant has been selected based on critical reviews, uniqueness, or Zagat or Michelin recommendations. Selections run the gamut from simple street food to 12-course meals fit for royalty. This means sometimes there will be dishes and dining practices that are very unfamiliar, but that's the fun of culinary exploration.
All meetups have been planned with the goal of enjoying a wonderful meal with wonderful company in mind. However, while meeting new people and reacquainting with old friends make the meal more enjoyable, the meal is, and always will be, the chief focus of each meetup. Please do not take up precious spots if you are not interested in the main attraction (like going to Garlic Fest if you don't like garlic in your food or a "meat-heavy" dinner and you're vegetarian).
If the presence of another member makes you uncomfortable, please let us know immediately so the offending member is removed and banned.
Banned members will not be reinstated. There is no period after which a banned member can re-apply to join.
Anyone who has been banned or has had their membership revoked and attempts to attend an event either by attending as another member's guest or without a proper RSVP may be asked to sit elsewhere if the event is held at a public venue or asked to leave if the meetup is a private event.
For more meetups, be sure to check out our sister groups: Chicagoland Culinary Explorers and Adventurous Eating. Chicagoland Culinary Explorers focuses on casual and fine dining restaurants in and around Chicago, while Adventurous Eating focuses on unusual culinary experiences.
Click here to learn more about ISCChicago.
Let's explore authentic cuisines together!
Upcoming events
1
- $2.00
Dinner at Akahoshi Ramen
Akahoshi Ramen, 2340 N California Ave, Suite B, Chicago, IL, US*NOTE: The $2 meetup fee is charged to pay for fees charged by Meetup.com. The payment can be made via Cashapp/PayPal/Zelle - I will PM you payment details upon RSVP.*
Menu: https://www.akahoshiramen.com/menu
Table for 6 at Akahoshi Ramen, a ramen restaurant in Logan Square. The restaurant is run by chef Mike Satinover, who was a home cook that spent over a decade posting on the Reddit forum r/ramen. The restaurant was noted as one of the best 20 new restaurants in the US on Bon Appetit, and got a great review from The Infatuation.
From The Infatuation:
"Waiting an hour outside before Akahoshi Ramen opens, you’ll likely hear whispers about some guy named “Ramen_Lord.” This Logan Square spot is the latest chapter in the unconventional saga of the Redditor-turned-chef, known for his sold-out pop-ups and now a permanent noodle shop with instantly vanishing reservations and long walk-in lines. But hype isn’t what makes eating at Akahoshi Ramen so exciting, it’s their meticulous attention to each bowl.
Akahoshi’s decor is strictly minimal, with just a few mirrors, lamps, and wall planters, but that only emphasizes the focus on the food, and the collective thrill of being in its constantly packed space. Couples in booths steal tastes of each other’s ramen, while shoulder-to-shoulder strangers at the long communal table randomly synchronize their spoon lifts. Our favorite place to sit is at the kitchen counter, with its view of cooks making giant noodle pulls using equally giant chopsticks, woks breathing fire, and Ramen_Lord blow-torching pork slices. But as long as a bowl of ramen is in front of you, there isn’t a bad seat at Akahoshi—even if you’re stuck sitting at the window, gazing at the post office across the street.
The menu channels the same simplicity as the space, with only four types of ramen (plus a rotating special) and two side rice dishes. The bowls are also minimalist—over-indulgent toppings like edible gold flakes aren’t just thrown in for the hell of it. Whether it’s fattiness from chashu, smokiness from wok-fried bean sprouts, or freshness from chopped green onions, every ingredient has a specific role in each ramen’s trapeze act of flavor.
One ingredient in particular sets Akahoshi apart from other ramen places in the city: their incredible housemade noodles. Thin, firm ones with crinkles act like ski-lifts for the two soup-filled bowls, transporting drops of umami-packed miso or light shoyu broths up with every slurp. For the two brothless dishes, soft thick noodles are the perfect vehicles for the spicy tantanmen’s chili oil and pork saboro or the crispy garlic and soy sauce in the aburasoba.
This careful consideration extends past Akahoshi’s food. Chopsticks with special grippy ridges at the tips transform novice users into confident experts. Bowls quickly travel from kitchen to table the second they’re plated, making sure the soup and noodles arrive piping hot. Drinkwise, imbalanced cocktails that lean too boozy or too sweet are a stark contrast to their food, but that’s an inconsequential blip. We don’t fight for reservations or risk long wait times here to just linger and drink. We go to Akahoshi for the best ramen in Chicago."
6 attendees
Past events
256
