PJ Clarke's, Chicago vs. Finn McCool's, Santa Monica

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Dec 9th 2005 @ 12:01PM

pj clarke's chicago IL - beer battered vegetables It's time again for a comparison between Chicago and LA. Now remember, this is my totally unscientific, wholly biased and completely personal, opinionated, non-blind taste test between some Chicago place I tried on a recent trip and a realtively similar place in LA. Current standings are Chicago 1, LA 1.

PJ Clarke's is a very Cheers-y neighborhood bar and restaurant in the Windy City. I'm horrible with Chicago's neighborhood layout, so I can only say that the bar is located about a half hour's walk along State Street, north of my hotel which was near the river. Finn McCool's is a neighborhood Irish pub on Main Street in Santa Monica.

Today we compare nothing but the battered, deep-fried foods in a casual bar setting that I tried in both places - vegetables and calamari.

At PJ Clarke's I had the Beer Battered Vegetables - PJ went beyond the typical zucchini and mushrooms by adding artichoke hearts to create a somewhat Mediterranean trio, which was perfectly accompanied by a slightly sweet marinara sauce. Of course, PJ still offers Ranch dressing, for which I completely abandoned the marinara. The vegetables were soft and hot, and the beer batter was quite possibly the crispiest, flakiest fried-batter coating I've ever tasted. Isn't that scary? Isn't it scary to find the ultimate best of something ever in the whole wide world? PJ Clarke's had the ultimate best beer battered vegetables.

Which brings me to Finn McCool's and the understanding that this was never really a fair comparison to begin with because I already knew that PJ's gang of vegetables was going to kick Finn's fruity, sissy little basket of pathetically cold and soggy Fried Calamari. Oh well. All's fair in food and war.

Chicago 2, LA 1.

Filed Under: Vegetarian, Raves & Reviews, Ingredients, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants, Methods
Tags: appetizers, dinner, fish, frying, hors doeuvres, lunch, midwest cities, vegetables, west coast