Mini reviews: Bally’s Casino Chicago restaurants and bars

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The first and only casino in Chicago opened last month to much fanfare, but the restaurants and bars have surprisingly remained mostly a mystery.

Food and drink have long been a lure in gambling culture, culminating in celebrity chef restaurants around the world from Las Vegas to Macao.

Bally’s Casino Chicago, temporarily housed at the historic Medinah Temple in River North, made its debut on Sept. 9. Bally’s intends to break ground on the Chicago Tribune printing plant and newsroom site in River West by 2024. The opening for the permanent casino and resort is planned for 2026.

That timeline seems ambitious since the temporary casino needed more than a month to start serving the full menus at just three restaurants and two bars.

Bright red signage marks the exterior of the brooding brown Moorish Revival temple. Inside, the space is clean, but sensorially cluttered with banks of digital slot machines. The design theme speaks of transience.

Given the setting, the food and drink is so much better than expected. That’s in large part a credit to consulting by some of the best chefs and bartenders in the city.

Chef Paul Kahan, critically acclaimed for restaurants from Avec to Publican Quality Bread, under the One Off Hospitality Group, consulted along with his colleagues on the Medinah Bistro and adjacent Bistro Bar on the third floor.

His restaurant group also brought in Nine Bar partners Joe Briglio and Lily Wang from Chinatown to consult on Kitchen 888, also on the top floor. Wang in turn recruited her parents from Moon Palace to create recipes for the Asian noodle bar.

The Wabash Cafe and Center Bar on the ground floor are the work of Bally’s culinary team.

After a long night at the casino, I think I’ve finally figured out how you can beat the house, at least when it comes to food and drink.

First, know when the restaurants and bars are open. Every time I called to check, security gave me a different answer like a maddening shell game. Then keeping track of the hours was as complicated as counting cards, so I hear.

Next, if you drive, book your parking through SpotHero, a Chicago-based company. I paid $14 for a five-hour stay on a Thursday night at the same lot across the street where validated parking through the casino costs $45. And yes, that’s the discounted price.

Do note that you must be 21 or older to enter the casino, with a valid ID, which security scans. When I asked for what, they said, “Everything.”

Once you’re in, order a free nonalcoholic drink at either bar. You can have soft drinks, juice or coffee, but not the specialty spirit-free drinks on the menus. Illinois prohibits free alcohol at casinos.

Then, sign up for a Bally’s rewards card, and remember to use it when paying your restaurant and bar checks for 10% off. My terrific server at Kitchen 888 tipped me off to the card discount that’s not mentioned anywhere else.

Also you can’t eat, but can surely drink, while actively gambling. And remember to tip your servers please.

So what should you have?

Well, you’ve hit the jackpot with my mini reviews, which are not starred, but ranked in ascending order, because while I did visit the restaurants and bars more than once, typically we fully dine twice before rating.

As soon as you clear security, you’ll see your first stop. The Center Bar looks up into the open atrium, revealing the action above and the dome overhead. Get your first free drink here. A patient bartender recited my choices, because they’re not listed on the menu. Skip the $12 spirit-free passion fruit mojito that tastes mostly of soda water. Stick to wine, beer or better yet, free drinks.

Head to the back on the ground floor where you’ll find a pastry case and coffee bar with a few tables. The Wabash Cafe features a few items made in-house, including breakfast sandwiches and jumbo cookies, all warmed to order. Get fat chocolate chip, oatmeal, raisin and M&M cookies, baked in house to a crisp yet chewy finish. Pair them with a caramel oat milk latte, which my barista recommended and carefully made not too sweet. Skip the soggy bacon, egg and cheese croissant. And don’t even think about the hot dog, which is Vienna Beef, but with Chicago-style toppings in ketchup-style packets.

Go up to the third floor where you can order another free drink in a corner that’s cozy for the casino. The Bistro Bar also offers signature cocktails from other Bally’s locations. Get the new staff favorite, Purple Haze, a tasty tropical drink mixed with three kinds of rum, including one infused with pea flower, which lends its pretty color. It’s strong so you can slowly sip while checking out the gaming tables.

The full menu launched the night I visited, including one notable new sandwich.

Medinah Bistro makes American Southern and Mexican diner-style food and drinks inspired by Dove’s Luncheonette, a One Off restaurant in Wicker Park.

Get the outrageously delicious mushroom-collard melt, with a seriously spicy cherry pepper dressing, created by chef Paul Kahan. His sandwich is clearly a nod to the collard green melt at Turkey and the Wolf in New Orleans, occasionally available at Big Kids in Logan Square, which was opened by chefs Mason Hereford of TATW and Ryan Pfeiffer, previously at the dearly departed Blackbird, the pioneering restaurant by Kahan.

The Medinah menu also features a smash melt, loaded with Pepper Jack cheese and caramelized onions, but incongruously layered with thick-cut garlic fries inside too.

You may also recognize four fan favorite cocktails from Dove’s, only available at the bistro, but made at the adjacent bar with some variations: the Cantarito, with tequila and Jarritos grapefruit soda; the Temple Margarita, also with tequila, and peach puree, which should change seasonally; a classic michelada, with Pacifico beer and Louisiana hot sauce; plus the Medinah Mary, made with house bloody mary mix.

I’ll try those drinks eventually, and hope the mushroom-collard melt is still on the menu, because Bally’s didn’t really like it, said One Off CEO Karen Browne.

“And they didn’t think that their customers would like it,” she said. “But Paul pushed and said, ‘Let’s leave it on. And if it doesn’t sell, we’ll take it off. But let’s see what the guests tell us.’”

It’s selling well so far, and worth going to the casino just for the melt you can’t get anywhere else. I’m obsessed with the memory of tender and tangy collard greens, roasted mushrooms and provolone cheese, overstuffed in Publican Quality Bread seeded rye.

“So, yeah, Paul Kahan knows best,” added Browne laughing.

Long before Lily Wang and Joe Briglio transformed her family’s restaurant in Chinatown into the neighborhood’s first craft cocktail bar, she worked briefly at Big Star in Wrigleyville. There, Wang met Terry Alexander, managing partner at One Off and founder of The Violet Hour.

“He’s the one that reached out to us for this project,” she said.

Kitchen 888 needed consultants to create an Asian menu under One Off, collaborate with Bally’s and train their staff too. (The number eight is considered luckiest in Chinese culture.) So Wang and Briglio in turn recruited her parents, Moon Palace owners Jennifer Wang and Zhong Pei, plus their Nine Bar chef, Elvis Mom.

When I was seated at the restaurant on the top floor, my server culturally identified me in the best possible way. She immediately spoke to me in Cantonese, though I heard her seamlessly switch to Mandarin and English with other diners. She also apologized profusely for not offering hot tea or hot water (the traditional Chinese cold-weather drink of choice), because she didn’t think they would be hot enough for me, but brought water with no ice instead.

Get the salt-and-pepper shrimp, she said, and you should too. Huge head- and shell-on shrimp are cooked so perfectly, they seem encased in shattering crackers. You can remove the head and shells if you prefer. My thoughtful server also brought hand wipes in anticipation.

Most of the recipes came from Moon Palace, Wang said. Except for the cucumber salad from Nine Bar, and two pho recipes with beef or chicken, from chef Mom. He drew on his experience making a similar Cambodian noodle soup.

Six different noodle soups, however, may not be the best thing at this point for the temporary casino restaurant cooks. People have devoted their lives to perfecting each one elsewhere.

The jjamppong, a Korean Chinese noodle soup from a recipe by a Bally’s chef, held shiny pristine mussels, but the blandest broth imaginable.

Briglio and Wang also consulted on the drinks, which offer a good selection from soy milk to sakes, but they’re all canned or bottled, because Bally’s originally considered not having any servers, but only a kiosk. Thankfully that didn’t happen, since my server brought the soul of Chinatown. Still, what a wasted opportunity, especially with Wang and Briglio’s expertise in creating an extraordinary food, drink and entertainment experience at Nine Bar.

Meanwhile, we can console ourselves with beautifully stir fried lo mein and beef chow fun, which imparts a hint of smoky “wok hei,” the breath of the wok that’s truly the prize.

600 N. Wabash Ave.

888-822-2559

Open: (hours may change): Wabash Cafe, daily, 9 a.m. to 3 a.m.; Kitchen 888, daily, 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.; Medinah Bistro, Thursday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Center Bar and Bistro Bar, daily, 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. (alcohol available 9:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.)

Prices: $4 (cookies), $16 (mushroom-collard melt), $25 (salt-and-pepper shrimp); $12 (nonalcoholic passion fruit mojito), $16 (Purple Haze cocktail)

Noise: Conversation-friendly

Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible by elevator with restrooms on three floors

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