Restaurants
$$$ $15-20
Is it too much to expect that a humble, prairie-locked shrimp shack land a fresh catch and sell it at working-stiff’s prices? Apparently so. At ASH the critters are overbattered in an unseasoned glop that smothers any taste of the sea and require a heavy dose of heat or cocktail sauce to get them down. But if for some reason you find the call of the sea in Logan Square irresistible, the jumbo shrimp do keep a faint memory of sweetness under their battered armor. Cash only; BYO. | Lunch and dinner Mon-Sat | $ | 3054 W. Armitage | 773-486-1584
American Contemporary
THINK
HACHI’S KITCHEN
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Meals at this Puerto Rican place start with free bowls of thick, tomatoey noodle soup, and the pace is slow and friendly. Appetizers are heavy on starch and light on meat; mofongos need the garlicky dipping sauce they come with. Steaming, spicy empanadas, rellenos de papa–crisp potato-and-meat pastries–and tostones, thick, salty disks of fried plantain, are also meant to be dipped. Entrees include a simple, well-cooked skirt steak and the more complicated cabrito en fricassee, a bony, tangy dish of soft baby goat in a white-wine stew studded with big pieces of green olive, onion, and raisins. It’s great mixed over arroz con gandules, mild yellow rice with pigeon peas. The jibarito is supposed to rival the one at Borinquen, where the sandwich was supposedly invented. Reservations for large groups only; BYO. | Lunch and dinner daily | $$ | 2420 W. Fullerton | 773-235-7377
