Restaurant Review: Par Bar and Grille

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Kelly

Full Disclosure: I paid for this meal with my own money and am not being compensated for this post. As always, the opinions are completely my own.

Last week while I was in Chicago for BlogHer 13 (more about that to come!), I had a little bit of free time to roam around and explore the city. The hotel that I stayed at was in a slightly different part of the city than I usually stay so I didn’t have a list of places that I wanted to go right off the bat like I usually do. Though it was kind of fun to semi-aimlessly wander with my free time for a while, I started to get hungry and decided it was time to start searching for lunch possibilities. I quickly realized that I was fairly close to where Stina was! Since I was in the area, we decided to go to lunch together. Luckily, she knows the area much better than I do and had several suggestions. We ended up deciding on Par Bar and Grille.

I found it a bit odd that it was empty and we went during lunch time in a business district, but Stina had been there before so I trusted her with the choice. The bar and grill has a golf theme, but not anything too crazy, it looked like a pretty typical bar and grill. Since it was pretty empty, it was actually kind of a relaxing lunch atmosphere.

The menu actually had several different things that I had to choose from, unlike many bar and grill type restaurants where pretty much my only choice is a chicken sandwich. There were many lighter options, salads, sandwiches, pizza, and more. I chose the Fresh Strawberry Salad – mixed greens, goat cheese, grilled chicken strips, candied walnuts, and strawberries, tossed in a strawberry vinaigrette dressing. (I got the dressing on the side)

I should’ve put something next to the salad bowl for scale because it actually was quite large! I think I ended up only eating a little over half of it and was plenty full. They did not skimp on the toppings, that’s for sure! I really enjoyed it, it was a great light but filling lunch.

Taste: A, really good. This was not a skimpy salad, it was a legitimate entree portion.
Cost: A, it was $9.95, which seemed like a really reasonable price.

Would I go there again? I think so! I like that it wasn’t super crowded, but still had good food and lots of different options on the menu.