Restaurants in Glen Ellyn

“Best Mexican Restaurant I own!” Matt Waxler quips on his Facebook page, and it’s clear he really does enjoy the food he vends at North of the Border Mexican Restaurant. His menu diversifies burritos with more than the standard meat selections, stuffing in boneless chipotle seasoned wings, stir-fried shrimp, or steak with three kinds of jalapeños, a word which translates to English as “pepper of many guises.” American- and Mexican-style tacos vie for plate space, and strips of skirt steak simmer in a tomato and jalapeño sauce in the Bistek a la Mexicana, Mr. Waxler’s favorite dish.

For 28 years, the staff at Christy's Pancake House have worked to replicate the laidback vibe of a meal at home amidst bubbling fish tanks and a wall sign that reads "Keep Your Kitchen Clean––Eat Out." In its turquoise booths, tables populate with warm breakfast pancakes, three-egg omelets, and full-pound burgers from the menu of hearty diner fare. Forks spool Italian-style alfredo pastas beside plates of steaming pork chops and amply stuffed greek gyros. While polishing off a piece of pie plucked from one of the glass display cases, guests can remind the server that it's their birthday for a sundae of choice on the house, or remind a significant other for an awkward meal of excuses and apologies.

At Papa Saverio’s Pizzeria’s newly opened South Elgin location, cooks plate pizzas in a variety of styles, from traditional Chicago deep dish to hand-rolled double-dough crusts. Toppings such as barbecue chicken, italian sausage, and fresh garlic bedeck create-your-own pies, and chefs construct specialties such as the pizza Bianca, slathered in Alfredo sauce. They also layer pans of baked lasagna and mostaccioli with sauce and cheese in gargantuan portions designed to feed four family members or that second cousin who’s actually a grizzly bear. House specialty racks of ribs brushed with barbecue sauce, shrimp, and fried chicken round out in-restaurant or catered dinners, which can also include italian beef, meatballs, and sauce-covered wings.

The first IHOP—the dream of founders Al and Jerry Lapin—opened in 1958 in Toluca Lake, California, and was originally dubbed the "International House of Pancakes." Since then, rapid expansion has led to myriad milestones across the company's colorful history, from introducing its modern IHOP acronym in 1973 to its 1,000th restaurant opening in Layton, Utah, in 2001.

Today, the company stands strong with around 1,500 locations across North and Central America, each one an enthusiastic dispenser of pancakes, french toast, and tables constructed entirely out of bacon. Though IHOP is known as a bastion of breakfast, it also stays open during the day and into the evening, delivering lunch and dinner as well.

Alibi fuses the dancing, cocktails, and music of a lively nightlife destination with the tender steaks, flavorful seafood, and pastas of an upscale bar and grill. Revelers dance under ribbons of multicolored light on the wide-open dance floor as live musicians regale audiences with catchy guitar hooks, blistering sax solos, and impassioned defenses of their modern jazz Master's theses. Mahogany-hued hardwood floors and glossy bar tops accented with polished brass frame specialty cocktails or flavored martinis, and teams of black-clad servers trot out plates of filet mignon, bone-in rib eye, and asiago-stuffed shrimp.

At Salt Creek Barbeque, two distinct aromas weave through the air: a cocktail of herbs and sauces distilling itself into barbecue sauce, and the scent of hickory from a smoker, where each of Salt Creek's meats spends 5–12 hours to enhance flavor and unwind from its fight with the butcher. The house-made sauce drenches dishes such as hand-pulled pork and shaved brisket—stacked atop sandwich buns or texas toast—and bastes plates of slow-smoked meaty rib tips with its aromatic flavor. The signature sauce makes yet another appearance as a uniform for chicken wings, also available in coats of buffalo or spicy sauce that diners wash down with fountain drinks or pitchers of domestic and imported beers from the full-service bar. A full slate of burgers and catfish sandwiches round out the menu of quintessentially American fare, accompanied by classic sides of corn bread and mashed potatoes. Salt Creek Barbecue also caters for special events, forging party-sized portions of its iconic menu items.