Restaurants in La Grange

Noodles & Company's cooks unite a diverse menu of Asian, Mediterranean, and American fare with the common thread of the noble noodle. The friendly cooks speedily serve each order, which deliciously bridges the gap between convenience and fine dining with casual fare and a strictly enforced dress code of flip-flops and tuxedos.

Brazilian-born chef Jorgina Pereira relies on ingredients such as cassava root, collards, and coconut to infuse stews and stir-fries with tropical flavors at Sinhá. Pereira prepares her homeland's cuisine at home, welcoming guests into her historic brick townhouse for intimate meals, morning to mid-afternoon. In addition to doling out tropical comestibles at its brick-and-mortar location, the staff takes a custom catering menu on the road with Brazilian musicians, dressing for events in a Carmen Miranda-like uniform of flowing dresses, fruit-filled head dresses, and shoes carved from a single watermelon. Sinhá is a local favorite, and was even featured on ABC 7 Chicago News in a restaurant segment.

Tahini Mediterranean Café pledges freshness with a hearty selection of authentic Lebanese fast food crafted from halal-certified choice cuts void of freezing or preservatives. Along with oven-baked pita, fiber-rich falafel, and marinated beef shawarma, the eatery is especially proud of its Levantine bread salad bar. Large, chopped fresh vegetables and fried bits of pita bread harmonize in a fattoush salad that’s greener than an email from the Jolly Green Giant. To do their part to limit their carbon footprint, Tahini Mediterranean Café’s staff uses as many recyclable products as possible, such as water bottles crafted from corn extract.

The chefs at Soupbox's two locations concoct more than 64 varieties of bisques, chowders, stews, and broths, preparing each cauldron daily. Flanked by a side of Italian bread, each soup is available in three sizes and 12 flavors that rotate each day, but the most popular flavors are kept around all the time. With each bite, it's clear that the meat, veggies, and spices adorning each dish are as fresh as possible, an experience made more inviting by transparent nutritional information that makes it easy to measure one's recommended broccoli intake. Several soups, such as the masala tomato lentil and the heart-healthy vegetarian chili, are made with vegetarian- and vegan-friendly ingredients, denoted on the menu. When summertime comes, Soupbox Broadway location brings out more than 20 flavors of italian ice in addition to its soup spread, cooling down heated tongue hangars with its icy treats. The Chicago location offers crisp, cool salads such as the Apple Berry salad, the Caesar salad, and even a "Make Your Own" salad.

Continually lauded by various publications including Chicago magazine, 694 Wine & Spirits thrusts sophisticated bar fare and modestly produced libations into the willing fists of its patrons. Panini sandwiches whose fillings are limited to three high-quality components join a score of artisan cheeses and cured meats on a minimalist bar menu, and carefully picked vino and bubbly bottles accompany straight corn whiskey and small-batch bourbon on an eye-opening spirits list. A cubist decor dotted with square stools, pop-art prints, and exposed brick houses sippers of Bison Grass vodka, nibblers of salt-and-butter baguettes, and a DJ and his talking horse on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Beneath chandelier-studded ceilings lined with hundreds of emerald-green Jameson whiskey bottles resides Mahoney's Pub & Grille, which slowly transforms from a classic pub awash with upscale bar fare to a pulsing dance club as the day winds into evening. After brunch dishes of biscuits and gravy have been devoured and cleared away, nearly a dozen taps and more than 50 bottles begin to bring forth American and international craft brews to balance the flavors of pan-seared Angus burgers, toasted four-cheese macaroni, and other culinary reinventions of American standards. Patrons should keep an eye out for special offers during the Superbowl and March Madness

As diners savor their bounty, ping-pong tables crack with bouncing balls. Banks of flat-screen TVs cycle through the latest sports action, with particularly momentous events appearing on one of two large projection screens. As the lights slowly dim and three isolated sound systems crank to party levels, video DJs emerge to commandeer the speakers and TV screens, spinning music ranging from old-school hip-hop records to two-step-inspiring country tracks and a wide range of 80s' hits.