Chicago. A late morning after a long night of fun with a friend, meeting new people and taking advantage of the Fullerton area’s wonderful bar specials. A very nice Chicagoan we met that night recommended to us this place for brunch, The Bongo Room, and then even picked us up and took us there the next morning, before also taking us to the lake beach right after! Jeez Chicagoans are nice….

This place is fantastic and is definitely one of my top recommendations for those visiting the Chi anytime soon. Deliciously complex sandwiches, wonderful pastries, clever salads and soups. And, as always in this town, excellent and friendly service.

This beautiful thang is called the chicken and avocado club. Moist, tender grilled chicken topped with a generous portion of chopped avocados, plum tomatoes, baby spinach and melted provole. There was even a little pineapple salsa and a very thin layer of cilantro mayo. Served on a wonderfully fresh, thick bolo roll and served with a light caesar salad. Now that’s a sandwich!

This was a vegetarian croissant sandwich (vegetarian only because it contained no bacon, which I wasn’t really in the mood for anyway). Flaky, buttery and delicious halved croissant, grilled. In between, muenster cheese melting over an over-easy egg, slightly wilted baby spinach, sauteed mushrooms, tomato slices, fresh and crispy cucumber rounds and a bush of alfalfa sprouts. Served with herbed, roasted “house” potatoes.

My favorite. The beef tenderloin sandwich. Two beautifully juicy slices of roast beef tenderloin topped with a tart watercress and apple relish (little chunks of both mixed in with a horseradish aioli). Saint andre cheese melting in between the two layers. Served on a bolo roll with a salad of romaine, grape tomatoes, radishes, toasted sunflower seeds and a slightly peppery lemon vinaigrette.

And for dessert, an incredibly fluffy, thick yet airy french toast in 2 layers, topped with a generous portion of sweet vanilla cream, blueberries and granola. I would definitely not eat this every day but MAN did it hit the spot…