I Went On A "The Bear" Food Tour In Chicago And Here's My Honest Review Of What I Ate

If you've ever seen an episode of The Bear, you probably know it's full of screaming, swearing, delicious food, and Jeremy Allen White.

The show is based in Chicago and shows the inner workings of the restaurant industry for people who eat, sleep, and breathe food. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy who takes over his brother's Italian beef shop after his death and ultimately turns it into a fine dining establishment.

Chuck Hodes / FX

I was a little late to the party but binged the season in record time. As someone who contemplated being a chef for 30 seconds when I was a kid, I found it extremely stressful and pretty accurate. Shoutout to the chef I worked with in high school who forced me to peel garlic for 8 hours.

Recently, I was invited to Chicago to take a Bear-inspired food tour. Since I've never been to Chi-town before, I was excited for the opportunity to not only E-A-T but also take in the sights and sounds of Chicago.

Kyle Richmond / BuzzFeed

Here I am at the top of Chicago on the Skydeck. This isn't AI folks – it's 103 floors above Chicago and the only thing that separated me from my untimely death was 1.5" of glass.

_{*BuzzFeed was provided this trip free of charge; however, we were under no obligation to give a positive review.}

Enough talking — let's eat! We started with the classic Italian Beef Sandwich ($9.50) that's absolutely smothered in aus jus and served on French bread. I am an absolute sucker for beef sandwiches and I was not expecting it to be so... (pardon my French) moist. They say it's covered in aus jus, but it definitely had a greasy feeling to it as well. That being said, the sandwich was delicious. It's exactly what you expect from a greasy spoon establishment – it was nothing fancy, frilly or out of the ordinary but a good, solid, classic sandwich.

Pizza Lobo's New York style by the slice ($5) is truly my favourite style of pizza. Thinner crust, not too saucy, not too cheesy, and tiny pepperoni that curls when cooking and filled with delicious oil. I hope you put "loves curled pepperoni" on my tombstone.

The downside is that this location is a little bit of a hike if you're staying in more touristy areas of the city. From the Bean, its about a 30 minute drive. But worth it if you're on a food tour and someone else is driving.

Roeser's has been in business since 1911 so you know you're getting a quality product when you visit. This location was teeny-tiny, so we got our donuts to go. Let me tell you, this was a messy endeavor. I decided to split mine as I was already getting full, and we still had a another sweet stop on the food tour left. Our donut looked exactly like the one Marcus eyes on The Bear. She was hefty with a sugary glaze and sweet strawberries on top. On a normal day I would devour this whole thing, but I'm glad I showed a bit of restraint. Delicious!

Our Hot Fudge Sundae ($8.95) came in the iconic wavy dish, the same one from the episode. It came complete with whip cream, chocolate fudge, a wafer cookie, and of course a cherry on top. When you think of sundaes, this is what you expect. The chocolate and whipped cream is what really elevated this treat for me — the chocolate was creamy and not overly sweet, while the whipped cream really made the whole dish feel a little bit lighter. I loved it.

While that was the end of the scheduled food tour with Chicago Food Tours, there was way more to see and eat. So the next day, we ventured out to try some more restaurants and dishes... all in the name of science.

And I'm not exaggerating when I say this has to be some of the best breakfast food I've ever had. Not only has Kasama won a James Beard Award, but they also have a Michelin Star which I'm finding out in this very moment. Their bakery case is STOCKED with some incredible pastries like almond croissants, cardamom buns and even a salmon danish.

We started with the Breakfast Sandwich ($11) which included longganisa (a Filipino sweet sausage), egg, cheese, and the side hash brown ($3) added to the sandwich just like Syd eats it. This sandwich? 10/10. No, 20/10. It was so good. Everything worked together in perfect harmony. Nothing was overpowering, just very cohesive. And then with the addition of the golden, crispy hash brown in the middle? Truly nothing better. Might be the best thing I ate all weekend.

Next up was the Chicken Adobo ($17) made with chicken thigh, coconut, palapa and garlic rice. On the show Syd eats the mushroom adobo which I'm sure is delicious, but I'm sadly not a mushroom guy. But the adobo I ordered was right up my alley. The chicken was slightly crispy and charred, the garlic rice had just the right amount of garlic, and all of it together was a nice tasty dish. I basically eat chicken and rice on a daily basis, so I knew I was gonna love this.

Then I devoured the Mango Tart ($13) because I'm a sucker for mango. This tasty little number has an oat frangipane base, coconut pastry cream, and of course beautifully sliced and placed mango topped with zingy lime zest. Now I know I already said the breakfast sandwich was my top pick, but maybe I need to change things? Writing this is making me wanna plan a trip back to Chicago ASAP. It was just so light, bright and tasty. I loved it.

Now I'm not going to go through every single dish that I had on the menu, because it was a lot and the dishes are constantly changing. The menu consisted of 10 dishes from their tasting menu and it was $325. $325!!!!! Now I'm trying to play it cool here, because I'm a cool, hip food writer, but that's a lot of dinero.

The dessert course was also incredible. There was a rice pudding with different flavoured jells on top, a jasmine tea orb that had a brownie inside, and of course, a big delicious donut with flavoured dips to go alongside it.

Ever was an experience, to say the least. They even took us back to the kitchen to see how it all goes down. I didn't see Richie polishing any forks, however I saw a kitchen that was run with military precision all while remaining eeeerily quiet. If you ever seen a restaurant kitchen, or even walked by one, you'll know they are a hotbed for noise (Exhibit A: any kitchen scene on The Bear), but in Ever there was just complete silence.

And that completes my world record of eating in Chicago (someone at Guinness gimme a call). If you're ever in Chi-town please give any of these establishments a try! Even if you don't end up on the "Yes Chef!" food tour you can still visit each of these places and live like Carmy, Syd or Richie any day of the week.

And if you didn't know already, The Bear season 3 premieres June 27 on FX and Disney+ in Canada. And follow BuzzFeed Canada on Instagram and TikTok for even more food content!