Margie’s Candies
Where? Margie’s Candies (Bucktown, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America) Map Menu
When? Sunday December 1, 2024
Who? Me
Food Style? Ice Cream
I have a six hour layover in Chicago so I’ve run out of the airport to go to this world famous ice cream parlor. Unfortunately since I’m by myself, I can’t truly gorge on Margie’s most well known creations, like The Royal George (25 scoops of ice cream) and The World’s Largest Terrapin (15 scoops of ice cream). If you finish the Royal George alone (first of all it's $95.95USD, and second of all, it's not just the ice cream, there's whole cones, whipped cream, cherries, nuts, and additional toppings you can choose from), you get a free box of terrapins - the terrapins here refer to the chocolate and caramel-coated pecans, shaped like the animal it's named after. I'm imagining that they're similar to the New Orleans pralines. Instead, because I am no longer a 20 year old with unlimited metabolism, I’m going for a single Terrapin Sundae, one of the classics.
Dessert
Terrapin Sundae: Two scoops of ice cream (vanilla, pistachio) covered with butterscotch, a side order of fudge, topped with a turtle
Unsurprisingly, this is far too sweet and so I’m glad that I limited myself to just the two scoops. The terrapin chocolate quality is terrible, as is the fudge and the ice cream is basically just that disgusting sugary trash kind as well. There's no creaminess, there's no balance, there's no complexity to the flavour. This is not good. I even have beef with the shell-shaped bowl, because it’s not stable enough to dig into the ice cream on the side. I cut my losses and leave. The novelty is not worth it and I’m going to go get some pizza to take back to the airport.
PS: the pizza was also bad.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:10pm on Thursday October 23, 2025 :: 0 comments :: 
Wildberry Pancakes
Where? Wildberry Pancakes (New Eastside, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America) Map Menu
When? Friday June 14, 2019
Who? Me
Food Style? American Breakfast
I'm in Chicago for Pokémon Go Fest 2019 and right near Millennium Park is a massive crowd of nerds (myself included) waiting to get into this highly popular restaurant. Thanks to Yelp, I'll get a text message when there's a seat available and I can also see how many parties are ahead of me in the queue. We live in the future!
As I'm seated, I take a glance around the tables (OBLOT strategy: order by looking at other tables). Holy Mac the portions are massive. Welcome to America, I guess. I'm up for the challenge. I'll need sustenance for a long day of walking aimlessly around Grant Park catching virtual monsters on my phone.
Mains
Butchers Block with Key Lime Pancakes: hash browns, cheddar and jack cheese, two eggs, ham, sausage, turkey sausage, chicken sausage and bacon
Good heavens. This is a hearty meal, full of delicious meats and two perfect runny eggs on top. The hash on the bottom mellows out the saltiness of the sausage and cheese. A few shakes of hot sauce and I'm ready to go.
I can feel myself slowing down. I'm about 80% the way through the hash but I need to save room for the pancakes. I'm thinking of cutting my losses and going straight to the sweets. I decide to do that Asian thing where I eat all the meat and leave the carbs in the plate. I start on the pancakes. Light and fluffy, with a beautiful rich key lime cream to give that delightful tart flavour. The fresh blackberries help cut through the richness and the biscuit crumb and white chocolate pieces add some nice texture. I'm impressed and well and truly stuffed.
I ended up skipping lunch and having dinner at 9pm - deep dish pizza!
Posted by Jeremy at 4:31pm on Thursday January 2, 2020 :: 0 comments ::