19801 Crawford AvenueI hadn’t planned on going to a figure skating competition last weekend but once it got extended in to the weekend, I saw it as a chance to get to see L skate.
Last week was the Ladybug competition at the Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena near Chicago. This has always been a competition where L has skated on Thursday and Friday but this year, she skated Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
I couldn’t make it Thursday and Friday due to work but once I saw she was skating Saturday, I made plans to get up and drive to Chicago.
B and I got up around 7:30 and started towards Chicago. L didn’t skate until 10:30 Central so we had some time.
My parents were also coming up again for this one. They live about an hour and a half away so this is an easy one for them to come to. They had come Friday morning as well since it’s so close and my mom didn’t have to work.
L was done around 12:00 and my parents had asked about grabbing lunch before heading home. We didn’t have a lot of time because the kids wanted to get back for a birthday party they had been invited to. We lose the hour coming back so we needed to be on the road by about 1:45.
I figured going to a sit down restaurant wasn’t a great idea. L was already being a little difficult about even going and I was worried about the timing. By the time she got her stuff together and we got out of the rink, it was closer to 1:00.
I pointed everyone towards Buona about five minutes down the road on Crawford Avenue near Vollmer Road in Flossmoor. The restaurant is part of the Buona chain which has about 30 restaurants in the Chicago area. This one has been on the entrance drive to a Meijer since 2018.
Buona is a fast casual Chicago-style food concept with the star of the show being the Italian beef. The original location was in Berwyn, Illinois and the company started to rapidly expand in 2015. I’ve always been really partial to Al’s Beef but the accessibility of Buona has made me a fan. I look for these stores whenever we’re in the Chicago area and I was really excited to see that there was one close to the rink when I started looking for something quick to eat.
Buona is set up like most fast casual restaurants. There’s an order counter right as you walk in. There are menus above the counter but there are also printed menus in the walkway leading to the order area. I knew what I wanted but I needed to figure out something for B and my parents took some time to look over the menu as well. There is a kiosk for ordering but I was with my parents and my mom had some questions so we went to the cashier who was waiting for us at the register instead.
We put in an order for three Italian beef sandwiches and a kid’s cheese pizza. J and L weren’t there yet so we ordered for ourselves then they ordered when they got there. The cost for the four of us was around $40.
There is a large dining room and unlike a lot of fast of fast casual places, if you’re getting an Italian beef or a Chicago dog, it’s probably a good idea to sit an eat. We had those plans anyway since we were heading different directions after eating. There are some pub style tables off in the back of the dining room that were big enough for the six of us. I suggested just sitting there instead of pushing tables together in the main part of the dining room.
Weird thing happened here. We put our order number on the table and the employee came out with my beef and B’s pizza but not my parents. When my mom questioned her, she said the order was only those two things. I grabbed the receipt my mom was holding and she was right. That was all we paid for but I was standing there and heard my mom order for her and my dad. Mom went back to the cash register and the cashier realized a mistake she made and didn’t punch the order in right. She put it in, my mom paid and came back to sit down but she didn’t get a new number. A manager came over and we tried to explain the situation to him but I think everyone was confused. J and L had gotten there by then and had a different order number so when my parents sandwiches came out, the employee was confused because the number didn’t match. We tried to explain what had happened and to leave the order number that was there but there was another order coming out. She finally just gave up confused and put he plates down…but my dad was missing fries. The manager came back over and asked if everything was right now. We showed him the second receipt that the fries were missing so he went back to the kitchen and had someone bring out another plate. It took a little while but in the end, we got everything we paid for.
Once everything was settled, I started in on my fries while I was talking to L about her weekend. The fries aren’t my favorite. They’re pretty simple crinkle cut fries. This is the area that Al’s Beef has a huge advantage over Buona. There’s nothing wrong with Buona’s fries except they’re simple and boring frozen fries. A lot of people like the crinkle cuts. I do…just not my favorite.
For my sandwich, I ordered a regular Combo which is a combination of Italian beef and an Italian sausage. I got the sandwich with hot peppers and baptized which means the whole thing is soaked in the gravy before being wrapped up. Part of my reasoning for going for the fries first was to let this sandwich kind of marinate. The falling apart by this point French roll soaks up all that beefy flavor. The sandwich is stacked with a thick, juicy Italian sausage and covered with that thinly sliced full of flavor beef. The sandwich topped with a pretty thin later of hot giardiniera. I could have used a lot more of the peppers but other than that, this was a perfect Italian beef sandwich.
I pick Buona when I ‘m with the kids because there are a lot of options I know they’d like. B was going back and forth between the cheese pizza and the chicken tenders but ultimately went for the pizza. He said he wasn’t really hungry but knew he could take the pizza home. Letting him order a pizza is always a gamble because he’s so picky. This pizza is right up his alley though. It’s a fairly thin crust with a thin layer of sweet sauce and golden brown cheese. There was a corn meal dusting on the bottom which can be a turn off for him sometimes but he took a bite and said it was really good. He ate three pieces then I asked for a box to take home the rest.
I didn’t get pictures of anything else…mostly because I forgot in all the confusion over my parents food, but J and L both went different directions than my parents an I.
J ordered a Chicago dog. This is the quintessential Chicago food with the poppy seed bun, all beef hot dog, mustard, relish, onion, sport peppers, pickle, tomato, and celery salt. She doesn’t eat everything on the dog bug always craves one when we’re in Chicago.
I knew Buona would be a good spot for L because they had pasta. That’s been her go-to lately when eating out so I figured it was a pretty safe choice. She got the Rigatoni Marinara. They claim it’s house made rigatoni topped with marinara, fresh basil, Parmesan, and Romano cheese. L didn’t want to admit it but she was hungry after competing and ate most of the bowl.
It’s a must for me to stop at a place like Buona if I’m in Chicago. Like I said, I’ve usually been someone who seeks out Al’s Beef but the only thing Al’s really has on Buona is the fries. There are family shops throughout the city that may or may not have a better beef but consistently, Buona has delivered amazing food for me. Everyone knows Portillo’s when it comes to these kind of places but you really should familiar yourself with Buona. I wouldn’t be mad if they expanded to Southwest Michigan and the other place didn’t.