simplon orient express?

eatchicago wrote:PS -- Steve, I also took the train once, but the whole trip was marred by a massive family-murder plot that was foiled by a precocious little Belgian man....wait...I think that was a movie. I was never on the Orient Express....never mind.

During our trip, I kept expecting Hercule Poirot to appear, alas, he never did. The only strangely amusing thing that happened was that we were befriended by a Japanese couple because they had the same camera as we did. They did not speak a word of English and we did not speak a word of Japanese (other than that which is necessary to order sushi). We had a good time nonetheless.

Hi Steve,

I once saw the Orient Express train itself, I want to say Vienna, but I am not quite sure.

The name Orient Express is either contested or openly available. There was a Russian joint venture Orient Express tooling around in the late 80's early 90's; it may well still be in existence; which did did finish in Peking. I knew a Swiss national who worked for a Soviet, then Russian, bank who was a guest in one of their first tours. He loved the experience and the gracious style on the train. In both your experiences, trips of a lifetime.

My Dad suggested I might want to take the Orient Express. I declined because his version was not the high style you enjoyed. It would have been the steerage class version, where you run out onto the platform at stops to buy food from private vendors earning a few kopeks. No fine toilets but a hole in the floor to aim at ... I shudder at the thought.

I'm not a train buff per se, though I have been on a few of the great train rides: my favorite was the Blue Train from Cape Town to Johannesburg, South Africa. Gold dust in the windows to reflect the sun away. Beautiful.

Cathy,

This was the Simplon Orient Express (not to be confused with any other "Orient Express" that may still be running in Cental Asia), which is the ressurected version of the posh train that used to run from Istanbul to ???. These days, it runs only between London and Venice.

It's been a few years since we have eaten there, but I pass by frequently as it is on the best route between home and library. The posted menu has the combination menu at 15.95 per person for two or more. We had this with my parents quite some years ago, and it was quite a feast. Main dishes are mostly 10.95 to 13.95 and come with starch item and vegetable.

One old rule here was stick to the Serbian items because execution was dependably good. The same could not have been said for some of the others.

Unless things have changed, there is no printed wine list. This makes the wine selection something of a crap shoot. Of course, unless one is expert in wines from the former Yugoslavia, a printed wine list might not be of much help beyond giving a sense of prices.

Things don't get lively until 9 PM or later. Get there between 8 and 9 if you want a quiet start with entertainment not starting until dessert time.

IIRC Simplon opened in the late 1970s before Miomir's problems with the IRS shut down his Serbian Club.

It's been a while for me, too, but we had a really nice meal there. I had some sort of carnivore combo off the Serbian menu that included a tasty homemadesausage, a juicy pork chop, and something else (not unidentifiable, just forgotten). It was quite a deal. I remember the chicken pate free appetizer as being pretty good.

The waitress was great and the proprietor brought us over free shots of....something....very strong. We went early and were the only folks there, but we felt extremely welcomed without being hovered over. A nice meal.

I went there with my parents today for my birthday; I had been in the mood for something Balkan. We ate at 7:00; there was only one other table in use (probably a good thing for my dad, who doesn't really like eating in crowded places). I was the only one interested in the Russian salad/boiled egg portion of the appetizer, but everyone enjoyed the liver pate. I agree with the previous poster that the cheese spread was extremely bland by itself, though mixing it with the liver pate resulted in something tasty. The soup was an extremely good chicken soup.

I had cevapcici and mucalicka (thanks to Rich4 and Mike G. for recommending the latter); my dad had mucalicka and my mom had the pork kabob (whose name I forget). Everybody was happy with their food. The texture of the cevapcici was a bit different than I remembered from the last time I had them (somewhere else), which must have been at least 20 years ago. The mucalicka was absolutely delicious; I was surprised it was so rich given its ingredients (the server told me that the sauce was simply the juice from the pork); however I concentrated on the cevapcici since I thought the mucalicka would probably reheat better (it struck me as the sort of dish that might be even better the next day).

For dessert, I had the walnut crepe and my parents each had apple strudel. The crepe was really more like a savory crepe than a sweet one; not quite what I was expecting but very good nonetheless. The strudel was also not particularly sweet (neither of my parents are terribly into sweets) and had a bread-pudding like texture.

The service was quite efficient (but then again, the place was hardly crowded). The tab with tax and tip came to around $80 (nobody had any drinks), a little bit high because I ordered two entrees and the desserts were fairly pricy (the crepes were $3.50 and the strudel were $4.50 each).

Simplon's definitely for carnivores only; just about all the entrees are based on veal, pork, or beef. Sweet-lovers should skip the desserts and run over to Taste of Heaven, Zephyr or even Margie's afterwards.

Parking in the neighborhood was quite scarce at 7:00 on a Tuesay night (I wound up parking in front of Spoon Thai, which I have yet to visit); if I were going there on the weekend, I'd definitely take the Brown Line for at least the last leg of the trip.