One Year Old Birthday Party at Maggiano's - Schaumburg, IL

I attended my nephew's daughter's one year old birthday party yesterday at Maggiano's Little Italy in Schaumburg.

The photos of the food are posted above.

What's nice at Maggiano's for these types of events is that they will bring out more food for you if you request it.  So of course, our table kept requesting it!

I think my favorite was the Pork Loin and Mashed Potatoes, although all of it was great.  I had plenty of food to eat and even brought home the extra salad since several of my table-mates did not eat the salad.  Why let it go to waste?  Besides, I liked it.  Avocados, goat cheese (I believe), and more... what's not to like?

The calamari is always a favorite and the fried zucchini (not pictured) was nice as well.  Several people asked for more fried zucchini without the added parmesan cheese sprinkled on it.  Everything here seems to have cheese, but that's common at Italian restaurants.  But if you don't like cheese, it's hard to like the offerings here.  Luckily for me, I like cheese!

The Profiteroles (cream puffs) with ice cream was good too!  Nice dessert.  Fruit was also there for those not into cream puffs.

Overall, it was both a nice party and great food.  Recommended!

Happy Lamb Hot Pot - Naperville, IL

Click here to see a quick video!

My daughter and son-in-law took my wife and me to Happy Lamb Hot Pot restaurant in Naperville, IL for my birthday lunch.  My daughter and I share our birthdays on the same day!

Happy Lamb Hot Pot is one of the few hotpot restaurants in the Chicago area and it did not disappoint.  Lots of meat and veggies for the all you can eat option.  You can also get predetermined hotpot ingredients, but we decided we wanted to pick what we wanted.

We only ordered once and it was enough.  We had a lot of ingredients and I left there quite full.  We had everything from lamb, beef, various meatballs, fishballs, quail eggs and more.  It kept me busy eating and cooking in the hotpot.

I would have liked it better if the restaurant had a grill alongside the hotpot, but I suppose that's more for the Korean BBQ fans.  Still, the soup bases we chose were good.  We had a tomato based soup on one side and a spicy soup base for the other.  The spicy was loaded with hot peppers and garlic.  I was burping that up all day!

It's expensive, but it was fun.  I'm not sure I would on my own... instead, hotpot is designed as a social event, so be sure to go with a group of people.  I think no more than four people to a table makes the most sense.

Thanks to my daughter and son-in-law for the lunch!  Afterwards, we went back to their place and I received a very nice gift which I will do a video on later!