Susie's french fries make me happy!

Husband and I rented in Andersonville for 8 years before buying a house in North Mayfair. As far as proximity to restaurants/bars goes - we went from having a pretty good selection within walking distance to having Marie's to walk to. Which, of course, is better than having no worthy restaurant to walk to. (As an aside - if you haven't experienced Marie's decked out for the holiday's - go now. It's something else.)
Anyhow, had I known about Susie's before we moved, I would have regularly made the drive just for the fries. As a non-meat eater, fast food for me is all about the fries and the grilled cheese. Susie's fries are skin-on w/ just the right amount of grease and those wonderful overly-crisp charred bits at the bottom of the bag. Susie's grilled cheese is good, not great. I add grilled onions and tomatoes and self-apply a healthy amount of salt and pepper to it. If I could combine Susie's fries and Superdawg's grilled cheese (made with their dark bread and grilled onions,) I'd be in fast food heaven.

Marie's Pizza, Liquor & Lounge
4127 W Lawrence

Susie's Drive-In
4126 W Montrose

susies is awesome!!!

highly recommended is the confused chicken

its served on a 9" hoagie roll
pre cooked shredded chicken is thrown on teh grill with peppers, onions and more (mushrooms also i think)

it costs like $7 but its enourmnous

cant beat the fact that they are open 24/7

their fries are indeed great, very unique seasoning
similar to a BG fry seasoning

their large cheese fries is served in a taco shell bowl and it must be 2 pounds of cheese alone

Their milkshakes have been mentioned before, but I just want to second them. They are well made, not too thick, which I prefer, because you can actually drink them without popping out an eyeball. Nicely chocolatey, without being too sweet. And cheap! 2 20 ounce milkshakes for $5?! Can't beat it.

I'll have to try the fries, cheese fries and chocolate shakes are my "cravings". And it's 4 blocks away.

according to your location, you are in a susie's stronghold!
believe nothing kafein says! they are highly biased!

i have not sampled their shakes but they have probably 50 flavors, no exaggeration including many wild or borderline disgusting sounding flavors

also got to recommend the fantasy lounge 2 doors down
decent saganaki and at minimum a good place to tie one on before hitting up susies at 1am

Just moved into the area and I already know that having Susie's so close is going to be dangerous. I enjoy the smorgasbord of people almost as much as the extensive menu. The fries are delicious and I've found they even reheat moderately well(convection oven/toaster to 400 degrees for 2 minutes). Next trip to Susies(prolly tonight), a pound of fries for myself and a cornpole to boot. Any suggestions as to other delicious items on the menu?

Try the 'Italian sub' and the 'Philly Cheesesteak'. Authentic they're not. Delicious, in that Suzies way, they are. I also enjoy the Western Burger..basically a cheeseburger with grilled onions on Texas Toast.

I'm a big fan of the Western Burger, which is a patty melt of sorts with some kind of Russian dressing-like secret sauce on thick cut texas toast.

I have a special slot in my personal restaurant hall of fame for Susie's. We used to travel from the far northwest side -- at all hours -- to indulge in this shack's greasy decadence. I've always liked their burgers and their Italian beef -- it's not Johnnie's or even Al's, but it hits the spot. And the shakes are soul-satisfying.

Susie cheese fries were a staple in high school. I haven't been back, however, since my sister and I witnessed a drive by shooting in the parking lot!

JeanneBean wrote:Susie cheese fries were a staple in high school. I haven't been back, however, since my sister and I witnessed a drive by shooting in the parking lot!

Pretty much the same reasons I stopped going to Burger Kings in the suburbs.

And the iHop at Howard and Western, funny how that sort of thing will turn you off a place, eh?

Octarine wrote:And the iHop at Howard and Western, funny how that sort of thing will turn you off a place, eh?

I was kidding.

I live not too far east, & had been told about Susies years before.
Try the suicide fries, our friend said. Well, we finally did go & I ordered cheese fries. I am not quite sure what I really got. All I know is that there was a taco shell filled with fries & chickeny-like nuggets, smothered in cheese. I think it may have been the suicide bucket 'o fries.
It was awful. Awfully gross & good sort of, at the same time. I will say, I have never had the nerve to ask for it again. It was a little much. From that point on my husband declared that Susie's should have a wall mounted, coin operated defibrillator inside.

Everything about Susie's makes me happy....

Some of the shakes (some of these are made with fresh fruit):

Louise wrote:From that point on my husband declared that Susie's should have a wall mounted, coin operated defibrillator inside.

Nah ... what's to worry?



Do try Susie's corn pole, a cheese-stuffed, batter-dipped, deep-fried Polish sausage on a stick! (It's on the appetizer list.)

Susie's Drive-Thru
773/283-6544
4126-30 W. Montrose Ave.
Chicago

What are the menu items to not get? I've lived just down the street from there for over a year now but I try to visit places like Susie's sparingly. I finally went there about a month ago and had a gyros and couldn't make it through it. I totally understand that with a menu that large there are bound to be a few duds!

dreed wrote:What are the menu items to not get?

I'd skip the italian beef. It's 'ok' at best but you're really better off exploring the rest of the menu. Too bad because I really enjoy the giradiniera. It's made in-house and includes the unusual addition of cut corn and kidney beans.

Everythingabout Susie's makes me happy....

From that point on my husband declared that Susie's should have a wall mounted, coin operated defibrillator inside
Nah ... what's to worry?

Who knew?
That was very funny. We haven't been to Susie's in a while. Maybe we will have to make a trip this week.

LAZ wrote:Do try Susie's corn pole, a cheese-stuffed, batter-dipped, deep-fried Polish sausage on a stick! (It's on the appetizer list.)

Susie’s Corn Pole

I’ve driven past Susie’s Drive Thru a couple billion times over my life and never stopped in – I’m not sure why, perhaps because the place looks kinda dumpy. I was a bit shocked that some trusty LTH’er had yet to post a picture of the Corn Pole and decided to remedy the situation. It took a bit of doing to unlock B’s hands from the Wiimote, but I promised her we would not be looking for cicadas, this time.

Arriving at the site, B remarked that the place looked “lopsided” and I agreed, but in a fun-house sort of way.


Looking at the ginormous list of shake flavors, B exclaimed that she was in heaven. I wondered what baboon tastes like? Ordering the Corn Pole earned nary a snicker.


I was expecting it to be larger, but it was really about the size of any other corndog. Interesting enough, it was served with a Dijon mustard instead of the standard yellow. Noting that the stick spells out its name, I surmised that it was not an in-house made product, but I could be wrong.


Biting into it, the processed cheese started to ooze. I really didn’t detect anything “polishey” about the sausage – it tasted pretty much like a good hotdog. The batter coating has a nice crisp exterior. Mmm, pretty good!


On my third bite, melted cheese squirted out across the table in a majestic arc, landing on B’s bare arm. She jumped up and screamed in pain and surprise. Then she started running around shouting: “I’ve been injured by a Corn Pole. Get this deadly, molten, Corn Pole cheese off me! Get my lawyer on the cell!” I reminded myself to limit her TV time and enroll her in a drama class. Driving home, she repeatedly read aloud a lost dog sign, emphasizing the description of the “fluffy shitzu.”

Well, despite the non-fatal injury and potty mouth, we will return to sample some of those wacky shakes. Certaintly the Confused Chicken seems promising.


Oh yeah, and beware of slow kids.


-ramon

Nice pix, Ramon. Next time you go, try my go to sanwich, the western burger, which I've described in the past.

Made my maiden voyage to Susie's last week and in spite of some not-so-great ordering, managed to really enjoy it. This is one of those few times when I tried a place without reading up on it first. Yes, I'd seen this thread and figured from its title, that their fries were notable but that was about all I knew. I'd intentionally avoided reading it. Sometimes a boy likes a little bit of surprise served up with his lunch.

What I loved were the encased meats (hotdog and Makowski polish sausage), the plain fries (seasoned) and the toasted sesame rolls.


Preparing our bowl of chili cheese fries



Chili-cheese fries
Great fries, tasty chili and pretty awful cheese sauce.



Confused Chicken sandwich



Up close and personal with a Confused Chicken sandwich
For all its 'busy-ness' the confused chicken was a little bland for my taste.



Footsie Footsie Polish
I was told that this is called 'footsie footsie' because the polish and the roll are each a foot-long.



Fries
Fries, glorious fries!



Hotdog, not quite the better half of this dog

I'm actually grateful about the lackluster cheese sauce on the fries. The fries themselves were great and the chili was exactly what I was expecting. But if that cheese sauce had been tasty at all (I really prefer a Merkt's-based sauce), I probably would have snarfed the entire tortilla bowl of fries.

After our meal, my friend's interpretation was 'stick to the basics' but I knew, just looking at their crazy-fun menu, that there had to be some genuine winners hiding upon it, in plain sight. It's great to read this thread now and see some of the recommendations. I'll definitely keep them in mind next time around.

=R=

Dropped by Susie's last night about 10:30, and there was a camera crew there from Food Network, doing some shots up front and in the kitchen. It took forever to get my order, partly because they we're trying to get the right lighting to film its preparation.

It's for "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." I was just thankful that the loud, irritating host wasn't there.

I vote yes on the shake and the fries, but no on the "Ruben Dog." I'm forever spoiled by Doug's Tueben.

The Stalwart young men at Chicago Burger Project hit Susie's for fries this week and gave a nod to Steve Z on his choice of the Western Burger.

Alright I don't get this one at all. I went to Susie's today finally. Maybe I should have gotten hammered first. Cool place, like a fast food juke joint, but my lunch sorely lacked.

My order, western burger, small fries and chocolate shake.

Chocolate shake- My first impression was wow an icemilk shake people like this? THey put whipped cream on it, it grew on me after a few sips, not too thick, ok at best. So they have 50 ok flavors? OK?? Uh Huh??

Fries- I don't get it, they dropped the most beautiful looking fries for me in the fryer, so they were fresh, and beautiful. But they tasted straight up weird. It didn't taste like fast food, it didn't taste like a carnival (yuck) and to be honest it didn't taste good. People rave about these, but these strange tasting beings in a taco bowl with cheese sauce is a nightmare I bet. BIG THUMBS DOWN.

Better fries a billion other spots, especially Gene and Jude's, Doug's, Weiners circle etc

Western Burger- Mystery meat, looked like my high school cafeteria, with undercooked onions, a lttle bbq sauce and some grilled probably in butter texas toast. Hard to choke down.

You hear it's good for Susie's etc, but I might consider trying something different there, but man those fries were not cool

(Ok not looking to start a war, but that's my opinion)

Have a good weekend

Dave

maybe u got a bad batch of the fries; i like em better than gene and judes but that's just me

(Thanks to the member who helped me upload these )


Returning home late last night and wanted to get some comfort food/ or Punish my heart - I forget.
At any I hade the extreme foot long and confused chicken fries easy on the nacho cheese. Pictures via treo phone - sorry

Susie was a little off her game. The fries were underdone and not salted. And I have to agree with bluesman that they just did not taste good or like much of anything for that matter. I would whole heartedly disagree that these stand up to Parkys, G&J, the Maxwell Polish stands (independence s side of 290 well done fries are great and super cheap).
The extreme sandwich was slightly bland and the meat was sparse. Fortunately that sesame hoagie roll they use was great, it sure is better than the average french bread and stands up well to the gluttonous soppy goodness that is 12" of juicy beef, confused chicken, giardiniere, and cheese. I have never had a philly in Philadelphia, is the sesame roll standard? I wish they were more common here on any warm sandwich.

Though I never got through all the fries to really get at the taco bowl I ate a couple bites and it was the surprisingly good.

The sandwich was over ten bucks with the addition of the giardiniere and the meal in total was 19 bucks sans drink.

The menu there seams to keep growing. As I sat there for a long time with a crowd of other patrons trying to decide what to order I wondered if the menu is finally too complex or if Susie secretly had my number knowing that I would eventually have to try every new fangled item.

On another note the new gyros place next door to Susies has pretty limited hours but the fries are oversized fresh cut double fried. They are always very well done and crispy with a nice thick potato center. I really like them and have had pretty good luck with the standard fare on the menu.

FWIW, Susie's is no longer 24-hour. New hours are 9am-Midnight M-TH, 9am-3am FR/SAT/SUN.

From Block Club

Susie’s Drive-In Closes After 50 Years In Irving Park. If a sale of the building doesn't pan out, the owners could reopen the ice cream and fast food joint in October. But their plan is to permanently close.

Other than the French fries and the gritty old-school aesthetic, I never understood the hype behind this place. Nostalgia value I guess? At any rate I suspect the real estate it's sitting has become a bit too valuable to be occupied by a tiny burger shack surrounded by a lot of pavement.

I really did love those fries. Hadn’t been in many years though. The older I get the harder it is to work off those types of indulgences.