Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wans I'm in Chicago home to some gigantic sandwiches today. I'm going to take you on a huge sandwich tour of Chicago and we are going to eat a sandwich that was rated as one of the best sandwiches in all of America Oh, it smells so good. These are monstrous. It is gigantic and we have made it to the first location.

It's so iconic dating back to 1946. Welcome to Riob Benny's and among many things I mean it's a full Italian American restaurant. but they are most well known for pizzas, but also the king-sized breaded steak sandwich. And if you look over here on the window by USA Today Ted Berg 2015 he named it the best sandwich in the world.

Many of the Windy City's sandwich offerings are undoubtedly delicious. None of several I have sampled comes anywhere close to Ric Bin's breaded steak. This place has so much history it dates back to 1946. It's under the highway and you walk inside and you can just feel the history.

The Heritage You can smell the delicious food. so very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you Mark! So we've been here since 1946. We sell uh Italian Ameran food uh fast casual.

We do uh deep fried bread and steak that was known as the best sandwich in the world by USA Today Awesome! Um and yeah we've uh yeah for over 75 years now we've been doing this so City and are a lot of the recipes and dishes your family, family recip they all. the The restaurant was started by my grandfather in 1946 and there was recipes he took over from Italy uh from his own family. So yeah, we're doing a lot of those still the same recipes. Awesome Awesome! So it's so cool to be here and again.

This is such an iconic Place in Chicago and we're going to head back to the kitchen right now to see some of their Specialties being made. Okay, oh man, that's going in that what exactly is that? that's a a piece of steak? Yeah Skirt Steak: We trim it, flatten it out, bread it, and then, uh, deep fry it. All right? That's going straight into the deep fryer. It's like a blanket blanket of steak.

Once we have that nice golden brown color, we're good to go. Okay, oh perfect. And so that entire steak is going into one sandwich. Yeah, that's going to get dipped into some marinara sauce and then uh.

we put it on some french bread loaded with some cheese and peppers and you're good to go. Take our steak, dip it in the entire thing it submerged. That is awesome. Goes on to the bread.

Wow. And this is some mozzarella. Che mozzarella cheese shredded every day okay, and some janire going on. Okay, and what exactly are Janers? This is a mixture of peppers, cauliflower, carrots, olives and it's a kind of vinegar.

Okay, so it's they're They're all pickled. Yep, you have some veggies, that is it. and we wrap it up. Okay, so the cheese just melts from the heat of the the yeah, the cheese is going to melt all the way through.

It's a bit of a messy sandwich, but that's all the fun of it. I'm okay with Messy that is incredible. You can already tell how all the flavors just just kind of mix and mingle and melt together. Next up, what are you making? this one is the breaded chicken.

This one. This one we use for the Chicken Basio sandwich. Okay, so we deep fry this and that's going to get dipped into some garlic butter. Yep, once we have that golden brown color on this as well.

Okay, we good to go. So for the chicken buio. Okay, take the breaded chicken here. you're good and you said that's garlic butter.

This is all yeah. Garlic butter. Oh man, that's the chicken Visio sandwich. It's an Italian Chicago dish invented right here in Chicago It includes chicken potatoes I think garlic probably is some oregano and some seasoning other seasonings in there and we ate it as one of the dishes invented in Chicago Uh, but this is RI Bean's own.

take their own variation, their own just interpretation of chicken Vasio in a sub and that breaded chicken cullet. that's quite an amazing dip into that melted it's a it's It's not a dip, it's a submerge. It's a swim. It's a full swim in garlic butter.

I guarantee you a plate of bricks would weigh less than Rcoin whiches these are monstrous. And we got two of the king-sized uh chicken Visio subs and two of the king-sized breaded steak Subs Plus fries on top. Plus they also have a special uh breaded steak Pizza that we had to try one king-sized breaded steak for you Thank you I think I mean I'm so glad this is my first meal today. Oh man, look at this is a this is a normalized plate.

This is the sub the breaded steak sub at. Rico Benny's they expecting? uh, one person to finish this whole thing? It's a monstrosity. It's Mega oh my goodness. I don't even what? What do what do I have here? What? wait I'll just quickly explain to you what happened in the kitchen.

So while I was back in the kitchen we got to we got to tell Phil and Derek on the it's literally they have this piece of thin and he said it was skirt steak. It's literally the size of a face towel and when and it's completely breeded coated in breading. He puts it completely in the oil to deep fry it and at that point I literally thought it was a a un inflatable floating mattress. The in the in the oil Oh my goodness.

once that is completely golden. once it's completely crispy and golden, it's not again. I Already mentioned this in the kitchen a couple times but it's not just like a splashing of of tomato sauce. it's a full submerge.

It's a dunk. It goes swimming fully dunked into the the tomato sauce or tomato gravy as it's called. He actually has to fold it in half before it fits in the bread. Okay, then literally a oversized handful of shredded mozzarella goes into the center and a big giant scoop of Chicago's own Gerardin, Gerardin Close Jardineras Gire gire gire goes in the center.

It's wrapped up, The cheese is never cooked, it just melts within the hot tomato sauce and breaded steak. Oh my goodness. and that's the the Legends What's called one of the the greatest sandwiches on Earth Let's unwrap it I Am so excited it's so hot it's so Saucy And he said it might get a little messy. it's a little sloppy and totally oh.

it's already just juicing out. Oh it is in half. It is sliced in half. Okay, takes three papers.

There's so much juice. Oh, are you ready for the reveal? The entire Center is just filled with melted cheese And the Gerard and that breaded steak. Oh man oh that's unbelievable. You can feel and he he himself mentioned that it's going to get messy I mean I was looking for the bread I Just kept finding more and more tomato sauce.

Look at that cheese. Oh my goodness, look at that cheese. Now are you doing the full unwrap technique? Or are you? do? you have a different strategy in mind? I I did full unwrap I Wanted to see all that was in there so I can see all the secrets. although I don't know if there's a I don't know if there's much hidden in this.

Oh I think I'm going to do the half unwrap and then half hold it. Cradle it, cradle it in the bottom. All right, here we go. I think I got it the absolute.

An absolute icon of Chicago and one of the world's greatest sandwiches. I Even take a bite Good. Oh oh wow. I have tomato paste on my wrist and forearm I have tomato sauce up my nose and on my lips.

Oh man, there's no clean way to take a bite. That's part of the deliciousness of it. It's just going to go up your nostrils I don't even know how to describe what I feel like I Got to take a second bite just to actually enjoy and get some of those flavors in there again. Okay again.

it's one of those sandwiches where you actually have to close your eyes or it's dangerous. It's risky if you eat the sandwich with your eyes open, it's risky. Oh wow, that is unbelievable Amazing. I Think this has just triumphant over you'll never.

You'll never look at any kind of like marinara sub meatball sub the same. This just totally totally levels it up. Totally totally blows it away. It reminds me of like a bigger, upgraded, tasty, sloppier meatball sub with all the Chicago fictions.

Everything better. Everything better than a meatball sub. Yeah! I Love the fact that I don't know how they kept the bread from getting soggy. at least the outside of the bread actually remarkably on the bottom, it's kind of clean.

How many blocks of cheeses did they put in this? He put an overflowing, gigantic handful I'm guessing he didn't have baby hands and I think was incredible. So you have like at least two or three layers of the bread breaded steak. You have the entire trough, it's like a boat full of the cheese melted cheese. and then you've got the Gerard which just provide.

I mean that's one of my favorite flavors of Chicago The chilies have some heat to them. they have some crunch to them. They have some acidity as well. acidity, some kind of like olive oil I believe as well.

They're juicy, they're refreshing. They're everything you could want in a pickled chili. This is. This is something truly magical apparently.

Wow, It really is unbelievably tasty and messy. Oh, it's so good. it's just comforting. Mhm.

it's like I'm sitting here thinking of like cold Chicago Winters Growing up, Oh, I Would have wanted nothing nothing more than to stuff my face with this constantly, but it's perfectly fine to eat it during the summer as well. You just might be sweating a little more a little bit more. Okay, should we move into the Chicken Vuo I I think I Okay, one more about it. go for it.

D Oh goodness he said. He also said to be careful because this one has a lot of Dripping melted butter. I'll tell you how you made this one. Oh go Yes this is a different one.

Chicken this one is the king. Oh look at that. Okay so this one is not quite as Saucy because it's it's um wasn't submerged in the the marinara in the the tomato sauce. However, how this one was made is it's chicken.

Okay breaded fully deep fried until crispy in the same way that the breaded steak was but in instead of dipping it, submerging it, letting it swim in the tomato gravy, he literally dunked it completely into melted garlic butter. the entire the entire thing before it goes into your sandwich. they said be careful of Dripping butter when you eat this one Hot, melted dripping butter, then mayonnaise goes in lettuce, tomato, onion. I Feel like this is like becoming a Chicago staple baptism with the aou beef baptism with the tomato sauce baptism with garlic butter.

they like baptizing things in Chicago that's what we're known for I Guess we'll see Yeah I Love that M Mhm Wow that really rich it's yeah. and the the Min is just sort of melted because of the hot cutlet into this grunny sauce that hydrates it. Oh man, it's so soft and tender man. The Buttery garlicky N I Kind of want to almost say it like tastes like a PoBoy It reminds me yeah, it actually reminds me of a PoBoy that is extremely tasty.

Oh my goodness it's so good you cannot go wrong with either one. literally. The word that comes to mind is comforting. They just just warm comforting food.

like I literally feel like the sandwich is hugging me. Um and I think that's that's true. Not only about the I mean about the food, but this entire Place Rco beans. I Think it's a place that is truly Italian American But Chicago immediately I mean it's under the highway.

It's a place like that. People have been coming for Generations the Loyalty Here, the family atmosphere, the history. It's just a place that you want to go to experience the authentic culture of. Chicago I think yeah yeah yeah.

I mean even I Think like when we first pulled up and we got kids running out with their sandwich with just smiling grinning ear to ear of excitement. um maybe trying to dodge a little bit of the rain as well. but yeah, just excited to get their sandwich and get back to the car so they can start eating. and now we know why they were so excited.

Oh my goodness, this will make every generation excited and it makes sense that they didn't eat it before cuz I don't think I could run after eating this. Moving back into the Breaded steak, look at that paper. It's almost never ending. like it just keeps on.

it keeps on giving. Oh man, and I think what truly makes it for me I mean the entire sum of all the ingredients. but those those pickled peppers just add so much to it. Man What! What a sandwich! it's truly a gem of.

Chicago Okay I got the chicken on wrap back. Oh man, that will That will make you take some deep breaths, some gasps, some food gasps. Okay if things could not get more cheesy and more Breaded steaky. Did you know that Rickle Beans is actually very famous for their Pizza introducing? Did you just give me the biggest piece? Derek no that's the smallest I think it was the closest one.

So would this would this be? This isn't deep dish. It's kind of like halfway in between thin crust and deep dish. Yeah, kind of like pan pan pizza. Okay, okay and they are and they are sold by the slices here.

So a lot of people come in for a slice of pizza. Um, that is a lot of cheese and this is the breaded steak pizza. So breaded steak all on the bottom. a load of cheese on top that is classic I mean almost like the texture of sausage.

except breaded steak, that same delicious tomato gravy and all of that cheese breaded steak, in a different form. Rickle Beans is incredible. That was truly magnificent. Gigantic.

Iconic. one of of the most fulfilling sandwiches that you'll ever have. When you're in Chicago you have to get yourself a breaded steak. So we're already off to an incredible start to the sandwich tour.

in Chicago Can you hear somebody singing some Opera in the background? But anyway, we are in the shadows of downtown and next up dating back to 19 42, we are going to the original the Classic Jewish Deli. The sandwiches that they serve look unbelievable. Huge big family tables. You can come here with your entire family, relatives, friends, big groups.

and they serve massive portions. but again it dates back to 194 to it's family run. it has this. even though it's huge, it has this warm friendliness to it and it is all.

I guess I mean it is called the cafeteria because it's all served cafeteria style. You walk through the line, uh, you make your order and then you can find a seat. uh, wherever you you find an empty table. I'm Dan Rasin I'm fourth generation owner here at Manise.

Uh, we've been really fortunate enough to be here in Chicago since 1942 and uh, we just really are well known for our giant corn beef and pastrami sandwiches. But most of all we just feed everybody. Like when you look in our dining room, there's all walks of life here. We got people from all sides of the city and all over the world.

so we're just really happy to have everyone here and hope you enjoy the food. So you walk in the front door, you immediately grab a tray cuz it's all cafeteria style self-service You can grab spoons, forks, what we be needing, maybe forks and knives, maybe nothing at all. all and then you go down the cafeteria line. They're famous for their deli sandwiches their Reuben their pami.

They're corned beef but they actually have a huge selection of different dishes and I think daily specials as well. So there's beef stew, there's chicken pot pie, spaghetti and meatballs, liver and onions, macaroni and cheese, turkey drumsticks, even beef short ribs. So like the full meal, there's Mato ball soup, all the classic Jewish uh dishes as well. and then if you keep on moving down is where we'll get to the deli section.

I think we'll go for two of the reubin. What would you recommend for the um corn be corn beef. Yeah! for the for the meat com you get both combo. Oh yes please both please.

The Reuben is one of their signature sandwiches and it all begins with rye bread which is toasted with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut toasted until it's caramelized, Brown until the cheese starts to melt and we're going to watch as they add in the meat. Thank you thank you Oh man that is gormus. Wow ying and Pam are getting some fresh fruit here. Nice! Yep.

Oh there's watermelon strawberries so you just walk through the line. it's really convenient. I mean self- serve or you just order and they prepare it right in front of you. then you take it to the front to pay.

Thank you very much. Here we go. Got it? the Reuben Oh man they are Huge! It's a mountain of meat on your Reuben oh my goodness. Two reubin coming up.

that is not two rubben rub it's 20 ruin it's a it's a Reuben Mountain we oh I love it already! What a sandwich! It is Gigantic! I'm really hoping the plate weighs that much and not the the sandwich you can get. the Reuben you can get either you can choose either corn beef or pastrami but our waiter he immediately recommended a combination of both. so that's what we went for. And then they ask you if you want a potato cake when you order your sandwich and that's something that's kind of new to me.

I Don't think I've had a potato cake of this style before and because I had no idea what I was doing I said yes. The answer is always Yes, The answer is yes. Here we go I Don't even know where Overflowing: A massive look at the amount of overflow meat overflow. Oh my goodness.

I'm losing my meat Here we go. Let's go. Oh Oh wow m it's so thick. It's so much meat, but it's cut paper thin.

Oh wow. I Love that pepper. mhm. The crust on the either the Pami or the the corn beef on a corn beef.

M That pepper on a corn beef is wonderful. It's so much flavor, that brininess, that yeah, that pepper, that spice, that saltiness as well. Get a flavor of the Rye carway seed? maybe? yeah, What immediately stands out to me is how thinly shaved that meat is. but then maybe 50 layers of it.

50 is maybe more? Yeah, underestimate and yeah. Has that sourkraut for some nice little sour punch in there. A little bit of acidity as well. and then swiss cheese I think it's Swiss yep, melted.

Swiss They have it actually like such a system down that when you order it's just like the bread is ready to go. I Noticed they also have some H radish mustard specialized here at Manny's Manny's own horseradish mustard since 1942. An absolute must take this off. Set aside for now, you see the meat just glistening in there.

Load it up. it's really really good. What's crazy is even without the mustard like the sandwich isn't dry like the bead is still plenty juicy. like oh yeah and you know that's one of the best parts is at the bottom of your plate when you get all that meat drippage.

oh yeah immediately. that sweet horseradish mustardy flavor that compl compliment it exceptionally. that horseradish, literally goes straight through the nose, but it's so wonderful. And the I love that sauerkraut as well.

that vinegary acidity as well. Additionally, two pickle spears. All those pickles are amazing. So crispy, juicy, the right amount of saltiness compliments your sandwich perfectly.

What an absolute just face planter! Chicago Classic Here literally stuff your face open wide and just take it all in like it is wonderful. I Think just close your eyes, move your face towards the sandwich with your mouth open and then see what happens. Okay, we've got the potato cake. Wow Have you felt how heavy this potato cake is? No.

I did not. It feels like the it's about the weight of a brick. Oh that is dense, but it's spongy at the same time. Yeah, the massive I Mean it's the size of a giant burger and equally heavy.

just as heavy. It's kind of a cross between hash browns and mashed potatoes made into a Patty but it has this unique sponginess to it. Yeah, which almost feels like egg. I Don't know what that is.

It held together with egg. possibly it could be then deep fried. Yeah, it's definitely hearty. definitely hearty.

partway through eating our first half of Sandwich Dan Who is part of the it's still Family run? Who is part of the founding family of Manise? Uh, he said did you? did you guys get the Thousand Island dressing to dip it in Which we totally missed. Totally would have gone uneaten. Yeah. so he came back with some of it for us to dip.

He said dip it in do yes. Oh nice. SC some meat you can. it's close to very very close.

y mhm It was right. it's so cool and refreshing. I'll take that any day at a week. and creamy with a like that combination of well when it comes to thousand is usually it's like a mixture of mayonnaise and ketchup and ketchup right? or k uh, either ketchup or French ruring sometimes.

Okay, okay so it really gives that kind of sweetness but sourness and creaminess? Yeah, and you get that fatty that fatty creaminess from the Mayo and I like how it's cold so that gives you like this refreshing complexity to it at the same time. I Feel like I've taken a bath in pastrami? There we go. I'm just going to pour a little bit on. Oh wow for this next bite.

That, Island is incredible. That was wonderful I got to take a break and stretch. Oh got to make space for another 5 lbs. All of that drippage meat drippage mustard.

oh man, that was a good bite. Yep. I almost exended my jaw. Oh man, that was an absolute topnotch experience.

We ended up meeting with the owner and they I mean explain to us some of the history and then they're just so welcoming. so friendly. They manage it so well. just control the quality, the atmosphere and that's I Think part of it is just the warm friendliness even though it's a huge place.

and I mean you're guaranteed the best quality highly. High Highly recommended Manny's cafeteria and delicatess it in Chicago Next up we are going to JP Graziano It's an Italian grocer and they specialize in some of the greatest sandwiches in the city. Some of the deli sandwiches and they date back to 1937. It's a really cool place.

I mean this area of town has really modernized, but you can feel the heritage in history in here. and I'm sure I mean they've renovated, but they've kept some of the original signs, the meats, the groceries, the sandwich Shere right here at the front. I Ordered what is their house specialty, the Mr G and that includes sharp provolone, hota, banoa salami, truffle mustard, balsamic vinegret hot oil, fresh basil marinated Roman style artichoke, lettuce, red wine vinegar, and oregano. Oh, that's a lot of ingredients, but this is another monster of a sandwich.

It's big, it's refreshing. This is a really cool place here we go that is remarkably light you say that and feels I Don't believe you refreshing in comparison to the other. that does feel like in comparison to the other gigantic sandwiches we've had so far. that is very.

This is definitely probably the the least calorie Rich of all the sandwiches we've had into. Chicago One of the most aromatic sandwiches I will say that oh it smells so good. The aroma I Think what especially smells good are the all those pickling Peppers that they do in house. Yes, the oh man I just cannot.

This is one word I want to get down in Chicago jar G Gardera there gardera y there you goer Garder Okay, so JP Graziano we got their specialty house specialty. the Mr G vinegar in there. Um, there was a dozen different ingredients in this sub. ready.

Oh yes. oh that looks good. The provolone? incredibly fresh. yes, oregano in there.

some lettuce? Definitely. olive oil. You could just smell it coming off of it. You said provon the cheese right? Yep.

okay. and then we got Bretta oh if I remember it's um, like some kind of like paraham and P Pudo Pudo not brushetta yeah goodness. And then oh, there we go. some mustard.

a little bit more olive oil on that bottom layer as well. That is refreshing. Oh the bigil the fresh bigel that they added in there. oh I definitely didn't catch that the first time Mhm that is remarkably light, remarkably light and fresh.

Like, much different than. uh, we'll just say some of the other Heavy Hitters some of the monstrosities of sandwiches that we've eaten in Chicago Mhm. but I think you can tell what right off the bat that they really care about the ingredients that they use. Yeah, I mean if they didn't make it themselves, they imported it from some of the most from the greatest suppliers around the world.

Italy Um, probably from some grandmother making it. That's what. I'm guessing they obviously care about the ingredients very much. so it's you can taste the quality of it.

It's definitely not over the top M and yet it's a it's a really nice balance of flavor, the richness of the Pudo and the the other meats with the provolone. MH Quite a s thick slice of provolone. It really is. Um, the refreshing basil and artichokes I mean it.

It really is it. Like just makes me think you have good simple quality ingredients. Put them all together and it just makes for a delicious appeal like appealing and appetizing sandwich. like it get better? Yeah.

good quality ingredients you can't beat anywhere. Really good. This is more of an everyday s kind of kind of feel to it. Not overly heavy, refreshing, tasty, very tasty.

This is one of those ones that you could tell as soon as you open the door literally smells like olive oil, oregano, basil and just like oh, this is going to be quality Quality Quality ingredients and what I was noticing is a lot of this area of town Mhm: Maybe it's continued to renovate, modernize and I mean this has been here the same and they have modern ice from the outside but you go inside and it immediately has that kind of old school charm. yeah since 1937? Yeah, 100% And Same location right? I think so I Believe So so it goes without saying. Chicago has some gig normous and extremely messy and extremely tasty sandwiches that you've got to try when you come to. Chicago A huge thank you to all of the people that were I mean the hospitality, the friendliness I'll have every place that we went in the description box below that you can check out and a big thank you to my brother-in-law Derek uh for joining me on this tour in Chicago and then finally a huge thank you to you for watching this video but also we're eating our way around Chicago I mean from deep dish pizza to the most iconic to the most uh to street foods to foods that were invented in Chicago So there's a lot more videos that you're going to want to check out.

Be sure to watch the videos all the Chicago food in this entire series. and I want to say a big thank you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below I'd Love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos.

Bye-bye from Chicago See you on the next video.