While traveling to Chicago, I was again faced with the usual challenge – finding good or decent food at the airport. When I landed, I was very hungry, as it was a very early flight and I didn’t eat any breakfast before departing JFK. As I walked towards the ground transportation, all I saw was some coffee shops, fast food restaurant, and gift shops. Until, I spotted a lovely looking place with a lovely name! In the middle of cold Winter and much snow, who wouldn’t want to step into a Summer House in Santa Monica??? Right?

They had good amount of seating for an airport, and decorated nicely with hanging plants, wooden ceiling, and lights hanging from the ceilings. It was a nice little oasis in the busy Chicago airport. I think they did great job at the design, it certainly transported me to a cute Summer House, even for a short time.

The furniture also helped with the theme, I really liked the white wicker patio chairs. Not only they look cute, but also much more comfortable to sit on than plastic or metal chairs. Their lighting fixture also made me imagine a summer house somewhere in the warm weather, especially against the wood ceilings and white-washed wood walls.

So, let’s talk about the food. As I mentioned, I was very, VERY hungry. I was up since around 3am, got on the flight around 6:30am, and arrived Chicago around 9:30am. As I waited in line to order my food, I saw they had some yummy looking cookies in the window display. I thought why not get myself a cookie while I wait for the food? To tell you the truth, they looked so good that I wanted one of the cookies regardless… I chose the one called “Crispy Chocolate Chip” cookie ($3.50). It had squared of rice crispie treats on it, and I love rice crispie treats, so it was no brainer. And let me tell you, it was HUGE! It was so big that I kind of got nearly full with it. Well, with that much sugar, I can see I would be full with it. It was good, a bit too sweet, maybe really too sweet…it gave me a sugar rush and woke me up. LOL.

Then the food was ready, so I went to the counter to pick them up. I ordered The Original Morning Sandwich ($8.99), which comes with scrambled eggs, tomato, and choice of meat on English muffins. I chose chicken sausage. It also had a choice of mayo or spicy mayo, and I got spicy mayo. I also ordered Crispy Hashbrowns ($2.99). I was excited for hashbrown, as I always liked hashbrown. When I saw their square hashbrown in a box, I was a bit sad. It was very different from what I imagined. It would’ve been ok if it was great, but it had no flavor… It needed seasoning or something, salt, pepper, whatever. I didn’t bother looking for them, so I just had half or less, and gave up.

Sandwich was pretty good, especially compared to the hashbrown. The chicken sausage had pretty good flavor. It was really big too, since I was kind of full with the huge cookie, this sandwich was too much for me to finish. I was surprised how much portion they provided, very generous. I didn’t taste any spicy mayo, not even a little. The tomato was on the bottom, given the extra texture and refreshing flavor. The egg was more of a square thing, again, different from the fluffy scrambled eggs that I was imagining. As I ate more of the sandwich, I noticed oil collected on the bottom of the  box for both hashbrowns and sandwich. So I guess they are not very healthy… They didn’t feel greasy as I was eating them though.

The staff there was ok, polite enough but not overly friendly. The overall experience was…well, just a-ok. I liked the cookie, but again, it was a bit too sweet. It would have been better if I had someone to share the huge cookie with. The same goes for the sandwich. Will not recommend the hashbrown. That is the dilemma when you have to travel alone… This spot was good for an alternative option at the airport. Not great food, but good to have more options at a limited place.

Summer House Santa Monica – O’Hare International Airport, 10000 Ohare Way, Chicago, IL 60666