Lunch in 30: Leona's

I'm gradually working my way down Miner Street to give you an idea where the best places are to eat in downtown Des Plaines. So far, we've had Japanese at Dotombori, Thai at Thai Square, and this week Americana at Leona's.

Leona's is a local chain with 14 branches spread around the Greater Chicagoland area. The Des Plaines location is right across the street from the Metra station, making it extra convenient for business travellers going in or out of Chicago. Of the restaurants on the Miner Street Strip this is hands down the largest. The smallest tables seat four, with roomy booths for six and large round tables in back for eight. It would be very easy to bring an entire office over for lunch one afternoon.

The dark interior features oversized prints of vintage Italian advertising posters by Gino Boccasile.  Wood trim, a well stocked bar, and high ceilings hint they're shooting for an upscale vibe. That made the paper napkins and plastic tablecloths a disappointment at a restaurant where menu items start at $12 for sandwiches and hover around $20 for entrees.

Instead of my usual stealth solo lunches, I brought a friend along for this outing. We were both surprised by the big screen TV's in every corner blaring music videos. It gave the restaurant an atmosphere somewhere between Cardinal Fitness and a Journey's shoe store.

Leona's advertises your choice of eight lunches they can get to your table in twelve minutes. The porktastic sandwich offerings include a Turkey B.L.T., a Chicken Club Wrap, and a Tuscany Chicken sandwich - all of which come with a healthy topping of bacon. Since we're girls, both of us opted for the lighter soup, salad and bread option. I may be a girl, but since I was hungry, I threw on an appetizer of chicken fingers for us to split.

The chicken fingers were surprisingly good. I don't say that often. Most of the time chicken fingers are a blight on an otherwise good menu. However the oversized strips were extremely moist without being greasy, and were coated in a crispy batter which fell somewhere between heavy tempura and light chicken fried steak. The end result was a lot like a fish fry with a tasty chicken interior. The lemon wedges alongside dipping sauces only added to the effect. The twelve minute lunch menu includes an order of 3 with a side of fries.

Both soups were impressively dense. Imagine a moist bowl of well seasoned vegetables interspersed with large chunks of white chicken. My bowl was so packed there was barely room for broth. The minestrone was equally dense - both rib sticking soups great for a cold winter day.

The salads were a reasonable lunch size with a single large chunk of carrot, cucumber, and red bell pepper atop a bed of lettuce. They came with a warm loaf of white bread topped with garlic salt. I found the bread fairly average, but my lunch companion couldn't stop eating it. The soft herbed butter with parsley and garlic did add nicely.

It took fifteen minutes to be served our twelve minute lunches, but that included the appetizer. I consider 3 mintues a great margin of error.  If you're in a hurry and want the kind of balanced lunch you always say you'll make at home but honestly never get around to packing, the soup, salad and bread make a hearty lunch that will leave you feeling full while also feeling proud of yourself for eating your vegetables. Spying on other tables it seemed the sandwich options, while notably less healthy, were seductively large with a generous offering of fries.

The meal was supposed to come with a helping of famous "Leona's cake," which never arrived. We watched other people enjoy their cheesecake topped brownies with a sigh. While the prices for a lunch special were reasonable, neither me nor my lunch companion could see spending $21.95 on a trio of steak sliders for dinner, $23 for ribs, or $17 for a plain cheese pizza.

Two lunch combo meals, one iced tea, and a splitable appetizer came to $30. I'd recommend them for lunch, but at those dinner prices there are an assortment of more affordable Des Plaines restaurants with food just as good.

ADDRESS:  1504 Miner Street
PHONE: 847-759-0800
PRICE: $$$ ($12-20 entrees)
DECOR: 88 (upscale chain with good choice of art)
HOURS: 11:00 a.m. to midnight
FOOD: 85 (hearty lunch options but overpriced for dinner)