Things To Do

Urbana Boulders

Where we met! Our favorite bouldering gym/community center in town.

Urbana's Market at the Square

A beautiful and fun outdoor farmer's market. Saturday morning 7-12. Great local produce, meat, eggs, honey, flowers, baked goods, crafts, etc. Stango Zambian restaurant sets up a stand with tasty meat and vegi pies as well as spicy ginger juice. Great place to hold hands with someone nice and smell the flowers.

Golden Harbor Authentic Chinese Cuisine

Great for family style dining. The crispy tofu is heavenly. They have those lazy susan tables (that always seem pretty hardworking when we’re there) and some seriously large tables. Go if you want to try 12 different things with 11 different people

Hound's Court Bar

Little taverny spott with some brewskis. It’s in the center of the walkable downtown Champaign with lots of mostly-american/western food around. Fernando’s food truck is nearby if you want some Mexican food. We’ve spent many-an-hour in this pub when it was the Blind Pig. Addendum: go to Barrelhouse instead. The beers here will suck until they start serving Blind Pig brews again (ownership change happened recently for both bar and brewery)

Neil St. Blues

Southern cuisine. Good place if you want some solid vegan options. Also might raise your blood pressure a bit, but in a delicious way.

The Main Scoop

Little ice cream shop with good ice cream. With Oberweis being closed on campus, this might be where you get your fix.

Shiquan Wonton

(Our favorite date night restaurant in town). This might be a bit too adventurous for some, but it’s a fun adventure for others. Szechuan and mixed Chinese Food.

Rose Bowl Tavern

There’s normally live music and cheap drinks at the Rose Bowl! There’s bar food at Bunny’s next door. The spicy cheese curds are 🤌

Susuru Ramen

Yummy ramen and some other Japanese snacks. Recently dethroned our old favorite ramen place to take the top spot!

Krannert Art Museum

idk heard it’s really good, but was too busy doing other exciting central illinois things to get around to it. Possibly a good place to spend some time if you aren’t into ultra long distance running or cross country skiing (whatever is weather appropriate)

San Maru Korean Restaurant

Came in here and saw Randy eat the spiciest pepper ever and not shed a tear

The Himalayan Chimney

Indian food that is good. Yum.

Caffe Paradiso

Cute little cafe. Might have reduced hours after the school year, but it doesn’t look any less cute when you’re peering longingly into the dark cafe after hours

Avionics - Flying Machine Coffee

Tasty coffee. Yum.

Cloud Mountain Kombucha

Local kombucha with local ingredients

Siam Terrace

Kung Fu Tea

Best place for a fun boba drink in town. Also have sushi burritos

The Bread Company

European kinda place. yum.

Aroma garden

Newer Chinese restaurant in town that is good and gives a lot of food per dollar spent. Easy parking

Huaraches Moroleon

A favorite Mexican spot.

Dos Reales Mexican Restaurant

Cheap margaritas!!!!!! Fun fact: this building used to be a KFC where Josie’s dad worked at in high school. Now it’s a Mexican place with astoundingly cheap margs. Rip KFC.

Baldarotta's Porketta & Sicilian Sausage

Ugh it’s that kind of Italian-American deliciousness that doesn’t care if you have heart disease in a few years. Yay sausage sandwiches!

Seven Saints

Fun American food

Common Ground Food Co-op

Specialty grocery store with vegan to-go meals and other healthy/special options. If you have a dietary restriction, you’re likely to be able to find something here.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Take a walk through the quad. It is a a beautiful campus, in full bloom. And the undergrads will be gone for the summer! Walk along Green Street in Urbana, make your way to the Grainger Engineering Building, and walk South. It is a beautiful place. You may even stumble upon the oldest continuously running experimental crop field in America! (Exciting!).

Matcha En

Asian ice cream. It took years before ice cream places started to open up around campus and you best bet we were putting them both on this list. I mean, I love bubble tea, but the novelty is kinda lost on you when there are 7 spots in a single square mile.