Since I wasn't living in the US at the time Ms Izard won her title, I did not know what type of food to expect. Talking about it last week with a a Chicago friend, she had mentioned that the food was "to your face". Reading reviews on Time Out Chicago, the food was described as typical meaty Chicago.
I love meat. I love Chicago food. I love "to your face" food. I was in for a feast. The only nagging feeling was the fact that the restaurant seemed overhyped. I tend to have prejudices over restaurants that everybody says are great. I know my approach is wrong. So I do make an effort to shed these prejudices away and enjoy my meal. Although the fact that it is impossible to book a table at a decent time without calling 2 months in advance put me in a bad mood. But hey, this will change, right?
But let's get into the details of it all.
The good
I love the decor: dark wood everywhere, an open kitchen visible at the bottom of the restaurant, a beautiful bar. I even liked their big painting with a stylized girl and a goat. The whole thing is trendy without being pretentious. I think the decor is definitively better than in other places roughly in the same category, such as The Publican or Purple pig.
The menu is presented in an interesting way: it is split in three parts, for vegetables (not necessarily vegetarian), fish and meat. The beer, wine and cocktail menu is the right size, at least for me. You do not have to go through tens of pages to find something you like. In this case, less is better.
And what about the food? Well, that's where some minor problems started. Let me clarify this immediately: we ate very well for the most part, and we all thought that the price/quality ratio was very good. And I do want to eat there again to try some other items on the menu. But there were at least two dishes that were, simply put, inedible.
But this is the good section, so let's forget the bad for a moment. The portions are small and they are made to be shared. Nothing wrong with it, and nothing new. But some of the dishes are very tasty:
- The green beans taste wonderfully. Although I must say that I HATE the way Americans eat their greens. To me they are way too raw. But it is not a problem with this restaurant, everywhere here is like this;
- The hiramasa crudo, a white raw fish, with pork belly was good;
- The octopus was tasty and well cooked. A bit more octopus in the mix would have helped though;
- The pretzel bread with the two spreads was delicious (although you had to pay for the bread...);
- The potato dumplings, served as dessert with figs and honey, were voted as very good by two of us at the table, and as good, but not suitable for dessert by the other two (I was in the latter group).
- The chickpea fritters were nothing special;
- The rabbit rillette - on which I had great expectations - was not at all what we expected. I could not taste the rabbit, and it was not a spread, but it was presented as some sort of of a spring roll. Not bad, but I wouldn't take it again.
- The nutty apple smack bread was just ok, and the apple/oil spread on the bad tasting side (and again, you had to pay for it).
An interesting rillette. That doesn't look like a rillette.Good service, fast, attentive. And then there were things that none of us liked.
The bad
When I go to a restaurant, to any restaurant, I do expect to eat well. I may accept dishes that are not particularly good to my palate, that's a given. But what I do not expect - especially in a Top Chef's kitchen - is to actually have an involuntary spasmodic reaction of my mouth when I take the first bite into some food. And unfortunately this is what I had with two of the dishes.
First of all, the goat pizza. I found it simply disgusting. And not because it wasn't a real pizza but more of a flatbread. You know that I don't care about how things are called, as long as they taste good. But seriously, that thing was wrong. And it remained unfinished.
This thing was just wrong. I like goat meat. But to pair it on a flat bread with cabbage is a no-go. A serious no-go that made me wonder for a moment whether I would have to hurry for the restroom in a hurry. The feeling lasted a split second, but it was there.
And then there was the desert called fudgecicle. It was recommended by the waitress, who is guiltless, obviously. But Oh. My. God. That thing must have been one of the most disgusting things I have ever put into my mouth. Seriously. This beer sauce with cocoa just didn't work in my mouth. Nor in that of my three dining companions. And again, it remained there, unfinished.
Then there is the concept of paying for bread. I think that having your customers paying for bread is wrong, but I can accept it if the bread is outstanding and the spreads that come with it are as outstanding. Alas, this wasn't the case. The pretzel bread was extremely good, but not out of this world (and for $4 I want a bread that is out of this world). And the nutty bread was average at best (and $4 for average at best is just not good enough).
A message to the owner: keep it up, but maybe with less crazy stuff? And please pretty please, no more goat pizza.
Overall mark: 7/10
The girl and the goat
809 West Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 492-6262
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tuscanfoodie
1 comments:
that pizza doesn't look good.
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