We chose The Kitchen American Bistro in River North, based on @Siun_O_Connell 's recommendation. They have Baked Alaska on the menu, which is a core foodie memory from my childhood.
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last week we had a dinner at Ada St. Really really good food. The table had some pretty sophisticated diners and we were all raving. Very corkage friendly. Prices were pretty inexpensive . Independently owned too.
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Had dinner at Asador Bastian on Sunday. Just opened the Wed before and already excellent. The building is beautiful and the space inside definitely measures up. Downstairs is a big bar with big booths and tables. The entire menu is available there or just snacks.
Upstairs is the smallish dining room. Menu is a mix of tapas/pintxos, whole fish and steaks sold by the pound and some other mains. Everything was excellent. Service felt like they have been open for a year not a week. Wine list is small but really well thought out. Mainly Spanish. Do not miss the desserts.
George
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Doing a short weekend in Chicago next month and was going to book this for father’s day, but it looks like they’ve added a $75/pp completely non-refundable deposit for reservations…and I always assume a short weekend trip has non-negligible chance of last minute change.
I think we might try Roister instead. For our other night a friend’s sibling works at RPM so we might try that.
Any other great recs these days?
At the moment we are booked at the CAA in the loop though I’m thinking it might be more fun to change to somewhere in the west loop/fulton area.
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Oriole is great if you’ve never been. Obelix is also fun. Pops for champagne is always a fun pitstop either in the beginning or end of the night
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Agreed with Rodrigo’s recs. I’ll add El Ideas, which is always fun and is BYO. As to Roister, I have yet to have an experience there that rates above ‘meh’. In fact, I would expand that to the entire Alinea restaurant group, and this goes back well before the pandemic.
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Have yet to go to El Ideas, been hearing great things about it and it’s at the top of my hit list for next time I’m in Chicago. Andros Taverna is also a lovely place to dine at.
Second Brian’s feelings about Roister.
Any insights from folks on Moody Tongue? Have yet to talk to someone that’s actually dined there
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I was at Moody Tongue about 3 weeks before the pandemic and it was fantastic. Beer pairings were great and the food was top notch. Highly recommended based on my experience 3+ years ago.
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They just shared some Instagram posts that really piqued my interest.
Did you do the dining room or the bar?
Dining room.
We are heading back to Chicago in a few weeks and are revisiting Virtue.
We had such a fantastic meal there last year.
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Editorial: Message to Chicago restaurants: Customer goodwill won’t last forever.
This is the part that resonated with me:
Our advice is to phase out the digital menus that need to be pinched or expanded on smartphones, the igloos and yurts for outdoor dining during Chicago’s frigid winters, the deceptive service charges sneaked into bills that wind up going to restaurant owners rather than workers. And, please, stop shoving devices in our faces that start the tip options at 20% and go up from there.
Above all, customers hate the rise of what economists call “price partitioning,” where the true price of a meal is hidden by breaking it into little pieces. That cursed notion is behind paying for bread that used to be free and the 3% surcharge several restaurant chains in Chicago are now adding to checks without giving that money to their tipped staff. This stressful, anti-consumer practice should cease. Menu prices should be honest. And it’s not enough to say customers can request the surcharge’s removal: Restaurants are taking advantage of our reluctance to look cheap in front of family or friends.
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It would be nice to see some of these things happen, but that seems like wishful thinking. I truly hate the digital menus, but I can’t imagine those going away since it has to be a significant cost savings over having to constantly print menus.
I am not a fan of digital menus, either. I don’t want to start my dining experience by straining my eyes and pinching just right in order to read the full description of an entree. It seems very odd that I should have to equip myself with special tools in order to dine at a restaurant (notwithstanding the fact that nearly everyone has a smartphone these days).
I think a Berserker logo’d magnifier is in order. (I used to have one of these in my wallet, and it was quite helpful reading a normal menu in dimly lit restaurants.)
Agreed. I also hate that it encourages people to take their phones out at a meal. I am being an old man grump, hating seeing phones out all the time. I may have to pivot to restaurants with tasting menus only so I don’t have to deal with the digital menu crap.
You had me right up until the point where you mentioned tasting menus. I find them tiresome and frequently more about the chef’s “artistry” than making the food taste delicious. I was going to suggest that we see if Denny’s will allow BYO, but it looks like I’ll need to find another dining companion.
Ouch, but you’re on point, as usual. I’m all for BYO to Denny’s though!
Can we talk loudly about our health problems?
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