Category Archives: Chicago

Arun’s Thai Restaurant

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Exterior

Bar

Interior

Interior

Cocktails

App 1

App 2

App 3

Tuna

Lemon grass soup

Vermicelli

Snapper

Lobster

Scallop

Beef

Dessert 1

Crepe

**** (4 stars)

I’ve had many tasting menus and I’ve had many Thai meals, but I’ve never had a Thai tasting menu, so it what great fun to visit Arun’s, where you get to taste modern variations on many classic dishes.

We began with some of the very thoughtful cocktails, which were a cut above average, even in very cocktail-oriented Chicago.

The twelve-course menu begins with many courses that are just one bite, although it’s often a very large bite. One of my favorites was the first course, a betel leaf with a complex assemblage surmounted by coconut.

Everyone’s favorite course of the meal was the last of the starters, an extraordinarily flavorful lemongrass broth served from a miniature teapot.

Four main courses were served family style. The best of these was the Massaman beef curry. Also good were the lobster and scallop. The only real miss of the evening was the snapper in sweet Thai chili sauce, a fairly conventional Thai dish, and this one wasn’t as crispy or interesting as the traditional version.

We finished with two desserts, both fruit-based, that were a refreshing conclusion.

On the whole, we felt that every single course was beautiful, and quite a few were extremely delicious. A few didn’t quite live up to their exotic appearance but were pleasant nonetheless.

One of us had the wine pairing with the dinner. There were some interesting wines and some good matches, but if you’re knowledgeable about wine I think you will do better ordering off the interesting, extensive and well-priced list. The sommelier was quite personable and informative.

Our waiter was also very friendly, and the many members of the serving staff all took pride in their fine restaurant.

Arun’s Thai Restaurant
4156 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 539-1909
http://www.yelp.com/biz/aruns-thai-restaurant-chicago

Reilly’s Daughter

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Burger and crisps

Chicken tenders

**** (4 stars)

This bar became a full-service restaurant with the May 2017 remodeling of the Midway foodservice.

The intimate space is hard to find because it’s not really visible except from the back of the food court. As a result it may be possible to be seated, even when there are long lines at other places. That may not help you beat the rush, though, as service can be quite slow. But if you aren’t in a rush to catch your flight, this is a good place to hang out, away from the bustle of the airport, and the food is good.

I had the bacon cheeseburger, and it was much better than typical airport food. The patty is smashed thin and cooked within an inch of its life, but this gives it nice charred edges. The bacon and accompaniments were excellent, and the bun had some texture to it. The accompanying potato chips were house made, crunchy and good.

My companion didn’t care for her chicken tenders because they were very thin, more like planks, but I liked them, and the accompanying barbecue sauce.

To me, this is one of the best options for killing time at Midway.

Reilly’s Daughter
5700 S Cicero Ave
Midway Triangle
Chicago, IL 60638
(773) 838-1496
http://www.yelp.com/biz/reillys-daughter-chicago

Goosefoot

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Interior

Menu

Egg ramp garlic peas

Foie gras, melon gaspacho, tea

Crab, apple, avocado

Corn soup

Mushroom tortellini

Beef

Macaroon

Yuzu, cherry and peach tonic

Espresso

Rose lime kiwi / strawberry white coconut (below)

Goosefoot Chocolate

***** (5 stars)

If you assume that fine dining is an inherently serious business you need to check out Goosefoot. Chris and Nina welcome you into their “home” and cast aside the pretensions and stuffiness, providing a fun experience of discovery and camaraderie.

The multi-course tasting menu features twelve dishes of stunning beauty and complexity, each served in a unique and playful way. It’s remarkable that two people (and an unnamed helper in the kitchen) can provide this level of culinary and service perfection.

Each dish is accompanied by a story, delivered individually, often by Chef Chris, who interacts with guests table by table and course by course more than I’ve ever encountered. How he finds time to cook and arrange each delicate offering is beyond me.

The restaurant seats no more than twenty people, in a single, synchronized seating.

On the service side, it would be easy to assume that with only one person–Nina–providing all the service for the restaurant, details such as place settings and napkins replacement, ice bucket refreshing and so on would be impossible. You’d be wrong. Service was consistently at Michelin level.

You might also assume that a BYOB restaurant would have minimal glassware, but again you’d be wrong. A full set of Riedel sizes was available and provided, matched to each wine guests brought.

in the end, the two things I will remember most about Goosefoot are the beauty of the food, and the ebullience of our hosts.

Goosefoot is one of the best fine dining values in Chicago, and it’s certainly the most lighthearted one.

Goosefoot
2656 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 942-7547
http://www.yelp.com/biz/goosefoot-chicago

Howells & Hood

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1/2 Bacon cheeseburger

1/2 Ahi chopped salad

Sea bass ceviche

Korean wings

Exterior

**** (4 stars)

This is a really delightful place to sit outside under the forest of umbrellas and enjoy a summer day. The inside is equally expansive, but seems a bit confined compared to the lovely outside space overlooking the plaza.

The menu is eclectic American bistro, with some sports bar touches. The beer list is very well organized and described, with many representatives of all styles, and is claimed to be Chicago’s widest selection.

We started with the Sea bass ceviche, which wasn’t really a ceviche at all, but more like a thickened lime soup with vegetables and some pieces of completely cooked sea bass added at the last minute, rather than raw fish “cooked” by the lime juice. Still, it was good.

We also tried the Korean chicken wings. These had a very crispy, almost crunchy crust, and were slathered with a spicy sweet sauce. Delicious, but thank goodness they came with two wet wipes per person, as my fingernails are still orange!

For entrees we had the kitchen split a burger and salad. The Bacon Cheeseburger was perfectly cooked, juicy, served on a bun with some substance so it didn’t disssolve, just the right accompaniments of lettuce and sliced onion, and with nice crisp bacon. Pretty much a perfect burger.

The Ahi Chopped Salad was also excellent. Despite the name, the tuna is not chopped, but rather coated with togarashi spices, seared rare, and thinly sliced. The rest of the ingredients were indeed chopped: napa cabbage, romaine, bok choy, bell peppers, daikon radish, and green onions. It was finished off with mandarin oranges and crispy wonton strips, and lightly dressed with sesame ginger vinaigrette. Delicious.

Despite the fact it was obviously our server’s first day (and we were possibly his first table) service was excellent. We liked everything we tried, and really enjoyed our entire experience. I’m glad Howells and Hood is close to us, and I wish we’d tried it sooner.

Howells & Hood
435 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 262-5310
http://www.yelp.com/biz/howells-and-hood-chicago

Chicago Curry House

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Delivered items are very well packaged. This is a single vegetarian dinner, plus just three additional items.

*** (3 stars)

This review is for delivered food. The online menu (via GrubHub) is very extensive, and offers all the standard Indian fare, plus a number of Nepalese items.

The complete dinners are very complete indeed. The Curry House Vegetable Special Dinner was very extensive, with four entrees: dal makhini, palak paneer, aloo ghobi and navratan korma. It came with basmati rice, naan bread and kheer. They were all good if not great, and medium was plenty spicy.

I also ordered papadums, which arrived very crisp and delightful, although the accompanying cilantro and tamarind chutneys were thinner than I am used to.

In addition to naan, I tried the garlic naan. both were fine for sopping up sauce, but they didn’t travel as well as the other items, and should probably be broiled upon arrival.

My favorite item wasn’t Indian, it was the Nepalese Vegetarian MoMo appetizer, a sort of cross between dim sum and a samosa.

The pricing is very reasonable, particularly since the vegetarian dinner all by itself is enough for two people to share.

Chicago Curry House
899 S Plymouth Ct
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 362-9999
https://www.yelp.com/biz/chicago-curry-house-chicago-6

Honey’s

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Exterior

Bar

Dining Room

Cauliflower

Caesar salad

Squid ink cavatelli

Satsuma mandarin

*** (3 stars)

While this meal had its ups and downs, let me start by saying that the service was superb. It seemed as if everyone in the restaurant, from the hostess to the bussing staff, the kitchen staff, my waiter Alexis and the manager all personally greeted me and wished me a good meal. And this was before it became evident that I’d been “outed” (the manager stopped by to compliment me on my photos, and I hadn’t yet posted and from Honey’s.)

And it was a good meal, just not a great one. The restaurant certainly is aspiring to greatness, and the classy dining room and chic bar are a good start. The food is just a bit uneven.

The meal begins with complimentary bread service, and the bread was hot, crusty and excellent.

I started with the spit roasted cauliflower, which was an interesting consistency because of the accompanying puree and bread crumbs.

The Caesar salad is a bizarre take on a classic. Grilled romaine is chopped, and tossed with a good Caesar dressing. I’ve enjoyed grilled romaine before, but this seemed more like it was wilted rather than charred. But it was the additional ingredients that went off the rails. Sliced cheese is a trend I can live with, but the pickled shallots and crackers took it too far afield to be called a Caesar. and three large dollops of egg yolk sabayon were about as appetizing as if someone had dumped a jar of mayonnaise on it. In short, don’t order this.

Things got back on track with the squid ink cavatelli. Although the pasta was a bit overcooked, the braised octopus, calamari and shrimp were tender and flavorful, and the mint pesto had a wonderful acidity that elevated the whole dish.

I finished with the satsuma mandarin, a nice light dessert with earl grey cake and mandarin orange sorbet. The double decaf espresso I had was noteworthy only in that it was the single most bitter espresso I’ve every been served!

Prices are okay, but be aware that portions are on the small side, so you will want several courses.

There is an extensive list of eclectic wines, including some thoughtful by-the-glass selections. The rosés go particularly well with most of this menu.

Honey’s
1111 W Lake St
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 877-5929
http://www.yelp.com/biz/honeys-chicago

Bottlefork

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Interior

Cast Iron Baked French Toast

Breakfast sope

*** (3 stars)

Bottlefork offers a mix of sweet and savory items for brunch.

The Iron Skillet Baked French Toast seems like a better idea than it turns out, with a very sweet heavy topping that obscures most vestiges of any underlying toast.

On the savory side, Breakfast Sope is a better choice. Although the menu doesn’t say, a sope is a shell of corn that’s fried until it’s just crisp on the outside. The Ranchera Sauce and Chorizo Black Beans have just the right kick, and the egg was nicely cooked. It’s a bit unclear what use to put the mound of Guacamole to, but it was tasty.

We finished with an Orange Dreamcicle “sundae”, which was served in a parfait glass. Layers of soft serve ice cream, orange syrup and crumbled shortbread cookie are served in a parfait glass and topped with whipped cream. It was good, but didn’t taste like a Dreamcicle, as the orange syrup is somehow the wrong flavor.

The place is long and dark, with a bar along one side. There’s a huge selection of interesting cocktails, so it might be worth a try for dinner. Service was pleasant enough.

Bottlefork
441 N Clark
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 955-1900
https://www.yelp.com/biz/bottlefork-chicago

Cold Storage

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Interior

Interior

Hot sauces

Complementary salt and vinegar chips

Smoked fish dip

Hiramasa crudo

Warm crab roll

Fish and chips

Bourbon pecan ice cream

The check

***** (5 stars)

Great ambiance, a chill soundtrack and excellent food come together in this Fulton Market seafood bar. It’s one of two restaurants that share the same reception area, the other being the fancier Swift & Sons steakhouse.

Cold Storage is a fairly intimate space with a seafood bar in the center and some cozy booths and a few high tops around the edges.

While the menu emphasizes the raw bar, there are many other choices, and in fact we feasted on everything but raw shellfish.

The mean starts with a large serving of complementary cross cut potato chips, which were fresh made and delicious. We began with the Whitefish Disp. It was served with saltines, but we liked it better on the chips. It was good, but could have been a bit smokier.

We also tried the day’s special crudo, a mix of Hiramasa, serrano chilis, cilantro and grilled pineapple. It seemed a bit pricey for the amount of Hiramasa, but was good.

The Warm crab roll was a good sized sandwhich with a flavorful crab salad and nicely toasted bread.

Fish and chips was a very generous serving of flakey white fish and a bowl of good fries.

We finished with two of the many house-made ice creams.

There is a thoughtful list of cocktails and a limited list of wines and beers. Service was friendly and attentive. We felt the pricing was quite reasonable given all the courses and drinks we had.

Cold Storage
1000 W Fulton Market
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 733-9420
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cold-storage-chicago-3

True Food Kitchen

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Exterior

Interior

Kitchen

Charred Cauliflower

Avocado toast

Ancient grains bowl with steelhead

**** (4 stars)

Unlike many restaurants that focus on healthy eating, True Food is not strictly vegetarian, but rather emphasizes tasty combinations of all healthful foods.

We started with the charred cauliflower, which was good–particularly the really well-charred bits–but wasn’t really enhanced by the accompaniments, especially the somewhat soggy pistachios.

Since we were there for brunch we tried the smashed avocado toast. It was topped by two beautifully cooked sunny side up eggs, and incorporated a razor thin slice of gouda. It was very good, but a rather small serving, so you’re going to want a starter or a side.

The best thing we had was the ancient grains bowl topped with steelhead. (Steelhead is a type of trout, but is almost indistinguishable from salmon.) All of the ingredients in this bowl–quinoa, miso glazed sweet potato, snow peas, grilled portobello mushrooms and avocado– were delicious, and worked beautifully together.

This place is large and bustling, so make sure to make reservations and don’t plan on a quiet conversation.

True Food Kitchen
1 W Erie St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 204-6981
http://www.yelp.com/biz/true-food-kitchen-chicago