Super Bowl Update: Chicago Restaurants

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Chicago - Summer 2012

6:47 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Quartino, Road Trips, Rustic House, Table 52

I feel like all I have done this summer is travel. I also feel like I have written a ton of posts lately that are not about Indy restaurants because of it. Bear with me; this will be the last one for a bit. We did a quickie trip to Chicago a few weeks ago and here is a brief (ok, brief for me) summary of where we ate.

Quartino

We were meeting an old college friend of hubby’s and the first night we went to Quartino. It is a loud, buzzy Italian place with a pretty wide ranging menu (good for kids, whom we had with us). Honestly, I found everything to be fairly average – the cheese/charcuterie plate ($25) was fine, the heirloom tomato salad ($7.75) could have stood a little more flavor (people, tomatoes should be AWESOME right now or you shouldn’t be serving them), and the Rustica pizza (with potatoes, pancetta, rosemary and onion) ($12) was bland (I think there were like 6 pieces of rosemary) and should not have had a red sauce on it in my opinion. We also had a mushroom risotto ($11.50) which was ok—it had balsamic in it giving it more of an interesting flavor than many risottos—I appreciate the acid in what is often a ridiculously heavy dish.

So with all of these things, they weren’t really wowing us—but luckily we had also ordered the steamed clams ($11.75). Wow, these things were great. They were the little teeny clams that I often dream about and have pretty much only had in Italy I think. I had begun to think they were impossible to come by in this country or something. They were in a white wine and chili broth that was also outstanding. It had a ton of the actual wine flavor (I find many shellfish broths to be pretty watered down) and a touch of heat. They were served with great pieces of grilled bread that completed the dish perfectly. Seriously, I would go back to this place just for the clams. Oh, and the zeppole for dessert ($5.50). They were great as well—super puffy and hollow freshly fried doughnuts with a dark chocolate sauce. That would be a great little meal actually—clams and doughnuts. (Hubby says that's gross. Whatever).

Rustic House

The next night we did a meal with just the adults at Rustic House. Our friends had read about it in a magazine and wanted to check it out. It has a nice vibe to it—not a huge place that was pleasantly full of people, but not so loud that we couldn’t talk. Food-wise, this place impressed us more with the appetizers and then went a little downhill overall. The wood-grilled octopus ($13) was great—it was perfectly cooked with just a little smoky flavor and was served with tomato confit and chopped olives. Perfect salty/acid combo with the octopus. The wood grilled oysters were good too ($15)—although very cheesy. They had a slight spiciness from Cajun flavorings and were tempered with a bit of lemon. The handmade gnocchi ($15) was pretty good too—there was a parsley broth and a few (like 3) little pieces of foie gras. A little more of the foie would have made this dish better—I know it is an expensive ingredient, but not THAT expensive. The duck fat marcona almonds ($5) were kind of a disappointment. They sort of just tasted like oily almonds.

I actually had another appetizer for my main—the baked shrimp with white wine and garlic butter and panko. They were disappointing and overcooked (and expensive at $16 for what was 2 or 3 shrimp). Hubby had the special prime rib ($36), which he ordered medium rare and got served medium at best. It was supposed to be cooked on their rotisserie, but I could see nothing that made it special. Our friend’s lamb T-bone chop was much better—it was perfectly cooked and tender. But I only got a bite, so I can’t talk too much about it. Our other friend had an interesting swordfish “chop” ($32) that hubby liked better than I did. I thought the fish was pretty dry. We also had a side of the corn crème brulee which was interesting, but honestly should have been a dessert, it was so sweet. It was pretty much a smooth cream based dish with a slight corn flavor that was sugared and caramelized on top just like crème brulee normally is. The actual desserts were the weakest link of the meal. Completely not worth the calories. The peaches in the peach crostada ($10) were practically crunchy they were so under ripe. The blondie brownie ($10) was fine, but nothing overly memorable. Overall, I thought this place was very hit and miss and the misses were kind of bad. Don’t think that I would repeat this place, although you could luck into a really good meal if you happened to order right.

Table 52

On the last day we had brunch at Table 52, Chef Art Smith’s restaurant. This was my favorite meal of the trip. The menu looks great, but there was fried chicken and waffles ($24) on it, so it was pretty obvious what I would be ordering. That chicken, it was outstanding. Super juicy (even the white meat) and the crust was crunchy and had just the right amount of seasoning and spice. I mean, just look at it. It is a thing of beauty. Honestly, who even needs the waffle? (Well, my son ate most of mine while I focused on the chicken). Hubby had the breakfast pizza which was also outstanding ($14). IT was a pretty large pizza crust (certainly shareable) with sawmill (or sausage) gravy, loads of cheese and bacon, and a couple of perfectly runny eggs on top. The flavors were great—I was questioning the whole gravy thing but it was perfect. You could really taste the smoky sausage flavor. We also had a side of mac and cheese that we all shared (there were 8 of us) ($12). Also really good—several kinds of cheeses and a crunchy breadcrumb top. Everyone really seemed to like this. The only downside of the place was the service was a little slow which you seem to notice more when you are dining with several children.

This is a place that takes comfort food to a new level and a place that appeals across the board to just about everyone. They even have a “healthy” section on the menu if you don’t want to indulge in all the calories. But if you are going here, I highly recommend you indulge. It was totally worth it.

Quartino

626 N. State

Chicago, IL 60610

312/698-5000

www.quartinochicago.com

Rustic House

1967 N. Halstead Street

Chicago, IL 60614

312/929-3227

www.rustichousechicago.com

Table 52

52 West Elm Street

Chicago, IL 60610

312/573-4000

www.tablefifty-two.com

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Road Trip- Tavernita- Chicago

3:40 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Road Trips, Tavernita

Our final dinner on our recent trip to Chicago was at Tavernita. I was excited because I love a new place—and it was also small plates (Spanish in style). The place is really big, and the first thing I noticed was how loud it was, even when it wasn’t still that full. It didn’t help that there was a group of St. Patrick’s Day partiers that had obviously been drinking for a long time sitting right next to us. Also, I asked if we could be moved to a table on the end of our row (which was set for 3) and they said no, that they were fully booked. I was totally fine with this, but then about halfway through our meal they sat a party of two there which I found rather annoying.

Anyway, the first course we got that evening turned out to be one of the best of the evening. It was the pan con burrata with tomato marmalade on crostini ($9) It was simple, but the bread was perfectly grilled—nice grill marks but still a little chewy in the center. The tomato spread also flavored the bread and the cheese (homemade mozzarella stuffed with cream) was really good—really light, creamy and even fluffy and drizzled with olive oil. The oil added the right amount of depth to the cheese—and the whole thing was properly seasoned with salt and pepper. A simple dish that was put together just right.

The next dish that we got was the corn pudding ($12)—it came highly recommended by our server. It was a fairly dense pudding of corn meal, with some sweet pieces of corn, roasted poblano peppers and some pieces of shrimp mixed in. It was topped with what was called an herb salad, but which was just arugula as far as I can tell (I was sort of expecting a mix of things). The corn pudding was a little dryer than I thought it would be, as was the shrimp, but the flavors overall weren’t bad. The greens were lightly dressed with a vinaigrette which was a nice contrast to the sweet and rich corn and poblano flavors. We didn’t even finish it though, which is not a good sign for hubby who will eat all of anything he really likes.

Next we got the patatas ($10) which were fried chunks of potatoes, with pieces of chorizo, a brava sauce underneath and a fried egg on top. Even with the fried egg on top this dish wasn’t great. The egg wasn’t really runny enough to make up for the dryness of the dish—and the brava sauce (which is like a slightly spicy tomato sauce) was lacking—hubby didn’t realize there was even any sauce there until I told him and pointed it out to him. The chorizo was kind of dry, the potatoes were really dry and the egg was too hard cooked. This one was a miss—there was just nothing there that made it interesting.

One of the more slightly more successful dishes of the evening was a special—it was prawns a la plancha (cooked over a grill) with garlic and olive oil. They were whole, shell-on prawns and had a nice smoky flavor—I sort of couldn’t help myself from comparing them to the ones we had not long ago at The Bristol. While the flavor of these was good—nice and garlicky, the fact that they were whole and unpeeled detracted a bit because the shells were really hard to get off because they had been grilled. At The Bristol, they used the same concept but sliced them in half length-wise before cooking them, making it much easier to just pull the meat out with a fork. I know it sounds picky, but when something is difficult to eat, it just becomes annoying to me, even when the taste is pretty good.

So the next dish we got was described as housemade pappardelle with mushroom ragout and Manchego ($13). So this one was not at all what we were expecting, and was disappointing for this reason. When I hear “mushroom ragout,” I am thinking it will be a sauce of mushrooms—not a tomato sauce that had a bit of mushroom in it. Maybe I am wrong, but I wanted a mushroom sauce, not a tomato sauce. The pasta itself wasn’t bad—I do love homemade pasta. But again this dish wasn’t doing it for us and you really could barely taste there were mushrooms in there. They really should call it a chunky vegetable marinara or something.

We had been kind of disappointed with our last few dishes and hadn’t eaten a lot of them (and also because we wanted something with mushrooms), so we decided at the last minute to add one more—the coca de setas ($10). It was flatbread (there are several on the menu) with caramelized onions, mushrooms, goat cheese and more of the herb (i.e. arugula) salad. We were glad we got it as it at least gave us the mushroom fix we were craving, and the goat cheese and dressed leaves gave the dish some brightness we had been missing in the others. But as usual, a flatbread is a flatbread—nearly impossible to make it amazing as far as I can tell. The toppings weren’t bad, but the crust, well it fell a little “flat.”

Here’s the thing—I appreciate the fairly casual tavern type feel of the place, and it is obvious they are going for the fairly loud buzzy atmosphere of a busy hip restaurant (when the first word a restaurant uses on its website to describe itself is “sexy,” that’s a clue I guess). There was no way the two elderly ladies next to us (good for them for staying current right?) could be carrying on any kind of conversation with each other though (and they were quite annoyed when their martinis were not served “up” in a martini glass). I am pretty sure Tavernita has achieved the atmosphere they want, but the food feels too mass produced and uniform to me—almost like it is coming from a decent chain restaurant. And several of the items really bordered on mediocre.

And I know I rarely mention the drinks/alcohol portion of my meals, but I am pretty sure Tavernita is banking on this for a lot of their business. They have this huge, “everything on tap” thing going including beers and their wines (and apparently lots of other things). And well, the wine didn’t taste very good to me. We tried several different things and they all just seemed a little flat or something.

So while I always like trying new places in Chicago, this one was a bit of a miss for me, which I guess is good, because it allows me to not feel like I need to go back on a future visit and leaves more space for something else. I can barely keep up with everything going on in Chicago though, and as always, appreciate your suggestions for places to try when we are there.

Tavernita

151 West Erie

Chicago, IL 60654

312/274-1111

www.tavernita.com

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Road Trip--Slurping Turtle-Chicago

2:58 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Road Trips, Slurping Turtle

So on our recent trip to Chicago (did I mention it was St. Patrick’s weekend? Oy, what a weekend to be in Chicago. Beware of the puke), I dragged my poor, still under-the-weather hubby to Slurping Turtle for lunch. He managed to revive himself a bit though after a pint of beer, and once he dug into the food.

I loved this place from the moment I looked at the menu—it reminded me a lot of the Raku restaurant I had recently eaten at in Vegas, and I was happy to get to share it with hubby. The interior was very different (very white and modern and clean), but the menu similar. Slurping Turtle specializes in their noodle dishes, but also has a nice sampling of small plates to go alongside. They also do the grilled items on a bincho (or charcoal) grill. (Check out the chef/owner discussing the bincho and some of their other food here.)

There are a ton of good things to try on the bincho menu, but we wanted to get a little something off of all the parts of the menu, so we just had the beef ribeye ($5). It was served on a skewer (as are most of the bincho items) and covered in a teriyaki type sauce. It was outstanding. Even though it looked like one big piece of meat on the skewer, as you pulled it off, it was cut into bite-sized pieces that were just pushed together so they didn’t overcook (well, that is my assumption). So tender, but with the right amount of fat content to make it really rich and flavorful. The sauce was light, and didn’t overpower the meat at all. It was just slightly sweet and salty and exactly the perfect accompaniment. I would love to try some of the other grilled items if this one is any indication.

The next thing they brought us was the seared Big Eye tuna with avocado, cucumber and sweet onion dressing ($12). This was certainly a more generous portion than the beef was, and an easy thing to share (the same cannot be said for the beef—I shared it, but it wasn’t easy for me). There were 6 pieces of the very lightly seared tuna (which was seared with some sesame seeds as well) that were topped with slices of avocado, cucumber, onions and a few wonderful crispy garlic chips (we fought over those as well). I really liked the sweet onion dressing—it was slightly sweet, but also had the robust onion flavor and just the right amount of tanginess.

At this point hubby was rallying, and decided he wanted to add an item to the menu—the crispy oysters ($9). They were simply fried in a panko type bread crumb and were smokin’ hot, but honestly, I found them not very exciting especially with compared to the other items we ate—I wouldn’t get them again, but they weren’t bad—just kind of boring, even with the two sauces they served alongside (one was a mayo based ginger sauce and one a soy based slightly sweet sauce as I recall). The oysters just weren’t really juicy when you bit into them.

The last thing we got (of course we had to get some noodles) was the tonkotu noodles ($13)—they were egg noodles with a rich pork broth, a slice of braised pork shoulder, lightly pickled mustard greens, shitake mushrooms and random other things—like a snow pea and some green onions. Here’s what I really liked about it—the broth was tasty. I like the idea of a pork based broth—it was salty and had a nice rich flavor. I think pork just lends itself well to make this kind of broth richer than some other kinds of meats. The noodles were also really good in the broth, just giving a substance to the soup. I also really liked the way they cut the mushrooms into small slivers that were just the same thickness as the noodles. It made them really easy to eat with your chopsticks right with the noodles and added an additional earthy taste. I also liked the flavor of the greens, but I didn’t like the fact that they were all still in basically in their original head making them really hard to eat with chopsticks—at least for me. I had to sort of tug the leaves off and eat them. Also, the piece of pork was really dry and to me, not really worth eating on its own (hubby didn’t eat it either). But I am sure it added some more flavor, so I didn’t mind it, but I would have liked some more tender smaller pieces in there. But overall, the noodles were so tasty, I didn’t really mind.

We also had a plate of macaroons for dessert (3 for $5)—also a hot trend apparently, because they are on every menu everywhere we went as well. We had one sesame/chocolate, a soy/caramel and a yuzu (a Japanese citrus). The sesame chocolate was probably my favorite—I liked the slight smokiness in the sesame flavor—and as far as macaroons go, they were good, chewy outer cookie parts—but honestly I don’t think I am the best judge as I have decided I have never had one that really blew me away.

All in all, I look forward to going back to the Slurping Turtle and trying some other things when hubby has more of an appetite. It would be a great place to go with a small group. I would like to try more of the grilled items and some of the dumpling type items as well. And I would think you probably can’t go wrong with the noodles—although the rice bowls are intriguing too.

And here’s hoping these type of noodle dishes start getting more popular in Indy—anyone have any good suggestions of where to find good noodles in Indy? I know H2O does noodle dishes sometimes that are really tasty, but they aren’t on the menu all the time.

Slurping Turtle

116 West Hubbard Street

Chicago, IL 60654

312/464-0466

www.slurpingturtle.com

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Road Trip: Chicago--Café des Architectes

2:55 AM | Labels: Cafe des Architectes, Chicago Restaurants, Road Trips

Recently we went to Chicago for the weekend, mainly just to hang out and eat—unfortunately hubby had been a little under the weather, so we changed up our plans at the last minute and cancelled our Blackbird reservation in favor of eating at the restaurant in the hotel at which we were staying—just in case he started feeling really bad, we could ditch out early. Anyway, we had actually looked at the menu at Café des Architectes before and always been intrigued so it seemed like a good idea.

It is a sleek modern space, and calls itself a “modern French bistro.” We had a hard time making our negotiations, and I ended up doing as I often do, making a 3 course meal out of two appetizers and a salad. None of the entrées were jumping out at me. This was where things went a little wrong. Our server acted like this was a completely foreign concept to him and could not understand what I wanted to do (um, appetizer, salad, and then appetizer as a main). It was kind of annoying.

Anyway, we got our order in eventually and then were brought an amuse bouche. It was a lobster salad with shaved fennel and tarragon and vanilla oil. It was ok, honestly made overly liquorice-y and sweet with that combination of things. The bits of lobster were nice and tender though.

My first course was the beef tartare ($14)—it was served as three little towers, one topped with garlic chips, one topped with a deviled quail egg and one topped with grated cheese. The meat was clearly good quality, but was very lightly seasoned—for me I could have used a little more of the flavors I like with tartare—some mustard, some sort of onions (there were a few shallots in there) or something. I did enjoy the bites with the teeny deviled quail egg (and it was very tasty). It added to the meat and gave it a little more of that flavor I was looking for—unfortunately, it really only helped a couple of bites because it was so small. I would have loved to have half a dozen of those on the plate--although then I guess it wouldn’t quite have the stark plate presentation. The swish down the middle was squash puree and wasn’t the additional flavor I was looking for. I needed saltiness, not smooth sweetness. Interestingly, this was the first place I started to notice the trend of every place we went to in Chicago including beef tartare on the menu---of course I love it, so I didn’t mind and it also made me wonder if it will maybe make it on more than a few menus in Indy.

The next course I had was my salad course—which was their take on a Nicoise with grilled baby octopus ($12). It had lettuce, small bits of purple potatoes, green beans, large pieces of the grilled octopus, a light vinaigrette and was all sitting on a puree of salsify (a root vegetable). Luckily, they only gave me about 4 and a half minutes to eat this dish before bringing out the next course (the server really did not get what I was trying to do with this meal), and there wasn’t enough room on the table, so they had to take it away before I got to eat much of it. I say luckily, because this one wasn’t doing it for me. The octopus was too chewy and the salad didn’t have a lot of flavor. The salsify on the bottom gave it a weird, non-salad feel and it was too sweet and savory. I wanted more brightness from a salad.

For my main dish, I had the roasted shrimp with truffled risotto and Brussels sprouts. I don’t know, again, this didn’t do it for me either. There was just a sort of across the board lack of finesse in all the dishes and this one was no exception. I did not taste truffle at all in the risotto, the Brussels sprouts were too large and rawish, and the shrimp were on the edge of being overcooked. One thing I will say about this place though is that all the dishes were lovely to look at when they were presented. I just get the feeling that this place has hit its high note at some point in the past, and just isn’t there anymore. Nothing I had was bad, but nothing, and I mean nothing, was in any way memorable (well other than the argument I had to have with the waiter about ordering what I wanted). Oh, there was a nice service of complimentary sweets at the end—and I did enjoy the passion fruit flavored item as well as the dark chocolate caramel piece and the piece of equipment they served it on was pretty cool looking—very architectural—but still not enough to wow me.

Café des Architectes

The Sofitel Hotel

20 East Chestnut Street

Chicago, IL 60611

312/324-4000

www.cafedesarchitectes.com/index.cfm

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Road Trip: The Bristol-Chicago

3:54 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Road Trips, The Bristol

On our final night of our last trip to Chicago we went to the Bristol after getting several recommendations for it from people whose judgment I generally trust when it comes to food. Again, it is another place that doesn’t take reservations, and we got there shortly after opening to find it still empty. So we strolled the neighborhood a bit and came back. It was pleasantly full, but we still got a nice table. By the time we left, it was heaving. And it was a beautiful night and they had the front windows completely open. It was completely lovely (with the exception of a bunch of guys sitting at the communal table wearing backwards baseball caps. I mean, it is a somewhat casual restaurant, but have a little respect for meal time. I’m not asking for a jacket or tie, but baseball hats at dinner? It annoyed me a little.)

So we sat down and were told that we needed to put in our entire order at once, but they would bring out things as they were ready. But we could order a snack course to munch on while we looked over the menu and made our decisions. We were down to the monkey bread (which I had read a lot about) and the duck fat frites (how could you go wrong there?). At the advice of our server, we got the monkey bread ($5). It was served warm with a dill butter sauce and had dill cooked throughout. Ok, I had heard a lot about this bread online and was intrigued. But honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan—the bread was a little dry even with the butter. And hubby confirmed something that he already knew; he is not a fan of dill in many things.

We quickly flagged down our server and added some frites to the order instead (we had already placed our order) ($7). Now these are great. Fresh cut fries that are medium sized, perfectly crispy, with the extra rich taste from the duck fat. They were served with housemade ketchup and a garlic aioli. I loved the aioli, it was nice and garlicky, but I was surprised at how much I also liked the ketchup. Usually I am not a fan of ketchup with fancy type frites, but this sauce had more of a unique flavor. It was tasty.

One of the other things we got at the same time we got the frites was a plate of head on prawns that were sliced in half long-ways, grilled and covered in an anchovy butter sauce and tarragon ($19). These were the best prawns I have had in a long, long time. Seriously. They were so good. You could taste the seared flavor, but they weren’t blackened all over, and the salty butter sauce was so good to dredge them (or maybe a rouge frite) through. You could suck the little bit of head meat out too, giving that extra fatty bit that you rarely get in regular prawns that have been de-headed. The light tarragon flavor (slightly like licorice) was also a great accent.

The raviolo ($12) was good as well, although nothing was as good as those prawns. The raviolo was a large piece of homemade pasta filled with ricotta inside as well as a runny egg yolk. It was covered in a brown butter sauce. When you cut into it, the yolk made a luscious rich sauce when combined with the ricotta. We also had the roasted bone marrow ($14) at hubby’s request—one of his favorite things. These were nice because the bones were sliced in half, making the marrow easier to get to. It was served with toasted sliced bread and a wonderful shallot jam—it was slightly sweet, and slightly tangy, making it perfect with the insanely rich marrow. And I liked that they gave you a little dish so you could use it in whatever proportion you wanted.

Our least favorite savory item by far was the flatbread (I know, what is WRONG with me? Why do I keep ordering flatbread?) ($11). It was a crispy whole wheat crust topped with braised kale, white anchovies and a mild white cheese. The kale was too strong tasting and the anchovies were too fishy. We have had white anchovies other places and I always imagine them as the super fresh, not fishy tasting ones I have had before. Sadly, these were not those. And I don’t know that I have had good white anchovies since Europe. I also really like kale, but this was just too much bitterness. For me, this dish just did not come together. We barely ate any of it.

Dessert though—whoa, was it good. They did their homemade version of nutter butter cookies with a chocolate sabayon to dip them in ($8). The cookies were so good—the crunchy parts of the cookies were so light and studded with some little bits of peanuts. And in proper form, they were filled with peanut butter cream. The sabayon was a rich dark chocolate—almost like a hot fudge consistency, only it wasn’t hot—it is basically like a custard. I couldn’t decide if I liked them better together or apart—the cookies were the star for me though.

All in all, this was a great dining experience and wrapped up what was an awesome, but insanely filling, weekend in Chicago (which is how it should be right?). I would (and have since) recommended The Bristol to others and look forward to returning myself at some point. Especially when they start taking reservations!

The Bristol

2152 North Damen

Chicago, IL 60647

773/862-5555

www.thebristolchicago.com

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Road Trip: The Purple Pig-Chicago

2:03 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Road Trips, The Purple Pig

Continuing on our all reservation-free eating binge in Chicago, we hit Purple Pig one day for lunch. They open at 11:30 for lunch and if you get there right around that time, you shouldn’t have a problem. Well, we didn’t although the outside patio was open as well. The place does fill up quickly. I like that it is a good restaurant located right on Michigan Avenue, as it can often be hard to find a good meal in that area—and since so many of the hotels are there, we often find ourselves there.

The theme here is “cheese, swine and wine,” and with a name like purple pig, we knew we had to have some of all of those things. It is also a small plates/sharing kind of place, and we were excited to try lots of things. Hubby instantly declared a need for the fried pig’s ear dish ($8). The dish was slivers of crispy fried pig’s ear with crispy kale, pickled banana peppers and a lovely sunny side up fried egg on top. This dish was spectacular. The pork was crunchy and salty, the peppers vinegary, and the kale added a nice lighter, crunchy kick and slight bitterness. Of course adding a runny yolky egg on top is only going to make it better. This was a perfect combination. This would be an absolute must order if we go back to Purple Pig.

We also had a nice plate of sliced Serrano ham ($8). It was good—not the best I have had and certainly not the worst. How to describe it other than it is a nice salty cured ham. I really did enjoy laying slices of it on top of the fried Manchego ($8) that we also got. Now that was a nice flavor combo. I liked the way our server described the fried cheese as “swanky cheese sticks” and she was right. Manchego inherently has more flavor than mozzarella and the insides were really liquidy. They were served on top of a sweet fruit preserve made from quince. A bit of the cheese with some quince and then some of the Serrano—well, that was great together.

We also ordered the fried Brussels sprouts ($6). This was the other really outstanding item we had. They were the leaves pulled off individually and deep fried (not breaded, just the leaves themselves). They were light and super crispy and tossed with chili flakes, lemon and thyme. Wow. Simple, but so so good. And there was just the right amount of lemon to give them the right balance of acid with heat from the chili and every now and then you would get just a hint of the thyme. I would insist on ordering these again as well if we go back and they are on the menu.

Our least favorite item was the olive oil poached tuna with large white lima beans ($8). The tuna was cooked through, but was still tender and had the moistness from the olive oil and lots of seasoning from fresh herbs. The beans, well, I don’t know, large beans like this often tend to just seem bland to me and these were no exception. Actually, the entire dish, especially compared to the others, just seemed bland. It didn’t have the amazing balance of varying flavors that made many of the other things stand out.

I had also read about this dessert that another blogger was talking about, so I really wanted to try it. It was a Nutella Panini ($6). It was basically a sandwich made with Nutella, marshmallow, and banana. It was heavily dusted with powdered sugar. I should have known better, but it was way way too sweet for us. I had a couple bites, but that was enough to satisfy my sweet tooth for quite awhile. Well, at least until dinner.

The Purple Pig

500 N. Michigan Ave

Chicago, IL 60611

312/464-1744

www.thepurplepigchicago.com