Lakeview - 3404 North Halsted
Home Bistro was our first go at the Á la Card deck we bought for ourselves as inspiration for the restaurants we'd be patronizing in 2009. Without going into too much of a sales pitch, let's just say this... 52 chef-driven, owner-operated restaurants, $10 off at each, and the deck cost us $30. That says it all, really.
As for Á la Card, we say, "So far, so good." And we'll probably stop at good for HB this time around. The food was decent, with some high points here and there.
We started with the escargot.
Brittney has been a pescetarian for less than a year, so she knowingly maybe-possibly-sort of-most likely broke the rules here. And she paid for it. The escargot had an almost gamey flavor, which we attributed to the broth. We ordered the escargot because Jim had never eaten it, and Brittney was hoping it would come out in an escargot dish, all steamy and delicious. Instead, the presentation was only so-so, and the dish ended up a little too meaty and watery.
For our second dish, we ordered a beet salad.
We both love beets, love goat cheese, and love walnuts (so much so that we often include these items in our salads at home), but this salad almost missed the mark. It was over-salted and lacked something special or unique to HB. But with ingredients like these, it's hard to say it was all wrong. Again, a bit more finesse in presentation may have helped.
Brittney's entree was a special that night, salmon on top of clam chowder.
Attention Chicago restaurant owners, chefs, and staff: Add clam chowder to a dish, and I will order it. It was so obvious that this dish was one of the night's specials, as can be seen by the presentation alone. Although the goodness of the chowder overshadowed the fish a bit, it's hard to fault someone for phenomenal chowder. The chef took great care with this dish, and it paid off. It was special indeed.
Jim ordered the pork.
This was a cider brined loin of pork with a red potato gratin, braised collards, sauteed pears, and toasted walnuts. I love pork (I'm from Iowa so I think it's against the law to dislike it) and any sort of dark greens together. The pork was cooked very well and was moist and tender. The pears tasted like candy in contrast to the salty greens and pork. And although I was a leery of the walnuts as they seemed a little unneccessory, I couldn't have been more wrong. When I got a bite of the pork with the pear and walnut the flavors melted together in a wonderfully meaty and smoky sort of way. The potato gratin was good but nothing spectacular. Overall I was quite pleased with the dish.
For dessert, we went with caramel bread pudding.
The pastry chef was vacationing in Europe, so the only options that night were whatever the not-so-pastry chef could conjure up. It ended up being pretty tasty, but it's rare that either of us would have anything negative to say about dessert.
The ambiance of the place was pretty great. The servers and chef appeared to be cut from the same mold. They were all burly men in flannel shirts, which likely serves them well in the heart of Boystown. Overall, the space was pretty quaint and dim. The candles were all lit atop old wine bottles, which was a nice touch.
By far the best moment of the evening occurred when the music shifted from poppy-whatever to "Jizz in My Pants" by The Lonely Island. We were apparently the only diners listening to the music, because upon looking around to catch a few other smirks and giggles, we caught nothing! We either have impeccable hearing, are extremely immature, or are more in the know about pop culture and dirty SNL skits.
You say I'm premature. I just call it ecstasy.
Overall, we'd suggest HB to anyone looking for a good dinner in the area, but it's not at the top of our list to revisit.
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