Mado

Mado - Italian and Mediterranean Influences
Wicker Park - 1647 North Milwaukee

More comments to come...

We recently had some friends visiting from DC for the weekend and wanted to get out for a big dinner with them and some of our other great friends. We decided to go to Mado because it was an A la Card location, we had read some great reviews on Yelp, heard great things from people we knew, and really appreciated the aim of the restaurant. They're committed to using fresh and local ingredients, as well as using "the whole animal."

As with many other dishes, this one was nothing too special. The sauce, a sort of spicy mayo, was quite good but the pork skins themselves were quite boring. They were cooked well and were surprisingly not-so-greasy but there was little pork flavor. I was hoping that homemade pork skins would have a robust porkiness to them, but alas, the chicharrones from 7-eleven would be about as good.

Butternut Squash Gratin

Butternut Squash Gratin with Onions and Sage

Wicker Park - Our Place

For dinner tonight, we searched through our many cookbooks to find a good recipe for the enormous butternut squash we've been meaning to eat.  We found a great fall dish--butternut squash gratin.  We've tried our hands at gratins in the past and been less than successful, but we were confident that the liquid ingredients in this one would make for a much better dish.

The gratin is comprised of onions sauteed in olive oil, sage, and thyme on the bottom of the dish, which we them topped with cubed squash tossed lightly in flour and sauteed.  The liquid ingredient is an herb broth, which we basically made with skim milk and vegetable stock.  We didn't have any gruyere or fontina cheese, which the recipe called for, so we used a combination of fresh parmesan and cheddar cheeses and sprinkled that on top.  After cooking for 25 minutes, you top everything with bread crumbs and cook for about another 20 minutes.  It smelled amazing!

We paired it with a staple in our house, a salad of mixed greens, pickled beets, and walnuts with balsamic dressing.  The nuts and beets complemented the squash very well.

It's hard to plate a gratin beautifully, but it was delicious!  We recommend this as a great fall dish that requires very little technique and few ingredients.  It's vegetarian, of course, but it's hearty enough for even the hungriest omnivore.  So grab a butternut squash, turn that key on your gas fireplace, and enjoy a great November meal!

Naha

Contemporary American
River North - 500 North Clark

We went through our A la Card deck to create a list of must-visits for the rest of 2009. In the spirit of full disclosure, we actually created an Excel spreadsheet and emailed it back and forth during the work day. We are huge nerds. We agreed that Naha's menu was incredibly alluring, so we made reservations and ate there before going to a party.

The place was pretty empty when we arrived, which we thought was odd considering they forced us to take a 6pm reservation, but we accepted it. We were then seated right next to one of the few other couples in the place, which lost them a few diner points. We quickly got bread with a pretty piece of Naha paper placed over the butter (a nice touch). Our server seemed pretty knowledgeable, so we accepted his suggestions as we moved throughout the meal.

We started with rich autumn squash soup, always a fall delight. It was made from three types of squash--Long Island Cheesecake, Queensland Blue, and Spaghetti Squash.

It was absolutely incredible. The bowl came out with pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, and spaghetti squash in it (didn't snap a picture quickly enough to capture that moment), and the server then poured the soup into the bowl on top of everything. It made for an exciting presentation, and it tasted as good as it looked. The texture was perfect, and the treats at the bottom of the bowl kept it interesting. The pomegranate seeds were like little bursts of flavor, and the pine nuts were excellent complements to the flavor of the squash. On the side was a sandwich of 18 month "Bandaged" Wisconsin Cheddar and Oxtails (decidedly not vegetarian).

We, of course, ordered the beat salad when it came time to pick one.

Although we order (and make) beet salads often, this one still managed to seem very special. There were two types of beets paired with mache, Italian frisee, ricotta cheese, and very thinly sliced beauty heart radishes, and (the major highlight) apple cider and concord grape vinaigrette.

Brittney ordered the Purdy Family Whitefish.

The fish came with butter-poached Maine lobster (pretty much the reason I ordered it), Spence Farm wheatberries (basically quinoa) with maitake mushrooms, cipollini onions, "frothy" mushroom broth, and red wine lobster essence. The highlight of this dish was probably the combination of the wheatberries and the mushrooms. The fish itself was a little fishier than I expected, and the dish came out a little heavier than I expected. Now that I haven't eaten meat other than fish for almost 2 years, whenever a dish seems too oily, brown, and heavy, I tend to feel a little turned off by it. Although I'm sure the dish was cooked well, it just wasn't for me. I've always preferred the other courses to the entree anyway.

Jim ordered the squab.

The squab was roasted whole and served with foie gras, crisp potato cake with Armenian rose petal marmalade, walnuts and licorice root, carrots, medjool dates and pink peppercorns. The bird was cooked perfectly and had the texture and coloring of duck breast. The combination of the foie gras, squab, carrots, and dates was really quite incredible. I don't usually enjoy the sweet/savory combo but this was a great exception. Also, the waiter recommended a rosé wine, which I would never order, and it went perfectly with the dish.

I've told anyone who will listen to me about Naha the same thing: this was probably the best single dish I've had in my life. I really can't say enough about it. Neither can Brittney for that matter, but that's because she was so horrified by the fact that the legs/claws were still attached to the bird. She was so horrified in fact, that she had to strategically place the wine glasses in front of my plate so that she couldn't see it. At least it didn't look like this though, right?

Although there were plenty of desserts that sounded incredible, we opted for the "Gateau Basque" custard cake with almond ice cream, poached seckel pears, pear eau de vie, and pomegranate.

This was quite possibly the most impressive dessert we've ever ordered. There are so many things happening on this plate to even capture on film. Instead of seeming overwhelming, it was like 100 surprises in one dish. The cake itself was moist, the pears were flavorful, the eau de vie (sauce) was sweet, the ice cream was creamy, the foam was foamy... Perfect.

Overall, the ambiance of the place was that of a secret club of connoisseurs, with a knowledgeable staff and friendly patrons. It was an incredible meal, perfect for a slight splurge of a meal, a special occasion, or a 5th date... maybe 6th.

David Burke's Primehouse

Steakhouse
River North - 616 North Rush

As a special treat to ourselves and to continue our journey through the world of A la Card, we decided to try David Burke's Primehouse.  After reading some great reviews of their aged steaks and (of course) the seafood, we decided that this steakhouse was an acceptable compromise for this omnivore-pescetarian couple.

We started out with a couple of cocktails.  Jim went with a perfect manhattan, as usual, and Brittney got a special drink on the menu that came with a honey stick in it!  Delicious.

Jim ordered a round of "East Meets West" which is 3 east coast oysters and 3 west coast oysters. 

Jim's description goes here.

Brittney started with the lobster bisque with a lobster spring roll.

This is one of those times when I felt very sorry for Jim and his shellfish allergy.  This was the best lobster bisque I had ever tasted, and I've had my fair share of bisque.  The lump meat in the center was tender and delicious, and the soup itself had a very rich, creamy flavor.  The spring roll was so interesting, and the fried shell was really light, which I loved.  This soup was really great.

For salad, we shard (surprise, surprise) roasted BEET and mache salad, which came with honeycomb, almonds, manchego cheese, and pink peppercorn dressing.

First, an unfortunate disclosure: our salad came out without the crispy manchego cheese on top.  We love manchego, and it was a huge reason why we ordered this salad.  After a couple of bites we realized it was missing, and the server had to bring it out on the side.  We sprinkled it on the top of the salad, and it was definitely the added touch the salad was missing.  No harm, no foul.  Overall, the salad was quite good, but it was not the best beet salad we've ever had.

Brittney ordered the lobster pasta.

This pasta was very disappointing.  It lacked flavor, which was so unexpected after the amazing bisque, and I had the option of ordering truffles with it, which I thought I did and did not get them on the dish.  I decided not to complain, being that we already complained about the manchego, but I think the truffles may have helped the blandness of the dish.  I would not recommend the pasta to anyone visiting Primehouse, so if you're a non-beef-eater like me, I'd go for a different seafood option.

35 Day Dry Aged Ribeye 20 OZ

Jim's description goes here.

The sides are all ordered family style, so we went with broccoli with chick peas, red onion, and feta.

Broccoli, chick peas, and feta make for a surprising great combination, so we suggest trying it at home.  The broccoli appeared to just be steamed, so it would be very easy to recreate.  The side was nothing particularly special, however, aside from the creative combination of flavors.

For dessert, we ordered carrot cake with coconut crème brulee, pineapple ginger jam, cream cheese ice cream, and walnut streussel.

It would be hard to go wrong with those ingredients, and there was certainly nothing wrong with this dessert.  We can't say it was especially memorable, but it was a nice way to end the meal.

But the fun wasn't over there!  We asked the host if he would take us down to the Himalayan salt room where they age the beef, and he agreed.  Although Brittney was terrified every step of the way towards the "death room," it was nice treat for Jim.

The room smelled pretty awful, honestly, but that's not very surprising considering it was salt-lined room full of meat, old meat, and waaaaay older meat.

Overall, David Burke's Primehouse was a great experience.  The ambiance was nice (aside from the death room), the staff was really friendly and helpful, and the food was great.  If you're a steak lover, this place is a definite must.  If you're a vegetarian, pescetarian, or you like your cow freshly dead, you might want to look elsewhere. 

Brittney's Birthday Dinner - Re:Think

Contemporary American
Lakeview - Brittney's Place

HB Home Bistro

Contemporary American
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.