Cafe Spiaggia - Chicago

Chicago is stunning at night: 

  

View from the Signature Lounge on the 96th Floor of the John Hancock Building

Spiaggia was way too expensive, so we decided to splurge at Cafe Spiaggia instead! 

     

My hot water with lemon could not be any cuter. 

Some cheese flatbread and nice crusty Italian bread with olive oil and balsamic

Gnocchi with wild boar ragu and Parmigiano Reggiano
Ooo...this gnocchi dish is definitely one of the best gnocchi dishes I've ever had! Definitely one of those "WOW" moments. The pasta was perfect! The gnocchi were soft little pillows of delightfulness and the wild boar ragu was spot on. The best part? Not too salty at all (despite all the cheese we asked the waiter to put on the dish for us). Absolutely Amazing! I'll have dreams about this dish for years to come...


Bucatini with guanciale, onion, San Marzano tomato, pecorino Romano
While the gnocchi knocked our socks off, the bucatini fell a little flat for us. The thick lengthy pasta was interesting, but the spicy sauce didn't really seep into the pasta the same way it did for the gnocchi.


Tiramisu
Valentine's Day is the best day to splurge! Haha. We saw so many people ordering the tiramisu, that we just couldn't resist. Big portion! It was pretty tasty with the ladyfingers soaked in amaretto and espresso. Great way to finish off the meal.

Overall: Great experience at Cafe Spiaggia! Service was attentive and the food was really delicious (and reasonably priced for a higher end restaurant). Love the Gnocchi (a must try).

Website: http://www.spiaggiarestaurant.com/cafe

Frontera Grill - Chicago

Early morning in Chicago (view from our hotel)

We went to Museum Campus and checked out the Adler Planetarium and Field Museum

Skyline view from the Adler Planetarium

(I wasn't a big fan of the Planetarium - it seemed very chaotic and disorganized and there were tons of people because Illinois residents got to get into the museums for free on the weekend)

Field Museum with a clear view of Sue! 

The Field Museum is FANTASTIC! I would highly recommend it when you visit Chicago. 

We made brunch reservations for Frontera a month in advance and good thing too! It was super packed on the first come, first serve side. We were looking forward to this too! Rick Bayless was the winner of Season 1 of Top Chef Masters and Frontera Grill has won numerous awards and accolades. 

 
Brunch and Lunch Menu
We decided to order one from each side and took our waiter's recommendations.

Mixed nuts as a starter

Gorditas: A trio of Xalapa-style masa cakes in chipotle black bean sauce. Each cake was topped with (a) scrambled eggs, (b) grilled chicken, (c) chorizo, beef and plantains and homemade crema & queso fresco.
Usually I associate Mexican food with messiness (and deliciousness), so this was an interesting plate with a contemporary feel to it. The masa cakes were okay: the egg and chorizo cakes were a little forgettable, but the chicken really stood out and it was seasoned perfectly and was oh so tender.

We also got the Enchiladas with Steak & Eggs (but I forgot to take a picture - food blogger fail).
The enchiladas were fresh-baked corn tortillas rolled around spicy steak'n'eggs roasted tomato-serrano chile sauce and a melted blanket of Samuel's hand-made Indiana Jack Cheese and black beans.
Note: "spicy steak'n'eggs" is literally SPICY steak and eggs. OMG - our mouths were on fire from the serrano chile (because they used the chile pretty liberally).


Bread Basket
Wow - I was super impressed by this bread basket! It was so delicious! Freshly baked bread and all these delicious flavours. I loved the Mexican bun and the custard bun with multi-coloured sprinkles on top. The butterfly cookie was also flaky and yummy.

Overall: It was a nice Mexican meal and Frontera is clearly a super popular brunch spot (the line up was pretty crazy!). The bread basket is a must order!

Website: http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/frontera-grill/

Purple Pig - Chicago

We booked a weekend getaway to Chicago through Expedia.ca for about $500 flying Porter Airlines and staying on Mag Mile. It was our first time in the city - so we had a lot to look forward to!

Yay! Chicago

Originally, we planned to start off our trip with Deep Dish Pizza at Gino's East, but unfortunately, by the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was 11:30pm CST (meaning no pizza since the restaurant's closed).
Instead, we did a quick search on Yelp and discovered Purple Pig was still open and it was a 7 minute walk from our hotel. Perfect! A few people gave me recommendations to try the Purple Pig - so it's really a win-win foodie situation. 

 
It's surprisingly still busy for midnight eats, but we got seated very quickly and the waiter came by after 15 minutes to take our order and to tell us that the kitchen would be closing soon.
  
Since everything here is tapas style, we decided to order two dishes since we didn't really want to eat a super filling meal this late at night.

Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes
Super tender and just melt in your mouth delicious! It was a tad on the salty side (which may be because we literally just landed in Chicago an hour ago and might have been a little dehydrated - interestingly, I just read this article recently about how in-flight your tastebuds change).


Pig's Ear with kale, pickled peppers and a fried egg

All mixed together
Again, this was another really salty dish. However, I think it was supposed to be on the saltier side with the salted pig's ear, salted kale chips and sour pickled peppers. The jiggly fried egg, crispy kale and crunchy pig's ears made an interesting texture combination and it was fun and playful, but I probably wouldn't order it again (too much salt).

After our two courses, we decided to grab another one since we weren't really full.
So we ordered the porchetta panini

There was a lot of pesto on the panini: pesto inside the sandwich and outside the sandwich.
Unfortunately, the pesto sauce was really salty. The porchetta was nice and flavourful, but the pesto may have overwhelmed us. Decent sized portion for $11.

Overall: They have some really interesting and innovative pig items on the menu, but we found everything really salty (either because it was really salty or because we just got off the plane and our taste buds were dehydrated or something). Of the three dishes, I'd recommend the milk braised pork shoulder.

Website: http://thepurplepigchicago.com/

Cafe Pleiade

My third Winterlicious this year and it's back at one of my favourites: Cafe Pleiade for a $25 dinner.

It's this cute and cozy little restaurant on Mount Pleasant that serves deliciously filling portions of French and Mediterranean food. I can always count on them to serve good home style food at really reasonable prices. 

(*Items I would recommend and/or order again)

Bread with olive oil and balsamic

Fresh Ravioli with tomato sauce and Parmesan flakes

This is such a nice change from those overpriced high end restaurants that serve one ravioli as an appetizer. 

I got a few ravioli with a lot of their fresh marinara sauce with chunks of tomato and cheese on top. The pasta was good, but I was hoping that they would have something other than just cheese in the ravioli. 

Fresh Mussels Mariniere

Every time we've been here for Winterlicious or dinner, we always get the mussels. They're just that good! 

The sauce was so tasty and the mussels soaked up all the flavour. The fresh tomatoes and onions added a nice freshness to the dish. The mussels are their best appetizer (or main course at lunch) - so you should definitely order this!

Grill Pork Tenderloin on Spinach with fingerling potatoes, yoghurt and mint sauce

Amazing! The grilled pork tenderloin was juicy and so delicious! The best part was that I got three pieces of tenderloin with nice grill marks on that I could dip in the refreshing yoghurt sauce. It was so good and great value for money. 

Cassoulet with pork, chicken, sausage and lima beans on pasta

Hefty portion as well with huge chunks of sausage, pork and chicken. The sauce was a little on the watery side and it used the same marinara base that was in the ravioli. The pasta missed out on the flavours of the cassoulet because of the watery sauce and the dish missed an overall cohesive flavour too. 

Carrot Cake and Apple Pie

We had to pack our desserts to go because we were so full from the meal. 

The carrot cake was really lovely and moist from the cream cheese icing and the raisins and I would highly recommend it. I'm not a big apple pie fan, but the crust was good (even though I ate it much much later). 

Overall: Cafe Pleiade is a great cozy and family run restaurant serving up Mediterranean and French food. It has all the requirements for one of my favourite restaurants: the food is delicious, the prices are super reasonable and the portions are big. And despite being a small restaurant, they get their service done really well and it's really quick. Fantastic place!

Website: http://www.cafepleiade.com/

Rock Lobster

February 2, 2015

I was pretty happy with my lobster poutine and Caesar last week, so I came back for the $25 Winterlicious dinner.
(*Items I would recommend and/or order again)

Lobster Taco and Lobster Cake
Even though the lobster cake on the menu is $13 and the lobster taco is $6 - I would much rather eat the taco over the cake if I could choose again. The taco was fresh and zesty (and tasted better with the selection of hot sauces). Meanwhile, the cake was good if super crumbly and rather one-dimensional in taste compared to the taco.


Lobster Roll
I saw the lobster roll last week and I remembered thinking "I don't think that's worth $15, but if I can eat it as part of a 3 course meal for Winterlicious - that might actually be a good deal". So here I am - eating it for Winterlicious instead of paying $15 for it regularly. The bun was buttered and lightly toasted with lobster piled on. The size was kinda small, but the quality was there. The Yukon chips were good too - they're a little charred, but that's what makes them different.


S'mores Brownie with marshmallows and Dutch Butter Cake with dulce de leche and toasted almonds
I thought the s'mores brownie was an interesting concept, but I didn't really like the presentation of it because it made it harder to eat. The butter cake was good, but it was hard and I wish there was more dulce de leche drizzled all over it.

Overall: The Rock Lobster Caesar is a MUST-TRY here! I was really happy with my drink. The lobster dishes are all good, but they're a little on the pricey side. I think the Winterlicious was a good deal since I got to try the lobster taco, lobster roll and dessert for a lot less than regular price.

Website: http://www.rocklobsterfood.com/

January 30, 2015

I'm not a big fan of alcoholic drinks when I'm eating out (I'm a lightweight and sleepy drunk and generally I like to remember what my food tastes like), so I didn't really want to get a Caesar...until everyone else ordered one and I saw how awesome it looked on the menu. Who puts a lobster tail into a Caesar??? That's Awesome (with a capital A)!

Rock Lobster Caesar
Delicious! This was like a meal in itself: ketel one vodka, steak spice, tabasco, worcestershire, clamato and lobster tail
You have to get this when you're here!

Lobster poutine
It's Poutine + Lobster --> enough said. It was served in this really cute pan with chunks and bits of lobster on top of cheese curds and fries all topped with a lobster gravy sauce - Yum!

Le Papillion on Front

Winterlicious Season is back! This year I kicked it off with Le Papillion's $25 Winterlicious menu:

(*Items I would recommend and/or order again)

Escargot with sauteed leek, cream sauce and croustinis

The best way to eat snails is with butter or this way with a heavy and strong cream sauce to accompany the slightly chewy snails. 

Filet of Salmon - baked salmon stuffed with sauteed leek and mushroom and a baby shrimp brandy sauce, rice and vegetables

When I ordered this, I was actually hoping for the salmon to be baked in a pastry with leek and mushroom. I turned out that it was a piece of salmon wrapped around some mushrooms and leeks. The salmon was still tasty, but I think the mushrooms and leeks ruined it for me - it made it awkward to eat it and I didn't like that the salmon skin was still on it. The rest of the dish was fine: the baby shrimp brandy sauce was nice as were the rice and veggies. 

Duck leg confit with a wild berry sauce and vegetables

The duck leg had a nice crispy skin outside with nice juicy dark meat inside. It was very well done.

Traditional Cheesecake with berry coulis on top

I really liked this cheesecake - it had a great crust and the cheesecake wasn't too dense and heavy. 

Overall: A nice three course French meal for $25 with good service and good food. 

Website: http://www.papillononfront.com/