restaurant week review

So I ended up going to three restaurants instead of four this past week. Two dinners ended up costing me a lot more than I had bargained for, but that's okay, great experiences!

Sushi Samba Rio, Saturday 2/23:

My girlfriends and I made reservations for 8:30pm. The restaurant was extremely crowded. Guests were hovering around the bar and hostess counter waiting to be called and seated. By around 9:00, we had already asked the hostess two times when our table would be ready, she looked flustered. Finally we sat down around 9:15. Starving. The server didn't come to our table right away, but the bus boy filled our glasses of water and the host came back with the regular menus, not the restaurant week pre-fixe menu. Finally our server came by, he handed us the menu and was very honest. He told us that most people walked away still feeling hungry and that the pre-fixe was more of a tasting menu. For some reason, we tried to give the chef the benefit of the doubt and figured the other people must have larger stomachs than us. So the three of us decided to still go for the pre-fixe while one of our friends went for regular menu items. She was the smart one. Anyway, on to the menu:

1st Course: Lobster with rice and some wasabi sauce. The chunk of lobster was pretty good in size, but the meat was flimsy and hard to eat with chopsticks. It was pretty undercooked. But no major complaints.

2nd Course: I got the sea bass which came on a HUGE platter, but the joke was on me when I noticed a small indenture in the middle of the platter filled with some soupy stuff and two very VERY small filets of sea bass, some edamame and get this, ONE piece of bok choy. Three bites, and I was finished. My friends got the pork chop dish. The meat was so tough that the whole table shook while they tried to run their knives through it. They also finished theirs in three bites.

3rd Course: I got a chocolate cake with rum ice cream which was very good, but I finished in one bite.

Total with our bottle of wine, tax and tip: $55/person.
We all went home and ate frozen pizzas.
Overcrowded + over-rushed +leaving hungry = biggest waste of money ever.

Sweets and Savories, Monday 2/25:

This restaurant is my absolute favorite spot in Chicago. Unpretentious environment, fabulous food and always excellent service. After my Sushi Samba Rio debacle, I was a little nervous about what to expect here, but once we got seated and the server laid out our menus in front of us we knew we were in for a treat -- 4 full courses!

1st course: White corn risotto w/ grilled shrimp and pomegranate bbq sauce. AMAZING. The texture of the crunchy corn contrasted so nicely with the risotto and the grilled shrimp was so large and perfectly matched with the sauce.

2nd course: Sea bass with wildmushrooms, asparagus and mashed potatoes. I never thought of sea bass and mashed potatoes as a pairing, but since sea bass is one of the heavier, thicker fishes of the sea, it worked! And we loved it.

3rd course: Rack of lamb with some ragout of eggplant and chickpeas. The lamb was cooked medium rare, so tender and tasty. The ragout was a bit tart but worked well with the lamb.

4th course: Fallen chocolate souffle with fresh berries. One word - ORGASMIC.

We were all so incredibly satisfied. It was kind of creepy how we all just had smiles glazed over our faces. And the Louis Jadot Gamay that I bought was a hit! I went back to buy a case of it the next day. It's my favorite wine. Perfect with meal or just as is.

Total cost including tax and tip: $44


Onesixtyblue, Wednesday 2/27:

The last time I went to Onesixtyblue my boyfriend at the time and I ended up spending $175. It was definitely worth every penny, so I was excited to see what they had in store for us here. I met up with two old co-workers and we started out at the bar to have a glass of wine. We were seated and the waiter went through the restaurant week menu and offered us the baked goat cheese appetizer while we looked through the menu to make our decisions. We went ahead and ordered it and spent some time catching up instead of looking at the menu! Our server was more than gracious and came back a third time to take our order.

1st course: Two of us ordered the parmesen gnocchi. A good sized portion, absolutely delish! The other had the leek soup which was thick and smelled really good because of the truffle oil in it.

2nd course: I had the pork tenderloin with sweet potato, red cabbage confit, and some berry sauce. The pork belly looked daunting at first but was so amazing with the red cabbage. My friend who's a vegeterian had the fettecine. It didn't look that great, but she said it was good and it definitely was a large platter! She took most of it home.

3rd course: For dessert I had the coconut crunch - an wonderfully light dessert and perfect ending to a perfect eveing.

Total w/ one glass of wine, goat cheese app, tax + tip: $66