Fatduck Tavern & Grill

Duck Fat Fries with 3 sauces

We went to dinner at Fatduck Tavern & Grill in Forest Park.  Natalie had heard about it a while ago from some friends but recently it was featured on Chicago's Best.

Here are the dishes we ordered:

Duckfat Fries with 3 dipping sauces - roasted garlic aioli, Mexican pesto and Chipotle ketchup. This is what was featured on Chicago's Best and it is the namesake of the restaurant.  The fries themselves were tasty but since we have had duck fat fries before it is no longer unique for us.  But the sauces are what made this dish special.  They were tangy and spicy and we each had our favorites - Nick liked the Chipotle ketchup and Natalie liked the Mexican pesto.

Duck Confit Quesadilla

Duck Confit Quesadilla - with Chihuahua cheese, apples and pineapple sweet chili sauce - this was good and once again the sauce made it special.  The pieces of apple were really small and we wished they were larger to add a larger crunchy element to the dish.

Grilled Pineapple Burger with bacon and BBQ sauce - Tasty and tangy due to the BBQ sauce.  The sweet note of the caramelized pineapple was a nice offset. This type of burger is Nick's favorite because he loves pineapples. The bacon was okay on it but it wasn't completely necessary.

Pineapple Burger

Final thoughts on Fatduck Tavern & Grill:
Food - tasty food, a slight variation on standard bar fare
Service - attentive and good; we were there at a slower time so maybe service would have been different at a busier time
Atmosphere - we ate outside at a "Key West" inspired patio area.  There were decorative elements from Key West and an outdoor bar.  The indoor area was dark and the walls were covered with TVs (which at the time we were there were covering college football games.)

Golden Steer

French Onion Soup

We went to dinner at Golden Steer, a steakhouse in Forest Park.  We have seen it featured on both Check Please and Chicago's Best, where it was described as being a great deal and it definitely was.  Unlike your traditional steakhouses, you get a full meal with both a French onion soup and a salad, instead of everything being a la carte.

The interior decore is very "dated", it looks like you are in the 1970's. But we expected that from having seen the interior on TV. This is probably why they can keep their prices lower.

Salad

We went on a Friday night so that we could order the prime rib (it is only offered on Fridays and Saturdays). It was just as good as prime rib we have ordered at other places.  It also came with a choice of potato and we got a baked potato.

Prime Rib

The other entree we ordered was the Beef Stroganoff.  It came with mushrooms and onions and was served over pasta.  This dish wasn't as good - there wasn't much sauce and the steak pieces weren't tender.  Most Stroganoffs we have had are more creamy.  The last beef Stroganoff we ate was on an out of town trip a few months ago and was much preffered to this.  Nick liked the meat in this dish but Natalie really didn't

Beef Stroganoff

Both of our dishes came with French onion soup which was very good.  There was so much cheese that was baked all over the top of the crock - the cheese overflowed so there was melted cheese down the sides of the crock.  The dishwasher must be powerful to clean these things.

The salads were pretty standard, with lettuce and tomato.  The dressings were good and they came with a house made crouton which tasted great.

Final thoughts on Golden Steer:

Food - really good deals for the prices. We enjoyed what we got but wouldn't get the Stroganoff again.  But soup was good enough to go back for in and of itself.  There was more than enough food so we had some to take home.

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Service - good service. the waitress warned us not to eat much bread so we would save room for everything  but that still didn't work

Atmosphere - nice neighborhood feel; we were pretty much the youngest ones there - maybe the decore has something to do with this.  There might have been another table with a couple of young people at it but they were they with a larger group that included much older diners.