Avec

Chorizo-stuffed bacon wrapped dates

We went to dinner at Avec in the West Loop. It is a related restaurant to Blackbird, which we ate at a couple of years ago. They are located right next to each other.  Avec is a little more casual than Blackbird and it doesn't accept reservations so we went there on an evening when we knew we could get there early enough not to wait. Avec has also been featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network.

Charred Cauliflower

Charred Cauliflower with tabbouleh, oranges, radish, green olive and tahini - really great dish and we liked that it was an amazing vegetarian option. The tabbouleh wasn't overly bitter like it can sometimes get and this was offset by the smokiness of the cauliflower. We would love to be able to make something like this at home.  Great combination of flavors.

Summer squash with shishito peppers

Charred Summer Squash with shishito peppers, almonds, mint and feta - we have very similar feelings about the squash dish as we did the cauliflower dish.  Another great vegetarian dish with unique flavors. The peppers weren't too hot so it was a mild dish.

Chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce - basically this is their version of bacon wrapped dates.  They are just a lot larger than regular bacon wrapped dates because they are stuffed with chorizo. Because of the chorizo and the pepper sauce these were quite spicy but super tasty.  They said this dish was their most popular and this is the dish that had been featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

Papardelle pasta

Pappardalle pasta with mushroom bolognese, pine nuts and cheese - another great option (and again vegetarian).  Although when we ate this, the mushroom were so "meaty" in texture they almost felt like meat but then we remembered they were mushrooms.

Parmesan pound cake with roasted apples and candied pine nuts - intriguing flavor with a cheesy touch to it. It was very good and seasonal but very dense as well. Perhaps a whipped cream could have offset the denseness a bit and warmed apples would have been nice.

Parmesan Pound Cake with apples and pine nuts

Gelato - we meant to order the sorbet but got the gelato instead.  Nothing overly exciting.

Cookies and cream gelato

Final thoughts on Avec:
Food - we loved all of the savory dishes.  Nick loved the dates and Natalie loved the squash and cauliflower.
Service - we sat at the bar and probably got faster service this way but it also caused us the mixup with the sorbet/gelato.

Atmosphere - another rustic yet modern restaurant (like Wood). All wood tables and bar area. It is smaller in size than you might expect and the tables are communal so you could be seated right next to people you don't know at busy times.

Topolobampo

Gaucamole

Well after going to Frontera Grill back in May we didn't think we would be back so soon to their sister restaurant Topolobampo.  But since we had a rare weekday off together and you don't need to make reservations months in advance for lunch (like you do have to do for dinner service) we decided to go.  Topolobampo is known for a higher level of service which we were hoping for after not that great of service at Frontera.

We made reservations less than a week in advance, but we really could have made them even closer to the date.  We had a reservation for 11:30 when the restaurant opens and we were the only ones in that room until noon.  You get to walk past the much busier and louder Frontera Grill and go past a door into a different more refined space. It was so nice to have the space ourselves for a half hour; it felt like such a luxury.  The waiter explained the favorite dishes and regions of Mexico they came from.

Chilpachole de Hongos

Before you get any other food you get a complimentary guacamole and chips dish. We've never had free guacamole before (usually salsa) but when you are at one of best Mexican restaurants in the country it's a little different.

For lunch they offer a 3 course fixed priced menus with limited options - but they were the options Natalie was wanting anyway (the soup, mole and tres leches cake) so she went with that and Nick went with items on the regular menu.

Tamal de Platano

Chilpachole de Hongos - wild chanterelles, butternut squash three ways, epazote, chilpachole (savory, silky broth infused with ancho and chipotle.  This soup tasted great and wonderful with all of the vegetables and spices. It is not something you would normally have at a Mexican restaurant but it was a gourmet surprise.

Tamal de Platano - plantain-malanga tamal, seared pork belly, spicy ancho-sesame sauce, jack fruit, heirloom runner beans.  This other first course was spicy but flavorful. It was such a wonderful mix of ingredients; we especially enjoyed the pork belly. It was a bit spicy with the ancho chile sauce, but nothing Natalie couldn't handle.

Lamb with Mole

Borrego en Mole Negro - wood-grilled Crawford Farm lamb leg, classic Oaxacan black mole (chilhuacle chiles and 28 other ingredients), corn husk-steamed chipil tamal, unctuous black bean, smoky green beans. The mole had a wonderful flavor.  The waiter told us that they have culinary students come help prepare the mole since it has so many ingredients in it. The lamb was tender and this dish was also served with corn tortillas to create tacos and mop up the remaining sauce.

Carne Asada

Carne Asada "Brava" - spicy habanero-marinated, wood-grilled Creekstone Natural ribeye, spicy salsa huevona (hand-crushed, grill-roasted tomatoes, jalapenos), grilled knob onions, and sweet corn tamal (topped with homemade sour cream and fresh cheese). This dish had a bit of a kick to it with the different chiles, but that heat was cut a bit with the cheese and sour cream.  We also made tacos with the carne asada and tortillas. It was nice and tender, not tough and chewy.  Both main entrees had completely unique tastes that were wonderful.

Tres Leches Cake

Pastel de Tres Leches y Avellana - classic tres leches cake infused with toasted hazelnuts, Oaxacan chocolate ice cream, vanilla-poached quince, housemade ricotta, hazelnut crumble & meringue two ways.  The cake was smooth not grainy (probably because of the ricotta in it).  The meringues that came with it were soft and it all was a great combination with the ice cream and fruit.

Crepas con Cajeta, Platano y Chocolate - warm, buttery crepes filled with ripe plantain & bittersweet chocolate, cajeta (goats milk caramel), caramelized plantain ice cream, toasted meringue, Spence Farm whole wheat crumble.  This was a great combo, especially for Nick because he loves chocolate and caramel.

Crepa con Cajeta

Final thoughts on Topolobampo:
Food - all of the food was amazing.  This restaurant elevates Mexican food to another level.  All of the food exceeded our expectations and we would eat it over and over.
Service - well this made up for the not as stellar service we had at Frontera back in May. The waiter was very friendly and explained the classics and favorites on the menu
Atmosphere - very serene; compared to the more chaotic Frontera Grill; also a definitely elevated experience as well; would prefer comping here again over Frontera but it is a bit more expensive (that is why we went there for lunch).

Interior of Restaurant

Kuma's Corner

We ate dinner at Kuma's Corner after hearing about it for a while. We saw it on Diner's, Drive ins and Dives, and it has also been featured on Check Please.

They mainly serve burgers (but there are other items on the menu).  The burgers are 10 oz - so quite large, and they are served on pretzel buns.  These burgers were almost too large - in the sense that Natalie couldn't even fit a full cross section bite into her mouth.

We ordered 2 different hamburgers and tried each of them. All of the burgers are named after heavy metal bands to go along with the theme of the whole restaurant - it is very dark inside and they play metal music.

The burgers we ordered:

Absu - Tomatillo Salsa, Pepperjack, Red Onion Avocado Relish, Queso Fresco, Trio of Breaded Deep Fried Chiles.  This was a little spicier than Natalie would have wanted.  The toppings seemed to not be placed very evenly because sometimes you couldn't really taste some of the items - especially the case for Nick, he didn't even get to taste the cheese.

Mega Deth with chips

Mega Deth - Chorizo and Red Potato Hash, Pico de Gallo, Cayenne Avocado Cream, Tortilla Strips.  The combination sounded great - but it was a little mild after eating the Absu.  We would have preferred cheese on it

The menu did have a lot of very unique burger combinations.  Maybe we chose poorly but we really didn't think they were super special. If we compare this experience to our experiences eating at Hot Dougs or Frank N Dawgs (gourmet and specialty hot dogs and sausages), we didn't enjoy the food as much. 

Absu burger with fries

Kuma's has a lot of rules

- i.e. no reservations. no substitutions of ingredients, so you have to follow how they do things.  This is fine with us but might be a problem for others

We had heard that because they don't take reservations and they have a smaller dining area that some people can wait up to 2 hours on busier nights.  Therefore we went on a Wednesday night and succeeded in having a much shorter wait - about 15 minutes.

Maybe there was just way too much hype about this place but there is no way we would want to wait 2 hours to eat here.

Another thing to mention is that the kitchen is very small so it takes a few minutes longer than normal to get the food out to each table.

Final Thoughts on Kuma's Corner:
Food - good but not great.  It could have just been our expectations or because we have some awesome burgers within a 10 minute drive of us at Palmer Palace and Back Alley burger (with little to no wait and not as many rules)
Service - pretty standard, we already knew what we wanted to order because we had looked at the menu while we were waiting to be seated, so that sped things up a bit
Atmosphere - very unique, you could tell pretty easily who were the regulars versus the newbies (all of the newbies, including us, had cameras out taking pictures of everything). It was loud inside so not a place to take grandma.

May St. Cafe

We ate dinner at May Street Cafe in Chicago.  We had heard about them from both Check Please and the Best Thing I Ever Ate program on the Food Network.



Interior with fun artwork

Brie and Pear Quesadilla

This is an quite unassming place.  It is next to an industral part of town and wouldn't be where you would think to locate a nicer restruant.  But as you pass by you can't miss it - with it's festive green paint job. One really nice thing it has a parking lot that isn't valet only. It also is a little oasis in the grim industral area with trees and flowers and an outdoor seating area that would have been nice if it hadn't been a 100+ degree day. We were able to come right after work so we were the only ones in the very small and intmate place. So if you are thinking on coming on a weekend get reservations.

Beet Salad

There were a lot of interesting Latin fusion choices and this is what we ate:

French double cream brie & winter pear quesadilla with sour cream and chipotle sauce; we liked this combination so much that we made it at home later.  It had sweet notes from the pear. The pear also gave it a good firm crisp texture and the brie made it smooth with a hint of salt. It was served with a chipotle sauce that we weren't sure would complementt the brie, but it blew it away with a dynamic flavor.



La Pina de la Playa

Special beet salad - beets, arugala, chipotle goat cheese, and mango vinaigrette.  Tasty, it apears that beet salads are our new favorite salad.  Our taste buds did not get bored with the goat cheese and mango. 

La Pina de la Playa de Puerto Rico - the pineapple of the beach of Puerto Rico - shrimp and scallop spanish fried rice made with chipotle coconut sauce (but not spicy) served in a half pineapple; this dish made us feel like we were eating somewhere on the beach. It was served in a hollowed out half of a pinapple. It was a nice combo of the sweet acidity of the pineapple and the smoky favors of the chipotle. The coconut aroma wafted over us when it was brought out and it made Nick yearn for a beach vacation.



Fajitas

Fajitas - steak fajitas, with squash, zucchini, red onions, portobello mushrooms, rice, beans and chipotle cream sauce. We haven't often ordered this out since it is such an easy dish to do at home but it sounded like a good fit for the rest of the meal. The steak was flavored well and cooked medium rare.  But what made this dish unque whas the grilled zucchini and mushrooms that came with it. The next time we make fajitas at home we will definitely grill up some zucchini.



Sides that went with the fajitas

Tostones - fried plantains with garlic sauce. They were lightly fried and served warm.  These were a great addtion to our meal.  They came with a garlic dipping sauce. 

  White chocolate flan with caramel sauce - Art Smith (from Table 52 in Chicago) chose this dish as The best thing he ever ate for the Food Network show's chocolate episode.  Hmmm...we're not sure that we agree.  First of all it was really small and not what we were expecting. When you hear flan you expect something like a half inch deep and giggly with a caramel top. These were wafer like and sweet and tasty but not as satisfying as a Best Thing I ever ate should be (see the sea bass apppetizer from the Las Vegas  episode). Also the chocolate flavor was really subtle.  For a "Best Thing" chocolate we figured that would have been a bit more pronounced. To get enough of what we wanted we would have had to order three of these each - once again it was quite small. 

Flan

Final Thoughts on May St. Cafe:Food - very good, the food is pricey for the hole in the wall location but worth it.  All of the savory items were worth it - but we were disappointed with the dessert.

Service - This is hard to judge since we were the only ones in the restaurant.  But they were attentive and filled our water all the time and were at our call as all of the staff were sitting at the bar very close to us.  It seemed like it took a little longer for our food to come out but that may have just been a perception.

Tostones

Atmosphere - the exterior neighborhood does not match the cuteness of the interior.  The interior is very small - probably 10 or less tables.  We went right after the 4th of July on a super hot day and we were the only customers there (and we were there at least 1 1/2 hours if not longer). We felt a little strange being the only customers.  We saw the video of this restaurant on Check Please and all the tables were filled so maybe this was a fluke.



 



Patio area

Manny's Deli

We went to dinner at Manny's Cafeteria and Deli.  We had heard about it from many friends and also saw it mentioned on the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" program. It was a hot and sticky day and you wouldn't think that we would want the massive amounts of food that deli's usually offer but we certainly did not want to go home and heat up the kitchen; and we knew we could probably get in and out quickly and we were not disappointed.

Chaffer Sandwich (pastrami & corned beef)

Nick (with his Jewish heritage) has had a lot of exposure to deli's and therefore and has strong opinions on what is good and great. This was some great food.

When we walked in there wasn't any line so we told the guy behind the counter that we had never been there before.  He proceeded to give us samples of both pastrami and corned beef and tell us about people's usual favorites.

We chose:
Chaffer Sandwich - corned beef and pastrami, muenster cheese and coleslaw on rye (not toasted). This gave us a great sampling combo of both the corned beef and pastrami.  And it has the coleslaw on in which Nick likes instead of sauerkraut. It was a mile high due to all of the meat, hard to get in your mouth, and messy but wonderful taste in your mouth. 

Pastrami Reuben - Reuben with Pastrami, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut.  Natalie decided on just the pastrami because during the sample time she liked that better.  Pastrami, in reality, is just corned beef with more spices on it. It had a little more smoky flavor due to the spices, so it might not be able to be called a traditional Reuben but we liked it. The sauerkraut wasn't to strong or overwhelming so it complemented the sandwich nicely.

Pastrami Reuben with Latke

Noodle Kugel - Ted Allen chose this item as The Best thing he ever ate - at a deli, we agree that it is great.  Maybe not better than the sandwiches, but definitely the best noodle kugel we've ever had at a deli. It compares favorably to homemade.  Manny's Noodle Kugel is more of a dessert with noodles and raisins with an egg based custard.  It is served as a slice, like a casserole. 

Matzo Ball Soup - we really didn't want to order soup on such a warm day, but the broth didn't look too piping hot.  The matzo ball was tasty and large.  It wasn't grainy like Nick's attempts to make it at home. But it didn't quite match up to his favorite in Michigan, but could be a good Chicago substitute. 

Matzo Ball Soup

Noodle Kugel

Latkes - potato pancakes, theses came with the sandwiches for $1.00 more so we went for it. Thye were a little too crispy and not all that inspiring as far as latkes go.  Just stick with the sandwiches.  

Final Thoughts on Manny's Cafeteria and Deli:

Food - really good, the sandwiches had massive quantities of meat.  Great variety of Jewish deli food.

Service - the guy at the counter was very helpful, maybe it wouldn't have been that way when it is more crowded at lunch but it helped us out.  

Atmosphere - old school cafeteria style restaurant; you take a tray, you order at the counter, they give you your food, you get a receipt for what items you ordered, you eat and then you pay before you leave

Frontera Grill

Ceviche Trio

We had to make our patronage to what some may say is one of Chicago's world renowned restaurants, Frontera Grill. It is one of three restaurants in Chicago run by Celebrity chef Rick Bayless of "Mexico: One plate at a time" and Top Chef Masters fame. The restaurant is so famous we made reservations almost 3 months in advance. For such a renowned place and higher priced resturant it was suprisingly casual and it's decore is much like any moderately priced Mexican resturant. That aside our dinner (i.e. food) was great.

Appetizers:

Meatballs a la Mexicana

Ceviche Trio: the trio included Frontera Ceviche (albacore, tomato, olive), Yucatecan Ceviche (shrimp, squid, orange, cucumber), Tropical Tuna Cocktail (big eye, avoado-tomatillo, mango salsa).  All served with tortilla chips.

- Frontera Ceviche: Hawaiian albacore, lime, tomatoes, olives, cilantro & green chile on tostaditas. 

Most traditional ceviche; the lime and cilanto made the tuna flavors dance on your tongue. This was Nick's favorite of the three ceviches.

- Tropical Tuna Cocktail: Sashimi-grade Hawaiian big eye tuna, tomatillo guacamole, honey Manila mango salsa. Also good. A little less traditional than most ceviches. The guacomole was on the bottom and you really needed a taste of the tuna, mango and guacamole all at once to get the dish - you really need all parts of the ceviche for the combination to hit the wow factor.   

- Yucatecan Ceviche: Steamed Mexican blue shrimp & calamari, lime, orange, habanero, avocado, jicama, cucumber & cilantro. Another more traditional ceviche. But due to the small size in the appetizer trio we only got two shrimp and a lot of thinly sliced calamari - which was ok but we were looking forward to more shrimp.

Meatballs a la Mexicana: Classic little Mexican pork meatballs, smoky tomato sauce, braised kale, poblano rajas, Kaskaskia cheese, served with corn tortillas (to make the dish into small tacos).  The meatballs had a great smoky flavor.  There was also a dash of sweetness.  It was a good starter for the two of us.

Entrees:

Mole Trio - pork (L), enchiladas, vegetables (R)

Mole Trio: 2 Mole poblano enchiladas, grill-seared pork in manchamanteles (chorizo, almond), roasted vegetables in green pumpkinseed mole (epazote).  

- Mole Poblano Enchiladas: Gunthorp free-range chicken, grill-roasted red onions.  

This was by far the spiciest dish of the night.  There was a hint of sweet with the chocolate in the traditional (albeit spicy) mole sauce.  The combination with the spice was amazing but be warned the dish is aggressive 

- Pork in Manchamanteles: Red chile-marinated Gunthorp pork loin, fruit-studded ancho-almond mole, sweet potato mash (ancho, bacon), braised kale, spicy chipotle pineapple, homemade chorizo.

This was definitely favorite dish of the whole night.  We would recommend to any one going to this restaurant to get this mole only instead of trio - especially since we really wanted to have more of it to eat.  The grilling of the pineapple brought out a lot of natural sugars.  The chipotle flavor wasn't that spicy but overall a great balance of flavors.
- Roasted Vegetables in green pumpkinseed mole.  The vegetables were asparagus and potatoes and it was a much milder mole sauce, to balance out the spicy mole enchiladas. On its own it might have been a little boring but it was nice presented with the other two mole dishes.  

Oaxacan-Style Carne Asada: Red chile-marinated Creekstone Natural Black Angus rib steak. Black beans, sweet plantains with homemade crema and guacamole

Carne Asada with sweet plantains

We heard about this dish from the Food Network show "The best thing I ever ate" (filled with envy episode)  It didn't disappoint.  The sauce with had a medium spicy flavor through the meat. The carne asada was wonderful in a corn tortilla with the gucamole and beans.  The fried plaintains came with homemade sour cream and fresh cheese.  The were definitely the best side dish of the night.  Not too thinly cut and not over cooked - the insides were warm with a light cruch on the outside

Dessert: 

Duo de Flanes: A duo of caramel custards: cream cheese-cajeta (goat milk caramel) & classic Mexican vanilla. Pecan polvoron cookies, cajeta drizzle. Both were great and wonderful sweet gooey custards.  Those that don't like flan don't know what they are missing.

Duo of flans

Final thoughts on Frontera Grill:

Food -  great! probably each dish can be found at the same qaulity at other authentic places here and there but not like Frontera all under one roof. We really enjoyed the pork mole, sweet plaintains and albacore and big eye ceviches (in that order).

Service - It was definitely slower than we were expecting.  Frontera Grill is not that large of a restaurant and there were a lot of servers so it was surprising that it took so long to get service sometimes.  We waited at least 10 minutes initially for a waiter to come to our table - so good thing we had an idea of what we wanted to order.  After that the service had spurts of being good and then spurts of no service - we would be checked in on by three people and then our water glasses would be empty for 10 minutes.  Now granted we seemed to have been seated by a wall so it was not easy for wait staff to check in or fill water.  But for a restaurant of this caliber we really had been expecting a lot more; so it really is a disappointment.  We heard that Frontera's sister restaurant Topolobampo just won the James Beard award for service so I guess we'll have to try that one sometime in the future.
Atmosphere - Frontera is much smaller than we envisoned and very casual; some people were in jeans and T-shirts and others were there for work dinners.  It is very difficult to get a reservation here so plan way in advance.

Girl & the Goat

We went to dinner with some friends at Girl and the Goat.  This is a newer trendy restaurant in the west loop area of Chicago.  It was opened less than 2 years ago by Stephanie Izard, the season 4 winner of Top Chef.  It has been very popular since it opened and you have to make reservations very far in advance; in fact we made reservations about 2 1/2 months ago for a Monday evening to enable us to eat a "normal" 7:30pm time.  During the week you probably can walk in when they open at 4:30pm and be okay, but who is ready and able to eat out at 4:30.  We also noticed a lounge and bar area where you could eat as well without reservations.

Inside the Restaurant

This restaurant is a small plates concept, much like a tapas restaurant, just with American dishes instead.  Since we went out to eat with another couple we got to sample even more of the small plates.  They had been to the restaurant before so we also were the beneficiaries of the previous experience.  One of our friends has a gluten allergy and this restaurant was more than willing to accommodate this issue.

Girl and the goat changes some of their dishes on a daily basis including their breads.  We ordered potato bread and pretzel bread and our friend ordered gluten free bread.  All of the breads were small round loaves (the size of a softball) and came with various butters and spreads.  We tasted the potato bread and the pretzel bread; the pretzel bread was the clear winner but all of the spreads that accompanied the breads were very good.

Potato Bread

Pretzel Bread

Grilled Broccoli

The main menu is broken into 3 sections - vegetables, meat and fish. For vegetables, we were able to sample 5 different dishes:
- Wood grilled Broccoli with smokey bleu cheese
- Roasted Cauliflower with pickled peppers, pine nuts and mint
- Artichoke heart sofrito with almond-goat cheese agnolotti (kind of like a ravioli)
- Pan fried Shishito peppers with parmesan, sesame and miso
- Warm marinated olives

Roasted Cauliflower

Artichoke with agnolotti

Pan Fried Shishito Peppers

Warm Olives

If we could eat vegetable dishes like this all of the time, we would definitely become vegetarians.  Probably our 2 favorites were the broccoli and the cauliflower.  They were both served with accompaniments that enhanced the dishes.  Nick enjoyed the smokey flavor of the broccoli and Natalie liked the interesting combination of the the cauliflower with the pine nuts and mint.  The peppers were a little spicy for the women at the table.  Nick doesn't normally like olives but he said if all olives could taste like the warm marinated olives he would be eating them more often.  The artichoke dish was good but there was a higher pasta to artichoke ratio than we anticipated.

Goat Empanadas

From the Meat and Fish categories we ordered the following:
- Goat empanadas, these were actually on the daily specials menu, but sometimes are on the regular menu
- Goat sausage pizza with ricotta cheese
- Scallops with asparagus and bok choy
- Skate with sunchokes, grapefruit, olive and crisp lentils

Scallops 

Goat Sausage Pizza

Skate

We were glad to order the goat dishes for the namesake of the restaurant and in fact Nick's favorite dish of the evening was the goat empanadas. They were warm and fluffy and he said "wow" when he took his first taste. The pizza was a traditional style small pizza with chunks of ricotta and a healthy portion of goat sausage. The scallops were very good, but just not as memorable as some of the other dishes.  We were a little reluctant to order skate with grapefruit as we didn't know how the combination would be, but the baking process brought out the natural sugars of the grapefruit and the citrus flavors enhanced the butteriness of the fish.

Goat Cheesecake

For dessert we ordered gingerbread cake and goat cheesecake.  The gingerbread cake came with cranberry-orange sorbet, caramel, orange creme and candied ginger. We're not super gingerbread fans in general but this combination of flavors was very intriguing. There were lots of strong flavors with the sorbet, the caramel and the ginger but they harmonized into an excellent dessert.  The ginger left your tongue tingling.  The goat cheesecake came with a hazelnut crunch, candied beets and cajeta (a caramelized milk sauce).  The beets may sound off-putting to some people, but if you didn't know they were beets they just tasted like sugared candy. The cheesecake was very smooth and creamy and it was a little sweeter being made with goat cheese instead of cream cheese.

Final thoughts on Girl and the Goat:

Gingerbread Cake

Food - all of the dishes were very good; there were no disappointing disappointments.  There are some dishes on the menu with ingredients that are unfamiliar sounding so just ask your server if you have questions. One of the dishes we did not order (but we know lots of people do) is called wood oven roasted pig face.  We didn't order it because it comes with a sunny side egg - which Nick has an aversion to. But all in all they vegetable dishes were the best.  We would love to return to this restaurant, but the popularity and reservation wait times make it inconvenient for last minute planning (plan way in advance).
Service - There was a little confusion when we were seated, because we were taken to a table for 6 and then we were told we had to get up and move (we think they thought we were the party of 6).  The wait staff was very good about clearing dishes and bringing fresh plates out.  There was a mishap with water being spilled in Natalie's lap but all of the staff showed a lot of concern (i.e. the restaurant manager came over) and we had one of the small plates comped.
Atmosphere - fun, energetic atmosphere; it can get a little loud due to loud music and a large open room.  It seemed like a very "metro cool" place to be. There was a large painting with a girl and a goat that reminded Nick of the Grateful Dead.