Farmhouse Tavern

Fried Cheese Curds

We went to dinner for Restaurant Week at Farmhouse Tavern in Chicago.  We had seen this restaurant featured on Check Please of couple of months ago and decided to go when we saw they were participating in Restaurant Week. They offered a 3 course $33 dinner.

1st course
Fried Cheese Curds with house made catsup and spicy sauce.  These were amazing.  I guess you have to like cheese.

Winter Salad

Winter Salad with endive, bibb lettuce, cranberries, pistachio, mint, white balsamic.  So this salad offset whatever guilt we were feeling about the cheese curds.  It was light and refreshing and tasted great. Definitely one of the better salads we have had recently.

2nd course
Braised Short Ribs with celery root, puffed wild rice and wheat berries.  We enjoyed the short ribs themselves and the whole dish had a lot of flavor.  What we didn't like was that the short rib was presented still attached to the bone.  It was extremely difficult to get the meat off the bone and would have been so much easier to eat if the kitchen had just done that part for us. It probably was part of the presentation to have it arranged this way but was quite challenging.

Pork Loin

Grilled Pork Loin - with cabbage, mushrooms, bacon and peanuts.  So this dish was a lot spicier than we would have ever imagined as there was no indication of this on the menu. The flavors of the pork with the veggies and especially the peanuts was neat. We didn't like the bacon that was part of the meal as it tasted like all fat to us.  Fortunately it was arranged as 2 larger chunks that we could easily avoid eating without mixing with anything else.

Chocolate Budino pudding with toffee and ice cream - the pudding was good and it went down easily as we were starting to get full.

Rice Pudding - milk jam, pistachio and cherry brittle. Very sweet and a little more liquidy than other rice pudding, probably due to the milk jam.

Chocolate Budino

Final thoughts on Farmhouse Tavern:
Food - we didn't know what to expect from the food, but we enjoyed most everything.

Service - pretty good service, but nothing special

Atmosphere - the interior of the restaurant is a bit cramped.  There are 2 levels but both levels have large bar areas so the actual restaurant seating is tight.  We were at a very small table and felt a bit crowded when others were seated at a table next to us.

Rice Pudding

Lawry's

We went to Lawry's for dinner during Restaurant Week and man did it deliver.

Spinning Salad

Natalie had been to the Lawry's location in Las Vegas for lunch and it didn't even come close to comparing to the food, service and ambiance here.

Lawry's is located in the River North area of Chicago about 1 block away from Michigan Avenue. It is housed in an old mansion that has fantastic decor inside.

The wait staff is all dressed up for a different era and the prime rib is cut to order by a carving cart that is brought to your table.

Prime Rib dinner with potatoes, yorkshire pudding & lobster tail

The restaurant week deal was fantastic - salad, prime rib, lobster tail, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and dessert for $44 per person

Salad - they call it a spinning bowl salad because of the way it is presented and served to you. The salad consists of Romaine and Iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, hard boiled eggs, beets and croutons. It has a house made dressing that kind of tastes like Thousand island and they put it together table side by spinning the salad in a bowl while the dressing is drizzled on top of it to coat everything. It wasn't the best salad ever but they do try to ratchet up the flair.

Prime Rib - nice cut of meat, not the most tender we've every had but certainly quite flavorful. Once again the presentation wins out on this because a carver comes to your table with a massive cart where he cuts the piece to order and he doles out the mashed potatoes as well. The Restaurant Week menu included the smaller cut of meat which was quite a big size to begin with but Nick opted for the Lawry cut - a little larger and probably the traditional size cut of prime rib served there.

Carving Cart

Yorkshire Pudding - popover type of bread that is used to mop of the juices and gravy. It is served at your table in a skillet.

Lobster tail - so this is the something extra that puts this deal over the top. It was not a super large lobster tail but it tasted great. With this being put onto the restaurant week menu it went from being a small deal to quite a nice dinner deal.

Dessert - choice of sticky toffee pudding or bundt cake.  We probably should have both ordered the toffee pudding but we wanted to try one of each. They were both quite sweet and we barely had enough room to eat them at all.

Final thoughts on Lawry's.
Food - we loved the food and definitely want to return.  This is a special occasion type of place.

Service - the service is amazing. They definitely have all the bases covered here with the presentation both of the salad and the prime rib.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Atmosphere - The setting is very neat being in an old mansion. It is quite fancy and different than most other restaurants we had been to.  We would consider this a special occasion restaurant but there seemed to be a lot of business diners there as well.

Bundt Cake

Wildfire

 We went dinner at Wildfire in Oakbrook.  This was our first Restaurant week dinner for the year.  We had been to this restaurant before but it had been a few years. For their restaurant week option Wildfire offered both a $33 and a $44 dollar dinner option and we chose one of each.

House Salad

$33
House Salad - slightly fancier than the typical house salad as it had hard boiled eggs and artichokes, it was presented kind of like a cobb salad with all of the ingredients in their own sections
Bourbon Tenderloin tips with broccoli - this was a much larger dish than we were anticipating so we were so full that we had to take 2/3 of this home with us

Shrimp and Crab Bisque

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie - because we were on the full side we took a lot of this home as well, This was really good with chocolate and peanut butter combined in a graham cracker crust.

$44
Shrimp and Crab Bisque - good soup

Petite Filet

Petit Filet Mignon with Mushroom Crust and Au Gratin Potatoes - the steak was great and the mushrooms on top made it even better
Chocolate Cream Pie - we might not have chosen this selection given the other options but this seemed to be their main dessert.  As expected it was a rich pie - super cholateley.  We finished this at the restaurant because it was way to delicate to be transporting home.

Final thoughts on Wildfire:

Tenderloin

Food - overall there was a lot more food than we would expect from a fixed course/price meal. Probably the cuts of meat offered were not as high quality as from a regular meal served there, but we liked the options we had.  We really loved the chocolate peanut butter pie and wish it had been an option for both meals.

Service - good service; even though it was quite a busy weekend evening.

Atmosphere - nice steak house feel. Good thing we had a reservation because it was very busy and there was a large private party.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Chocolate Creme Pie

Forno Rosso

Barese Pizza

We went to lunch at a place called Forno Rosso.  We saw this place a little while ago on Check Please. This is a brick oven pizza restaurant that has the distinction of being one of 2 restaurants in Chicago that have a VPN rating. VPN stands for Verace Pizza Napoletana - True Neapolitan Pizza.  This is an association from Naples.  In order to be certified with VPN a restaurant has to serve Neapolitan style pizza in a 900 degree oven. The pizza can only be cooked up to 90 seconds and must be made with only certain types of ingredients. There only about 500 restaurants in the world that have this certification.

We ordered 2 regular pizzas and a dessert pizza.

Capricciosa Pizza

1) Capricciosa - tomato sauce, artichokes, olives, mushrooms, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella
2) Barese - brocolli rabe, sausage, burrata cheese

The pizzas had thin crusts but still had a good texture (not cracker-like). The Barese pizza had a little more of a char to it than Nick would prefer. But over all we enjoyed all of the ingredients.

Nutella Dessert Pizza - nutella, strawberries and bananas
We had to try the dessert pizza because we love Nutella.  We made sure to box up some of the regular pizza to save room.  The dessert pizza was fun due to the ingredients but nothing overly special.

Nutella Pizza

Final thoughts on Forno Rosso:
Food - good pizzas.  If we lived closer we would go back.  Nick didn't find it that much different than other wood fired pizzas.

Service - in the middle of the day so a bit slow. But maybe they were going for a more relaxed European vibe.

Atmosphere - casual. There was a large group of people watching soccer matches on the televisions.

Mana Food Bar

.

We went to dinner at Mana Food Bar in Wicker Park after seeing it on Check Please.  It is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant that focuses on meatless dishes from around the world (there are no meat substitutes)

Horchata

Most of the food options have a small and large plate option.  We decided to go with small plates so we could try more of the menu. 

We started with drinks - horchata with almond milk and a chocolate, banana, peanut butter and almond milk smoothie.  Natalie requests that Nick makes smoothies like this more often - it was a good blend of the 4 ingredients.  The horchata was nice, but tasted pretty similar to traditional rice water horchata.

Smoothie 

Maki

Here is the food we ordered:

Maki - raw vegetables wrapped in collard greens with ponzu sauce (sushi style).  This was like a sushi roll but it was filled entirely with vegetables - carrots, avocado, asparagus, mushrooms and lettuce. Nick liked the freshness of the dish but Natalie missed some more of the traditional sushi aspects such as sushi rice (and seafood).

Curry

Curry - seared okra in a spicy tomato and hominy sauce with corn chutney garnish. We were worried that it could be too spicy but it was just right. Nick actually tried the dish with the restaurant's hot sauce and it complemented it very well. The okra were well cooked and due to their texture we didn't miss meat in the dish at all.

Rice noodles - with green curry, sweet potatoes, garlic chives and spicy peanuts.  This was the spiciest dish of the night. It had a great flavor profile and reminded us a bit of pad thai with all the peanuts.

Rice Noodles

Mushrooms and Polenta

Sauteed mushrooms over creamy polenta. There were a few different kinds of mushroooms in this dish and they tasted amazing with the smooth polenta. It was a break from the spiciness of the noodles we had just eaten. We definitely could have eaten the larger size of this dish. 

Ravioli - spinach filled ravioli with tomato sauce, ancho-hazelnut pesto and asiago cheese.  Excellent ravioli but perhaps least interesting in terms of the vegetarian aspect of it because except for the anchos this dish could be found at most Italian restaurants.

Ravioli

Potato Pancake - sweet and white potatoes with a quince and currant chutney and crema. The potato pancakes were very light and thin and not super filling (unlike what you would get at a European restaurant). The fruit chutney sweetened it up and almost made it seem like a dessert.

Final thoughts on Mana Food Bar:

Potato Pancake

Food - All of the food was fresh and delicious.  We did not really miss having meat.  But that being said we felt the raw/vegan restaurant Karyn's was a more unique experience for us because of the creativity that goes into making vegan options (i.e. cheese) without cooking it above 120 degrees. These vegetarian options were nice to have all together in one place but are certainly dishes that could be ordered at other restaurants.

Service - We got there right when the restaurant opened so we didn't have to wait for a seat.  The service felt a little slow in the beginning and there didn't seem to be many items coming out to any table for a little bit.  Once the food did come out the waiter and kitchen did a good job of pacing the meal so that all of the items didn't come out at once.

Atmosphere - the interior of the restaurant itself is quite small so we were lucky to walk right in. It sounds like there is a patio space for more tables in the summer. It is a trendy spot with modern decore. There was a mix of patrons and it seems like the couple next to us were there for the first time and had also heard of it through the Check Please program.

90 Miles Cuban

When Nick's parent's came into town they wanted to for sure hit up 90 Miles Cuban because they had seen it featured on Diners Drive ins and Dives.  We had eaten at this restaurant a few years ago right before we started the blog but we think it was before the DDD episode so we ordered differently this time based on what Guy Fieri ate.

Croquetas

We ordered croquetas as an appetizer. They were fried ham and bechamel balls that were packed full of flavor.

Puerco Rostizado

Puerco Rostizado - this was the main dish featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  It is a pork dish marinated and roasted over night with bacon guava and ham. So this dish was pretty amazing. Here is the funny thing Natalie tried the dish first and had the ropa vieja second and this dish made the ropa vieja kind of taste bland. Nick tried the ropa vieja first and then the pork and that was the proper order because he loved the beef and then loved the pork even more. The marinade really brought out great flavors in the pork.  This was definitely the best dish we had from both our visits to this restaurant.

Ropa Vieja

Ropa Vieja - slow cooked shredded beef with onions, peppers, garlic, in house creole sauce. The dish was good but not as good as ropa vieja we have had at other restaurants.  It was tasty but not nearly as dynamic a dish as the puerco rostizado.  Natalie wishes she had eaten the entrees in the different order because she would have been a lot happier.

Ceviche

Ceviche - Nick's dad chose to have this as an appetizer but it was so large that we got to try a taste of it later. It was a typical ceviche but such a great deal due to is overwhelming size.

Final thoughts on 90 Miles Cuban:
Food - The pork was amazing! Cuban food is known for its pork dishes so stick with them.  The last time we went we had a Cuban Sandwich which was also very good. We went there on a Tuesday night which is Paella night so lots of other tables were ordering that.

Service - The order and sequencing of bringing out the appetizers and the entrees was a bit weird. The croquetas came out first and then the ceviche a little later.  But then the entrees came out soon afterward so it was awkward with having the courses overlap and not having enough room at the table.

Atmosphere - the restaurant had a vibrant atmosphere and Tuesday night is also Flamenco night so there was live Flamenco music and dancing going on right near our table.  That was fun to experience the entertainment and the dancers were great.  It is quite dark inside the restaurant and we had to use flashlights on our phones to read the menu.

Nick's Fishmarket

We went to Nick's Fishmarket in Rosemont a few years ago for our anniversary before we started the blog.  They went over the top with lavishing us with stuff last time - they gave us a balloon, a picture and a comp'd dessert so we wanted to go back again to get the royal treatment.  But this time they had toned it down and just comp'd us a dessert, which was fine but less impressive. But we ate some good seafood so that made up for it.

Black and Blue Seared Ahi

Black and Blue seared Ahi tuna appetizer - Cajun dusted with soy mustard sauce - this was really good quality tuna.  The spices weren't too overwhelming. It had a very beautiful plating presentation with the sauce swirled around the tuna itself.

Lobster Bisque - pretty typical lobster bisque, but lobster bisque is good overall so that is always a winner for us.

Lobster Bisque 

Chopped Salad

Chopped Salad - arugala, currants, tomatoes, smoked salmon, pumpkin seeds, roasted corn, couscous, Asiago cheese, pesto buttermilk dressing.  Natalie likes salad that have a lot of things in them that are not lettuce so this is the perfect choice for her.  All the ingredients were great together and it was an elevated form of a chopped salad.  This is totally something that would be great to make at home and people could choose to add all the ingredients or not.

Chilean Sea Bass

Chilean Sea Bass - with Asian Slaw, sweet soy sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. Several years ago when we were in Las Vegas we had some amazing Chilean Sea Bass at Tao at the Venetian and we have been searching for similar sea bass ever since. This wasn't quite at that level but it was Chilean Sea Bass so once again how can you go wrong.  The fish itself was buttery and flavorful and surprisingly the stacked slaw, sauce and potatoes paired very well together.

Grouper - macadamia encrusted, with asparagus and saffron rice, Natalie would have preferred a bit more sauce with the grouper.  The grouper had a light crust of macadamia nuts so it wasn't too heavy and the rice was amazing. We usually love asparagus these large stalks were a bit woody.

Macadamia Crusted Grouper 

Meringue topped key lime pie - they gave us this dessert for free for our anniversary celebration. We're starting to get a little sick of key lime pies since ever since we had fantastic key lime pie in the Florida Keys.  The meringue made this one a little different but it otherwise it was pretty standard key lime pie.

Final thoughts on Nick's Fishmarket:
Food - Great seafood. A nice place to celebrate.

Service - It wasn't nearly as stellar as the previous visit. They didn't keep the water glasses filled promptly.  Even though there were lots of open tables they sat us next to a very loud set of people.  It took a long time before they took our order.

Atmosphere - there weren't nearly as many people dining there as the last time we went.  Maybe because of where it is located near O'Hare airport and Rosemont it is more of a lunch place. The chatter of the table next to us was quite distracting and took away from the romantic ambiance we were going for by picking this restaurant.

Key Lime Pie