Piccolo Sogno

Outdoor Patio Seating

Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar

We went to dinner at Piccolo Sogno in Chicago.  We had heard about it on Check Please almost 2 years ago and we wanted to make sure we went there in the summer to take advantage of the beautiful patio space. We made a reservation a month ago and were surprised that it took that long to make a reservation for a weeknight, but then we realized than just a couple of days before we made the reservation that it had been briefly mentioned on Chicago's Best - the power of tv.

We heard this is one of the best places for al fresco dining in the city.  So when we made these reservations about a month ago who knew it would be the hottest day of that week at 100 degrees.  We figured since the patio is mostly shaded by umbrellas and trees we could make it.  A lot of other people also were eating outside.  It was very warm but we made it through.  But about 15 degrees cooler would have been just perfect. The interior space actually looked to be much smaller than the patio so they must get most of their business in the summer.  You truly do feel like you are in an outdoor oasis in the city.

Burrata con Culatello

Every table gets bread with Piccolo Sogno's own olive oil and balsamic vinegar - the vinegar is sweet and has an amazing taste. You can purchase it to go in bottles.

What we ordered:

Insalata di Barbabietole

Insalata di Barbabietole - mixed beets, shaved fennel, imported buffalo ricotta, local greens, citrus oil.  Once again we are continuing our new tradition of beet salads.  It was refreshing.  The cheese with beets was good.  Overall it was nice and cool on such a hot summer day.

Pappardelle con polpettine

Burrata con Culatello - Pugliese, hand-stuffed mozzarella and artisan style prosciutto - creamy fresh cow's milk mozzarella, stuffed with cream, very different than any cheese we've ever had.  Once again, nice and chilled and refreshing on a hot summer day.

We ordered appetizer sizes (smaller versions) of each of the pastas so we could sample more.  All of them were great and we would have enjoyed the larger versions of each.

Stracci di Farro

Stracci di Farro- farro flour pasta triangles, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic, truffle oil.  The truffle oil with asparagus gave it a garden fresh feel.  It was surprisingly light for a pasta dish.  The triangle shapes were neat and held the sauce well.

Paglia e Fieno con Vitello - "Stray and Hay" green and white ribbon noodles with veal ragu - veal ragu sauce very flavorful, like a light bolognese sauc.  It was very colorul with the green and white pasta and red meat sauce.  It was Natalie's favorite pasta of the three.

Pappardelle con polpettine - wide pasta, spicy lamb meatballs with pine nuts, golden raisins and a ragu of eggplant, roast peppers and green onions.  This was Nick's favorite pasta of the three.  The eggplant and peppers grounded this dish and allowed the flavor of the pasta to come through.  Everything complemented each other.  We enjoyed the lamb meatballs but the dish would have been great without them as well.

Paglia e Fieno con Vitello

Tortino di Gianduja - Chocolate and Hazelnut cake with hazelnut Gelato. Decadently sweet with hazelnut flavors.  It was surprisingly molten on the inside, almost like eating a melted candy bar.  We had to hurry and eat the gelato before it melted on such a hot day.

Mille Foglie - Thousand Layers of crispy pastry dough, layered with vanilla custard and chocolate chips.  This was a great summer dessert.  It wasn't too heavy with the light pastries and custard and sweet whipped cream.  It was very different than any other dessert we have ever had.

Final Thoughts on Piccolo Sogno:

Tortino di Gianduja

Food - none of the pastas were super heavy. We were a bit apprehensive to order the pastas on such a hot day dining al fresco but none were too heavy to make us feel overfull.  All of the food was great and we would order any of it again.
Service - very good, for the price of the meal it should be that good

Mille Foglie

Atmosphere - see above comments on the outdoor patio.  Even though it was very hot outside, everyone on the patio was enjoying themselves.  We actually chose to sit outside on the hot day since we heard the patio was the place to be. It is a beautiful garden scape.   It would be wonderful to recreate that look in a backyard. A comment we continued to hear around us was that it doesn't feel like we are in the middle of Chicago, especially a busier intersection.

Trees and Ivy in Outdoor area

Outdoor Patio Seating

Marion Street Cheese Market

Cheese Flight - brie on left, gouda in middle, firm goat cheese on right

We went to dinner with some friends at Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park upon their recommendation.

BBQ Mac N Cheese

What we ordered:

Cheese Flight with 3 cheeses - l'amuse - 2 year aged gouda, nutty with hints of burnt caramel, Queso de mano - a firm and slightly sweet goat cheese, and a type of brie (we didn't catch the exact name because it wasn't on the printed menu).  The cheeses were served on a board with almonds, walnuts, apricot slices, and peach jam and served with bread and crackers.  All of the cheese were really good. We purposefully stayed away from blue cheeses because Nick doesn't like them as much when they are really strong.
We made our own cheese flight but you can also choose from pre-determined cheese flights. It was neat to try new and different types of cheeses.

BBQ Mac N Cheese - not a super strong bbq taste but very good, the noodles (spiral pasta) were a very interesting shape and held the cheese in well. A very filling dish. Nick was hoping for the tangy flavors of bbq to come through more, but it was a wonderful blend of cheeses. If Nick were to go back he might order one of the other Mac N Cheese's since that is what they do well really well - cheese.

Focaccia - kind of an open face sandwich with cauliflower, cheese, ham and a tomato sauce baked over the focaccia. This was great you could really taste the farm fresh veggies that they promote with there farm to fork concept. It had a great crispy crust on the bread but gooey on the inside.  The bread itself didn't over power the delicate flavors of the cauliflower and cheese.

Final thoughts on Marion Street Cheese Market:

Food - all of the food was very good and interesting

Service - took a little while for the cheese flight to come out, but we were enjoying good conservation with friens. They bring out a bottle of water where you can pour into your own glasses, but near the end of the meal they didn't bring out another replacement bottle

Cauliflower Focaccia

Atmosphere - a market area up front in the space (where all of the cheese is sold), There are more cheeses than we have seen in one place in a while. The restaurant/bistro area is nice. There are probably only so many communities that could sustain a place like this, and Oak Park is one of the them.  It would be neat to have this nearby and buy all of the different kinds of cheeses.  Guess we have to settle for the more limited selection of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods when we are in the mood for some different cheeses.

Arun's

We went to dinner at Arun's Thai in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. We had heard about it from it having been nominated for James Beard Awards in the past. Arun's serves a 12 course prix fix menu.  Before we started the meal the waiter asked if we had any allergies and how much spiciness we wanted.

Course 1 - salad wrap

The 12 courses consisted of 6 appetizers, 4 entrees served all at the same time (sort of family style) and 2 desserts.  We don't know the Thai names for all of this because there were no printed menus.  So we will do our best with the descriptions.  Since there are so many courses we won't elaborate too much on any one course - just our brief thoughts.

Appetizers - we each got one of our own served in front of us

close up on the neat butterfly carrot

1. Salad wrap of sorts - filled inside with ginger, toasted coconut, peanut and tamarind sauce.  It was refreshing and crunchy.  We've never had anything like this at a Thai restaurant before.  It was more refined and elegant than a traditional lettuce wrap.

Course 2 - crab filled ravioli with salad

2. Dungeness crab filled golden fried ravioli with salad.  The presentation was beautiful - the carrot in the salad was cut into the wonderful shape of a butterfly.  The crust on the ravioli was warm and flaky.  The dressing on the salad was good and had a little bit of a kick to it.

Course 3 - rice dumpling with chicken and shrimp

3. Rice dumpling filled with chicken, shrimp, sweet turnip and jicama, served over a tomato sauce.  The sauce was sort of like a sweet chili sauce but tomato based.  The dumpling was very pillowy, but Nick thought the dumpling was a little too gooey.

Course 4 - prawn, noodles and veggies

Course 5 - beef sirloin over salad

4. Lots going on in this dish - there was a Prawn wrapped in noodles (instead of a heavy breading), coconut vermicelli noodles, tofu on top of an omelet, chives, lemon, red pepers and cucumbers.  The entire dish very colorful.  We were told to mix everything together to eat it.  It all tasted good on its own and together.

5. Beef sirloin over salad. Beautiful knife work with the carrot and cucumber.  The dressing had a kick to it.  Only minor point was that we had salad in the 2nd course, did we need it again?


Course 6 - Green curry with chicken and egg

6. Green curry with bamboo shoots, chicken, boiled egg, Thai eggplant, mint leaves and hot peppers, served over thai rice noodles.  The curry was spicy and even hotter overall if you ate it with the hot peppers.  Natalie didn't eat any of the hot peppers and Nick ate one. It was a good curry combination.

#1 and #3 were smaller, but overall these dishes were bigger portions than we would have figured for a 12 course meal.

Entrees 7-10, served family style all together, (although #8 was served separately for us because we had indicated different spice tolerances at the beginning of the meal.  Nick had a spicier dish presented to him.)

Course 7 (Entree) - Massaman Curry with beef tenderloin

7.  Massaman curry with beef tenderloin, squash, carrots and thai basil.  The meat was super tender it fell apart easily.  We learned that it is cooked for a full day.

8. Basil chicken stirfry with veggies and chiles.  Reminded us of a filling used for traditional lettuce wraps. Natalie was happy to get the less spicy version.

Course 8 (Entree) - Basil chicken stir fry 

9. Pan seared scallops with asparagus, brussel sprouts and stir fry vegetables in a lobster sauce. The  scallops were peppered and the asparagus was presented as a lattice structure to the whole dish.  Once again a beautiful presentaion and the scallops were delicious.

Course 9 (Entree) - Scallops and vegetables

10. Red Snapper with sweet, sour and spicy 3 flavor sauce over eggplant with a celery heart stalk.  We didn't enjoy this as much as the beef and the scallops.  But to be fair, by this point in the meal, even Nick was getting really full.  We took the rest of the snapper home and he was able to enjoy the snapper better the next day.

Desserts 11-12

11. Sticky rice in a crepe with mango slices, mango sauce, whip cream and mint leaves. The sauce made it slippery to cut into the mango slices themselves.  Very light and tasty, especially since we really like mangoes.

Course 10 (Entree) - Red Snapper

12. Lychee sorbet in a sesame seed shell and ginger baked pear.  The sauce on the pear was really good.

The desserts weren't overly complicated but that is not necessary for such a large meal.  It was a good clean way to finish off the 12 course meal.

We don't think we've ever had a 12 course meal before so that was fun.  We were definitely full by the end and had to take some of the entree portion home.

     

Course 11 - sticky rice filed crepe, mango and mango sauce

Course 12 - lychee sorbet and ginger baked pear

Final thoughts on Aruns: Food - Superb, like nothing we've ever had before, but beware it is pricey.  We're not sure how often the menu is changed around, so you could end up having a very different experience based on the courses.
Service - very personalized and amazing service.  We were presented with new utensils and plates for every course.  They were very attentive to details.  A couple seated next to us didn't really enjoy the green curry dish so they really didn't eat much of it.  The waiter felt bad and had another appetizer made for them.

Atmosphere - small, there were only 4 tables being served while we were there; because it was a weekday probably. Because of all of the courses we were there for 2 hours. For being such a fancy restaurant it is in a bit of a strange neighborhood.  It's not a bad neighborhood, just an unexpected place to find this level of fine dining.







Course 11 (Entree) - Scallops and vegetables

Wild Monk

Lamb Poutine

We went to dinner in downtown La Grange at a new restaurant called Wild Monk. The owner also owns the restuarant across the street and we love their food so were excited to try this place. The concept of this resutaunt is gastro pub, meaning there are a lot of craft beers and a large slection of adult beverages paired with some relay tasty food. By not partaking in the adult beverages it somewhat baffled the wait staff.

We ate: 

Lamb slider

Lamb Poutine - french fries with cheese curds, golden raisins and a lamb sauce, we had never had this dish before (but had heard about the dish in general). It is a big hit in Canada so what could be bad about it. The raisins gave it a sweet burst with a savory bbq flavors of the lamb. And you can never go wrong with cheese and fries.

Beef slider

Jalapeno Cheddar corn bread - once again we thought our corn bread might not even arrive until after we were done with our entrees, but it came just after the entrees were brought to the table. It was tasty but no where close to our Table 52 experience. It would go great with some kind of chili, but it was way too hot outside to be ordering chili.

Lamb Slider with tzatziki, feta, pepper relish and cucumber and Beef Slider with blue cheese, bacon jam and tomato -These two sliders were both good.  Nick was expecting more than just a two bite sandwich (so we each got one bite of each one), but what we had was good. Nick preferred the beef with the familar flavors and was surprised at how much he enjoyed the sweet bacon jam. Natalie liked the lamb slider with its cool crisp summer flavor of feta and cucumber.

Jalapeno cornbread

Pork Belly Tacos with pineapple salsa - It is funny that Nick ordered this dish because when we were deciding where to eat out that night he firmly stated that he didn't want Mexican since we had cooked a lot of those type of dishes at home recently. But these were intriguing enough that he wanted them.  The grilled pineapple sugars off set the saltiness of the pork for a great summer dish.  We would get these again.

Final thoughts on Wild Monk:

Pork Belly Tacos

Food - everything we tasted was very good so we have no complaints there.  We just came away feeling not quite satisfied.  Maybe we felt that for a local place we should have gotten more bang for the buck.  On purpose we didn't order their full entrees because it was a hot day and we didn't want anything too heavy.  Also, this place is first and foremost a pub.  The waitress kept asking us if we wanted a beer almost to the point where it got a bit annoying.

Service - see comment above. Our water wasn't refilled quickly and in some cases at all.  Maybe because we didn't order any alcohol they forgot to come around and check on the water.

Atmosphere - cool looking decore, lots of tvs on the walls

Interior space



Outdoor patio







Marigold

Samosas

We went to eat at Marigold in Uptown.  We had heard about this restaurant a while ago on Check Please.  We made some reservations and a few days before we went we looked on their website to see what the menu offered.  We were surprised to learn that they would be changing locations (from Uptown to Andersonville) and that their last night in Uptown would be the day after we were to dine there. We're not sure how it affected our meal.  The menu was pretty small but since we hadn't seen previous menus we didn't know if that was normal or just because they didn't have much food left in their kitchen.

drinks - juice and lassi

Appetizer:

Samosa - potato & cilantry filled pastry, with onion date & mint chutney. Despite being to a few Indian restaurants, this was Nick's first time sampling a samosa. Much like other savory filled dumplings it was great. We wish there were more.

Chicken Tikka

Saag Paneer - spinach and cheese

Murgh Makhni - Boneless chicken tikkas in a fenugreek spiced tomato cream sauce.  We ordered a smaller portion so we could try more things. We probably shoud have ordered a larger portion of this. It had a vast amount of flavor and the chicken was super moist.

Saag Paneer - Sauteed fresh spinach in a coconut curry with house-made paneer (cheese).  We also ordered a smaller portion of this. This too we had no trouble finishing off.  It reminded Nick of an Indian version of a spinach dip. It was probably the most mild dish of the night.

Lamb Shank Vindaloo

Lamb Shank Vindaloo - Lamb shank braised in a Goan sauce of chilies & cider vinegar.  It was a little to spicy for Natalie's taste. Nick liked the spice and flavor but there was so little meat for the work that it required to get off the bone.  He would have like it more if the lamb had been diced up and a little easier to eat. It was so tough to cut into and at one point the sauce splashed all over the two of us when Nick tried to cut it. 

Garlic Naan - you can never go wrong with some warm Naan bread.

Lamb Shank in front with smaller chicken and spinach dishes in the background

Mango Lassi - refreshing mango, mint and yogurt smoothie with a hint of sugar.  Fun smoothie - we wished there were more.Mango Juice- refreshing on a hot day but not as sweet as Nick remembers from his days in the Phillippines 

Kama Sutra Cake - spicy flourless chocolate cake (spicy due to smoked paprika) with raspberry syrup - the spiciness due to the paprika really sets this apart from other flourless chocolate cakes. Whoever thought to put spice with chocolate (maybe the Mayans) were geniusses.   

Kama Sutra Cake

Final Thoughts on Marigold:

Food - Tasty Indian food, slightly westernized for general consumption (and at western prices).  We should have just ordered larger portions of the chicken and spinach and skipped the lamb and we would have been very happy.

Service - very good service, nice that they didn't let this lapse on their 2nd to last night in that location

Atmosphere - we enjoyed ourselves despite the fact that this restaurant will be moving locations. Once again we were the first customers in a restaurant - but there were other people who came in later so it didn't stay this way the entire time we ate dinner.