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

Wood

We went to dinner at Wood which was featured on Check Please last year. Its menu consists of fresh seasonal items with a section of small plates and of entrees. We ordered 4 small plates and 1 entree to be able to try more things.

Amuse bouche - juice

Before any food came they brought us a juice as an amuse bouche/palette cleanser. It was nice and refreshing.

Burrata - heirloom tomatoes, peaches, arugula.  This was a wonderful, fresh dish with seasonal ingredients that were well paired together.

Burrata with tomatoes

Scallops - cauliflower puree, cabbage, breadcrumbs. Natalie loves scallops so we had to have this dish. The scallops were delicate and tender with a lot of smoky flavor.

Tagliatelle - sausage, olives, tomatoes, basil, parmesan. This was a nice pasta dish and Nick liked it even though he doesn't love olives.

Scallops

Tagliatelle

Flatbread - Saxony cheese, bacon lardons, onions.  We both felt this was a little too salty.  It was not the best flatbread we've had but still tasty.

Roasted pork loin - corn, onion, pepper sauce, bacon and peppers. Another nice seasonal dish with fresh corn.

Flatbread

Final thoughts on Wood:

Food - the food was great.  We especially enjoyed the burrata, scallops and tagliatelle. The produce was all fresh and seasonal and all of the flavors were great together.

Service - They brought out our food in courses - 2 small plates, followed by 2 more small plates followed by the entree.  It seemed like there was a lot of time in between each of these courses but that was our only service issue.

Atmosphere - the interior is decorated in a lot of wood, hence the name of the restaurant.  It felt both rustic and modern at the same time.

Roasted Pork Loin

Sable Kitchen and Bar

Amuse Buche

We went to dinner at Sable Kitchen and Bar in River North. We had first heard about this restaurant because the executive chef was on Top Chef a few years ago. We were going to go here back in February for restaurant week but had to cancel at the last minute.  The interesting thing about Sable is that all of the savory dishes can be ordered as a small or large portion.  We ordered small sizes so we could try more items.

Short Rib Sliders

Short Rib Sliders - with root beer glaze and crispy onions.  These were great - better than juicy burgers.  We just wished there had been more of them - we only got one each.

Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll - Maine lobster and toasted buttered roll.  It had a lemony taste to it and it was "lighter' because of less mayo in dressing.  This was good but rather small for the price.

Fettucini

House made fettucini with ramps, pancetta, peas, artichokes, farm egg yolk.  This came with the egg yolk on top which freaked Nick out but it makes it have a great presentation.  Once we mixed the egg into the pasta Nick was able to enjoy it.  It tasted great and all of the components went well together.

Fixins for the Pozole

Pozole Rojo - smoked pork belly, hominy, avocado, cilantro, tortilla strips, ancho chili broth, radishes.  This was the last of savory dishes we ate.  We were still quite hungry when this came to the table, but this was a fairly substantial and filling portion so it was more than enough.  (We almost thought they had brought us the large instead of small portion but it was the small portion after all.) This was the dish we liked the most. We have had pozole a few times before but never at a restaurant. They brought it out in a bowl and then had a dish with the avocado, tortilla and radishes in it that we could mix into the soup. We enjoyed the hot and cool ingredients as well as the interplay of the tender pork and crispy tortillas and radishes.

Pozole

Chocolate Souffle Cake

Dark Chocolate Souffle Cake with Peanut Butter sauce and salted caramel ice cream.  We couldn't pass this up, especially since Nick loves anything with chocolate and caramel in it. It was decadent and nice to have both the caramel and peanut butter together.

Final thoughts on Sable Kitchen and Bar:
Food - really good food, the sliders and lobster roll were a bit small but it was nice to be able to try more items with half portion sizes and prices. We really enjoyed the pozole and would definitely order it again.

Service - the service was pretty good; Nick felt they were bit slow to fill his water though
Atmosphere - we went on a Saturday night and this place was hopping. It was definitely the place to be.  The restaurant is also connected to a nice hotel.