Maya del Sol

We went to dinner at Maya del Sol in Oak Park.  We had seen it mentioned on both Chicago's Best and Check Please and decided to check it out for Natalie's birthday.

Ropa Vieja

Before the waitress came to give us her recommendations we had already pretty much decided what to get and actually 3 out of the 4 dishes we ordered were her recommendations as well.

Tuna Cevhice

Platanos de Ropa Vieja - this dish was actually the one that wasn't the waitress recommendation - but actually Natalie enjoyed it the most. We have had ropa vieja dishes before and enjoyed them and this was no different. Ropa Vieja literally means old clothes - which is kind of weird - but it is a tasty version of shredded beef. This was served with plaintains, queso fresco and pico de gallo.

Tuna Ceviche with avocado and watermelon.  This was a small version of a typical tuna ceviche.  Honestly we have had better ceviche, especially during our recent trip to Miami.  Some of our favorite ceviche in the Chicago area has been at Frontera Grill and New Rebozo (also located in Oak Park).

Fish tacos - with blackened tilapia, avocado mayo, pico de gallo and cabbage. They were what a good fish taco should be, light and fresh.  Nick was hoping for a bit stronger tropical flavor from the mangoes, but the dish was satisfying.

Fish Tacos

Cochinita Pibil - marinated pork shoulder. This dish specifically was mentioned on both Check Please and Chicago's Best. The pork was excellent and we would both recommend it.  But it could have come with some different accompaniments.  It came with a lot of black beans which we couldn't even finish.  And is also came with 2 different sauces, one of which was a habanero flavor which was way too spicy for even Nick to go back for a second taste (it was so overpowering it killed the flavor of the meat).  You could put all of these ingredients together on a corn tortilla but maybe a rice side and another more mild sauce would work.

Since this was a part of Natalie's birthday celebration, we were comped a chocolate mousse cake.  It wasn't available on the regular dessert menu.  It was fairly standard but a nice finish to the meal.

Cochinita Pibil

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Maya del Sol has what they call a "risk-free policy" - they encourage you to go outside of your comfort zone and try something new to eat.  If you don't like the dish you can send it back to the kitchen and they will take the item off of your bill.  None of the menu items seemed super adventurous to us.  We wouldn't have been taking a big risk to try them. (Also keep in mind that we have been to Latin American restaurants many times before so it isn't new to us.) There was a dessert that sounded weirder (that had avocado mousse in it), but since we got a free birthday dessert we didn't order anything else for dessert.  So we didn't get to exercise this policy, but if this is new cuisine to someone it is a good way to try something like a ceviche for the first time.

Final thoughts on Maya del Sol:
Food - overall good food.  We had a couple of home runs and couple of base hits. We've had this type of cuisine before though so it wasn't novel to us like it might be to others.
Service - good service, nice touch to have the risk free policy.  They also own a limousine which can take you home if you had too much to drink.
Atmosphere - we got there early enough on the weekend to enjoy a table outside.  After Piccolo Sogno, this is the second nicest patio dining area we have been to in the Chicago area. It is very large outside and festive.  Also there is a large fire pit for when the weather gets cooler and they offer customers individual blankets if it is cooler weather outside. The inside seemed nice as well but try to dine outside if you can.

New Rebozo

We had eaten at New Rebozo a couple of years ago and have wanted to return for quite a while.  In the Chicago area, it has been featured on Chicago's Best and Check Please. It is located in Oak Park, but they are in the process of opening a location in Chicago.

Salads - Jicama, Cactus & Shrimp

We ordered an appetizer special of 3 different "salads" to go with tortilla chips.  One had jicama, pineapple and cucumber.  The second had cactus and pickled cabbage.  The third was a shrimp ceviche.  They were all great but the jicama salad was the best.

One of entrees we ordered was the entree special of pork with mole 2 ways: white mole with white chocolate, and red mole with chiles.  We were encouraged to try both of the moles on their own and then together. They were both pretty amazing. The white chocolate was sweet and smooth and the red mole was spicy, but not fiery.  The red mole had a great smoky flavor.  So together it was a sweet and smoky success.  This dish also came with mashed potatoes - not that this is a Mexican thing - but because the chef likes mashed potatoes.

Pork with White Chocolate and Red Chile Mole

We also ordered Camaron Mixteco - shrimp with a pumpkin seed mole.  This was a different kind of sauce.  It was good, but nothing could come close to the moles in the pork special.  This dish got a little messy because the tails were kept on the shrimp for presentation but you had to touch them (which were covered in sauce) to get to all of the shrimp "meat" out.

Shrimp with pumpkin seed mole

We love Chef Paco (the owner of the restaurant). He introduces himself to all of the tables and comes around to talk about the night's specials.  The way he describes them makes you of course want to order them. The other time we were here we only ordered specials as well. (maybe they don't need as much of a regular menu that way???)  On the regular menu there are several other types of moles but otherwise it seems like typical Mexican fare.

Final thoughts on New Rebozo:
Food: great food; the specials are always great.  This is a better more elevated Mexican food than what is typical. This restaurant specializes in moles so that is why we both ordered mole related entrees.
Service: now if Chef Paco wasn't as super nice and friendly as he is, the service would just be marginal.  The actual waiter we had was not that friendly and really didn't do a whole lot besides take our order and bring us water.  Chef Paco explains the specials and actually brought our food out to describe everything to us and he also brought out extra chips for the appetizer course we had. We weren't planning on ordering dessert but the waiter didn't even ask if we wanted anything he just brought out our check. Now the food here is great; but really the way Chef Paco makes you feel about being there and eating his food is what makes this place amazing. We wonder what will happen when the Chicago location opens and Chef Paco can't be part of the everyday operations of either location. (If you want to see a video of the chef interacting with customers go to the Check Please clip about this restaurant - we really can't do it justice talking about it.)
Atmosphere: We were there this time on a week night and it wasn't that busy. The last time we were there was on a weekend and it was very busy so you would definitely need reservations then.  There are lots of Mexican inspired pieces of art around the walls.

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.

Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles

We have been wanting to try the interesting combination of fried chicken and waffles for a long time.  We finally went to the Oak Park location of Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles to have this experience. This soul food combination seemed a little odd to us but was highly recommended.

Leg, Thigh & Waffles

We each had a similar chicken and waffle combination:
Natalie had a 1/4 chicken (leg and thigh) with 2 waffles and Nick had a 1/4 chicken (breast and wing) with 2 waffles.
We also ordered 2 sides - mac and cheese and a biscuit

The chicken was very moist and the best fried chicken we've had in a while (well we don't have fried chicken that often, but it was very good).

Wing, Breast and Waffles

Mac N Cheese

Biscuit

It was neat to try the combination of the chicken and waffles together.  The server brought out maple syrup for the waffles and they really tasted surprisingly good together. The sides were good but nothing extraordinary.

Final thoughts on Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles:
Food - chicken was great, waffles were okay (we're more used to Belgian style crisper waffles).  It's a lot of heavy food, so not a place that health-wise we would be able to frequent
Service - we really didn't know what to order so we took forever to decide.  The waitress kept coming back asking if we were ready.  She was helpful in us choosing our chicken and waffle combinations.
Atmosphere - really neat art on the walls and live jazz music in the background, made for a fun experiecne.  Not too crowded on a Saturday night.

Interior

Aripo's

Cheese Empanada

We met each other for dinner in Oak Park at a place called Aripo's Venezuelan Arepa House. It was recommended to us by a friend. They serve mostly empanadas and arepas. We have had empanadas at many restaurants but we have only had arepas once or twice before.  An arepa is a dish customary to Venezuela or Columbia and consists of corn or flour dough stuffed with ingredients, like a sandwich.  We thought they were a bit similar to tortas, but smaller.

What we ordered:
White cheese empanada - good, but a little boring with just cheese in it, we put hot sauce on it to pep it up a bit.  In comparison to other places we enjoyed the empanadas at El Nandu and 90 Miles Cuban much better.

Conuquera Arepa

La Nuestra Arepa - shredded beef, black beans, fried plantain and white cheese. From the reviews we read this seemed to be their signature arepa. We felt there was too large of a ratio of beans to other ingredients and it wasn't all mixed together to get a bite of everything at once.  It was a little hard to eat because it was messy. It tasted okay but just not our favorite.
Conuquera Arepa - sauteed red peppers and onions, with plantains, black beans and white cheese.  Same comments as La Nuestra - too many black beans.

La Nuestra Arepa

We actually had ordered 2 empanadas but they messed up the ordering so we only go the one.  We liked the food but really not enough to order more.  We knew we had the option of dessert at home so we didn't order any more food at the restaurant.

Final thoughts on Aripo's:
Food - okay to try once, not sure we would go back.  Where else are there arepas?
Service - messed up the order and then were a bit slow to get our food so we didn't have the best experience
Atmosphere - a big positive; the interior of the restaurant is really cute. There are lots of nice details to make it feel you are in a space in central or south America. You order your food at a counter and it is brought to your table.