Mecenat Bistro

We went to dinner at Mecenat Bistro in Western Springs.  It was recently featured on Chicago's Best and we wanted to try it out since we live close by. As we will explain more later, this became a 2 part/2 day meal.

Bruschetta Platter

Bruschetta platter with 3 different types of bruschetta.  The first type had smoked salmon and dill cream cheese on it so it was kind of like lox and bagels.  The second type was the closest to traditional bruschetta (but it wasn't traditional). It had prosciutto, roasted red pepper, pesto, goat cheese and balsamic vinegar.  The third type had wild mushrooms and blue cheese.  The cheese was a mild blue cheese so it didn't over power the mushrooms.  We enjoyed all 3 of these "bruschettas" and would order them again. It was a great dish for 2 people since their were 2 of each type of bruschetta.

$5 Burger

We were there on a Tuesday night which is $5 burger night.  Since this was such a deal we decided to get a burger. It was a fairly simple burger with cheddar cheese, red onion, and pickles on a pretzel roll. Good quality burger, nice and tasty and quite large for $5.  We had to wait quite a bit to get our meal (we heard this was because it was busier due to burger night) so we probably wouldn't come back on a Tuesday night just for this.

Duck Confit Eggrolls

Instead of ordering another entree we ordered 2 more appetizers because they sounded more fun.  We got Duck Confit Eggrolls with chili sauce and Corn and Avocado Fritters with mango salsa. Nick really enjoyed the eggrolls, Natalie thought they were just okay. There was a good balance of duck, spiciness and crunchiness.  Natalie enjoyed the fritters although there wasn't much avocado in them so they should of just been called corn fritters.  The mango sauce they came with was like a tropical apple sauce with that type of consistency.

Corn Fritter

At this point in the meal we kind of wanted to order the chocolate lava cake dessert because that is what had been featured on Chicago's Best. But quite honestly all of our food took such a long time to get out to our table that we couldn't stay there any longer, especially knowing it would take at least 15 minutes to bake the cake.  We were disappointed because we wanted the service to be better.  From the way Nick was faced he felt we were being ignored as he saw the wait staff helping other tables a lot more.

Coconut Curry Shrimp

Well after this meal we had a somewhat negative view of the restaurant despite eating some good food.  Since it was close by and we are impulsive, we decided to meet there on Natalie's way home from work the next day so it would be slightly earlier and not as busy (and not burger night).  On the weeknights from 4-6pm they have 1/2 price appetizer happy hour specials if you sit in the bar area. We decided we would eat at the bar and order 2 appetizers and the cake all at once so everything could be served quickly.  There was no one else in the restaurant at this point so we experienced something extremely different than the night before.

Grilled Brie

We ordered Coconut Curry Shrimp and Grilled Brie.  The shrimp came with a brown mustard on the side.  They had an unusual but tasty flavor to them and Nick liked the mustard a lot.  The brie came with pesto and a citrus chutney. The pesto and the chutney were great with it and made it even more interesting.

Right after we were done with the appetizer the cake came out - such perfect timing. It was rich and decadent and came with vanilla ice cream and berry sauce. It was definitely a flowing lava cake and was worth waiting a day.

Final thoughts on Mecenat Bistro:

Lava Cake

Food - good food, the appetizers were definitely more intriguing to us than the entrees and our favorite of all of them was the bruschetta platter. The cake was great but not worth a problematic rest of the meal.
Service - the difference in the service between the 2 meals was night and day. They probably thought we were weird eating at the bar and not ordering any drinks but that is the only way to get the 1/2 price appetizers which is definitely worth the price. If the first night had been our only experience we wouldn't be recommending it and it was only because we live close by that we returned.
Atmosphere - definitely a wine bar look to it. There is an outdoor patio area, the bar and a medium sized dining area. We had driven past this location in the past and didn't realize that it was a restaurant.

Vie

Roasted chicken sausage

A few years ago we went to Vie in Western Springs for restaurant week and had not been back since so we wanted to try it again.  For restaurant week they offered a 4 course menu with 2 choices per course so we were able to try everything.  They also had a small a la carte menu as a supplement.

1st course
- roasted chicken sausage, sweet corn pudding, chow chow, chicken jus
- mushroom and sunchocke tart, milk jam, pecan vinaigrette, shaved kohlrabi

Mushroom and sunchoke tart

2nd course
- shaved carrot salad, pickled cherry bomb pepper and cara car orange vinaigrette, yogurt, radish, toasted sunflower seeds
- creamy tomato soup, smoked tomatillo puree, cheddar crouton

3rd course
- pan-seared rushing waters trout, roasted fingerling potatoes, slow-cooked kale, house-made salami vinaigrette

Shaved carrot salad

- wood-grilled pork loin, creamy polenta, grilled fennel, arugula, shaved parmesan, pickled ramp pork jus

Wood-grilled pork loin

4th course
- meyer lemon panna cotta, blueberry jam, chomomile
- valrhona chocolate turtle, three sisters pecan butter, salted caramel

Pan seared trout

It's hard to critique each item individually.  Everything was really good on its own but being able to try it all was amazing.  Each of us had our favorites but it was nice to enjoy it all. For us the great thing about Vie is that it is so close to where we live.  To be able to get this caliber of restaurant without driving into the city is wonderful. Since we are so close we probably need to try their other offerings outside of the restaurant week fare.

Final thoughts on Vie:
Food - seasonal award winning menu (James Beard winner)
Service - stellar
Atmosphere - more established with a spa like setting.  It seems very peaceful inside and intimate.

Lemon panna cotta

Chocolate turtle

Davanti Enoteca

Beet Salad

We went to dinner at Davanti Enoteca in Western Springs.  We had seen it featured on Check Please (but for their Chicago location).  We recently learned they were opening a location in Western Springs so waited until it opened to go.
Davanti Enoteca has been open just over a month now so we figured it would be nice to go after they worked out any kinks.

Tuscan Toast with Ricotta

The restaurant serves food in what they call small plates style, meaning the items are a little smaller and so you should order more than 1 dish each.  We would definitely agree with that for the pasta and the salad we ordered but the other items didn't seem that small. Also for a "small plates" concept restaurant some of the dishes seemed to be priced a little high.

We had looked over the menu ahead of time plus listened to the Check please recommendations and new that we were going to order lots of carb/cheese combinations.

What we ordered:

Beet salad - with cheese and maple butter.  Basically we ordered this just so that everything we ate wouldn't be carbs and cheese.  But this did come with cheese, didn't it? Well it was a nice and refreshing dish; the maple butter was unique and different.

Vasi of ricotta cheese and honeycomb - the cheese mixture was served in a cute mini mason jar over Tuscan Toast.  The toast was awesome; what you would have with bruschetta. We wished there were more honey because that tasted great with the cheese and toast. This would be a fun dish to duplicate at home.

Focaccia

Focaccia bread with cows milk cheese - This is slightly different than the focaccia bread we are used to: it is from the Ligurian region of Italy and bit thinner and crispier.  The cheese was stuffed inside the bread and served warm.  For an extra charge you can get it with honeycomb also. We didn't order it with honey because we were having the honey with the other dish.  But they brought us honey anyway without charging for it.  It really did taste great with it.  (But once again would have liked a little more with it - and it if is so great together why is there a separate charge; just include it all in one price). But overall this dish was really the best of all we ordered and we would order it again.

Focaccia

Cacio e pepe - Spaghetti with pecorino cheese and pepper.  A very simple dish but nicely prepared. Tasty but not remarkable.

Pizza D.O.C. - we don't know what DOC stands for but it was a margherita pizza - with fresh mozzarella and basil.  It was cooked in their wood burning oven. It had a super thin crust.

We did both order dessert also.

Cacio e pepe

Torta Bacio - Chocolate hazelnut mousse with a crunchy crust on the bottom.  It was nice and smooth with a great crunch from the cocoa nibs.

Carrot cake - also served in a mini mason jar with caramel mascarpone "icing" and candied carrots on top. Nick says it was one of the best carrot cakes he has ever had.  The cake was moist and had great spices in it and with the mascarpone, the dish was a bit elevated over other carrot cakes.

Pizza DOC

We somehow survived, even with all of the carb and cheese overload.  Neither of us had eaten much of a lunch so we finished everything off without any leftovers.

Final thoughts on Davanti Enoteca:

Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse

Food - great food.  The focaccia was definitely our favorite. We would return to this establishment for the food, but also because it is so close to us. We already picked out a few items we would like to have for the next time.  There were a lot of people ordering the ragu over polenta so that will be on the list next.
Service - good service.  However, there was a little mixup with the honeycomb.  When they brought out the vasi they didn't have the honeycomb at first and then had to get it.  Then with the focaccia they brought it without us ordering it (maybe due to the previous mixup?).  But for a restaurant that has only been open a month the service was fairly seamless.

Carrot Cake

Atmosphere - the restaurant is located in downtown Western Springs right by the train stop. The interior is very interesting and has different Italian and winery type decore.  There is a large bar area in front with long communal tables.  There were all sorts of people at the restaurant including a lot of parties with small children, including infants.  It wouldn't ordinarily be the sort of place for children but all of the children were well behaved and it was probably a nice outing for the whole family.