Hot Doug's

3324 North California Avenue

Chicago, IL

Last I checked, Hot Doug's shared the highest score for Food in Chicago (with Alinea) on Zagat. Yet a large meal and a drink will probably run you about $15 total, if you're really going for gluttony. Depending on when you go, you might have to wait in a rather long line (especially Friday and Saturdays, when they do their duck fat fries), but it moves pretty fast, and it's totally worth the wait. It does, however, close at 4pm (and is closed Sundays), so keep that in mind. Also, it's Cash Only.

As has been pointed out, the sausages at Hot Doug's aren't made in-house, and can be purchased elsewhere. So while they're pretty effin' delicious, they're not really the main reason to go. No, the main reason is the toppings. While they do all the standards, each week they also feature some far more exciting options - a fancy sausage with a fancy topping. Check out today's menu for an example - Chardonnay and Jalapeno Rattlesnake Sausage with Spicy Guava Mayonnaise and Moody Blue Cheese, Calvados Smoked Duck Sausage with Morello Cherry Mustard and Camembert, etc. It's pretty exciting stuff.

For some reason, every time I've gone I've ended up ordering a sausage with saffron remoulade and aged machego as a topping, but you know what? That's because they've always been delicious. Still though, I chide myself for not being a little more adventurous.

The fries are good, though not amazing - warm, soft and chewy. You can get cheese fries, but the cheese is just Cheese Sauce, and it's not that exciting. I wish they did cheese fries with some of their more adventurous cheeses melted on top, but that probably takes too much time.

The drink are the usual soda fountain offerings or a variety of bottled sodas in the fridge, which are kind of fun. They do vitamin water, but also things like cel-ray soda.

Is it the most mind-blowingly delicious thing you've ever eaten, as the hype implies? No. But it's pretty damn good. And for the quality of food you get, it's also an unbelievable bargain.

Takashi

1952 N. Damen, Chicago

I needed to do a little celebrating, so my parents gifted me and my dude a nice dinner. We decided to hit up Takashi and try the omakase - the chef's tasting menu. The dinner runs $68 a head, and the wine pairing is another $30. First off, let me tell you this - the wine pairing is for realz. These are not dinky pours. These are some strolling around to sober up a bit before you drive home pours. I'm useless in terms of telling you what exactly we drank (there was a vouvray, and a pinot, and some other stuff...) but in terms of how it paired with food, it was interesting. It was a slightly more daring, challenging concept of pairing. My sommelier-to-be would taste the food and say something like, "huh. I wouldn't have gone with this grape myself." but then we'd pause, take another bite and a thoughtful sip of wine and realize, actually - they were very cleverly matched. It wasn't an obvious choice, but it was always a very complementary one. My dude also got hisself a cocktail before dinner - gin with lime and cucumber, and really well done. I don't like cucumber, myself, but I had to admit that the flavors blended beautifully.

The room, I have to say, was kind of unimpressive. I think the idea is that it doesn't feel too stuffy or formal, but it felt kind of... I dunno. Odd. The ceilings were too low. My feng shui was awry. Not that I really care about that sort of thing, just pointing it out.

So, the food. The amuse was a square of homemade tofu topped with yuzu, bonito flakes, and a ginger soy dressing. The accoutrements were delicious, but the tofu was a little on the crumbly-yet-mushy side. I have yet to meet a homemade tofu that I'm really excited about. I really enjoy tofu, but the texture of the homemade varieties is always kind of off-putting.

Next up were the spring rolls. I don't remember exactly, but I believe they were crab and prosciutto? with greens and some crispy baguette, topped with a golden raisin caper vinaigrette. The textures were phenomenal - the crunchiness of the baguette was a really nice touch - but the flavors didn't really pop. The prosciutto was completely undiscernable, and generally, the melange was kind of a cool and pleasing but undistinguished, and largely overwhelmed by the vinaigrette (though the vinaigrette was delicious, so that wasn't really a bad thing).

Then some charcuterie action rolled in - a country style pate, a chicken liver mousse, and a slice of prosciutto. It's funny, we did dinner at Oceanique awhile back and got the pate, and were really baffled by the fact that it came in a moussey form. But apparently we were just ignorant of the many forms that liver takes in this world, because we've since encountered it as a cream several times. And we're still not sure how we feel about it. The country style pate was tasty, but the texture was a bit too tough - no spreadability whatsoever. The prosciutto was fine, but as I said before, I'm a prosciutto snob. Overall, I think the Rootstock spread was more impressive, though my boyfriend thought they were pretty evenly matched.

So those first three items, tasty but not that exciting. I was feeling a bit miffed, but then, but then! The skate wing arrived. Goodness gracious. Skate wing topped with a medley of japanese mushrooms, and served with a cauliflower risotto (topped with parmesan FOAM, natch), and belgian endive with a creamy vinaigrette. Heaven. Absolute heaven. The skate was cooked perfectly - crispy on the outside, melt-in-your-mouth tender on the inside. Absolutely glorious. The mushrooms, the risotto, the endive - it was a symphony. Absolutely incredible.

And from there, we were aces. The next dish was a soy ginger pork belly served with a pile of greens, two slices of steamed bun, and a schmear of chinese hot mustard. One assembled it into a delicious little sammich. And it was glorious. The tastes, the textures, oooh-wee! So good.

Then came the roasted duck breast with a confit of duck leg, which was a triumph. I can't even tell you what it was served with. The duck was so moist and tender and flavorful - oh man. My dude declared it hands down the best duck he's ever had, and I have to say, it was cooked to absolute perfection. Really amazing.

The conclusion was a dessert of some kind (we are neither of us big dessert people) - it was some kind of chocolate fudgey square, I think with blood orange? And some vanilla ice cream. Very nice, but not thrilling.

Overall, I think if I ever got the opportunity to go back, I would order off the menu, rather than doing the chef's tasting. To begin with - everything on the tasting was available a la carte. I had assumed, for whatever reason, that the tasting menu would have some exclusive aspects, but no. I would definitely swap out our first three courses for some other things on the menu that look more exciting, like the garlic soup and the steak tartare. In terms of amounts, for two people you'll want to each get an entree, and then 2-3 small plates to share, I suspect. When it's done right though, the food is impeccable - classic french with a japanese influence. Delicious. Overall, an absolutely glorious experience. I don't know if I'll make it back for dinner in the near future, but they also do a noodle lunch, which I'm dying to check out.

Rootstock

954 North California, Chicago

If you ask me, there aren't nearly enough late-night dining options available in Chicago, so I was excited to hear about Rootstock opening (though disgruntled to hear that it's closed Sundays, which, for whatever bizarre reason, is when I often find myself hunting for a restaurant open past 11pm). Last night, having just seen The Good Negro at the Goodman Theatre (which was good but not great - it was really creatively staged, and definitely better than the last two plays I've seen there, but still not that great) my boyfriend and I finally made it to Rootstock.

The patio (which is sadly quite small) was full so we had to sit indoors, but it wasn't really a loss because the inside is lovely - intimate without being claustrophobic, and really well decorated. The walls are a slate gray and there are some really nice paintings on the wall. The lighting is low but not so dark that you have to strain to see the menu - it's really quite nice.

The wine list is quite large, but well presented. I'm not that knowledgeable about wine, so I really appreciated the long descriptions of each option. I often find that they're not nearly as descriptive as you'd like, but these actually gave me a good idea of what I was getting into. In the interest of full disclosure though, I should admit that I was fortunate enough to have a date who does know about wine, so I just asked him what I should get. I wish I could tell you what I had, but I just looked at the list and couldn't find it and I have a terrible memory for such things. Sorry. It was delicious though.

ANYWAYS. The food!

So, the food experience was joys mingled with slight disappointments. I had noticed the onion rings with harissa dip on the menu when I'd checked it out before, and was really excited to try them (I adore harissa). The onion rings were good - reasonably sized, with a flaky crust that wasn't too greasy - but the dip was strangely flavorless. It wasn't bad, but it was basically forgettable.

We also ordered a charcuterie plate. Now here, we were sort of blinded by optimism. The menu says Charcuterie Plate $6.50 and lists 4 charcuteries - a prosciutto, a spec, a copa, and a chicken liver pate. For some reason, we thought we'd get all of them. When we ordered, our server asked which one we wanted, or if we wanted them all. This should have tipped us off that they were each $6.50, but for some reason, it didn't. So that was a bit of a disappointment when the bill arrived. However, we ultimately decided that despite the slight pain to the wallet, it was actually a somewhat fortuitous error, because we never would have tried them all otherwise. Neither of us was into the copa - it was rather too fatty and heavy tasting. The prosciutto was good but not mindblowing (full disclosure again - once you've eaten prosciutto in Italy, you will probably feel disappointed any time you eat it in America. Sad but true). The spec, which I never would have thought to try, was fabulous - it melted in your mouth with an intense hamminess. I loved it. The pate was creamy and chickeny and fantastic, with less of the strong liver taste that most pates suffer from. I have to add, too, that all charcuterie plates come with the chef's accompaniments - the bread is nice, the mustard is fine, the pickled radishes are great, but the real star is the apricot-jalapeno jelly. Oh wow. It's sweet and fiery and absolutely incredible. And pairs beautifully with the prosciutto.

For main dishes, we shared the Fried Quail, watercress and lentil salad and the Italian bahn mi (which means PORK BELLY) on tuscan bread with pickled radish, cilantro and calabrian pepper. Both were phenomenal. The quail was juicy and tender and fell of the bone. The real stand-out of the dish, though, were the lentils - they were dressed in a soy lime citronette and the ensuing harmony of earthiness, citrus and salt was absolutely gorgeous. The pork belly was perfect - crispy and creamy and flavorful and great. If you've had the bacon at the Publican - it's like that. Except it's on a piece of bread that I think might be grilled in pork fat. Honestly, I was so enthralled that I didn't really notice the radish, cilantro and pepper. The balsamic soy caramel was a nice accent, but at the end of the day, it's all about that pork belly. I will say that while both dishes were incredible, I was glad we were splitting them - they were so densely rich and flavor-packed that I felt slightly overwhelmed after eating half, and was relieved to switch plates. Still - they were delicious.

Overall, I was impressed. Although there were a few disappointments, the highlights were so impressive that the rest seemed like the kinds of mistakes that are eliminated in the transition between rough draft and final version. My next time there, I'm pretty sure, will be unblemished bliss. If you're looking for a nice romantic late-night dinner option - this is your spot.

Longman & Eagle (Brunch edition)

2657 N Kedzie Ave, Chicago

I'd heard a lot about Longman & Eagle and its deliciousness, but I hadn't quite convinced myself that it was time to drive way out to Logan Square and brave an apparently rather long wait for dinner. But my friend Harold suggested it for brunch, and despite having heard some slightly negative things about their mid-morning offerings from a friend, I assented.

I was pleased to discover that it wasn't difficult to nab a parking spot or a table, and so we found ourselves seated inside their very pleasant back room. The decor is simple but amiable, and while the back room is a bit loud, you can still carry on a conversation without too much difficulty. The brunch menu isn't extensive, but it's well stocked with tantalizing options. I'd heard that the omelets were somewhat disappointing (described as a slightly dry egg pancake folded over cooked ingredients), so I went with the sunnyside-up duck egg with duck confit hash, roasted shallots, and black truffle vinaigrette. Harold got the croque madam with ham and gruyere and a bloody mary. And of course, we both had coffee.

The coffee (Alterra) was good though not especially exciting. The bloody mary was solid. It wasn't knock-your-socks-off amazing, but it was extremely well executed. It was a bloody mary that you inadvertently take for granted; the kind that makes you forget how difficult it is to make a good bloody mary and how many disappointing ones you've had because it's so subtly tasty. I generally avoid drinking cocktails in the morning, but a taste of this one severely taxed my powers of restraint. I should add, too, that the cocktail list was generally quite appealing. I was particularly intrigued by the Horchata para Adultos, a horchata mixed with Sailor Jerry's rum - I'm looking forward to trying one of those someday.

The food did not disappoint. Harold's croque madam was just right in all regards, and my meal was delicious. The duck confit hash was fabulous, and beautifully set off by the black truffle smear that orbited the plate. My one complaint was that it was a tad on the small side - our server immediately suggested I order some toast to go with it. With a side of sourdough toast, it was an adequate, though not particularly large, breakfast, but it also totaled out at $16 for the food alone, which seemed a bit... much. But that was but a spot of gray on an otherwise sunny brunch experience. Good food, good service, good atmosphere - the next time you find yourself standing outside Lula's and hoping that the wait for brunch won't actually be an hour, you might consider strolling over here instead.

Introduction/Disclaimer

I love to eat. I love to eat all kinds of foods at all kinds of prices. I am not a professional food writer, but I might want to be one someday, so a blog about restaurants seemed like a good place to start. It remains to be seen whether the posts will be in the genre of reviews or whether they'll be more like diary entries about my particular experience at a given place, but hey, either way it could be useful information right?

I live in Chicago, so that's where I do most of my eating, but I do travel occasionally, so you may seem some posts about restaurants in other places too. I don't expect that anyone will be offering me free meals or otherwise trying to sway my opinion, but I promise a full disclosure if they do. There might be pictures sometimes, but I'm pretty lazy when it comes to uploading them. I'll try to update at least weekly, and I'll try to avoid unnecessary superlatives, and we'll see how it goes.

Comments are by all means encouraged, even negative ones. If you have any pointers on how I can be a more useful restaurant critic, feel free to let me know. And by all means, please, recommend another restaurant to try.