Culinary Extravaganza 2012

The end of February and beginning of March have revolved around me stuffing my face.  Between Chicago Restaurant Week and birthday celebrations, I have done a lot of eating. Here I’ll review my recent feasts.  

Ai

Restaurant Week 2012 began with the River North Japanese restaurant Ai. I was really looking forward to it but it turned out to be one of the most disappointing meals I've ever had. The only redeeming quality is that the atmosphere and décor are fairly nice. 

My friend was very late meeting me, which I admit is rude and annoying for me and the restaurant. Had they actually been busy I wouldn’t have been surprised if they gave our table away but while I waited and during our entire meal the place was no more than 1/10^th full. They wouldn't seat me until he got there so I sat awkwardly in a little waiting area by the hostess stand. The hostess and a server then proceeded to complain about how we were late for our reservation within earshot of me. I am a very punctual person and I understand it's frustrating when people are late, but either just tell me that you’re not going to continue to hold the table or suck it up, be quiet and smile, and seat us when he gets there.

We started with martinis which were tasty but  very small for $10. We had some edamame to start which was completely average. We then ordered a few rolls: Orange, Dragon, and Spicy Tuna. This had to be the blandest sushi I've ever had. And so skimpy - the pieces of fish were tiny and the rolls in general were really small. For an average of $14 per roll this is not what I was expecting. My friend that I was with put it best: "this tastes like grocery store sushi." The rice was hard and there was absolutely no flavor. It was extremely disappointing.

Our bill was about $80 which is obscene for such poor quality, not to mention we were expecting decent sized rolls for the price so we left still hungry. There are so many better sushi places out there, with tastier rolls and much fresher fish. There is absolutely no reason to ever go here. So don't.

Naha

I LOVED this place. The only tiny negative was that the first table that they tried to seat us at was in this little section right by the door that wasn’t really part of the restaurant. I asked the hostess if we could just wait for the next open table and she said “yeah, I didn’t really think you’d want to sit there.” So we were seated about ½ hour after our reservation but we chose to wait and they were very friendly about it so I didn’t have a problem with it.

While we waited, we ordered a drink from the bar. The bartender was Serious (yes, with a capital ‘S’) about making drinks. Each cocktail was crafted with a lot of bartender love and care. It was hands down the best Manhattan I’ve ever had.

We picked different items for each course so that we could try more. Here’s what we had:

First Course

L: Coddled hen’s egg, foraged and cultivated mushrooms, garden grits, crisp kale, and cheddar cheese popcorn

C: Heirloom squash soup with bacon drippings, pumpkin seeds, and spaghetti squash

Main Course

L: Pork belly with risotto, swiss chard and red kuri squash

C: Wagyu brisket, carmelized carrots and turnips, crisp parsnips, buttered wheatberries

Dessert

L: Chocolate and almond daxquoise, Door County cheeries, bourbon and vanilla

C: Sampling of Midwestern crafted artisan cheese

Every single thing we ordered was delicious and my mouth is watering as I relive this right now. I find myself still regularly daydreaming of that amazing cheese plate.

Geja’s

I mean really how can you go wrong with dipping a bunch of stuff in melted cheese? The first course was various fruits and breads to dip into delicious glorious cheese. After we finished the cheese, Carson was astonished that the server removed the fondue setting with his bare hands. <<Gasp>> Don’t  worry, Carson later actually asked him how he accomplished that feat and we got to hear the full details of the difference between the cheese fondue set up and the meat fondue set up and how the sides of the cheese one don’t really get that hot. Thank goodness I have all that information in my brain now.  For the 2^nd course of meats I chose steak and shrimp and Carson chose steak and scallops. Both came with veggies and were very generous portions. The last course was melted chocolate with orange liqueur. YUM. It was served flaming so that the marshmallows could be toasted! In addition there were various fruits, pound cake, and rice crispy treats.  It was an obscene amount of food for 2 people but we managed to consume most of it. Would I typically pay that much for fondue? No. But for a special treat during Restaurant Week it was very delicious.

Chicago Cut

Amber decided that her birthday gift to Chuck and I was dinner at Chicago Cut. It is always packed so Amber even had to call in a favor to a partner to get us a table on Friday night. We arrived a little early so we had a seat at the bar while we waited for our table. Their wine and cocktail lists are on iPads and by the time the server found the cocktail list (we think she must have been new) our table was ready so we didn’t order anything from the bar. When we were seated Amber and I ordered martinis and Chuck had a Manhattan. Chuck’s drink was really heavy on the rocks but our martinis were generous and tasty. Everything on the menu sounded delicious. The server described the specials which included tuna that sounded amazing ...until she said it was $70. Um, no. Since we were going out to celebrate right after dinner none of us wanted to be super full so we each had 6 oz. filets. THE BEST STEAKS IN CHICAGO. Not kidding. If you love steak, you have to go here. For sides we had fresh shucked corn and shitake mushrooms, both were scrumptious. Chicago Cut definitely lived up to the hype and I’m pretty sure I didn't stop (drunkenly) talking about it throughout my entire birthday party. Thanks Amber!

The last few weeks have been a culinary delight (with one culinary disappointment). And now it’s time to pick up running again since I have eaten ALL the foods in Chicago. Oh and thanks to my loving friends I also have a cookie cake and chocolate chip cookie dough dip waiting for me at home. Mmmmm.

“I am not a glutton – I am an explorer of food.”  – Erma Bombeck