Restaurant Review: Bacaro

Every year, we take a foodie adventure with our friends, Nathan and Kara. In the past, we've gone to The Gilt Bar and Frontera Grill in Chicago. This year, we decided to stay local and go to Bacaro, a wine lounge in our hometown with amazing food. 

We're going to tell you what we had, but the thing about Bacaro is, the menu changes constantly. They use amazing seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. One thing you can count on though, is whatever you order will be sensational.

We started with a bottle of the Coudoulet de Beaucastel Cote du Rhone 2009. Zack loves a good Cote du Rhone, and this one did not disappoint. 

We had two appetizers, the first was flatbread with fireball sausage, sun-dried tomato pesto, cipolline onions and goat cheese. We really liked this. The sausage had a nice spice that went really well with the goat cheese.

We also tried the grilled octopus with German potato salad and a mustard vinaigrette. This was possibly the greatest octopus we've ever tasted.

Our friend Kara enjoyed the braised pork shoulder over roasted cauliflower, horseradish mashed potatoes, braised kale and a pork jus. It was very juicy and delicious. Kara previously though she didn't like cauliflower until she tasted this cauliflower.

Nathan sampled the seared beef fillet with lobster, blumenthal potatoes, spinach, a lobster hollandaise and paprika. The steak was (of course) cooked perfectly and the lobster hollendaise was exactly perfect to complement the steak.

Michelle had the sea scallops  with cabbage, sweet peppers, bacon, sweet potato puree and a cumin vinaigrette. There are few things better in the world than a perfectly cooked scallop (at least in Michelle's opinion). We never would have thought to pair sweet potato puree with scallops, but this worked amazingly well. Oh, and if anyone can tell us the type of pepper that was used in this, we'll forever be thankful.

Zack had the pan seared duck breast with a potato duck confit hash, mushrooms, arugula and topped with a chipotle vinaigrette. As you can tell from the picture, the duck was succulent and juicy. The real star here, in our opinion, was the confit hash. de-lic-ious.

Since we were on our foodie dinner, we were required to eat dessert. It had nothing to do with the fact that they looked irresistibly tasty.

Nathan and Kara had the chocolate tart with a caramel creme anglaise and bourbon whipped cream. This was rich and creamy, like you would expect from a chocolate tart. It was so irresistable, we couldn't get a picture before someone sampled it.

We split the buttermilk panna cotta that was topped with chocolate sorbet and almond praline. It's possible that there's a spoon invading my shot here. This had Michelle questioning the decision not to purchase that ice cream maker she's had her eye on. Everything tasted delicious, and even though the four of us cleared both appetizers and every drop on our plates, we finished both desserts.

We splurge on our foodie dinners, so this is by far not a typical night out for us. Bacaro is a tad pricey, but you get every penny that you pay for. We loved every minute of our experience and we highly recommend it!

Restaurant Recap: Meatheads

Meatheads opened in town a few months ago and we finally made it out to give it a try. As you can probably tell by our restaurant reviews, we enjoy a good burger. Meatheads did not disappoint. It's probably our second favorite burger place in town. We couldn't eat here all of the time, unless we wanted to have an untimely heart attack, but it is great for a cheat day.


We kind of wish we had perused the toppings before online we went, because there are a ton of choices. We each ended up getting one of their listed sandwiches, instead of building our own.


Michelle had the Californian, which is a 1/3 lb Angus burger with pepper jack, cucumber wasabi sauce, avocado, lettuce, tomato and she added a fried egg. Everything is better with a fried egg, and with this sandwich, you're not really concerned with your health. 

The ingredients were fresh and delicious. The cucumber wasabi sauce was incredible. It's a big burger, so it's not the easiest to eat, but it's worth getting messy.


Zack had the Cajun Sunrise, which is a 1/3 lb Angus burger with a fried egg, pepper jack, bacon, bleu cheese sauce, lettuce, tomato and fresh jalapenos.

The bacon was nice an crispy. The jalapenos were spicy, but not overpowering. With all of the toppings, you would assume it would leave your mouth on fire, but everything was incredibly balanced. 


We didn't snap a photo of the french fries, but they were also delicious. They weren't overly greasy and the perfect mix of crunchy and soft. 


They bring the burger out to you and clear your plate when you're done. The service was excellent. We'd recommend checking it out!


Enjoy!

Restaurant Recap: Gilt Bar

Image courtesy of www.giltbarchicago.com

We took our annual foodie trip to Chicago to celebrate one of our best friend's birthday. After much deliberation, we decided on Gilt Bar on West Kinzie. We were extremely happy with our meal. Happy isn't even a good description. We were elated. It was a culinary dream. 


We have to apologize if the pictures aren't the best. You see, the lighting is dim and moody. There were actually a lot of people using their cell phones to read the menu, but after the first couple of minutes, your eyes adjust and the experience is pretty cool. It's just, we couldn't see what we were taking pictures of because the camera just saw black until the flash went off. And then we blinded our table. All in the name of bringing you our tasty meal. 


So, we started off with an array of appetizers. They had so many things we wanted to try.


First, we had the Sweet Balsamic Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil. This was tasty and simple. It was also the lightest item that we ate the entire meal. Everything else was very rich.

Our next appetizer had to be the Roasted Bone Marrow with Red Onion Jam. If you're grossed out by eating the marrow from a beef bone, we recommend you try it. It is delectable. It was buttery and rich and might be one of our favorite things. We'd order it again in a heart beat. The onion jam was also an amazing treat. It added a sweet break to the rich marrow. If they bottled it and sold it, we'd be one of their best customers.

Our third, and final appetizer was Foie Gras & Pork Liver Mousse with Stone Ground Mustard & Cornichons. Say what you want about foie gras - it is delicious. We had to try it, at least once, to see what all the fuss was about. We recommend you throw all of your previous experiences with liver mousse or pate out the window and try this. The grainy mustard was also a delightful pairing.

Now, for the entree round. We'll start with our friend Kara, who had the Spoon Tender Beef Pot Roast with Red Wine Glazed Vegetables. This was probably the best beef roast we've ever tasted. It was literally spoon tender. We aren't sure how long they braised the meat, but it was worth every minute. The red wine reduction was pretty great with the root vegetables. 

Next, we'll move to our friend Nathan's meal. He had the Lake Superior Whitefish Boulliabaisse with Red Pepper Rouille & Garlic Toast. The fish was cooked perfectly. It had a nice crisp on the outside, while still being juicy and tender inside. The rouille was thick and rich and a great compliment to the fish. Having the toast was great as well, so we could share more of the rouille.

Now, for Michelle's meal, the Grilled Duroc Pork Belly with Braised Lentils
& Pickled Onion Salad. Both Kara and Michelle decided this was their favorite dish. We don't think we've ever had the pleasure of eating pork belly before, but we'll probably seek it out from now on. It was tender and had that nice grilled char. The lentils were perfect. In fact, we'll probably cook more lentils at home as a result.

Finally, we have Zack's meal, the Hand-Cut Fettucini with Braised Short Ribs and Alfredo. This was one of the chef's specials for the evening, so don't count on it being there if you take a trip to Gilt Bar. It is also very rich, and very delicious. Something about homemade pasta just takes everything up a notch. We're going to have to break out our new pasta roller soon.

And, if that wasn't enough food, we also decided that we just had to try the Caramelized Brussels Sprouts, Pork Belly, Maple & Parmesan. Since we recently enjoyed our own brussels sprouts adventure, we wanted to see how the pros do it. They were good... really good.

We didn't make it to dessert. We may have gone a little overboard with the starters, but we couldn't pass up the chance to try them. You don't have roasted bone marrow or foie gras every day. As far as our culinary adventures go, Gilt Bar goes on the list of must go again. We loved everything. They have a pretty extensive craft beer list, and some tasty wine. 


As far as price goes, it's not too bad. Entrees are around $20 each. If you don't go crazy trying appetizers, you can have an amazing meal for a reasonable amount of money.


Enjoy!

Restaurant Recap: Farren's Pub and Eatery

Farren's is one of our favorite hidden gems. The restaurant is hidden in an alley and is located in a basement. The kitchen is open to the restaurant and is the size of a large closet. Everything is cooked on the flat top. It's quite a unique place.


The burgers are ridiculously good. The one to the right is called "The Motherlode" It is an all-beef burger topped with sauteed mushrooms, blue cheese sauce, Swiss cheese, onion and lettuce. It was delicious.


We've also sampled quite a few other burgers - The Green Chili Burger, The Kobe Burger, and the The Spicoli. We don't have anything bad to say about any of them. Keep in mind, however, that the Green Chili Burger packs a punch of heat, so if you don't like spicy food, that's probably not the burger for you.


The fries, oh my, the fries. They are delicious and greasy and perfect with the burgers. We've never tried any of the other sides, just get the fries.



Farren's also has seasonal craft beers on tap. There's always a good selection, so you should be able to find something that you'll enjoy. 


Now, we realize that none of the items on the menu fit into our goal of eating healthy. Sometimes you have to cheat and eat a greasy burger and fries. If you're ready for a cheat day, we recommend choosing Farren's Pub and Eatery.


Enjoy!

Restaurant Recap: 301 Mongolia

We hardly ever go out to eat these days. We have discovered that we love cooking so much, that given the option, we'd rather stay in and make our own culinary creations.


A few days ago, we actually ventured out with some friends to try out the new 301 Mongolia restaurant in town. Good food, great company - what more could we ask for?






The evening began with cocktails. We tried the Ginger Crush by accident. Our server heard our order incorrectly and when we all said Ginger Crisp, she heard Ginger Crush. We didn't take a picture of the Ginger Crush, and we probably wouldn't order it again. 


The Ginger Crisp, however, was delightful. It's a combination of 3 Olives Vanilla Vodka, ginger liqueur, and a splash of apple juice. It's rimmed with a cinnamon sugar that really adds to the drink. 








As for food, we started out with a couple of appetizers. We had the Shrimp Spring Rolls, which are served with a mango jalapeno dipping sauce. They were quite tasty. The shrimp was cooked well and the dipping sauce was great. The sauce was the consistency of apple sauce. 








We also sampled the Mongolian Nachos. They are deep fried wontons topped with chicken, napa cabbage, wasabi cream, and sweet & spicy peanut drizzle. These were good, however, we didn't realize there was chicken in them until they were almost gone. The wasabi cream was tasty though.

If you've ever been to a Flattop Grill, you know the basic premise of 301 Mongolia. They give you a bowl, you load it up with all of the ingredients you'd like. Top it off with your sauce combinations, choose your meat and hand it over to the chefs. They have recipes available if you need a little help.


The ingredients were extremely fresh. We had a hard time choosing from the wide selection.  There are many different meats and seafood options to choose from as well, including calamari, shrimp, tofu, steak, chicken, and probably more, but we didn't take full inventory. You can also get this wonderful bread that they cook right on the flattop. It's thin and crispy and tasty.

We each chose the udon noodles for our creations, but you can choose from white rice, fried rice, brown rice, rice noodles, or udon noodles.

Overall, the food was great. Assuming you load your bowl up correctly, you get a lot of food. One bowl is $13.95. If you can eat more than one, we salute you. Unlimited bowls are $15.95, plus $2.00 for a to-go box (if you just get one bowl, the to-go box is free).

Restaurant Recap: Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea

As we may have mentioned, we celebrated our anniversary a couple weeks ago. We took a mini-vacation to Chicago, where we watched our favorite team trounce the Vikings, did a little shopping, and enjoyed the best coffee we've had outside Jamaica. It's good enough to have Zack walking a mile first thing in the morning for a cup of it. (If you know Zack, you know just how good this coffee is by the last statement).

Here's a little insight into Intelligentsia Coffee (taken directly from their webpage):


Intelligentsia Coffee's mission is to provide our customers, staff, and community with an unparalleled and complete coffee and tea experience in an environment steeped in understanding, knowledge, skill, service, and mutual respect.


Intelligentsia exists to provide both a fulfilling work environment for our employees and the highest quality products for our customers. Both goals are equally necessary to the success of our business.

It's a remarkable place. This trip, we ventured to the Monadnock location (above). Each cup of coffee is individually brewed by a barista. They've really turned the act of making coffee into an enjoyable experience. 


We each got a Cafe Americano and a pastry, then a cup of their house blend coffee to go. The coffee is more expensive than you would find in a diner, but much cheaper than, say, a Seattle based coffee chain.


Intelligentsia's coffees are all seasonal, so you can be sure that the coffee you are drinking is the freshest, best coffee available at the time. 


We have yet to make it to the Roasting Works in Chicago, where they have tours where they demonstrate the roasting process and then give you all the coffee you can drink. I'm sure we'll make it there someday.


We could probably go on and on about how great this place is. If you're a coffee or tea drinker, you'll love the experience of Intelligentsia. We give it four thumbs up!

Restaurant Recap: Frontera Grill

For those of you who may not know about Frontera Grill, here's a quick synopsis:

Rick Bayless is the chef at Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, creator of Frontera gourmet foods, cookbook author and host of Mexico - One Plate at a Time. We first learned of him during Top Chef Masters. He won the first season of the show. (Just a note, we're kind of addicted to Top Chef, so there may be some commentary about it in the future).

Moving on...

We went to Chicago to celebrate a friends birthday, and since we're all foodies, we decided the best birthday gift was an amazing meal. Frontera Grill didn't disappoint. We ate, and ate, and ate.

The meal started with Ceviche Fronterizo, lime-marinated Hawaiian albacore with tomatoes, olives, cilantro,and green chile; served on crispy tostaditas. We had tried ceviche before on a trip to Las Vegas, and neither of us liked it. Well, apparently we were wrong about ceviche, because Frontera's was to die for. We forgot to take a picture of it. Bear with us as we get used to the blogging world!

Next, we decided to get one of the small plates, Taquitos de Pollo Ahumado, which are crispy taquitos filled with smoked chicken, black beans and poblanos. Homemade sour cream, salsa verde, anejo cheese, guacamole. They were amazing, and again, we forgot the picture... We remembered by the entree course, I promise. The taquitos were just as described on the menu, crispy outer shell, stuffed with all the goodies. Our favorite part of the plate was the guacamole. There was so much flavor and the freshness of the ingredients were amazing.

Now for the entrees: We couldn't believe that the meal could get better, but it did. Between the four of us, we had the following, which of course, we all tried:

Pato en Mole Coloradito: adobo-marinated Gunthorp duck breast in Oaxacan mole coloradito (ancho chiles, sesame seeds, spices and Oaxacan chocolate). Mexican chocolate tamal, winter fruit salsa (apricots, cherries, jicama), watercress salad

Holy Mole, this was great! After hearing about this Oaxacan mole on Top Chef, one of us had to try it. The duck was cooked perfectly and the chocolate tamal was a perfect compliment - not too sweet, but a perfect compliment to the dish.

Chilpachole de Mariscos: classic Veracruz red-chile braise of Gulf shrimp and Viking Village scallops with herby epazote, chochoyotes and roasted chayote. Watercress, lime.

The overall dish was great, but the sauce... the sauce was transcendant. It started off a nice, tomato flavor, then evolved into a spicy explosion of flavor. Then, once your mouth cooled off from the spice, the flavors of the shrimp and scallops came through - there's no way to do it justice without actually tasting it.

Enchiladas de Mole Poblano: homemade tortillas rolled around Gunthorp free-range chicken, doused with Mexicos most famous mole; black beans.

These were amazing. A different mole than was on the duck, and it totally worked with the chicken enchiladas. The star, in our opinion, was the black beans. Upon first glance, they seem like normal beans, but upon tasting, there was something special about them. Who knew black beans could have so much flavor?

Puerco en Salsa de Frijol Negro: red chile-marinated Gunthorp pork loin in velvety black bean sauce flavored with smoky salsa negra. Braised kale, ham hocks, grilled onions, red-chile rice.

Another tasty dish. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the rice came formed like a pyramid. We're big on plating, and this was a nice touch. The pork was again cooked perfectly and was wonderfully juicy and flavorful. The black bean sauce was very yummy, and the kale, well, lets just say we'll be experimenting with our cooked greens now. We have to figure out how to re-create that kale!


Overall, we'd give it four thumbs up. If you're on a budget, this isn't your place. It's not somewhere we could go often. Entrees are anywhere between $20 - $30. It was, however, the perfect place to celebrate one of our best friend's birthday.