Chicago Restaurant Week 2013: Part 2

Naan at Aria

I have to give fair warning for the next stop for restaurant week.  It is really good food.  The Google directions to get there are horrid.  I parked to eat at Aria about 30 minutes before my reservation and was 15 minutes late.  Aria is in the Fairmont hotel, and it was pretty much dumb luck that I ended up finding the place.  Once I got there, they were closing up from the lunch service but seated me anyway.  The place is very flashy yet elegant.  The first thing you'd probably notice would be the marble tables with peach accents.  The person who designed this place wasn't afraid of color and shows it with the vibrant black and red carpet up to the red overhead lights contrasting from the dark brown curtains.  The decor definitely fits with that Asian mindset and I must say I was reminded of my travels to Hong Kong by the warm and inviting atmosphere.

Short ribs at Aria

The Thai Ginger Kitana, immediately jumped out at me from the cocktail menu.  The drink was one of those dangerous types where the presence of alcohol goes completely undetected.  All you get is the tangy taste of sweetness combining with fresh lime juice and a little spice from the ginger.  Think of it as a limeade with a little bit of a kick.  The naan, is the bread offering there.  The naan is some of the best I've had and a welcomed change from the normal bread and butter that you normally get before a meal.  The naan stands up on it's own but it would be foolish to pass on the four tasty accompaniments.  The spicy spicy tomato chutney was my favorite, followed by the curry lentil.   The spinach and yogurt sauces were also good but not as memorable.

The beet salad scored extra points for presentation, displaying the bright colors of the beet are easily noticeable   The sweet beets go well with the spicy arugula.  The candied walnuts at sweetness and crunch and the tangy vinaigrette. Next up was the short ribs.  In this dish the star of the show was the greens. They were tender but not cooked to death, had a porky taste to them that reminds me of the greens I enjoyed in my childhood (and still do today).  The subtle soy flavor in the background added something that made these greens probably some of the best that I've ever tasted.  For me, the greens stole the show, which is a pretty tough feat to accomplish considering how good the perfectly cooked and shaped little spheres of potato were.  Not to mention how aggressively seasoned, yet tender the short ribs were.

For desert, I was served a platter of truffles.  One garnished with sesame that was made with dark chocolate  that was so decadent that you could feel the richness of it before it hit your palate.  The other dark chocolate truffle had a rich fruit flavor to it.  My favorite had notes of coffee cinnamon and you guessed it caramel with milk chocolate.  The only truffle I didn't care for was the white chocolate which was overwhelmingly sweet and tasted like a Hershey's cookies and cream bar minus the cookies.  It was the only thing of the day that completely failed for me.

Frisee Salad at Paris Club

For dinner I would eat at Paris Club.  It just so happened that Lettuce Entertain You restaurants were having triple points on the first day of restaurant week as well.  I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to do an early dinner around 6 and a late one around 10:30.  Huge failure on my part for selecting two French places, though I did get to do some good side by side comparison.  Paris club, is a moderately lit yet warm and cozy French place that takes a bistro type of feel and gives it a more modern and hipster sort of a vibe by playing mostly alternative rock.  The large windows open up the bar to the outside.  The place uses black paint as a backdrop to wood floors and tables as well as a few red brick accent walls.

Steak frites at Paris Club

For the first course I had a frisee salad.  I've had a similar dish before but this one was done slightly better.  The only downside of it was that the egg was ever so slightly overdone.  The salty lardons, went well with the lightly dressed salad.  The crouqetes, made out of bechamel ham and guyere cheese, were soft and delicate yet nice and crispy on the outside.  I ordered a Manhattan to drink, and it's about my favorite drink.  I didn't notice that at this place they add a little bit of cherry liqueur to the Manhattan.  I wouldn't mind a scant bit of it, but too much was added and it made the drink a little too sweet.

Raspberry Tart at Paris Club

Chicken Pillard at Mon Ami Gabi

For the main course, I enjoyed steak frites.  I will never understand for the life of me how the French stay thin when their idea of dinner is a steak, served with an herbed compound butter and fries to be dipped in mayo.  That being said I was amazed at how my very thin slice of New York Strip steak, could come out a perfect mid rare.  Elevated by the butter to near orgasmic levels of oral satisfaction.  The fries were tasty but many of them were in pieces that were a little to small to dip.  While my waitress was very knowledgeable in food, she had no idea about wine.  I wanted a wine that was only slightly fruity with lots of earthiness and depth, and the one she suggested was the definition of completely boring plain pinot noir.  The bartender redeemed things by letting me taste the perfect Cotes du Rhone that delivered on nearly all of the points that I desired.  Dessert was a tart.  It was like a light version of a cheesecake.  The raspberry flavor was subtle and it had a very buttery crust.

Then there was Mon Ami Gabi.  This place took a much more traditional approach to a French bistro.  Mosaic tiled floors,  dark brown leather booths, all French wines, and you were started with a loaf of warm baguette.  All of the food was just bland.  Of the three French Onion soups I had in this period of time, this one was a complete failure.  It missed the beefy quality of the under seasoned broth.  The chicken pillard was so bland that you thought it would have been seasoned by a slug.  Furthermore you didn't get any of the lemon flavor at all.  Even the worst of home cooks could do a better job with this dish.  It's only redeeming quality was that it was fully cooked.  The only redeeming quality of the place was that the service was phenomenal and my cocktail was the strong bold hit you in the face drink that I had been looking for.

Hallway at the Drake Hotel

That night I stayed at the Drake.  The hotel takes you back to a different era.  As you enter you feel  as though you are traveling through a time machine into the prohibition era.   It was the first hotel in Chicago to have air conditioning in every room.  One has to appreciate the ornate blue carpet and crystal chandeliers.  I must admit the rooms are very beautiful, but I appreciate the modern much more than the classic vibe you get here.  Also it wasn't that quiet.  I always heard some noise out in the hallway and if the Navy didn't teach me to sleep through almost anything, the noise in the hall would have been quite disturbing.

Inside the room at The Drake Hotel