There has been a renaissance of serious dining in the Rush Street area in the last five years. Cutting-edge cuisine may yet be an elusive concept, but if your appetite leans to steaks and chops, the confluence of Rush, State and Bellevue streets offers the meat-hungry diner a dizzying number of choices, including Morton’s, Gibsons and Carmine’s.
And now there is Tavern on Rush, another steak specialist with a well-respected Chicago connection — specifically, partner Phil Stefani, who owns Riva, Tuscany, Lino’s and several more restaurants.
Tavern on Rush looks like a success already. By 8 p.m. virtually any day of the week, the upstairs dining room is packed and the downstairs tavern is full of dining hopefuls. The 50-seat sidewalk cafe eases the crunch (and there’s nothing like people-watching along Rush Street), but summer won’t last forever.
Judging by meat alone, Tavern on Rush definitely belongs in the upper tier of Chicago steakhouses. The biggest and priciest steak on the menu is a 16-ounce Porterhouse, and it’s an excellent piece of meat that the kitchen cooks exactly right. I had similarly good results with the New York strip steak, another 16-ouncer that was juicy and delicious.
One visit, I brought along a colleague who orders steaks well-done. When he placed his order, the waiter didn’t bat an eye (some waiters would register disapproval), and the steak, a thick ribeye chop, actually weathered the overcooking reasonably well, retaining its flavor and a surprising amount of moistness.
Other entrees are less successful. Spice-rubbed duck breast, a tad oversalty, tastes OK but is served in a pool of brandied cherry sauce, making eating a sloppy adventure. A grilled salmon special had excellent flavor, but the accompanying mushroom sauce was a less than inspired match; a bigger problem was that the salmon arrived at the table at room temperature (the steak my companion ordered arrived piping hot).
Shrimp Cipriani combines sauteed shrimp with homemade pasta squares with a cognac-laced tomato cream sauce; the dish included mountains of pasta but only four good-sized shrimp. I would argue that a $22 entree deserves more.
The Cajun shrimp appetizer will be a very good dish when the kitchen matches the shrimp to a better sauce. Neither the straightforward cocktail sauce nor the honey-mustard mayonnaise is a good match to the spice-dusted, grilled shrimp.
Other appetizers are better. Barely seared ahi tuna, pepper crusted and served with wasabi and pickled ginger, is a keeper, as is the crabmeat salad over greens with a light citrus glaze. My favorite starter would be one of the cracker-crust pizzas, which are very well executed; an asparagus-goat cheese version one night was particularly good.
Side dishes are hardly necessary, considering the massive entree portions, but the double-baked potato, a huge spud that will serve two, and the sauteed spinach (simple and good, flavored with garlic and perhaps a touch of oil) are good choices.
Desserts are even less necessary than side dishes. Choices include a pretty good Key lime pie, slightly tart, and a light-textured and fluffy chocolate mousse cake. The creme brulee is incompetent, the creme too thick and the sugar topping insufficiently caramelized. Eat & Drink is a supremely simple dessert — a couple of scoops of good vanilla ice cream doused with Grand Marnier and topped with fresh strawberries.
Waiters seem a bit on the inexperienced side but are friendly enough. The goal of any steakhouse waiter is to get you to order as many extras as possible, but the waiters here make their pitches gently.
Service does have a wee problem with the house salad; the menu clearly states that salads come with entrees, but in three dinner visits I received the salad only once. Another point of confusion on the menu is with the wines by the glass list; one visit my companion and I had different lists; more interesting is that one particular glass of wine was $7 on one list, $8 on the other.
“I’ll have the $7 glass,” I said to the waiter. He brought the wine and — I checked — charged me $7.
Service will never be very efficient given the overcrowded dining room, whose traffic flow is surprisingly awkward for a restaurant that was built practically from the ground up. Tables are so close together that even busboys have trouble maneuvering about the room, and there are frequent traffic jams involving tray-bearing waiters and restroom-seeking customers. The room would work a lot better if three or four tables were removed.
Apart from the crowding, the second-floor, 150-seat dining room is charming, trimmed in dark wood (de rigueur among steakhouses) with good-sized tables and plush booths (tough to get). French doors overlooking Rush Street below swing open in pleasant weather.
The cool room is the downstairs Tavern, which has smallish tables and even a few couches for lounging. The Tavern serves a smaller menu that still includes several steaks, and serves until 1 a.m.
Judged solely by its steaks, Tavern on Rush can compete with the city’s best steakhouses. But the rest of the operation is a bit behind the curve.
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Tavern on Rush
(star)
1031 N. Rush St.
312-664-9600
Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun., lunch Mon.-Sun., brunch Sun.
Entree prices: $11.95-$31.75
Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V
Reservations: Strongly recommended
Noise: Conversation-challenged
Other: Valet parking available; wheelchair accessible
Rating system
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(star) (star) (star) Excellent
(star) (star) Very Good
(star) Good
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Reviews are based on no fewer than two visits. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
