A roundup of restaurants recently reviewed by restaurant critic Phil Vettel.
Chef Amaury’s Epicurean Affair *** 481 N. Commons Drive, Aurora; 630-375-0426. Chef Amaury Rosado — born, raised, educated and trained in Chicago — serves dinner on Fridays and Saturdays only and features a five-course, $60 menu of contemporary-American creations. Open: Dinner Fri.-Sat., lunch Fri. Prices: Five-course menu, $60 (some a la carte options available). Credit cards: A, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Hushed. Other: Wheelchair accessible, free parking lot.
Dan McGee ** 330 W. Lincoln Hwy., Frankfort; 815-469-7750. Dan McGee has cooked on three continents, but when it came time to open his own place, he chose a location very close to his Orland Park hometown. The idea is to deliver a city experience at suburban prices, and he largely succeeds with an understated yet stylish, 46-seat dining room, and a menu with enough imagination to create a halibut-and-shortrib surf-and-turf. Friendly service needs more polish and the kitchen needs to address an item or two, but this yearling is impressive, and probably will grow more so. Recommended: Sea scallops in ginger-carrot broth. Open: Dinner Tue.-Sat., lunch Tue.-Fri. Entree prices: $20-$32. Credit cards: A, DC, M, V. Reservations: Accepted for parties of 6 or more only. Noise: Conversation-challenged. Other: Wheelchair accessible, parking lot.
Gabriel’s *** 310 Green Bay Rd., Highwood; 847-433-0031. Classic restaurants become classics for a reason; Gabriel’s demonstrates why they remain so. Gabriel Viti’s signature restaurant, which made a huge splash with its 1993 debut on the North Shore, has settled into a well-defined niche in the Highwood restaurant scene, offering Viti’s familiar, high-quality French and Italian dishes in a postcard-cute country-French dining room with a copper-skillet-lined display kitchen. Recommended: Sesame-crusted tuna. Open: Dinner Tue.-Sat. Entree prices: $23.95-$46.50. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-friendly. Other: Wheelchair accessible, $5 valet parking.
Graham Elliot ** 217 W. Huron St.; 312-624-9975. Once a maverick, always a maverick. Graham Elliot Bowles, who earned four stars at Avenues while defying customer expectations of haute cuisine (using prepared foods such as candy and Rice Krispies cereal as ingredients), takes a sledgehammer to the notions of creature comforts at his self-named restaurant in River North. Tables are bereft of tablecloths and candles; mirror-boxed arrangements of fruit stand in for fresh flowers and all that’s tailored about the waiter uniforms are their Chuck Taylor sneakers. But the food always exhilarates and satisfies, and though Bowles will garnish cheddar risotto with Cheez-Its and continues to offer foie gras crusted with Pop Rocks (dubbed foilipops), like some culinary Warhol, his iconic/ironic touches always hit the mark. Recommended: GE Caesar salad, beet salad, pork prime rib, BLT salmon. Open: Dinner Tue.-Sun. Entree prices: $27-$35. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-challenged. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking.
Green Zebra *** 1460 W. Chicago Ave.; 312-243-7100. Shawn McClain’s mostly vegetarian (there’s always one fish selection) and vegan-friendly restaurant is one of those places to show off to out-of-towners, because no matter where they’re from, they haven’t got this back home. Not only is the vegetable-focused menu good enough to convert the most ardent carnivore, but it’s also presented with a fine-dining sensibility. If only the dining room were twice its current size, there might be room for all the people who want to eat here. Recommended: Burrata salad, chestnut-puree potstickers, poached over smoked-potato puree. Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun., brunch Sun. Prices: Small plates $7-$16. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-friendly. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking.
L2O **** 2300 N. Lincoln Park West; 773-868-0002. Chef/partner Laurent Gras does with fish what Shawn McClain does with vegetables and Grant Achatz does with everything else — he presents flawless ingredients in ways you never anticipated. Gras delights in playing with texture — even the menu has a rubbery coating for tactile interest, and the minimalist dining room (the old Ambria, utterly transformed) combines natural woods, frosted glass and steel-cable room dividers. The Japanese influence extends to the inclusion of tatami rooms, featuring elaborate kaiseki meals for $225. Bring your wallet (dinner will run $200 per person, easily) but leave your preconceived notions about fish behind. Recommended: Cherrywood-smoked kinmedai, Golden Egg Yolk, shabu-shabu, dessert souffle. Open: Dinner Mon., Wed.-Sun. Prices: Four-course menu $110; 12-course menu $165. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended (credit card required). Noise: Hushed. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking, jackets suggested.
Mercat a la Planxa *** 638 S. Michigan Ave.; 312-765-0524. The cooking of Spain’s Catalan region gets uncommonly reverential treatment in this South Loop restaurant whose multitiered, wildly colorful dining room would feel at home in the middle of Barcelona. Executive chef and local-boy-made-good-elsewhere Jose Garces (whose acclaimed Amada and Tinto restaurants are in Philadelphia) produces dishes that blow you away with pitch-perfect details, from the olive-oil drizzle that adds just the right brightness to pan con tomat to the bacon marmalade that adds salty-sweet grace notes to a flatbread pizza topped with shortrib meat. When Garces isn’t here, which is most of the time, chef de cuisine Michael Fiorello does the heavy lifting, ably abetted by an exemplary service staff possessing the eager zeal of religious converts. Recommended: Jamon de campo, Spanish omelet, hamachi en escabeche, rabbit agnolotti, mato y ubas. Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun., breakfast/lunch Mon.-Fri., brunch Sat.-Sun. Prices: Small plates $5-$16; tasting menu $55. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-challenged. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking.
Old Town Brasserie *** 1209 N. Wells St.; 312-943-3000. Purists may sniff that this cozy restaurant isn’t a “true” brasserie (it’s not), but longtime restaurateur Bob Djahanguiri (Yvette, Toulouse) and acclaimed chef Roland Liccioni (Le Francais, Les Nomades) have partnered to create an outstanding dining experience. Dishes that starred on Liccioni’s Le Francais menus are here — at greatly reduced prices — along with simpler fare (escargots, salade Lyonnaise) that are just as satisfying. It wouldn’t be a Djahanguiri restaurant without live music, which is featured near the bar on Fridays and Saturdays (after 10 p.m.). Recommended: Duck consomme, artichoke terrine, poached salmon, lamb-sweetbreads duo, hazelnut souffle. Open: Dinner Mon.-Sat. Entree prices: $18-$29. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-friendly. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking.
Park 52 ** 5201 S. Harper Ave.; 773-241-5200. Yes, this Hyde Park restaurant by Jerry Kleiner looks a lot like Room 21, which opened a year ago in the South Loop. So what? They’re not exactly neighbors (32 blocks apart), and in creating Park 52, Kleiner has brought his signature style (bright-red leather, custom ironwork, warm tones) and sophistication to an under-served restaurant neighborhood, equipping it with an approachable and affordable American menu and the friendliest staff this side of Disney World. What’s not to like? Recommended: Spiced ribs, skate wing, roasted whitefish, rack of lamb. Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun. Entree prices: $19-$36. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended weekends. Noise: Conversation-friendly. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking.
Schwa *** 1466 N. Ashland Ave.; 773-252-1466. Easily Chicago’s quirkiest fine-dining restaurant, Schwa presents the artistic, cutting-edge cooking of chef/owner Michael Carlson in a setting that lacks most of the fine-dining niceties. There’s no liquor license, little in the way of beverage glasses and instead of well-rehearsed and attentive waiters there is Carlson and his cooks, who take turns greeting guests and explaining the menu (though goodness knows the chefs know the food details better than anyone else could). Choose the short three-course menu or the extravagant nine-course (the latter always includes a bonus or two), sit back and go with the flow. And don’t forget to bring some wine. Recommended: Jonah crab, beer-cheese soup, Kona kampachi with galangal, jellyfish pad Thai. Open: Dinner Tue.-Sat. Prices: Nine-course menu $105, three-course $55. Credit cards: M, V. Reservations: Required. Noise: Conversation-friendly. Other: BYO.
Tallulah *** 4539 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-942-7585. In a neighborhood (Lincoln Square) dotted with intimate and personal restaurants, Tallulah, which opened in March, may be the most sophisticated. Chef Troy Graves’ contemporary American menu is delicious agony, one enticing choice after another, and the vision-in-ivory dining room is smart and comfortable, if rather noisy (the outdoor dining space, with its peaked metal roof, is an appealing alternative). And Graves has a knack for making incompatible-sounding ingredients (strawberries and fava beans), play nice together. Recommended: Lobster deviled eggs, mushroom-prune tart, lamb loin, pistachio cheesecake. Open: Dinner Tue.-Sun., brunch Sun. Entree prices: $17-$26. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-challenged. Other: Wheelchair accessible.
Topaz Cafe ** 780 Village Center Drive, Burr Ridge; 630-654-1616. A Serbian-owned American restaurant with an Italian soul, Topaz has been a big hit with the well-heeled Burr Ridge and Oak Brook crowd — many of whom made the owners’ previous restaurant, Amber, a big hit in nearby Westmont. Giuseppe Scurato’s less-is-more cooking philosophy works especially well with the seafood offerings, but there are few flaws anywhere on the menu. Service can be uneven, but the eagerness to please is evident. Recommended: Gnocchi with rabbit, Caesar salad, veal tenderloin, whitefish with lobster hash browns, Cake & Shake. Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun., lunch Mon.-Sat. Entree prices: $18-$34. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended weekends. Noise: Conversation-challenged. Other: Wheelchair accessible, $5 valet parking.
Zed 451 ** 739 N. Clark St.; 312-266-6691. What was once a Brazilian-steakhouse called Sal y Carvao has transformed. The format remains the same — a single price includes an all-you-can-eat meal of salad bar and tableside service of various grilled meats — but there’s more range to its offerings (such as roasted duck breast and tempura mahi-mahi) and more variety in its seasonings and saucings. It’s more veggie-friendly, too. The strikingly modern building includes generously spaced tables, a spacious bar area and a very popular rooftop lounge. Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. Prices: Full dinner/brunch $49, salad bar only $36. Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V. Reservations: Strongly recommended. Noise: Conversation-friendly. Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking.
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Ratings key:
OUTSTANDING ****
EXCELLENT ***
VERY GOOD **
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.
