Oceanique

Hello Everyone,

My girlfriend celebrated her birthday this week and I decided to take her to Oceanique in Evanston.  I have heard good things about it and I bought a groupon for it a while back so it was the perfect opportunity!

SUSHISAMBA rio

Hello Everyone,

This past weekend was a celebration for many people.  A fifth of the world’s population celebrated Chinese New Year, all the lovers celebrated Valentine’s Day, and a happy couple in Chicago celebrated their 17-month anniversary.  Such an occasion deserved a nice dinner in the city!

I had made reservations to SUSHISAMBA rio (Japanese-Brazilian-Peruvian fusion) around a month ago because I read on Opentable that they would have a special menu for Valentine’s Day.  When we walked in, we were welcomed and offered complementary coat check, which is always a plus.  We were seated right away in the back corner which was nice for a romantic dinner.

 

I looked over the special menu for the day and nothing really stood out.  I looked through the regular menu and it was the same feeling.  We decided to order from the special menu since it was only offered for that day.  We started off with chilled seasonal oysters, filet mignon anticucho, shaved hearts of palm, and a bobo brazil roll.

The roll came out first.  It roll was made with seared kobe beef, avocado, kaiware, shiso, red onion, and chimichurri ponzu.  I was really leaning towards getting something with toro or salmon, but the kobe beef and avocado caught my eye (also didn’t hurt that the waitress recommended it as well).  In the end, the roll was okay at best.  Japonais has better sushi for around the same price.

 

Then the oysters came next.  There were four oysters with a kumquat mignonette.  This was much better than the roll.  The oysters with the mignonette were very refreshing and a great way to start a meal.

 

I have never had hearts of palm before and don’t really know what it is, but it was my least favorite of the four starters.  It was served with mango vinaigrette and pink peppercorns and I am not a fan of the texture of the pink peppercorn.  It was a very pretty dish, but I just couldn’t get over the crunchy texture.

 

And they saved the best for last.  The filet mignon anticucho with butterscotch miso and almonds was the most amazing thing ever.  I could eat it over and over again!  The filet was cooked perfectly and the sauce was sweet but not overpowering.

 

For the main course, they had the choice between lobster and kobe beef…so we ordered one of each!  The butter poached lobster was very good.  The presentation amused me, so they get extra points for that.  You could definitely taste that it was poached in butter, but I think that’s what makes it better.

 

                                                                                                                     

The kobe beef a la plancha was slightly disappointing.  Since I commented about the presentation of the lobster, I feel obliged to say something about the kobe.  It was just a piece of meat on a plate.  I know it’s a steak, but I expected something a little more.  The presentation wasn’t the only thing lacking though.  I have never had kobe beef like this before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect.  The first bite was very rich and I was really enjoying the taste.   But the next few were kind of chewy; my girlfriend was even complaining about how her jaw was getting sore.

 

For dessert we got the chocolate peanut butter caramel bar with toasted marshmallow (in the shape of a heart) and caramel popcorn ice cream.  At first, I was a little afraid that the dessert would be too sweet and rich, but I was surprised how subtle it was.   The bar, ice cream and marshmallow complimented each other very well and the side of caramel popcorn was a nice touch.

 

Overall, it was a nice Valentine’s Day dinner.  The meal came out to be around $180 and another $12 for the valet which isn’t too bad, but I felt like the dinner should have been better for the price I was paying.  I do not think I would go back for dinner, but wouldn’t mind going for their happy hour to grab some sushi and drinks (and the filet mignon anticucho if possible).  Also, I had a look at their Restaurant Week menu and it looked much better than the Valentine’s Day menu…something for all of you to consider.

Lou Malnati’s

Hello Everyone!

A lot of the major cities in the US have food associated to it.  Boston has New England clam chowder, Baltimore has crab cakes, Philadelphia has Philly cheese steaks, and San Diego had fish tacos.  What about Chicago?  Chicago has deep dish pizza!  There are four main places in Chicago to get the best deep dish pizza: Giordano’s, Gino’s East, Uno, and Lou Malnati’s.  This past week, I went to the original Lou Malnati’s at Lincolnwood.

We went kind of late on a Friday night (around 8pm).  We were seated immediately and the first thing I noticed was all the posters and jerseys hanging on the wall and most of them were for the Chicago Bears.  There were signed posters of Urlacher and Hester; jersey of William Perry; and they even had a display for a goal post pad. 

There was also an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay where Bobby Flay challenged Mark Malnati (Lou’s son) to a deep dish pizza throwdown.  Here is a clip from the episode which describes how to make a Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza.  If you were wondering, Mark Malnati defeated Bobby Flay in the throwdown.

The pizzas usually take a while to make (the menu says around 30 minutes), so we ordered a salad first.  We got the Antipasto Salad.  If you are not a fan of excessive vinegar and sourness, then you are not going to enjoy this salad.  Luckily, everyone at our table loves vinegar so it wasn’t a problem for us.  Aside for the sourness, it was a typical salad.  I really liked the baked croutons; flavor with every crunch.

For the pizza, we got a medium sized “Lou” which contains fresh spinach, mushrooms and sliced tomatoes covered with a blend of mozzarella, romano and cheddar cheese.  Deep dish pizza without meat is a crime, so we added sausage to it (for a little extra cost).

We had to wait a while for our pizza, longer than the 30 minute advertised on the menu.  But I will say that the wait was worth it.  The pizza was really good!  And the “Lou” comes with a butter crust which adds so many flavors into the crust.  It is completely different than any crust I have ever had.

Overall, my experience at the Lincolnwood Lou Malnati’s was positive.  The pizza was very good (I hear that the pizza at this location is better than the other ones), but I was not satisfied with the service.  Maybe it was because it was towards the end of the night and our waitress just wanted to go home, but I just didn’t feel welcomed.  Even with the unsatisfactory service, I would go back just for the deep dish pizza.  My goal is to try some of the other deep dish pizzerias and figure out which one I like the best, so make sure you check back for updates!