Bistrot Margot

Earlier this week I went to Old Town for dinner with my family.  For those of you not from Chicago, Old Town is a really fun and hip neighborhood in the northern part of the city.  They have all of these quaint little shops and some of the best food in the city.  For dinner, we chose French restaurant Bistro Margot for its delicious prix fixed menu.  For only 20 dollars, you get a three course meal with a beautiful atmosphere.  Definitely one of the city's steals.

One of my favorite things about Bistrot Margot is the decor.  You feel like you walked into some French bistro from the 1950s when you walk inside.  The lighting is soft and the era's premiere crooners warble in the background.  

                         

Of course, a restaurant can have all the decor and atmosphere in the world, but if the food isn't good you won't want to go there.  Luckily, Bistrot Margot proves to have both a pleasant atmosphere and phenomenal food.

I started off with the Bistrot Salad.  Typically, I find starter salads pretty boring, but this one completely blew me away.  I could have eaten only this for my entire meal and have been a happy camper.  The best parts were the large chunks of bacon.

For my main course I ordered the Tilapia au Noix.  I was going to get the Steak Frites originally -- I was at a French restaurant, after all - but changed my mind.  Oh boy, am I glad that I did.  The tilapia was served over a mound of diced beets, carrots, celery and asparagus.  The dish was finished off with a drizzle of balsamic reduction.

I paced myself during the first two courses by only eating half, which left me with more than enough room for dessert.  I ordered the Bread Pudding, which was amazing.

My mom ordered the Chocolate Terrine, which looked good, but I'm glad I went with my bread pudding.  I'm not a huge raspberry fan, and the terrine was studded with raspberries.

My dad ordered the profiteroles, because if they are on the menu you can bet the man will order them.

Overall, it was an absolutely delicious meal.  And for only 20 dollars?  You really can't go wrong.

Visit the website for more information and a complete menu.

Grahamwich

In light of your positive feedback on my Xoco post, I have decided to go ahead and continue with my Chicago restaurant series! It is entitled Dine Out Chicago. Yes, it is a play on Time Out Chicago. Yes, I did think of that on my own. I know. I am astoundingly clever. Without further adieu, I give you my rambling and hopefully coherent thoughts on Chicago's very own Grahamwich.

Oh Grahamwich, I had such high expectations for you. Remember when we met a few months back and I had the most delicious sundae with nutella hot fudge? Remember how I ate myself silly and left with a dull ache in my stomach, due no less to leaving you than the eighty pounds of ice cream consumed?

I dreamt of our next meeting with nearly giddy anticipation.

Reunited and it feels so goooood.

But then you had to serve me salad in a plastic to-go container, while my friends were delivered sandwiches on the cutest trays. I am still smarting from that slight.

I went to Grahamwich with my friends last week and had a less than stellar experience. Before tackling that, though, I need to touch on the decor. If I were judging Grahamwich on styling alone it would win every award known to mankind. I am that in love with its styling.

The website describes how Grahamwich, the invention of super chef Graham Elliot, is an attempt to "redefine what a sandwich shop could and should be". And that is exactly what Grahamwich does. It's quirky and niche-y with its homemade soda pops and decadent snacks like popcorn smothered in truffle oil, parmesan, and chives. Yet, it still has your classic grilled cheese and roast beef sandwich.

And it's just darn cute inside.

I feel somewhat disingenuous moving on to the food portion of this post, because I don't think I chose something indicative of the general quality of Grahamwich's offering. Therefore, take what I am about to say with a hefty grain of salt.

I ordered the G'wich salad from the Snacks menu. The salad is described as:

mixed greens + shaved fennel + toasted almonds + pink grapefruit + white balsamic

Now, I thought this sounded pretty good. In retrospect it wasn't awful, but I was so turned off by the lack of actual dining ware that it ruined the salad for me.

This is possibly the worst picture I have ever taken. See, even my camera revolted at all that plastic.

Would it have been that difficult to give me a bowl? Or at least real cutlery?

In the interest of not completely slamming Grahamwich, both of my friends enjoyed their sandwiches immensely. I probably will go back sometime soon and try a sandwich. Or demand a bowl for my salad.

Xoco

This weekend my mom visited for a girl's weekend. I love when my mom comes to visit. We spend some quality time together; my laundry gets done; and I finally get to eat out at all the places I've dreamed of going to but was too cheap to actually frequent. Moms rock.

Xoco is one those places that I have stayed up late at night fantasizing about but had never actually pulled the trigger and visited. Well, it seemed like the perfect place to take Mom-sie on Saturday.

Xoco is an off-shoot of Rick Bayless' infamous Frontera Grill. It focuses on the different street foods from Mexico, served up hot and quickly in the homey dining area. All orders can be customized, keeping with the "rustic immediacy" of authentic Median street food, and are delivered to the table in record time.

We got there around 1:30 and there was still an hour wait for lunch. Both of us agreed that this appeared to be worth the wait and we took our place in line.

Surprisingly, the wait when by pretty quickly. There was so much going on inside the restaurant that I felt like I was constantly entertained. You could see pretty much the entirety of the kitchen from the line. There was a wood oven where the tortas were made. I could even see where the carnitas were being made!

Carnitas simmering away!

A chef working on the churros. Didn't get any but they looked amazing!

They also had Rick Bayless' cookbooks out for customers to peruse, as well as large chalkboards outlining the restaurant's sustainable practices.

Another thing I really liked about Xoco was the free flat and sparkling water offered for customers. An hour is a pretty long time to wait and I really appreciated the water. I think I had about four glasses while I was waiting. Dehydration is awesome.

I ended up ordering the Cubana sandwich which is described as:

Smoked Gunthorp pork loin and bacon, black beans, avocado, artisan Jack, and chipotle mustard.

My mom had the carnitas which I didn't snap a picture of but it looked good. It was like a hearty soup with lots of cilantro. My cilantro-hating-self was happy with my cilantro-less order.

We also shared chips and salsa which were pretty fantastic.

Xoco was absolutely fantastic. The food was good. The service was fast. If you are in Chicago, you have to try it! Just make sure to factor in the wait time.

I have a quick question for all of you--Saturday made me realize that I eat out at a lot of fun Chicago restaurants. Would you be interested in a Chicago restaurant series?