Lunch at Bistro 110 and Dinner at Old Town Brasserie, Chicago

When I received my class schedule from the school about a month ago, I noticed that I would have lunch from Bistro 110 and Everest, then dinner at chef Art Smith's house who owns Table Fifty-Two. From what I read on the internet they have positive reviews, so I asked my husband if he would like to go to Bistro 110 and Table Fifty-Two. Unfortunately he couldn't get a reservation at Table Fifty-Two, so he did some more research and came up with Old Town Brasserie. He decided to have lunch at Bistro 110 since it was located near our hotel (Park Hyatt Chicago) so he could just walk there, then had dinner at Old Town Brasserie before picking me up at the school.

Here's what he had to say about his lunch and dinner.
One of the best attribute of Bistro 110 was it's location, next to Michigan avenue and overlooking the Old Water Tower park. He actually got a window seat, which gave him plenty of sunshine for taking pictures, also important. The staffs were also quite friendly, without being too overbearing. Glancing through the menus, he went for the 'safe' choices (and a few recommendations from our research).

First came the bread basket, which included a warm baguette (nice), section of butter and roasted garlic. Good start so far. Then came the French onion soup, which unfortunately was disappointingly thin. Don't even bother with this.

Bread, butter & roasted garlic and French onion soup

For the main entree, he ordered croque monsieur with a side of pommes frites 110. The croque monsieur was apparently another bad choice -- seems they have trouble with classic French bistro staples. The brioche was thin and plain, and overall didn't taste too good. He didn't finish this at all.

The pommes frites were crispy and thin. It was very interesting, and tasted pretty good. The problem was because of the crispiness it was a little hard to eat and some pieces were flying around. He also didn't want to get his hands dirty, which made it even tougher for him to enjoy (imagine using fork & knife).

Croque monsieur and Pommes frites 110

Unnerved, he decided to go all the way with dessert. After asking for recommendations from the waiter, it came down to really 2 choices: the creme brulee or the chocolate cake. The creme brulee was apparently made famous when they first opened, i.e. their signature dessert. However, the chocolate cake (gateau "paradis au chocolat") was the new signature dessert. Given his disappointment with Bistro 110's classic French fare, and after hearing the explanations, he went for the chocolate cake. Thank goodness. It was really, really good -- the only dish that he actually enjoyed. The cake was moist, not too sweet with good chocolate flavor, and the caramel sauce let you control the sweetness. He said it literally melted in his mouth and one of the best he's had.

Gateau paris au chocolat

The dinner at Old Town Brasserie, though, went a little better. Since he had a 5:30 PM reservation, it was quite empty except for the bar area in the front. After asking for some recommendations from the waitress (and cross checking with my recommendations) he made his choices.

First off he was given an amuse bouche of parmesan cheese gougere. For appetizer, he had the terrine d'artichauts et coeur de palmier (artichoke & hearts of palm terrine). Very nicely plated, but he found parts of it too mushy while others were crunchy -- resulting in an uneven texture, and the flavor was a little bland.

For soup, he had the quite famous duck consomme. The consomme had a very strong flavor, maybe a little salty, that you can feel the duck fat on your lips. The truffle ravioli and vegetables gave a nice balance to the flavor, but duck was clearly the main flavor.

Gougere parmesan cheese


Terrine d'artichauts et coeur de palmier and Duck consomme

The main entree was an easy choice, he had the duo carre d'agneau et boeuf (rack of lamb and beef). He originally wanted the lamb cooked medium, but when told the chef recommended medium rare, he went with the recommendation. It turned out to be a wise choice. The lamb was really tender and juicy, in fact this was the first time my husband truly enjoyed rack of lamb. The beef was also well braised and very tender. The accompanying ratatouille and sauce complemented the meats very well. He finished this one without hesitation and highly recommends this dish.

Duo carre d'agneau et boeuf

To finish the meal, he had the hazelnut souffle, which he said was also a good choice. I couldn't get a good description of it from him other than how much he enjoyed it. They also gave him some shortbread cookies and pates de fruits, which he brought back to the hotel for me to try (PH won, of course).

Hazelnut souffle and Shortbread cookies & Apricot pates de fruits

As soon as we were back at the hotel, we went straight to bed since we had to wake up early to head home. I still couldn't believe that the 2-day Pierre Hermé class has over and I just had once in a lifetime experience, WOW! Thanks a lot to my husband for everything, especially for driving me all the way to Chicago only to attend my dream class. I love you, you are the BEST!

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Bistro 110
110 East Pearson Street
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 266-3110
http://www.levyrestaurants.com/Levy/DiningExperiences/Restaurants/Group4/Bistro+110.htm

Old Town Brasserie
1209 N Wells St
Chicago, IL 60610
(312)943-3000

Table Fifty-Two
52 W Elm St
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 573-4000
http://www.tablefifty-two.com/

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Dinner at Charlie Trotter's, Chicago

We arrived at Charlie Trotter's almost at 6 pm, almost missing it completely. It was an unassuming building (no sign at all), and we were lucky the (nicely dressed) valet waved at us. Not sure how he knew we were going there, but thank God he got our attention.

We were greeted very nicely, escorted up the stairs to the bar area, which doubled as the waiting area. The hostess showed us our table on the second floor. At that time there were only few people in the room, but within 30 minutes it was full. I was a bit confused when people kept coming at intervals since I thought there were only 2 seatings, 5:30 and 9 pm. Maybe the each seating stretches for an hour?

Charlie Trotter's was listed as one of the '1000 Places to See Before You Die', so we had high expectations for the night. Of course, we also realized it wasn't the '1000 Places to Eat Before You Die' list.

There were only two choices in the menu, the Grand Menu and the Vegetable Menu. When we saw that, we thought of ordering 1 of each tasting menu so that we could taste all of them. However after perusing both the menu and considering that we loved meat/seafood more than vegetable (sorry Mom), we decided that both of us would have the Grand Menu. We don't really drink alcohol, so my husband ordered the Beverage Tasting Menu (which was non-alcoholic) while I ordered ginger ale.

The first bread served was mini french baguette and room temperature butter. The baguette was good, but I still loved the one from Del Posto more.

When we were still enjoying the baguette, my husband's first beverage arrived, which was sparkling orange & lucuma. It was very refreshing.

Then the parade of meals started, the first one was razor clam. I didn't like it since the clam had the fishy taste, but it was tender.

Razor clam with lemon and chervil

The second beverage (ruby red grapefruit & ginger) came, it was very good, I liked this drink the most.

The second meal was trout with cured salmon, it was good. I was always a little bit concerned about raw salmon, but the dish had a very nice texture and taste I couldn't believe it.

Tasmanian ocean trout with citrus cured salmon, louisiana crayfish and watercress

Then another bread was offered and it was cinnamon whole grain. It was pretty good and soft, but nothing special.

The next beverage was black tea and kombucha. I was expecting 'hot tea', but it turns out to be chilled black tea with vinegar. It was very interesting, but the vinegar was too strong so it felt like we were drinking straight vinegar.

The third meal served was quail, the meat was tender and very tasty, I loved it a lot and was my favorite. My husband who is not a quail eater liked this too, but he couldn't finish it and gave the rest to me -- good, more for me. We were a little shocked to see that they had served the whole quail feet (claws and all), but it certainly made the dish unique in presentation.

Four story hill farm quail with chorizo, spring onions and clover

Then the next beverage was dried cherry & wild rice, it was very thick and very sweet, both of us didn't like it.

The next meal served was lobster, I liked this too, the lobster meat was sweet and soft. It was perfect with the veal liver that came with it.

Maine day boat lobster with elephant garlic and grilled eagle rock oyster

At this time we noticed that the table next to us had a nice looking bread so we asked one of the waiter if we could get the same bread. Then they obliged, and we had maple bacon bread. It was very good -- soft bread with sweet and savory taste at the same time. Luckily we asked for it, otherwise we'd missed out on this really nice bread. If I was not saving room for dessert, I would have ask for more of this.

Maple bacon bread

The last meal served was venison loin, it was cooked medium rare and was tender. I only ate a little bit of it since I started to feel full, so I asked my husband to finish mine since he liked it.

Millbrook farm venison loin with toasted buckwheat, cumin and sheetp's milk ricotta

Finally the dessert started to arrive -- or as I call them 'my main entree'. When we gave our menu order, we asked our waitress if it was possible to have desserts from both menu, luckily she allowed us to have that. The first dessert from the grand menu was nigorizake sorbet and the other was jasmine granite from the vegetarian menu. On the sorbet, the sake taste was very strong. While the jasmine granite was very mellow -- I like this better.

Left: Nigorizake sorbet with asian pear and jasmine rice.
Right: Jasmine granite with water chestnuts and tahitian vanilla

The the next beverage (sultana & white balsamic) came, it was sweet and sour at the same time. We were a bit confused since the beverage was supposed to be a tea at this point based on the menu. So my husband called our waitress and asked about it. I guessed she forgot to bring the fifth beverage which was darjeeling & lavender. Within couple of minutes the tea came, it was a good one, especially to have it with the dessert.

The second dessert from grand menu was stewed rhubarb and from the vegetarian menu was sweet potato. I loved the stewed rhubarb a lot, it was very refreshing. While the sweet potato, it was good but I could not really taste the sweet potato.

Left: Stewed rhubarb with white chocolate yogurt and coriander shortbread
Right: Okinawan sweet potato with sweet stout and vanilla bean marshmallow

The last dessert from grand menu was chocolate custard and from the vegetarian menu was Indonesian chocolate. The chocolate custard was good, but you have remember to eat a little bit of everything on the plate at the same time -- it was a deconstructed dessert. The Indonesian chocolate was good too and I could smell a little bit of the pandan on the broth.

Left: Venezuelan chocolate custard with kaffir lime, grilled cactus and agavero jelly
Right: Indonesian chocolate with pine nut and pandan broth

When the second and last desserts came out, the waitress also brought the petit fours. Our table was full with lots of dessert plates, what a nice picture! The petit fours were: dulce de leche chocolate, passion fruit chocolate, asahi jelly, and pineapple tart. Both the chocolates were good, the jelly was too sweet for me, while the pineapple tart was refreshing.

Assorted petit fours

The Beverage Tasting Menu

We were very full by this time, so we asked for our check. When the check came, we realized that this was the most expensive dinner we have ever had so far. Overall, we were glad that we came here, but neither the food nor the service blew us away.

After paying, we waited for our car from the valet. Then after the car arrived, the parking attendant gave us a box of chocolate cookies. I was very surprised, what a complete service. We didn't eat the cookies until we arrived home, it was good -- chocolate-y.

Some tips I would like to give:
* They are very accomodating with your request, so if you (dis)like certain things on the menu, let them know.
* Be very specific about what you want or don't want, our waitress somehow decided that we wouldn't like the alcohol on the dessert (nigorizake sorbet) because we didn't drink alcohol. It was resolved after a little explanation, but it would've been so much nicer if she had confirmed with us.
* If you have enough time (and you plan 2 months in advance), ask to be seated at the Kitchen Table. The Kitchen Table Menu is 18 courses (5 of which is dessert) and you get to sit in the kitchen, also the price is only slightly more expensive (about $45 based on the information from our waitress) but you get more courses.
* Enjoy your 'experience', you're paying for it :-)

When we arrived at the hotel, we had another surprise in our room. They had an amazing turn down service that prepared our beds for the night, and they left a couple of nice chocolates on the table. That was a very nice touch and I would definitely consider Park Hyatt again for our next trip.

Caramel chocolates at the hotel

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Charlie Trotter's
816 West Armitage
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 248-6228
http://www.charlietrotters.com

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Take out dinner from The Cheesecake Factory

I remembered that The Cheesecake Factory just started having the curb side to-go service, so last night we gave it a try. We love their food a lot, my favorite one is Bang-bang chicken and shrimp, so that was one of what we ordered. In addition to that, we also ordered Chinese chicken salad and fresh banana cream cheesecake. Unfortunately I forgot to take picture of the salad, but I have one from our previous order.

As expected the bang-bang chicken and shrimp was wonderful, it was creamy, spicy and very tasty. The Chinese chicken salad was very good, it has the crunch, sweet and sour in it. The banana cream cheesecake was good, it was very creamy, smooth and I could taste the banana, my husband's favorite.

Bang-bang chicken & shrimp takeout and Chinese chicken salad


Fresh banana cream cheesecake

Here are some more pictures of our favorites so far: Thai lettuce wraps (messy but awesome), Jamaican black pepper shrimp (hot and spicy, my husband's favorite dish here), crispy crab wontons (crispy in the outside, creamy in the inside), and of course the tiramisu cheesecake (amazing, my favorite's cheesecake)

Thai lettuce wraps and Jamaican black pepper shrimp


Crispy crab wontons and Tiramisu cheesecake

The Cheesecake Factory has never disappointed us, no wonder we love to go there. The food is excellent and huge, the service is good. I know that there is usually a wait, that's why if we want to dine-in we try to come as soon as they open or put our name first then take a walk at the mall while waiting for the table.

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The Cheesecake Factory
455 Menlo Park
Edison, NJ 08837
(732) 494-7000
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/

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