Exposure Tapas Supper Club: An Interesting Addition to Our Neighborhood (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 22)

It is one of life's ironies that two people like us, who love food, happen to live in Chicago's South Loop, a neighborhood that, if described as a culinary wasteland, would be giving it too much credit. We were walking to a fine example of that (see our post about Room 21) when we passed this restaurant, which we only noticed because a woman stood in front of the door telling passers-by that the place had just opened. Since we liked her style, and like tapas, we made a point to return soon.

While there were some early opening glitches, we are hopeful that Exposure will be one of the top restaurants in the area (although that wouldn't be too difficult). For a tapas place, the menu seemed kind of limited to us. There were 7 or 8 cold tapas choices (including salads), about the same number of hot small plates, and three full-size entrees. But what it lacked in quantity, the menu basically made up for in quality. We started with a lobster martini, which, according to the menu, included ginger vegetables, olives, and creme fraiche. This was not one of our favorite dishes. Lisa liked the lobster, but wished there was more creme fraiche (she didn't see any), and Steve really didn't care for the lobster. However, we definitely liked the tempura shrimp cocktail, served with very fresh, soft mozzarella and tomatoes. The taste combination was wonderful, although Steve found the tomatoes a bit tough. Even so, this was an innovative and flavorful dish we plan to order when we visit Exposure again. The Atlantic salmon was cured with Grey Goose vodka sauce and came with hard boiled egg and brioche. The salmon lacked some taste and the sauce was a bit salty. But Steve loved the brioche, which tasted like French Toast. And the bread in general tasted fresh-baked.

For hot tapas, we ordered beef teriaki on sticks, which while good, was not memorable. We loved the potato au gratin with garlic cheddar topping. It was very rich and very good. Lisa enjoyed her crab cake. The crab was tasty, and the breading only had a slight amount of spice, which is how she prefers it. Steve liked his lamb tapas, which consisted of part leg of lamb and part lamb slices. The meat was cooked perfectly and tasted like top-notch lamb.

For dessert, we split a peach and berry cobbler. It was served hot. The peaches tasted very fresh and the cobbler overall was just tart enough. Steve thought it could have used more crust, but Lisa thought it was perfect, which says a lot, given that she usually only eats chocolate desserts.

The total bill at Exposure Tappas Supper Club, with wine by the glass (a good but not inspired Zinfandel), was about $110.

The service was attentive and a little uneven, but better than we expected given that we were the only small party among three large parties. The courses came almost too quickly and on plates that struck us as too big for the table. We assume the spacing of the courses will improve over time.

The bathrooms had an Asian look, with stone tile with bronze undertones. The stalls were more like small rooms with doors that looked like Asian screens. The sinks were interesting. The basins were actually bowls set on a counter. Lisa found them pretty, but both she and Steve found it somewhat difficult to rinse their hands due to the angle of the faucet. Both restrooms were very clean and had hands free towel dispensers. There was a little dry toilet paper on the floor of one of the Women's bathroom stalls, however.

Our ratings for Exposure Tapas Supper Club, 1315 S. Wabash, Chicago, Illinois:

7 of 10 Steak Knives (or small plates, in this case); 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

Wildfire in Glenview: Reliable But not Boring (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 21)

We've mentioned before that the Wildfire in Oakbrook is probably our favorite restaurant in the Chicago area. We think the Glenview branch is a close second. We started with a bottle of Groom Shiraz, which was served slightly chilled, making it perfect for a warm evening. The taste is slightly tart, but still very smooth.

For an appetizer, we had the baked goat cheese and tomato sauce dish we like so much in Oakbrook. It is also great here, though a little light on the tomato sauce. For a salad, we somewhat mistakenly tried something different from our usual, which is the tomato and onion salad. We ordered instead the summer goat cheese salad. It consisted of numerous different types of tomatoes -- some light green and light yellow, which didn't make it look very appetizing -- and cold goat cheese, plus some onions. While neither of us liked this as much as our usual salad, it did grow on us to the point where we'd say it was pretty good. The tomatoes were fresh and had a strong taste that set off the goat cheese. But, overall, it still lacked the tremendous flavor of Wildfire's tomato and onion salad, which we'll never forsake again.

For the main course, we couldn't bring ourselves to substitute anything else for the traditional bone-in filet. As usual, both steaks were cooked a perfect medium rare, had just the right amount of charcoal to please both of us (Steve likes heavy charcoal, Lisa likes just a slight charcoal taste), and tasted wonderful, though Lisa found hers to be slightly salty on the outside.

For dessert, Steve ordered his usual apple pie with ice cream, which matches the title of this entry. It is always a good finish to a fine meal (although this time, it needed a little more of the crust that Steve likes so much). Lisa ordered the oven baked double chocolate chip cookie with ice cream. The cookie has semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, pecans and walnuts, and was just the right mix of sweet and chocolate. It is served warm, topped with vanilla ice cream. This is her favorite dessert so far at Wildfire.

The total bill at Wildfire was about $210 with a bottle of wine, and would have been about $160 with wine by the glass.

Both bathrooms were clean, as usual, and well decorated. This location has an interesting take on the sinks. They look like slabs/troughs but also are spotless. The Women's Room has the towel dispenser and garbage can near the door, so germaphobes like Lisa can use a towel to open the door and exit without touching the handle. The Men's Room didn't have this amenity, which is too bad, since Steve is even more of a germaphobe.

Our ratings for Wildfire, 1300 Patriot Blvd., Glenview, Illinois

8.5 of 10 Steak Knives (Oakbrook still rates higher); 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

Room 21: Sometimes Trendy Does Mean Awful (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 20)

We really wanted to like this restaurant since it is the new "hot" restaurant in our South Loop neighborhood. That is particularly true because the room is beautiful, with an interesting pink and red color scheme, and the outdoor garden, where we sat, was almost too good to be true. It is spacious, with plenty of trees, yet few bugs, a cobblestone floor, and cast iron tables. All in all, a wonderful place to have a meal outdoors in Chicago, but the food still has to be good, which it wasn't.

The meal started well, with one of our favorite appetizers, tuna tartare. Lisa liked this dish almost as much as the tuna tartare at Vie (see our prior review), as it was fresh with a bit of a spicy flavor. Steve ordered a goat cheese and shrimp quesadilla, which he thought was quite tasty. Lisa found it a bit odd. We should also note that while the pretzel rolls themselves were good, the butter had a sour milk-like undertaste. Lisa, who normally slathers her rolls with butter, couldn't eat it.

Things went downhill. We did not have salad, which was probably a good thing. To say the main courses left something to be desired is being generous. Steve's ribeye was closer to well-done, even at the bone, than to the medium rare that he ordered. It also had absolutely no flavor, even at the bone, which is quite an accomplishment because it's difficult to make prime beef taste bad, but they did it. Lisa had a ten-ounce filet mignon, which she also ordered medium rare. Hers was pink in the center and well done at the edges. The medium-cooked center had some flavor, the rest did not.

For dessert, Lisa ordered a chocolate-raspberry tort which she thought had to be good, especially because the waiter (who managed to be unctuous, pompous and inept at the same time--and, as you all know, we are not service snobs) said the chocolate was very dark. She was very disappointed. The whole tort was overbaked and too crunchy, she tasted no raspberry at all, and while the chocolate didn't taste like milk chocolate, which she dislikes, it didn't taste like dark chocolate either. Worse, the tort had the same sour milk undertaste as the butter, causing her to leave over half her chocolate dessert -- which violates one of her personal commandments (thou shalt not waste dark chocolate). Steve was also not enthused with the peach cobbler, which would have been a total washout except for a decent vanilla ice cream scoop on top.

We did like the Reisling we ordered, and Room 21's wine list has an interesting feature. Each wine is designated light, medium, or full bodied, which helped us choose. The service was extremely slow. On a Monday night, it took us 2 and a half hours to get out of the restaurant, though we didn't even have a salad course. (We usually like to linger over dinner, but this was ridiculous.) Part of the delay was because Lisa told the waiter the meat was overcooked, and he told us dessert would be complimentary. But it took him three tries with Steve's credit card to actually get the correct bill. We were willing to leave without the dessert being taken off the bill, but he wouldn't let us, prompting Lisa to note the similarity to the Hotel California.

We both liked the bathrooms at Room 21, which were very close to 3s. Both had great decor, with stone floors, small rooms instead of stalls, no touch faucets, and no touch dispensers. However, there were a few towels on the floor in both, and Lisa's toilet seat was broken, which she didn't realize until it slipped. (She was uninjured.) Also, the towels were half the usual size, and not big enough to dry one's hands, which seemed quite odd in a trendy restaurant.

Dinner for two at Room 21, with a bottle of relatively inexpensive wine and without being charged for dessert, was $180.

Our ratings for Room 21, 2110 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois:

4.5 of 10 Steak Knives (and dropping with each retelling); 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes; 1.5 of 5 Bug Zappers (0 being the best rating)

Vie: Best in the West (Suburbs) (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 19)

We'd been to Vie twice, both times before we started the blog. The first time, we absolutely loved it. The second time, not so much. This time was in the middle, but this is still a first-class dining experience. In fact, we think this is the best restaurant in the western suburbs. This is a celebrity chef-owned restaurant which specializes in "local" foods (meaning from specific growers and regions, not necessarily Illinois). For that reason, Vie's menu changes quite often (and Vie has not had the appetizer we loved the first time -- the tuna tartare -- since then).

Because the tuna tartare was not on the menu, Lisa ordered the yellow fin tuna cake appetizer, which included clams, pickled fennel and saffron. She didn't like it as much as the tuna tartare, partly because she prefers cold tuna appetizers and didn't realize the tuna cake would be warm. But it did have an interesting flavor, and she finished most of it. Steve tasted it and liked it a lot, not being as attached to tuna tartare as Lisa was. He also liked his pan seared Kodiak salmon appetizer, although, like Lisa, he prefers a different type of salmon appetizer (smoked). But this was still excellent quality salmon, and Lisa enjoyed it as well.

For the salad course, Lisa ordered the local lettuce salad. It included various types of lettuce, which were fresh, and a house dressing. While a good salad, it's not what we would call a signature dish, and the vinaigrette dressing was a bit strong. Steve was adventurous and had hierloom tomatoes with watermelon and domestic feta cheese. (He hadn't noticed the watermelon on the menu, or his choice might have been different; Lisa noticed the watermelon but thought he was trying to expand his eating horizons.) In any event, the watermelon did detract a bit from the taste, but the tomatoes were extremely fresh and the cheese was good. Lisa liked the dish as a whole, even with the watermelon.

Steve loved his main course, a lamb combination. No, not lamb figure skating, as the title made Lisa imagine, but part leg of lamb and part lamb slices. The flavor was wonderful, the meat was tender, and it was cooked perfectly medium rare. Lisa had the Kobe beef. It, too, was cooked perfectly and had a good flavor, with just the right amount of charcoal to set off the meat but not overpower it. (Probably it would be too little charcoal for Steve.) The beef was a little tough for Kobe, but tasted so good, Lisa didn't mind.

For dessert, we shared a cheese tray. Usually we try to order cheeses for an appetizer, even if listed as a dessert, because we believe dessert should be sweet and/or chocolate. This exception proved the rule for us, because even though the cheese was very good, it left us a bit flat. However, we did get some complimentary petit fours to end the meal, which somewhat satisfied our craving. Lisa especially liked the dark chocolate candy and the gummy lemon candy, which was very tart.

The wine was particularly good. We ordered a Beckman Syrah Clone I. As with most good reds, we could hardly taste the alcohol, and it was a perfect accompaniment to both the meat and the cheese courses. We also had an excellent sommelier. Even though we did not ask him for a wine recommendation, he spent time discussing other wine questions we had, including the proper pronunciation of "Shiraz," which he said is pronounced "Shiraaaz" (with the second syllable sounding like the word "as" instead of "Oz," like the wizard). We're not so sure about that, but we will check it out and report later.

The total bill at Vie with a bottle of wine was $250 and well worth it. With wine by the glass, it would have been about $175.

The bathrooms both were nicely decorated and clean, but they had a type of stone tile that just didn't look very clean, though it may have been.

Our ratings for Vie, 4471 Lawn Ave., Western Springs, Illinois:

8 or 10 Steak Knives; 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

Riva: A Great Place to View Fireworks (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 18)

Recently, we decided to be tourists in our own city and visit the best restaurant on Chicago's Navy Pier, primarily to get a great view of the weekly fireworks. We were not disappointed in the fireworks, which is the best we can say for Riva. To start with, it was very loud. The room has a lot of hard surfaces, and a surprising number of people bring their children even late on a weeknight.

The meal started well enough with shrimp cocktail served on ice. The shrimp were large and very fresh, and the sauce was tangy, but not overly so. Things went downthill from there. LIsa skipped the salad, but Steve had one of the worst iceberg wedge salads he's ever tasted. The lettuce was wilted, the blue cheese dressing was overpowering, and the bacon bits tasted stale. For the main course, Lisa ordered an unremarkable (no it wasn't designated that way on the menu) 12 ounce filet mignon. The steak was cooked a proper medium rare, but just didn't have much taste. Steve had sockeye salmon, which was a mistake from the start. Somehow, Riva managed to make the fish taste like one big vegetable, and Steve hates vegetables. The salmon also had a kerotene look, which made it appear as unappetizing as it tasted. The actual vegetable we shared was asparagus. It was pretty good, in large spears with some type of grated cheese topping.

For dessert, Lisa ordered the gelato assortment because the menu promised bittersweet chocolate among the flavors. Instead, as best as she could tell, the only chocolate was a scoop of brown bland flavored gelato buried under the coconut and vanilla bean (which were not too bad). Steve ordered key lime pie, usually a favorite of his, but here it was only average at best, with the crunchy crust being by far the best part.

For wine, Lisa ordered a pinot noir. It had a dark, fruity flavor she enjoyed. Steve had a glass of Zinfandel, which is his new favorite red wine. It was also quite good.

Lisa found the women's bathroom disturbing. First, the doors to both bathrooms were propped open, and it was difficult to see the labels on the doors, making it easy for people to wander into the wrong one (which Steve almost did). Also, with the door propped open, while in the stall, Lisa could hear everyone walking and talking in the restaurnt just as if they were right outside the door. The women's room was very clean and nicely decorated with black and white tile and old fashioned sinks, and it was very clean, but she felt uncomfortable there. Steve had many of the same issues with the men's room. And the attendants in both rooms were an additional annoyance (not them personally, but that the restaurant chooses to have what strikes us as a demeaning employment role).

We did go largely for the fireworks, and on that score, if none other, we were not disappointed. The windows are very large, and it is easy to see the fireworks from almost anywhere in the restaurant.

Dinner for two at Riva, with wine by the glass, was a non-touristy $170.00, which was clearly not worth it to us, even with the great view of the fireworks. (After all, you can see them for free from the pier outside.)

Our ratings for Riva, 700 E. Grand Avenue (Navy Pier), Chicago, Illinois:

4 of 10 Steak Knives and 1.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

Town: Subterranean Dining in New York (New York Restaurant Review 3)

On the last day of our New York visit, the concierge made reservations at Town for brunch. We entered at the restaurant's ground level and were taken down a wide metal spiral staircase to an underground dining area with no windows. However, the ceiling was very high, and the light-colored walls made the room seem bright and open. While the room was interesting, the food left something to be desired, mainly good flavor.

We started with appetizers. Steve had the smoked salmon, which was not as fresh and tasty as one would expect at a top-notch restaurant. Lisa did, however, enjoy the tuna tartare. For the main course, Lisa ordered a banana hazelnut waffle, which like just about everything else, was overly sweet. Steve had french toast. It was acceptable, but was neither filling nor inspired. It did not taste any better than what could made at home, and in fact was not quite as good as the cinammon french toast Lisa makes for her holiday brunch every year.

In a role reversal, for dessert, Steve ordered a chocolate and caramel dish, which, in keeping with the rest of the brunch at this restaurant, was too sweet. Lisa had struedel with granola, which was mediocre at best, as she can barely remember eating it.

By far the best part of the brunch was a complimentary basket of rolls and muffins. (Steve initially tried to order and pay for a basket or rolls, which was on the menu, but the waitress told us we would get the rolls anyway for free.) The bread was warm and fresh.

We each drank a glass of champagne, compliments of the concierge who made all our restaurant arrangements that weekend. Otherwise, we had orange juice.

The bathrooms both were very nice and clean, with unusual sinks. The sink basins were rectangular and slanted down from the wall. HIdden faucets automatically sent warm water streams. Groups of what looked like white rocks or stones that appeared to be for decorative purposes lay in the sink basins, which was a little unnerving.

Brunch for two at Town with only orange juice to drink was still $150.00, which struck us as well-overpriced for what we got.

Our ratings for Town, 15 W. 56th Street, New York, New York:

5.5 of 10 Spatulas (steak knives just doesn't make sense for this one) and 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes