Wildfire in Chicago: More Great Steak (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 28)

Our faithful readers know that Wildfire in Oakbrook is our all-time favorite red meat restaurant in the area. We definitely don't like some of the other suburban Wildfires as much, but the one in the city is among our favorites. On a recent visit, we started with shrimp cocktail and baked goat cheese appetizers for the table. These were every bit as good as in the Oakbrook location. The shrimp was big and fresh, with zesty cocktail sauce. The goat cheese and tomato sauce, which is always one of the draws of this restaurant, did not disappoint. The table enjoyed the tomato and onion salad (also with goat cheese). The large portion was enough to feed an army, so it easily fed four and was wonderful.

Steve and Lisa both had their usual bone-in filet, medium rare. Both were cooked perfectly and Lisa and Steve continue to think this is the best steak in Chicago. On the waiter's recommendation, one of our companions ordered the tenderloin tips. She thought they were good but a bit too rich. Our other friend had horseradish crusted filet. He thought it was very interesting, but would not order it again, because of the strong taste of the horseradish.

For dessert, Steve had his usual apple pie with ice cream. His only complaint was that there was not enough caramel, but it was otherwise very good. Lisa ordered the Snickers ice cream sandwich. It's actually three triangular ice cream sandwiches with caramel, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream. It was so good, she ate two of the sandwiches despite feeling stuffed before she started. Our friends split the key lime pie, which they said was excellent.

For wine, we shared a bottle of one of our favorites -- Groom Shiraz. This wine is reasonably priced and has a nice, fruity flavor without being sweet.

The bathrooms were both perfectly nice, but nothing special.

The total bill for Wildfire in Chicago, with a bottle of wine, was $275 for four, which is, in our view, a great bargain, for the amount and quality of the food.

Our rating for Wildfire, 161 W. Erie, Chicago, Illinois:

9 of 10 Steak Knives; 2 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

One Sixty Blue: Better Than Ever (Restaurant Review Update 1)

One of what we consider our missions for our reviews is to point out Chicago area restaurants that are great but underappreciated. In the "steak and potatoes" category, we've previously mentioned how much we love Wildfire. In the destination restaurant category, we think One Sixty Blue is every bit as good as the more famous Chicago institutions like Trotter's, Everest, etc.

On this visit, our waiter -- whose voice and accent bore an eerie resemblance to the GEICO gekko (who Lisa really likes) -- started us off (without giving us a choice) with a warm goat cheese appetizer with fruit and toast. While we found this slightly annoying, since the cheese course is one of our favorite things about this restaurant, as with the rest of his recommendations, we really loved his choice. This was stellar goat cheese, very smooth and flavorful, and Steve actually described it as "heavenly." Again at our waiter's recommendation, we decided to pass further cheese until dessert (usually we have several as an appetizer here). Instead, we started with the salad course, a Belgian endive salad with thin pear slices, more goat cheese, and mixed greens. Steve was especially excited because the bowl was an edible wafer (not sweet). We both thought it was very good.

We then had the seafood course -- cold coho salmon with carrots and wild rice. This was another waiter's choice and we absolultely loved it. This could easily have been the entree, but with an appetizer portion, it left us wanting more. The only not so strong part of the meal was the actual entree. The waiter continually pointed out that the Lamb Wellington had been voted as one of the top 25 dishes in the Chicago restaurant scene by Chicago Magazine. Little did he know, Steve is a devout Chicago Magazine reader, who knew it was actually only one of the top 240 dishes. Nonetheless, Steve decided to humor him by ordering the dish, even though he likes lamb but not Wellington preparation. He is still of that view. The lamb itself was extremely good, but the Wellington preparation left something to be desired. Lisa ordered the beef tenderloin, medium rare, which was very good.

For dessert, we finally got our cold cheeses. We picked the camembert and let our waiter choose the other two, which turned out to be a Gouda with flavor crystals (which the gekko was almost as excited about as GEICO's reduced rates in Illinois) and a medium-hard sheep's milk cheese. We loved the camembert and Steve thought the Gouda was okay, but didn't care for the sheep's milk cheese. Lisa, on the other hand, found the Gouda a bit too sharp (though still good) and liked the sheep's milk, which was a little less sharp and a little less crunchy. Even though we've liked some other cheese there better, this was a good mix of flavors and textures, which we enjoyed.

The waiter also recommended our wine, a Bethel Heights Pinot Noir from Oregon. It had a nice flavor and a cherry aftertaste, and we really enjoyed it. The waiter also offered to call us a cab after dinner, which Lisa appreciated, even though we didn't need it, because it is often hard to get a cab back from the West Loop. Many restaurants there offer to call them and the cabs never show, but they consistently stop at One Sixty Blue.

Both bathrooms were extremely nice and clean, if just slightly short of perfect.

The total bill for a great dinner at One Sixty Blue (with amusing commentary by the gekko) was $250 and would have been more like $170 with wine by the glass. This is a great value for a dinner that was outstanding (and just writing about it makes Lisa want to go back there very soon).

Our rating for One Sixty Blue, 160 N. Loomis (Loomis and Randolph), Chicago, Illinois:

9.5 of 10 Steak Knives; 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

Braxton Seafood Grill: Seafood in the Suburbs (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 27)

We were already out in the suburbs of Chicago on a weeknight evening and felt like seafood, so we decided to go to Braxton Seafood Grill, which we'd tried in the past (before our blogging days). There aren't that many really good seafood places, in our opinion, anywhere in Chicagoland, except for Shaw's, which we plan to review. Braxton is typical -- decent but not a destination spot. It does have a large fish tank with very big, imposing fish who mostly sit still because there is not enough room. If you stand in front of the fish tank -- as Lisa often does out of some weird fascination -- they will line up and conspire against you. However, they can't get out, so don't worry about it.

Because it was a weeknight, we started with wines by the glass. Steve had Stonestreet Merlot, which was good, and Lisa ordered a Pinot Noir. Steve's favorite part of the whole meal was the biscuits that Braxton uses as a starter. He liked them so much he kept sending the waiter back for more, but after four, he started to feel sick (which probably was not the fault of the biscuits). Lisa liked the biscuits, too, but is still trying to eat somewhat low carb.

Our appetizer was tuna tartare. It had a little too much wasabi, so it was too spicy, though Lisa liked the taste of the tuna itself. We both had mixed green salads, which were okay. Steve had the grilled Atlantic salmon. He was not enthralled. It was very plain and nearly tasteless. Lisa liked her crab cakes for the most part. The crab meat tasted good, and the breading added a little spice, but did not have the Southwestern flavor she dislikes, and which many restaurants use. For dessert, Steve ordered creme brulee, which had a good custardy flavor. Lisa got the triple chocolate cake. The cake was dark chocolate and moist, and the icing was particularly good.

The Women's bathroom had stalls that were like separate small rooms with nice wooden louvered doors. The sink counter was marble and overall clean. Steve thought the Men's Room solid but ugly, as it was all pea green and looked sort of like the color of the "bad" witch in Wicked.

The total bill at Braxton, with wines by the glass, was about $130 (a fairly decent value).

Our rating for Braxton Seafood Grill, 3 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook, Illinois:

6.5 of 10 Fish Hooks and 2 of 3 Bathroom Brushes (unless you really like Wicked, then 2.5)

Rosebud Prime: Not Quite Ready for Prime Time (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 26)

Steve couldn't wait to take Lisa to Rosebud Prime in downtown Chicago because he loved it when he went there on a business dinner, and he thought it would be even better with good company. However, on the first visit, the company was so bad Steve must have overrated the food because, on this visit, both Steve and Lisa found the restaurant disappointing.

We didn't have our usual multi-course food fest because we were both tired and had to get to work early the next morning. We started with a couple non-descript wines by the glass, then had the house salad. It came with lots of different types of greens, but it also had things like egg, radishes, and olives, which we don't really enjoy in salads. On Steve's suggestion, Lisa ordered the bone-in ribeye, though she usually finds ribeye a little fatty. Not only did Lisa find this one fatty, but Steve thought it was one of the worst steaks he'd tasted in a long time. While normally the fat adds to the flavor of a ribeye, this one had all the fat and none of the flavor. It was almost as if Steve went to a different restaurant the first time. We were so disgusted by the steak that we didn't even have dessert, which happens about as often as George Bush uses a grammatically correct sentence or as often as Bill Clinton tells the truth (depending on which party you like less). The bathrooms were pretty nice but hard to get to.

Steve would try best two out of three, but not soon.

The total bill at Rosebud Prime, with wine by the glass and no dessert or appetizer, was about $150, way overpriced in our opinion.

Our rating for Rosebud Prime, One South Dearborn, Chicago, Illinois:

5 of 10 Steak Knives; 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

The Melting Pot: Scruffy Fondue (Chicago Area Restaurant Review 25)

We felt like fondue, but we also felt like a drive out of the downtown Chicago area, so we couldn't go to Geja's (our favorite). The only other realistic choice is The Melting Pot. We went to the restaurant's location in Oakbrook Terrace, although there are also locations in Chicago and a few other suburbs. We didn't know that this Melting Pot was about to close, though the difficulty in even finding the entrance and the burned out lighting should have tipped us off.

We started with a bottle of Australian Zinfandel called Tera d'Oro. The most interesting part of this wine was the decanter, which looked like a giant inverted Martini glass with a spigot at the bottom. Our waiter assured us it is the newest type of decanter and provides the most air. Unfortunately, the wine itself was as tasteless as our waiter's jokes (the first was something about getting someone's wife drunk).

The fondue was quite good. We ordered what The Melting Pot calls "The Big Night Out." It comes with cheese fondue, salad, and an entree course with eight or nine different items, including beef, pork, vegetables, chicken, and lobster. The waiter prepared the cheese fondue in front of us and it heated on the table. Steve absolutely loved the cheese -- which was served with carrots, celery, Granny Smith apples, and two breads -- and found it the highlight of the evening. Lisa was a bit less enthusiastic because she thought it was too strong. The house salad, which was like a Greek salad, was nothing memorable, but passable. The main course was excellent in spots. We particularly liked the lobster, beef, and shrimp. There were about six or seven sauces, which were good for the most part, though none particularly stood out.

For dessert, we had the traditional dark chocolate fondue course. Lisa was disappointed because the chocolate was not very dark, and it was served luke warm. Steve, not being a chocolate connoisseur, thought it was okay (but he doesn't know any better).

The bathrooms definitely reflected the imminent closing. Lisa found the Women's Room repugnant. The sink counters looked like faux granite and were fairly clean, but the floor tiles looked grubby throughout. One of the toilets needed flushing, and the other looked dirty. There were no seat covers left in the dispenser. The Men's Room was not much better, but merited a bit higher score from Steve, who didn't have to sit.

The total bill at The Melting Pot, with flavorless wine, was $165 and would have been about $140 with wine by the glass (once again proving Steve's theory, which Lisa generally disputes, about the correlation between good wine and costly wine).

All in all, while the fondue itself was pretty good, even taking into account that this Melting Pot was about to close, if one wants fondue in Chicagoland, we suggest Geja's, which we will rate soon.

Our rating for The Melting Pot, 17W633 Roosevelt Road Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois:

6 of 10 fondue forks and 1 of 3 bathroom brushes (.5 for Women's, 1.5 for Men's).