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