Zak’s Place in Hinsdale: A Big Disappointment (Chicago Area Restaurant Review No. 81)

We had heard lots of favorable buzz about Zak’s Place, and we really like Hinsdale, which has great scenery and nice shopping, so we couldn’t wait to try it. Wait we should have, because Zak’s did not live up to the hype.

We started with wine by the glass. Lisa chose a Ramsey Pinot Noir and Steve had a Syrah. Both of these were quite good. One of the things we were really looking forward to was their cheese course, but the cheese was really bad, a fatal misstep in our world view. The bleu, camembert and cheddar selections were all quite bad. The bleu tasted musty and the cheddar and camembert tasted store bought, with the brie being the only semi-decent choice. That set the tone for the rest of the meal.

Lisa’s second course was a lobster and shrimp dish. She liked the shrimp, but the lobster wasn’t great, thus sort of ruining the dish. Steve’s romaine salad was decent but nothing special. For entrees, Lisa had the prime rib, which was cooked a perfect medium rare but didn’t have a lot of flavor. Steve’s Kansas City strip was also not great, but it did come with excellent lyonnaise potatoes.

Desserts were ok but not inspired. Steve’s bread pudding with caramel ice cream had great ice cream but the bread pudding was basically tasteless. Lisa’s chocolate dessert was also not bad, but the chocolate was not dark enough for her.

We did like the restrooms, because they were really clean (we contrasted that with the worst bathroom we’ve ever seen which was in a Hinsdale restaurant in our pre blog days), but they were a bit too small to get a perfect rating.

Dinner for 2 with wine by the glass was $200, which is quite expensive for this quality food.

Our ratings for Zak’s Place, 110 South Washington, Hinsdale

5.5 (being charitable) of 10 Steak Knives; 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes

Suzette's Creperie in Wheaton: Finally a Good Choice in This Suburb (Chicago Area Restaurant Review No.80)

On a Friday night in early October (yes we are a bit behind on these entries), we decided to take the train out to one of our favorite suburbs, Wheaton, to try one of the few restaurants there that we haven't tried yet, Suzette's Creperie. We really like Wheaton, because it is a beautiful area for walking and looking at nice houses and universities, but we have yet to find a restaurant there that we like. Suzette's is definitely the best of the restaurants in Wheaton we have tried, although it still has some problems.

We started with a bottle of French wine with which we were unfamiliar, a Leclerc Burgundy. We thought this might be a little dense, but actually it was light, although somewhat tart, but had a nice aftertaste, almost like green apples. Our first course was a cheese fondue, which we really liked. We thought, next to our favorite, at Geja's, that this was the best cheese fondue we've had.

For the next course, Lisa decided, based on the season, to try pumpkin bisque, something she's never had before. She found it very interesting, with a nice cinammon flavor. Steve had the french onion soup, which was decent but not top French bistro quality (a bit too light on the cheese topping).

Salads were good, although not particularly inspired. Both of us chose the goat cheese salad. The goat cheese was good but the greens were not so good, albeit pretty.

Unfortunately, Lisa's entree disappointed. She ordered the salmon, and it tasted fishy and not particularly fresh. Steve's ribeye was very good and cooked perfectly to his taste, but the pommes frites were the fat kind that he doesn't care for.

Strangely, for a place called a Creperie, the dessert crepes were pretty weak. Steve's caramel apple crepe, again ordered for the season, was not good at all, and hardly had any caramel. Lisa's hot fudge banana crepe was a bit better, but there was not enough fudge and it was somewhat lukewarm.

Suzette's has a very warm atmosphere, with pleasant, though uneven service (we had 2.5 hours to make our train and barely made it even though we told them at the beginning exactly what train we wanted to catch). On balance, we thought the whole here was better than the sum of its parts -- particularly because it was so much better than the usual Wheaton fare, and the staff is very nice.

The washrooms were nice but not fancy. They were, however, not cold, which is a plus, and hot water actually came out of the sink. They also had a nice French country decor.

Dinner for 2, with a bottle of wine was $205, and would have been about $180 with wine by the glass, which is not bad for a decent 5 course meal (choices here are 4 or 5 courses).

Our ratings for Suzette's Creperie, 211 Front Street, Wheaton

7 of 10 Steak Knives; 2 of 3 Bathroom Brushes