last week was chicago's chef week which is very similiar to restaurant week. several chicago restaurants offer 30$ 3 course dinners and 20$ 3 course lunches. after a bit of a disappointment from restaurant week, i decided to go for the big dogs and make a reservation at blackbird for chef's week. i figure at a place with entrees priced around 35$, a 30$ 3-course dinner is a steal.
i arrived a bit early, odd for me, and the hostess led me to my seat. the tables are so crammed together she had to pull the table out so i could get my seat on the other side. on the left there was a german mod squad and on the right hipsters on a date. i sat and looked at the menu, placed my napkin on my lap and texted my friend that was coming to join me. within 5 seconds one of the servers came over to straighten my knife that i apparently had knocked out of place. this annoyed me. then i read on the menu that no cell phones are allowed and the serveres clothing is provided by a designer. this annoyed me more. i got a beer and waited patiently.
my friend arrived and they brought out tasty bread slices for each of us with herbed butter. probably the most filling thing of the evening. then they brought out these ginormous bowls with an itty bitty amuse bouche of some mushroom thing over a little citrus salad. it tasted good but was just a very silly presentation. then my salad came - in a totally ridiculous tower stack of potatoes with the salad on top and a poached egg on top of that. they cut it for me. hilarious. i've never been one for warm lettuce so i shoved the egg off to the side and ate the rest. my friend got the ahi tuna which she enjoyed but wished there was more. then she got the sweet potato agnolotti with saffron ricotta, crispy kale and spicy peanuts. we weren't too sure what agnolotti was but we figured it was raviolli-esque and when it came out we found that we were right. it was very tasty and it reminded me of fall. i got Aged pekin duck breast and sausage with sauerkraut dusted yukons, black raisin and savoy cabbage. honestly i don't remember any sausage or raisins and there was only like 4 things on the plate so i think it would be hard to miss. the duck and potatoes were truly divine and i could eat them all the time but again, there just wasn't enough! i loved the salty flavor of the duck and the fluffy potatoes. the waiter tried to get us to order two different desserts but we went for the chocolate - manjari chocolate pave with tonka bean ice cream and candied cocoa nibs. it was delicious. then the best part was a plate with two little caramels on it at the end of the meal.
so i give blackbird an A for obnoxiousness, a C for atmosphere and a B for food. there's no doubt in my mind that the food is really outstanding but i'm a hearty eater and 2 sad little slivers of duck is not going to cut it. not when i'm used to going to czech restaurants and eating the whole damn duck!
glad i went but i will not be returning.
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Interesting post. I loved Chef's Week and definitely saw noticed the portion size too. It sounds like we ordered the exact same thing at Blackbird! I loved the salad, duck and agree the salted caramels at the end were perfect.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I would add is that when you look at the caliber of restaurants participating in Chef's Week vs. Restaurant Week, there is definitely a difference - both in average entree price and type of offerings/star rating of the business. I tend to look at those weeks as great deals not necessarily to get stuffed, but to experience a higher end (or more expensive) restaurant to taste the quality of food before going back and doing the real thing or spending more. If you think about it, $30 at Blackbird wouldn't go very far normally - in fact, it wouldn't even get you one entree. When you think about it that way, I still see it as a good deal - just a test run! I admit I wasn't stuffed either, but I certainly wasn't hungry. I'd take good quality food in smaller portions over massive amounts and mediocre quality anyday.
- Robin www.twentysomethingtestdummies.com