Restaurant listings are culled from the Reader Restaurant Finder, an online database of more than 4,200 Chicago-area restaurants. Restaurants are reviewed by staff, contributors, and (where noted) individual Reader Restaurant Raters. Though reviewers try to reflect the Raters’ input, reviews should be considered one person’s opinion; the Raters’ collective opinions are best expressed in the numbers.
Eve 840 N. Wabash | 312-266-3383
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When it opened early last spring I thought of Tallulah—Troy Graves’s comeback from Meritage—as a relative bright spot on Lincoln Square’s increasingly mediocre restaurant row. Now with Eve it seems he’s bringing the same relief to the Viagra Triangle. The food reflects the chef’s predilections for serious meat (short ribs, suckling pig, foie gras) as well as his generosity in portioning. A grilled lobster sausage sprawled across the plate atop cold chanterelles and hot bacon dice, garnished with a large branch of thyme someone forgot to string with Christmas lights. For all Graves’s intriguing combinations—mussels in ice wine, foie gras with grilled blood orange and snap pea salad, pomegranate-glazed prawns with toasted chestnut panna cotta—he has a tendency to sabotage himself. Still, there’s enough to like here to consider Eve a relatively progressive provocation to the neighborhood’s Axis of Mediocrity. —Mike Sula
With so many tony hotel dining rooms biting the dust, you’ve got to hand it to the Palmer House Hilton for giving Lockwood a chance. The pressure is on executive chef Phillip Foss (Le Cirque) to provide the wow factor. He gives it a shot with a seven-course “signature tasting” ($145 with wine pairings) packed with luxury ingredients. Highlights when I dined were a “Russian sampler” of layered smoked sturgeon and yellow beets coated with vodka creme fraiche and crowned by osetra caviar; tender sliced squab paired with “not faux gras” (i.e., the real thing) and accented by bitter chocolate sauce; and a rectangle of Meadow Creek Dairy Grayson, a raw cow’s milk cheese served with mashed persimmons, truffle honey, and brioche. Salty red-wine sauce was all that marred prime beef tenderloin blanketed with black truffles, and while the brownie in “Bertha’s famous brownie revisited”—named for Bertha Palmer—was dry, the accompanying chocolate ice cream and mousse were lovely. —Anne Spiselman
$$$ Mediterranean | Dinner: Sunday, Tuesday-Saturday | Sunday brunch | Closed Monday | Open late: Friday & Saturday till 11 | BYO
Takashi 1952 N. Damen | 773-772-6170
Located in Western Springs (well within the known universe, 30 minutes from the Loop), Vie is a restaurant on a kind of a mission, and part of that mission is educational (the menu has a glossary). One theme of this instruction is that there’s great food grown nearby and you should eat it whenever you can (but don’t feel bad about enjoying food flown in). After working at places like Blackbird (an influence reflected in Vie’s elegant black-white-silver interior design), chef Paul Virant struck out on his own, getting the very first liquor license in his hometown. Virant and his staff “put by” a larder of vegetables and herbs for use during the winter and early spring, and pickles play a supporting role in many presentations, providing a pleasantly tart counterpoint to rich meats and cheeses. My marinated quail was studded with pickled garlic and onions, and the bird was cooked as little as possible to keep it moist and juicy. Brined pork—center cut, wood-grilled and splayed into rich slabs—was luscious, carrying a phyllo purse of subtle house-made choucroute. Lamb was done three ways: slow-cooked leg, roasted loin, and a crepinette pressed through an antique sausage maker passed down by Virant’s grandmother. Preserved strawberries with ice cream were fabulous: deep red and much sweeter and more dense than many fresh-picked berries. One Sunday a month is set aside for family meals, with more affordable options and a kids’ menu. —David Hammond
