New TooOther recent openings
Mana Food Bar1742 W. Division | 773-342-1742
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This Wicker park vegetarian spot from Susan Thompson (who also owns De Cero and Sushi Wabi) and Jill Barron (executive chef at De Cero) is small but pleasant, and the closeness of the tables in the outdoor seating area encourages conversations between strangers. While it’s always nice to be able to grill the people at the next table about what they’re eating, our waiter’s suggestions were also good, especially the salad of Thai watermelon with cucumbers, spicy green chiles, mint, and lime. Other favorites were a blue cheese tart with caramelized onion and “sliders” of brown rice and mushrooms, served with spicy pickles that saved them from blandness (the menu also says they’re served with spicy mayo, but I didn’t notice it). Grilled corn on the cob with lime-chile powder was also good, although the chile powder overwhelmed the flavor of the corn a bit—fortunately, it was easy to brush most of it off. We didn’t encounter any major culinary disasters, though the bi bim bop was unremarkable and went mostly uneaten. The option of ordering most menu items in small or large servings is nice—it’s easy to taste several things without ordering way too much food, and if one item isn’t a hit, it’s no big deal. —Julia Thiel
Imagine the intensity of native Mexican ingredients, finessed with French exuberance, and you have an idea of what you can expect at Mexique. Case in point: pescamal, a seafood mousse tamal cooked in banana leaf and stuffed with crabmeat fricassee, the smooth tastes of cornmeal and crab sharpened and brought into focus with lemon confit. A trio of sopes combines escargots and chimichurri butter, avocado mousse and shrimp Provencal, and sweet plaintains with coconut and xico mole, harmonizing Native American and continental European accents. Chef Carlos Gaytan presents finely balanced flavors: pato al tamarindo is duck breast and rich leg confit in a slightly sour tamarind glaze and paired with Swiss chard that supplies a bitter note; the herb-crusted rack of lamb, lush and perfectly cooked, gets a counterpoint from delicately astringent sweet and spicy eggplant. Classic cochinita pibil is moist and luxuriant, perked up with piquant pickled onion, or you can have it Frenchified as rilletes, finely minced, almost spreadable meat, a beautiful example of Franco-Mexican fusion. All dishes show sensitive uses of chile heat, with condiments like mango-habanero couli and garlic-mulato chile essence. For dessert, an avocado pastry cream with crispy tortilla is another successful cross-cultural creation. At Mexique, fusing Mexican and French is no mere gimmick; it works wonderfully. —David Hammond
$$$American Contemporary/Regional | Dinner: seven days
Real Tenochtitlan2451 N. Milwaukee | 773-227-1050
Peru gave the world potatoes, so you’d expect the country’s signature tuber to be presented here with aplomb, and so it is: causa de camarones is a layered tower of grainy mashed yellow spuds alternating with shrimp salad, a study in subtle flavors and textures; papas a la Huancaina is a mound of potato disks drenched in creamy Peruvian cheese, dappled with olives and parsley in a rich, delicious mess. We eagerly slurped down parihuela, a savory bowl of steamed sea creatures in a complex broth of tomato, onion, and panca-red pepper cream. Belly-worthy chicken is marinated, roasted, and rendered even more delicious with seriously perky onion and tomato salsa. Peruvian beverages are made with care and fresh juices; the passion fruit sour—creamy and cool with egg white and ice—is a winning sip. The dessert combo of pisco-spiked rice pudding with mazzamora, purple corn cooked with sweet potato and fruit, looks and tastes really good. Rosa de Lima has an adventurous, reasonably priced menu worthy of exploration and featuring regional exotica like pumpkin puree with milk and butter and veal hearts skewered with (what else?) potatoes. —David Hammond
