Swarup "no one on the corner has swagga like me" B.'s Profile

this was a real nice surprise.  while this may seem like a typical indian restaurant on the surface, it actually offers a rare variety of the cuisine apart from the "traditional" punjabi, south or pakistani fare that everyone has become accustomed to.  there are a large number of dishes that concentrate on goan cuisine from the coastal city of goa.  knowing this i got even more excited!

we ordered quite a large number of dishes to try a bit of everything.  chicken cafreal, shrimp piri piri, and fish balchao were the goan dishes we chose and we threw in a regular chicken tikka masala and a portobello mushroom & paneer dish.  standouts were the shrimp piri piri, fish balchao and the mushroom dish.  the piri piri dish was a dry dish while the other two were saucy dishes.  the flavors were very unique and very nice.  the other dishes were very nicely prepared too.  one thing that stood out w/ each dish was how well plated everything was.  the chef definitely has a nice eye for presentation.

one drawback for mynt is the service.  while they are very informative, they can be slow and easily distracted by other happenings in the restaurant.  also the naan was just OK.  overall, a great find w/ some non-standard indian food and i can't wait to try the other dishes!

a pretty cool concept and we can see this type of ice cream shop opening country wide, should the price of liquid nitrogen drop.

all the ice cream here is made in front of you.  you pick the type of base you want (ice cream, fro-yo, sorbet) and the flavors, color and mixins you want and the whip it up for you and freeze it w/ a dose of liquid nitrogen to make it ice cream.  it's a pretty cool process to watch.

i got the a purple honey hazelnut ice cream w/ graham crackers and wifey got white chocolate hazelnut ice cream w/ nutella, chocolate chips and strawberries.  we both really liked our concoctions but mine could've had a bit more hazelnut flavor.  the texture was nice but the funny part was when it melted.  instead of a creamy liquid we ended up w/ a very water liquid, probably because the lack of fat and no actual churning.

overall a great idea and like i said, i'd like to see more places like this!

we wanted to get a quick bite on our last day in chicago and came across this dandy little food court.  there are 13 stations, each with freshly made ethnic cuisine.  once you are seated you are given a card.  the card is given to each station you get food from and then give the cashier the card at the end and pay for you meal once you leave.

w/ so many choices i somehow gravitated to the stir fry station, seeing that i hadn't tried any asian food on the trip.  this was setup like a mongolian bbq in that you pick your veggies and stack em into a bowl and then you pick your protein and style of stir fry at the very end.  you also have a choice between egg noodles or rice.  i ended up choosing sesame ginger sauce w/ chicken and egg noodles.  the sauce and veggies were cooked well but the chicken was a tad bit tough.  the noodles had a real nice bite.

i kind of wish this type of place was in downtown SF for all us FiDi working folk.  endless combos of food and i'm sure the foodie populace of SF would love it.

now this is what i'm talking about!  great food at an incredible price!

we got here after we walked to xoco and realized that it was closed on a sunday.  oops but as bob ross once said, " we don't make mistakes only happy accidents."

our friend was raving about portillo's all weekend and once we saw the menu and ate the food we saw why.  a chicago hot dog for $2.45???  wow!

the hot dog was incredible.  great bun, relish, pickle and peppers.  awesome combo and the dog itself was juicy.  i split the dipped roast beef sandwich and this was roast beef heaven.  must be tried to be believed!

we also tried the chocolate cake shake (which was more expensive than the hot dog) and it was darn good too.  i recently heard that there is a portillo's in anaheim so i'll definitely stop by next time in socal.  but if you're in the greater chicago area, run to portillo's!

after the most excellent architecture boat tour, we were hungry and this was closest.  i wish we ventured further.  i got the chicago hot dog to see if i could get a taste of what the deal was about and unfortunately the flavors for this particular dog fell flat.  the fries that came with it were good but i was really looking forward to the dog.  my wife got a chicken sandwich which she felt was underseasoned.  plus all of this was pretty pricey for what we got.  oh well...

best.dining.experience.ever.

the service was excellent save for a few missteps and one server who was quite stonefaced.  also, all of us got the tour except for my wife who got the veggie tour and it was excellent too!  we couldn't have asked for a better evening!  perfection!

here's the course by course break down:

osetra, traditional garnishes -

very much like thomas keller's oysters and pearls but a modern twist (and no oysters).  very light w/ perfect caviar.

pork belly, iceberg, cucumber, thai distillation -

their play on thai food and it was unreal. pork belly was excellent but what stole the show was the shot of a liquified thai chilies which smelled like it was spicy but had the pure flavor of the chilies w/out the heat.

oxalis, juniper, gin, sugar -

a gelee dish. it had a bitter flavor which worked well with the flavors of the berries, gin and sugar.

lilac, scallop, shellfish, honeydew -

this was quite a dish! the base was a lilac "pillow" that had essence of lilac. the seafood was incredible and so perfectly cooked. the honeydew foam added a nice sweet accent.

pigeonneau, a la saint-clair -

chef achatz showed us that he's not all about new styles of cooking. this was a classically prepared dish and was fabulous. the squab, foie gras, and the onions were exquisite and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect crust.

black truffle explosion, romaine, parmesan -

one of his signatures and it didn't disappoint. it's just one bite but as soon as it enters the mouth, the insides of the ravioli come out and all you're left w/ is black truffles in all of its glory.

tomato, fig, nicoise olive, pine nuts -

basil leaves and tomato stems that provide the aromatic blanket for this course.  a whole salad re-thought! there are olives, black garlic, charred figs and olive oil snow! a great combo of flavors and a dehydrated pumpernickel crouton added some nice texture. the heirloom tomatoes were so good!

mustard, passionfruit, allspice
bacon, butterscotch, apple, thyme
sweet potato, bourbon, brown sugar, cinnamon -

the mustard ice cream w/ allspice and passionfruit were presented as a disc and we were asked to let it melt in our mouth. it went from spicy to light to sweet. a very cool effect!  the bacon first and it wa perfection. sweet, salty w/ a herb twist w/ the thyme. the sweet potato was basically pie on a stick and perfect way to end the trio. sweet, creamy and w/ a nice bite.

hot potato, cold potato, black truffle, butter -

another signature of his. we had to pick up the bowl and pull the pin on the side so that the hot contents of the pin would drop in the cold soup and eat right away. the contrast of the temperatures and textures added to an already incredible flavorful dish!

yuba, shrimp, miso, togarashi -

the yuba (skin of tofu) was hardened and fried to give it a crispy texture. the shrimp was delicious and had the miso dip was outstanding!

foie gras, peach, fennel, shiso -

the foie gras and fennel which needed to be eaten right away and then the peach juice in the cup needed to be drunk right away. the savory and sweet is the mix here and it tasted nice!

uni, aloe, yuzu, chili -

this dish made its debut on the menu that night and we were asked by a lot of the wait staff on how we liked it. while uni isn't my thing, this was void of any weird fishy flavor or a weird texture. the flavor worked well w/ the yuzu and aloe but it was inconsistent from bite to bite.

wagyu beef, powdered a-1, potato chips -

wow! i've never had beef this good. the potato "chips" was like a cube of all that is good w/ potatoes. the powdered A-1 was a deconstructed version of A-1 steak sauce and was a nice addition as was the salt and pepper on the side but the beef really stood on its own.

lemon soda, one bite -

once in your mouth, this almost becomes a bite of lemon meringue. great and playful!

transparency of raspberry, yogurt
bubble gum, long pepper, hibiscus, creme fraiche
watermelon, lime, nasturtium -

this was a thin paper of raspberry which was a fun fruit roll up type thing and a "cigarette" of bubble gum w/ creme fraiche that needed to be sucked from the one side and a ball of watermelon w/ lime. just a fun course!

rhubarb, goat milk, onion, lavender air -

a pillow filled w/ lavender air was placed in front of us and the dish was placed on top.  the pillow slowly lost it's air as the plate sat and gave off this wonderful lavender aroma. The bites on the plate had a lil bit of cotton candy to drops of sweet onion. nice dish.

chocolate, blueberry, tobacco, maple -

the highlight of the evening. A silicone mat was placed on our table top and chef achatz prepped this on our table and every component was insanely good.  here's a video of this course: http://bit.ly/vWIQS

pound cake, strawberry, lemon, vanilla bean -

a dense pound cake w/ strawberry in it and a lemon snow around it. the vanilla bean is used as a fork and adds a nice background flavor. lovely!

after an interesting cab ride, we made it to yolk to meet w/ our friends.  the dining room is vibrant and has a very modern look to it.  the kitchen is open to the dining room so you get to hear all the goodness being made.

they freshly squeeze their juices so i tried out the strawberry orange and really thought it tasted it nice!  for my dish, i got the bacon batter waffles w/ 2 eggs over medium.  the waffle was well made and the pieces of bacon were a nice surprise whenever i found a bit w/ them.  i loved drizzling syrup on all of this to get a great combo of flavors.  my wife got the stuffed french toast which she really liked too.  i don't remember exactly what our friends got but everyone enjoyed their dish.  overall, a solid brunch joint!

after almost waving of deep dish after my last zachary's experience, i decided to see what giordano's would do for me.  after all, almost every deep dish lover lives by this stuff.

so we get there and there's a 1 1/2 hour wait.  fair enough as i was willing to wait this long for other restaurants.  they did tell us that when there's about 30 minutes left in our wait, to come back and pre-order our pizza so that we don't have to wait that long.  that's OK, zachary's does the same thing.  so far, similar experiences for both.  we decide to grab drinks at a bar down the street.  

we approximate that we have 30 minutes left so i go back to giordano's to see if it's OK for me to order now.  in order to do so i ask the maitre'd.  i figured he knows.  i ask him how much time is left so that i can pre-order my pizza.  he looks at me and was like look it's the same time i told you before.  i said to him i know but i wanna double check.  he reiterates what he said before.  at that point i just ask can i pre-order my pizza now to which he says no but in 10 minutes you can.  i guess i had to phrase my question differently.

we all come back 10 minutes later and i pre-order our pizza and we decide to just wait it out at the restaurant for the remainder of the time.  at one point of us waiting, the maitre'd bulldozes himself into my friend and knocks his iphone out of his hand without even an apology.  OK...

so we finally sit down and our waiter comes up to us and we find out that he has a personality of a rock.  we order some sides and we await our food.  after a few minutes of waiting, out comes our pizza (medium size pie 1/2 classic cheese, 1/2 sausage & peppers) along w/ fried calamari and mozzarella sticks.  the pizza was lukewarm at best and incredibly doughy.  the sauce tasted better here than zachary's and there was less of it rather than the over abundant amount of it at zachary's.  the dough didn't taste cooked thru and there was no bite to it.  the fried calamari was absolutely inedible.  it was overly oily and incredibly tough.  the mozzarella sticks were lukewarm as well.

while i can give the pizza a slight edge here over zachary's, the overall experience was worse.  at this point, i don't believe that deep dish is my thing.

rick bayless' homage to mexican food is probably the best tasting of mexican food i've had.  everything from the attention to detail in the food to the detail in the dining room made us feel like we were having some good food at a cool restaurant in puerto vallarta.

yes, the wait is long but this is noted on their site and we came w/ that expectation.  for those of you now willing to wait, the bar is full service and you can get food from either frontera grill or topolo next door.  we put our names down and waited for a bar seat but were surprised when they sat us earlier than the quoted 1 hour wait.

the dining area is lively w/ mexican music playing in the background.  once seated, our waitress graciously greeted us and immediately helped us out w/ the drink menu.  i got the topolo margarita and wifey got a raspberry tea margarita like drink.  we both really loved our drinks.

for apps we got the topolo tortilla soup and the queso fundido clasico.  the tortilla soup was thinner than i expected it to be but the flavors were pot on.  the thin strips of tortilla and chicken all worked together and a douse of lime juice provided a nice hit of acid.  the queso fundido was very flavorful.  we were given little tortillas so that we can make mini tacos.  on the side we were given some chorizo along w/ 2 types of roasted salsas.  i tried various combinations of queso, chorizo and salsas and everything was lovely.

for mains, i got the enchiladas de mole poblano and she got the tostada de frijoles negros w/ chicken added.  the mole sauce in my dish was the best mole sauce i've ever tasted.  it was spicy, sweet, rich and complex.  the tortilla was perfect and the chicken was very well seasoned and cooked.  i'd go back here just for this dish.  the tostadas were very light and the cheese on them was so fresh and light.

for dessert we got the chocolate-raspberry tart w/ fresh raspberry ice cream.  this was a recommendation from the nice group who were seated next to us and had been coming to frontera grill for 23 years!  the tart crust was nice but the filling was spectacular w/ both the richness and sweet/tartness of the raspberries working wildly together.  the ice cream provided the nice light contrast to the tart and we were left with large smile on our face.

i have to mention our waitress again.  unfortunately i don't remember her name but she made our meal entertaining and provided great insight into the menu.  i was struggling between choosing between the enchilada dish i picked and a halibut dish.  in order to help me out she wanted to see if i liked the mole sauce so she brought me a sample of the mole sauce to aid in my decision.

everything about this meal just worked so well.  if we were living in chicago i'd say we'd be regulars here but all we can hope for is a sister restaurant out here.

we're very happy that we have another great find near our home.

we got here right before the big dinner rush but still had to wait roughly 30 minutes.  we were seated at the communal table.  the decor and ambiance of the place was definitely hipster but had a nice neighborhood feel to it too.

we got the heirloom tomato and corn salad with a ricotta stuffed fried squash blossom.  this was an incredibly flavorful start to our meal.  the tomatoes were perfect in flavor and texture and honestly the squash blossom could've been left off but was a nice addition.

we went for the pasta special of the day which was a corn and crescenza cheese stuffed pasta w/ a butter sauce and a bitter hazelnut sauce.  this was simply delicious.  everything worked so well and the flavors were balanced with not one component taking over.

for pizza we got the margherita pizza and this was exactly what we had hopped for.  the sauce could've been a tad bit more flavorful but the cheese, basil and crust made up for it.  the dough of the crust was so thin and crispy and had a great flavor to it.

the service was very good and friendly.  we had a lil miscommunication w/ the hostess about what the wait was like when we initially called but things were smooth afterwards.

we'll definitely be coming back!