Category Archives: American (New)

Chef’s Station

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**** (4 stars)

I love the outdoor ambiance of this place on a nice evening, although inside is cozy and pleasant, too. Service is great: professional yet friendly. It’s a good sign when I see the same personnel year after year. The food is really top notch, and I feel under-appreciated, as this is a much better meal than at Oceanique, and it’s actually even more French than that place. One of the best upscale dining experiences in Evanston for sure.

Chef’s Station
915 Davis St
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 570-9821
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chefs-station-evanston

Quince

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**** (4 stars)

Quince is almost a great restaurant. The service is superb. The dining rooms are homey and a touch formal. And the food is good. There’s just no over the top dish to take it to the next level. A good reliable upscale meal in Evanston, better than Oceanique, not as good as Stained Glass.

Quince
1625 Hinman Ave
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 570-8400
http://www.yelp.com/biz/quince-evanston-2

Alinea

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** (2 stars)

I’ve eaten at some great restaurants all over the world, and I don’t get Alinea. It’s simply irritating. Yes, a few courses are knockouts. But there are also clunkers. The real problem, though, is the didactic nature of the place. We were instructed in how te eat almost every bite: “Put the whole thing in your mouth” (it was huge), “Inhale this smoke while you take a bite”, “”Don’t injure yourself on this ridiculous spike we served it on.” Then came dessert. They rolled out a rubber sheet, and several “chefs” literally smeared various stuff all over it in from of us. I am not making this up. Not only is this not the best restaurant in Chicago, it’s one of the worst fine dining experiences I’ve had in Chicago. Service is stiff, the decor is austere, I just don’t get it.

Alinea
1723 N Halsted St
Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 867-0110
http://www.yelp.com/biz/alinea-chicago

Little Hollywood Land Movie Museum

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**** (4 stars)

This place is a hoot. Our tour group stopped here for lunch, and they cast us in a pretend movie, providing costumes for everyone. The graciousness and enthusiasm of the staff turned what could have been a forced, tacky experience into a lot of fun. Afterward we had a buffet lunch that was… delicious! They make a mean homemade barbecue sauce, and also had some great salad dressings. I was skeptical, but I’d go back.

Little Hollywood Land Movie Museum
297 W Center St
Kanab, UT 84741
(435) 644-5337
http://www.yelp.com/biz/little-hollywood-land-movie-museum-kanab

Michael

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***** (5 stars)

A really top-notch French restaurant with extremely reasonable prices for what you get. The wine pairings, in particular, are extremely attractive.

The restaurant is the latest project of award-winning chef Michael Lachowicz. During our Thursday night visit the place was almost full. What we received was a delicious five-course French meal for two people with matching wine pairings. Each course was super, and the matching wines paired perfectly with the food. We had:

   goat cheese puff amuse bouche (we were actually served this twice, which was great!)
   corn soup (paired with an Italian white)
   zucchini with goat cheese in pastry
   seared salmon (paired with a white Burgundy)
   roast pork in pastry (paired with an Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon)
   chocolate souffle with chocolate sauce and strawberries
   chocolate truffles

Service seemed well-intentioned, but not really at the caliber of the food. This was one of the dressier restaurants I’ve been to around Evanston, with many of the men in coats and ties. That was ironic, because the owner is extremely friendly and casual, working the front desk in jeans and a short sleeve shirt!

This place has definitely made it onto our regular dining list.

Michael
64 Green Bay Rd
Winnetka, IL 60093
(847) 441-3100
http://www.yelp.com/biz/michael-winnetka

Terra an American Bistro

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***** (5 stars)

This is a small plates sort of place, so we sampled some smoked salmon, hummus, Margherita flatbread and some fish tacos. It was all good, and the hummus plate, which is more like a whole Lebanese meal including falafel and olives, is a particularly good deal.

The menu is really interesting, and warrants several repeat visits. Service was well-intentioned but not quite as professional as the food. The place was very busy, due to the trendy vibe and good prices. The bar looks nice, too.

Terra an American Bistro
2676 Green Bay Rd
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 563-9100
http://www.yelp.com/biz/terra-an-american-bistro-evanston

Charlie Palmer Steak

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**** (4 stars)

This is just another in the endless stream of high end steakhouses pioneered by Morton, the Palm and so on. But the bar at the front of this place is another story. It’s a small space that serves small plates, offers the complete winelist, and is a really cozy place for a light meal at bargain prices. We liked it the first time we visited so much we went back the next night for dinner. Their small plates are a steal for Vegas. For example the four cheese plate with accompaniments was $8, and two Kobe sliders were $10. Compare that to $17 for a Caesar side salad in the restaurant. The ambiance is great, and we had the place almost to ourselves, even though the restaurant was packed.

Charlie Palmer Steak
3960 S Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(702) 632-5120
http://www.yelp.com/biz/charlie-palmer-steak-las-vegas-3

Chef’s Table At the Edgewater

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***** (5 stars)

The Chef’s Table at the Edgewater hotel is an unlikely star in the Central Florida dining scene. Certainly one of the top five restaurants, and perhaps second only to the infinitely more expensive Victoria and Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian, the Chef’s Table is tucked away in historic Winter Garden, a few miles north of the theme parks. It’s an intimate place, with only a half dozen tables (although an expansion is in the works that will offer small plates in a more casual setting).

The Chef’s table offers the most personal dining experience I’ve yet to encounter. Chef Kevin visits every table to explain (in mouthwatering detail) how each dish is prepared. It’s no surprise the food is so good, as Kevin worked at both Victoria and Albert’s and Emeril’s Commander’s Palace. Kevin’s wife and business partner is Laurie, who is a very talented sommelier. She is perhaps the most talented wine matching expert I’ve encountered, and the wine pairing dinner is an absolute steal.

After a leisurely dinner you can often catch a stage show in the Historic Garden Theatre across the street.

This restaurant has swept the local dining awards several times, winning for best chef’s table, best wine pairings, most romantic, and several other categories. It’s good for intimate couples dining, business dinners, and vacationing foodies alike. Highly recommended.

Chef’s Table At the Edgewater
99 W Plant St
Winter Garden, FL 34787
(407) 230-4837
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chefs-table-at-the-edgewater-winter-garden

Girl & the Goat

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***** (5 stars)

The Girl and the Goat is the new restaurant by Stephanie Izard, winner of Top Chef. Barely open a year, it has already won a James Beard award, and is the hottest restaurant in Chicago. I reserved our table three months in advance.

I was a bit wary of going the day after Moto, and some of the menu items seemed a bit scary (oven roasted pig’s face). What a delightful surprise this restaurant turned out to be! We loved all the plates we shared. We tried all three fresh baked breads of the day. Each was served with two different accompaniments, such as Worchestshire butter. Our favorite dishes were:

Wood fired chicken with fried pickles and grilled naan.
Sauteed cauliflower with pickled peppers, parmesan cheese, mint leaves and pine nuts.
Goat belly confit with lobster and crab.

Service was really professional yet friendly, and the vibrant environment and wood smoke filled room is the perfect setting for such fun and tasty food. The Girl and the Goat is a new Chicago favorite.

Girl & the Goat
809 W Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 492-6262
http://www.yelp.com/biz/girl-and-the-goat-chicago

Cuvee Wine & Bistro

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***** (5 stars)

Cuvée Wine & Bistro has an interesting business plan, which combines two different concepts: a restaurant, and self-service wine dispensers.

It occupies part of a former bank building, but has been redecorated in a pleasant, trendy way. High booth backs keep the noise level down, although the old farts next to us were quite rowdy. Each dining room is surrounded by rows of wine dispensers, some refrigerated for the whites, others not, for reds. There are well over 100 selections, available in 1, 2.5 or 5 ounce pours. As with other such places, you load a card with money, and then it’s debited as you use the machines.

We arrived at 6:30 and things were fairly quite, but the restaurant soon filled up. What’s interesting about the success of the place is that it doesn’t seem to be driven by all the wine dispensers that surround the dining rooms. We saw few other patrons wandering around to try different wines with each course. Instead, most either let the waiter bring them a glass of something, or ordered a bottle for the table. Still, being surrounded by all those glowing bottles probably boosts wine sales. I couldn’t see the bar from where we sat, so I don’t know how much tasting traffic originated there.

The food was mostly very good. A cheese sampler plate offered a nice variety, and my clam appetizer was delicious. Salads were fine, and the steaks Linda and Martin had were good quality. I liked my eggplant napoleon, too. Service was excellent: attentive yet not rushing us.

The wines are more fairly priced than at the other self-serve wine place I’ve been to. Unfortunately, of four high end wines we tried (Tapestry, a Nuits St. Georges, a Pommard, and Dominus) all were spoiled by having been open a long, long time. As evidenced by the strong geranium smell, the dispensing system can’t keep them good forever. Our waiter cheerfully credited us for the wines we complained about, but they should have been removed, rather than left for the next sucker. None of the lower priced selections had this problem, and we tried many. Best QPR (quality to price ratio) was the Bell Petite Sirah.

It was fun to try small tastes of many different wines with our food. We all agreed we would return.

Cuvee Wine & Bistro
2237 SW 19th Ave Rd
Ocala, FL 34471
(352) 351-1816
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cuvee-wine-and-bistro-ocala