You really need to try Mexique. It's a restaurant in West Town. It's fantastic food and a great value. We went there last week while in town for a political science conference. Here are some of my thoughts.
Jana, I and the Little Lady ate at Mexique on a Wednesday night. Our reservation was for 5PM. Way earlier than we used to eat. But with the Little Lady along, bedtime comes early, so a nice meal has to start really early. We made our way via the brown line from downtown and walked the handful of blocks to the restaurant from the closest stop. The welcome was warm, the space was inviting. They had a nice table set up for us and even brought out some paper and crayons for the Little Lady.
That last bit might not seem so remarkable, but this is a really, really nice restaurant. It has a Michelin star for goodness sakes, and I initially found it on a food blog discussing Chicago's best 85 restaurants. For reference, I think only 25 restaurants in Chicago have earned one or more Michelin stars this year, so that's a pretty exclusive group in a food town as good as Chi-town. The point here, is that this is a pedigreed place, but they are also very down to earth. I like that. They didn't even give us a second look bringing a 16 month old into their establishment. I got the sense from their website that this would be a comfortable place for us for an early dinner, and that sense was definitely right. We were very well treated.
One downside on this place is no cocktails. It's beer and wine only. But I liked their wine list. It's South American-centric, and we decided to go with a bottle that we know we love - Perez Cruz Carmenere. We first had this wine when we lived in Chile. It's a wine that Chileans universally love and with good reason. Incidentally, we found out that the person running their wine program is from Chile. She was very excited to know that we appreciated the presence of Perez Cruz on the list, and we were happy she was in charge of the list.
We shared everything. To start we went with chicken tinga - spicy chicken served in little tostaditas. Just the right amount of heat. Presented beautifully. All three of us loved these little bites. The Little Lady loves flavor, and these were packed full of it.
Entrees were veal short ribs and chile relleno. The veal short ribs were a massive stack of short ribs layered on top of each other with red cabbage, a sweet potato gratin, and pistachio pesto. Glazed with honey lavender. These were melt in your mouth delicious. The dish just worked really well. The pistachios with the sweet potatoes really were nice. And a massive portion for the quality of food and price, under $30. The chile relleno was stuffed with ratatouille, cheese, squash, and tomatoes. Wait, you say. Ratatouille in Mexican food. Yes. The niche of Mexique is the connection between Mexican and French cooking.
The chef came out to chat with us, was delighted that the Little Lady was loving his food, and was very welcoming in addition to the wait staff. His name is Carlos Gaytan, and you may have heard of him as a runner up in a recent Top Chef season. He got is Michelin star before going on the show, and I hope Chicago supports this place. I think it's great food, particularly at the price point. They are offering a $75 six course tasting menu, which looks like a super bargain to me. We would have done that if we had not been in need of a faster pace to get the Little Lady into bed more or less on time.
Overall, the food here is the center of attention. They have a Michelin star, but it's not because of insanely attentive service. It's because of appropriate levels of service coupled with simply fabulous food. The service is good, so is the ambiance. Don't get me wrong, I'm not critiquing other aspects of this restaurant. It's just that some ambitious restaurants are not satisfied with who they are. They want to be three Michelin stars even if they are not meant to be - they make the space fancier that it should be, the service becomes stilted, etc. Mexique is perfectly content to have its one star, with that accolade rooted in great food along with appropriate atmosphere and service.
I'm pretty confident we'll try to make this a regular stop whenever we're in Chicago. you should too.
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