Go Chica Go

We are in Chicago WITHOUT KIDS!

We landed on Friday evening and despite it being JUNE (!) it was pretty chilly and foggy.  Bummer.  We went straight to our hotel and changed for our first dinner reservation at 9 pm at Gibson’s.

We made it just in time to watch the Warriors win at the bar while waiting to be seated.

Kyle got the crab bisque to start and I got the salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  He won that order for sure.

For dinner he got the Chicago cut which was HUGE and meant to be shared (per our waiter who was kinda judgmental about how much we ate).

I got the 14 ounce filet which was SO GOOD.

It came with a side of bearnaise sauce, which I shared with Kyle.

I really really wanted the Brussels sprouts side dish but they were all out so that was a bummer.  Probably for the best though, since we both got massive hunks of meat for dinner.

The next morning we slept in til 10!!!!!  Can you even believe it?!  I mean, we stayed up til midnight and were all messed up on time zone changes (having traveled the day before to Idaho to drop off the kids with Kyle’s parents) so it makes sense.  It felt AWESOME!    And then we both worked out and took as long as we wanted to get ready and get coffee and just enjoy the morning.  We didn’t even make it to our first meal until after noon!

At which point we walked to a place called Goddess and the Baker.

I’d seen the baked goods all over yelp and was keen on getting some treats to go.

For lunch I got the super seed avocado which had mixed greens topped with clementines and avocado, tossed in chia, flax and sunflower seeds, and a tahini-miso dressing.

It was fine but definitely nothing special.  The avo was hard and the rest of the salad was SO subpar and blah.  Also there was no tahini dressing at all – it was actually an Asian dressing with sesame oil, which was super disappointing because that’s basically the reason I ordered it. Very misleading. I added a 6 minute egg, but it still wasn’t anything I’d reorder.

Kyle got a sando and it was fine but that’s really all there is to say about it.

I did get goodies though, which was the highlight.

AAAAnyway.  So then the sun kinda decided to come out!  Hooray!  We seized the good weather opportunity and booked tickets to the Architecture Boat Tour.

It was soooo interesting.  Seriously, we both loved every second of it and I feel like I learned so much about the city (which was great because I did minimal research before we came and really felt disconnected).  Post tour I felt like I knew the city much better (and loved it!).

Dinner time!

Girl and the Goat was the only place I was dead set on going to.  We are huge Top Chef fans.  🙂

Above is the daily addition to the menu, but below is the seasonal menu.

Veg on the left, Fish in the middle, and Meat on the right.

The waitress was so helpful and friendly and recommended we get 2-3 dishes per person so we settled on 5 dishes.  She decided what order they would come out to build on flavors and paced the dishes perfectly.  They also asked about any food allergies and brought me a dairy free menu!

To drink, I started with pinot noir.

This was the pan roasted halibut with mushrooms.  That marcona almond butter sauce underneath!?!?!? WHOA.

These were the sautéed green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews.  It may have been my favorite dish, but it’s hard to say because they were all so good.  This was definitely a highlight though.

Next was the confit goat belly.  It was fantastic and a lovely balance of meaty, buttery and fishy.  A dish I’d never think to order, but when in Rome…

This was the ramp marinated grilled chicken.  The carrots with the spicy peanut crunch thingies were SO YUM.

And finally, the crisp braised pork shank.  It was HUGE.  It comes with naan and green goddess dressing.

But then they surprised me by providing a dairy free crispy flatbread which was AWESOME!  It was perfectly fried and yet not overly greasy.  LOVE LOVE LOVE.

I got all the kimchi to myself because Kyle doesn’t do fermented (slash pickled) stuffs.  Woo hoo.  The red sauce was a perfect addition.  So basically we ate ourselves into complete bliss layering tortillas with sauce and pork until we pretty much had to be rolled out of the restaurant.

Best restaurant in all of Chicago!

And yet, somehow we made our way into a WF on the way home and bought dessert.

We took advantage of the 4 for $8 deal and got way too many sweets.  Good problems to have, ya know.

ALLLLLL the peanut butter!!  This was as good as it looks, fyi.

More Chi love coming up later.