Foodie Digest

We’ve had some of best meals in Chicago along with some of our worst for us meals (cheesy beef anyone? tater tots with squeeze cheese?). This past weekend was no exception.

Dinner at Mexique We startled our local friends with a request for dinner for 7 people on a Friday night. We were heading from bluesfest so requested casual with good food. They delivered with Mexique.

With our large group we had the opportunity to try many things on the menu. For appetizers at our table we had:

Appetizers

• French onion soup with roasted poblano this was a rich and hearty soup with amazing flavor and not overly oniony. I got to taste and I went back for more.
• TRIO OF SOPES which was: Escargots & Chimichurri Butter, Shrimp Provencal with Avocado Mousse, and and Sweet Plantains, Young Coconut, Xico Mole. These were three separate sopes, or little boats with things in them. the escargot was overly garlicky and passed along to another diner, but the shrimp was tasty and the plantain one my favorite. I loved this dish for the variety.
• Beef tartare which was quite good. Strong mustard flavor but very flavorful.
• Ceviche of the night, which was ahi tuna. I didn’t get to try this but those who ordered it seemed happy.

Entrees

• Asada served with a goat cheese souffle. My friend who ordered this asked for rare but his steak came between medium rare and medium. This was one of the dishes recommended by the server but it was one of the weaker dishes of the evening (to be fair, it was weaker because the rest of the competition was so fierce. The food was quite good overall).
• Puerco Alcaparrado roasted pork with a bunch of interesting sides. Two people at our table ordered this and both were pleased. I tasted it and thought it was good but I preferred my dish and one other to this.
• Pato al Tamarindo duck breast — served rare — and duck confit. I didn’t try this but those who did raved about it and listed it as one of the stronger meals on the menu.
• Cordero herb crusted rack of lamb — also served rare — and slow roasted coffee braised lamb shoulder. I loved the lamb chops but wasn’t blown away by the lamb shoulder. Other people really enjoyed this, tho, so I do believe it was prepared well. I loved the eggplant that came with this dish and overall thought it was one of the better and more hearty plates.
• Costillas ahh, the best, most memorable for last. Braised short ribs with a slaw and truffle fries. I loved this dish and kept stealing bites from it. If I went back to Mexique I would order this one.

We were too full for dessert and and we were in Chicago so we had other friends to meet up with.

Overall thumbs: Up. They were great at accommodating our large group, the food was great and the chef came out to meet our table.

Tastiness rating: High. Their food is really good. Would go back if there weren’t so many restaurants in Chicago I want to try.

Service rating: Very good. Our server greeted us from the minute we walked in and sat at our bar and continued once we were seated. The chef came out to meet us and talk about the meal.