Michael Nagrant finally gets around to writing that real review of the Girl & the Goat, and as we figured, he gives it a solid three stars. Claiming that this is the “kind of place where you’ll encounter plenty of things you’ve never seen before,” he finds Izard’s dishes “simple, well-edited and punchy.” All the dishes are balanced because she “drops more acid than a Deadhead.” Even the vegetable dishes are “killer,” as a “delicate” mezzelune is “as good as anything at served at vegetarian palace Green Zebra.” [Modern Luxury]
Starting her review with the line, “It’s never a good sign when you hear the smoke alarm go off in a restaurant,” Heather Shouse gives Aquitaine just one star. The mussels were “shriveled and just teetering on the edge of freshness,” while the hanger steak didn’t have a “touch of pink left to it” and was covered in a “honey marinade that it edged toward dessert.” [TOC]
David Tamarkin recommends trying “everything” at City Provisions Deli in Ravenswood. He loves the “silky pâtés,” and the “herby meatloaf.” Best of all is the pastrami, which is “so beautiful it’s an insult to call it lunch meat.” He ends by saying the deli is the “best thing to happen to food shops in Ravenswood—heck, this whole town—in a long, long time.” [TOC]
Though the burger at Cortland’s Garage made it in Chicago Magazine’s top ten in the city, Daniel Zemans claims it wouldn’t make it “in my top 100 in town.” The combination of “white cheddar, smoked bacon, avocado, crispy onion strings, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise,” worked well as a topping, but the beef was so “chewy that I kept waiting for it to start squeaking with each bite.” [Serious Eats]
