Lincoln Square

Lincoln Square is a lovely neighborhood in Chicago, where you can find enticing bars, cafes, restaurants and even an inviting book store all in the span of just a few blocks. It is also a not over-the-top kind of neighborhood where the stores and the shops are for show rather than function. In short, it is a neighborhood that I liked from the first and that I have since returned to several times.

While there, I have so far tried two restaurants. The first was Barba Yianni Grecian Taverna (http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=11350&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=29). This place was picked not for its food, but for the fact that on Sunday and Wednesday nights it holds Argentine Tango milongas. If you are not interested in Argentine Tango, I implore you to avoid this restaurant as you will be disappointed. The food is bland, often tasteless, uninspiring and overwhelming in quantity. The only tasty item on the menu, most likely not produced in the restaurant, is Saganaki, the greek cheese, which comes flaming to your table in all its salty, chewey, grilled glory. The only other good thing I noticed about this place, aside from its location in the middle of lovely Lincoln Square, is the service. The few times that I've been to the restaurant, the waitresses were friendly, obliging and mostly efficient. All in all, I am sure there are multiple other places in Chicago where better greek food can be found, but, unfortunately, there are almost no better places for Tango.

The second restaurant that I'd like to mention here and that is only a couple of blocks away from Barba Yianni is Fiddlehead Cafe (http://www.fiddleheadcafe.com/). While close to Barba Yianni in proximity, Fiddlehead is miles away in atmosphere and cuisine. Its atmosphere is as lovely as the neighborhood: warm, inviting, unpretentious, cozy, but not boring. It has an oddly shaped, elevated dining room that opens onto the street and allows for excellent people watching through the large windows that are open in the warmer weather and decorated by large hanging potted plants. I think the design and the feel of this restaurant has so far been the best example of unpretentious attractiveness that I've seen in Chicago.

Unfortunately, I cannot give the same level of praise to the food. While not disappointing, it seems to be overreaching. The menu promises intricate combinations and high level of execution, but the results do not quite deliver. Don't get me wrong, none of the dishes I tried at Fiddlehead were bad. It's just that they weren't quite what they could have been or what the menu and, frankly, the prices suggested they would be.

I started with Roasted Beet & Strawberry Salad with field greens, candied pecans, shaved fennel, pecorino and creamy balsamic reduction. The combination of the beets and the strawberries was truly refreshing and unusual. The different types of sweetness coming from each of those ingredients were well balanced by the slight bitterness of the greens and the salty rustic feel of pecorino. The crunch of the pecans was delightful, but the greens looked tired and I did not get the requisite kick from the fennel, which seemed as if it had lost its flavor from being out for too long.

The next dish I tried was a ceviche of shrimp, squid and scallops, which was the special of the day. It came in the form of very finely chopped ingredients piled into four pieces of tortilla chips. I thought this was the tastiest dish of the meal. The ceviche was juicy with just the right amount of citrus and spices. It played well with the crunchy tortilla chips and I thought the presentation was, again, pleasantly unusual and creative.

For my main course, I chose Steamed Mussels with chorizo, mushrooms, spinach and wild rice in a saffron broth. These were OK, but nothing special. The mushrooms were bitter, the mussels were average and the broth was a bit salty. My companion picked Duck Club, Duck Confit, Smoked Duck Breast sandwich with arugula, marinated goat cheese, strawberry-rosemary jam and fries. This was a bit of a disappointment. I am usually very fond of the duck in almost all its forms, but this sandwich was in my opinion incongruent. While the arugula gave a good bitter aftertaste to the earthiness of the duck, the rest of the ingredients seemed to me out of place. The strawberry-rosemary jam was a mistake. Particularly, the strawberry part of it. It was a puzzling, but not a welcome addition to the taste combination. The marinated goat cheese, should have been omitted along with the strawberries and the fries were fleshy and soggy. I was also puzzled by the need of a third layer of toast in the middle of the sandwich. It made the sandwich taller and, thus, more difficult to consume and really detracted from one's ability to concentrate on the duck. I think the chef got carried away by the design and, well.... sometimes, experiments like that just don't work out for the best.

Generally speaking, I had a very pleasant time at Fiddlehead and will certainly go back to try their other offerings, as well as make a note of this place for a cozy outing with friends. And did I mention that their wine list was very, and I mean, very extensive? I'd be curious to dig into that and the dessert on my next visit.