Red Light: Decent But Pricey

Last week B and I decided to check out Red Light (http://www.redlight-chicago.com/), Marché's sister restaurant located in the West Loop across the street from Marché itself. (Here is my review of Marché http://hungrynchicago.blogspot.com/2008/09/march.html) Like Marché, Red Light did not awe me, but I've marked it down in my annotated Zagat's as "Decent." Here is why.

Like Marché, Red Light has a large space with tall ceilings, an open kitchen, a strange, but unlike Marché, not overwhelming decor with Asian elements to complement its decent Asian fusion cuisine. The dining room is large, with balcony seating on one side and nicely placed palm-like trees to subtly separate the large space into smaller portions and to create a more intimate effect. We got a bottle from a generous wine list and ordered the Crispy Main Lobster Mango Rolls and Dtom Khaa Gai (coconut chicken soup). I could not taste the lobster in the lobster rolls and the taste combination was just too tame for this Asian inspired dish. The Dtom Khaa Gai on the other hand was delicious with a good amount of spiciness and richness to it. It was my favorite dish of the evening.

For entrees we ordered Miso Glazed Salmon garnished with Udon noodles and Surf and Turf consisting of (supposedly) skirt steak and tempura jumbo shrimp. The Salmon was overdried and while it had a nice miso glaze, the overall effect fell short. The Udon noodles had an interesting flavor but were way too oily. I advise you to either not order Surf and Turf if you go to Red Light or skip the Turf and get the Surf. While the jumbo shrimp were delicately fried in a thin and light tempura and came with a good dipping sauce, the skirt steak, which was supposed to constitute the Turf part of the dish, was an insult. The meat was so stringy that I thought it was not a skirt steak but some inferior cut. It was also overgrilled, making it rubbery and overly chewy with too much of the charcoal bitter aftertaste to make it enjoyable. A shame.

As at Marché, the portions were large and I did not have enough room for dessert. I did glimpse an interesting towering chocolate concoction, which the people at the next table seemed to enjoy.

If you were bored with this review, all I can say is that it is wholly reflective of my experience at Red Light. Oh and did I mention the place was completely overpriced? No? Well it is. Which I find is often the case in non-dive kind of places here in Chicago. An outrageous scam if you ask me, but more on that in another post.