bellyQ Does A Belly Good
By Melissa Wiley in Food on Oct 17, 2012 7:30PM
Bill Kim knows happy bellies. Hungry devotees of UrbanBelly and Belly Shack have come to expect nothing but pan-Asian succulence from his kitchen, and bellyQ, one of the most anticipated openings of the year, easily fulfills on the promise of its predecessors in an expansive modern space.
The DIY table grilling touted on the restaurant’s website applies to only a small portion of select tables, partitioned near the entrance in serpentine metal frames. At first, this was cause for slight disappointment, as we were seated at one of the many freestanding grill-less tables amid an echoey interior that required us to cup our hands into a fleshy megaphone to make conversation when we would have rather been roasting ribs. When we opened our menus, we were also surprised at the seeming small number of options. Grilled items boil down to either salmon, chicken, short rib, or beef, and there was only one soup on offer (lentil). And while the craft cocktails range from the inventive likes of the Indochine to the red lotus, the wine list divides into a cursory assortment of either a light or fuller-bodied red as well as two choices of white or sparkling.
Then the food itself began filling our square metal table, and we were soon ready to lick clean any small bones we might have initially picked with the grilling privileges or the menu’s sparse veneer. Kim could have sautéed a rabid squirrel culled from the alleyway and chances are we still would have left singing the praises of bellyQ and its habañero Belly Smoke sauce. As it was, we were practically ululating our sensory rapture amid the din, admiring the retro incandescent lighting and wooden beams anew.
That said, it’s a solid bet Kim is serving up only the choicest ingredients, whatever his culinary legerdemain. We began with the olive oil poached shrimp with red Thai curry sauce ($6) and double-smoked bacon and kimchi pancake ($8) and could easily have called it a killer meal at that. We’re incidentally one of 10 or 11 people in Chicagoland not enamored of bacon per se, but its presence on the tangy kimchi pancake was an unqualified standout. For entrees, we decided on the salmon wrapped in banana leaf ($18) and the spicy lemongrass chicken ($18) with a side of creamed spinach with dried shrimp and Chinese sausage ($4). Like the bacon, creamed spinach usually doesn’t tempt us overmuch, but we gave it a try and were amply rewarded in kind.
So if you must take the cooking into your own hands, make your reservation via phone and request a table with a grill. Otherwise, sit back, digest, and enjoy. Anything you try is guaranteed to please your belly, which Bill Kim knows as well as anybody.
bellyQ is located at 1400 W. Randolph Street.