Our Favorite 2014 Restaurant Week Picks
By Staff in Food on Jan 23, 2014 9:45PM
2014 Restaurant Week kicks off tomorrow, running this year for 14 days from Jan. 24 through Feb. 6. Love it or leave it, if you play your cards right it can be a wonderful chance to try out places you haven't been before. With three and four-course options for lunch and dinner, ranging in price from $22-$44 per person (excluding beverage, tax and gratuity), if you do some research you can end up with a wonderful deal. Just make sure to look at the menus before you go, do a little math and in general (unless you are really eyeing a particular spot) pick places that are offering regular menu items vs. a special "Restaurant Week" menu. Be patient with the busy staff and crowds, and tip very well. Above all else, enjoy!
Here are our favorite places and their menus to check out at this year's Restaurant Week.
Naha
Restaurant Week is essentially one fat coupon book, and I like to use it to explore destinations too recherché to ever mail out any actual coupons. Places whose menus I’ve long salivated over but ultimately passed on for some greasy pizza at a fraction of a fraction of the cost. Moral of the story? A $22 three-course lunch at Naha is happening tomorrow, when Restaurant Week officially opens for 14 short days. Each course offers three or four selections, and I’ve already decided on the woodland mushroom soup with sweet garlic custard and chickpea croutons for an appetizer, the Atlantic cod with beluga lentils, celery root remoulade, Italian frisee, and pickled lemon brown butter as an entrée, and the rich dark chocolate cheesecake cremeux with a caramel and honeyball orange for dessert. Naha may be short for Nahabedian, but it’s also code for booyah. — Melissa Wiley
Naha is located at 500 N. Clark St.
Mercat A La Planxa
How do you escape the bitterness of January? My vote is a fresh and zesty Spanish dinner. Located on Michigan Avenue, Mercat A La Planxa specializes in Barcelona-style tapas. Chicago-raised Chef Jose Garces has brought us a colorful and exciting menu for restaurant week. Personally, I can’t wait for the Serrano ham and fig salad. “Who is excited for salad?” one might ask. Well, my friend, that salad includes bacon lardons and La Peral, a gorgeous Spanish blue cheese, wrapped up into several thin slices of Serrano ham. That’s not just a spinach salad, that’s heaven with a side of greens. It will be hard to choose between the salad and the other starter, bacon wrapped dates with La Peral fondue. The rest of the menu is studded with more mouthwatering dishes. Choose between fresh seafood like head-on prawns and rich meats like a Colorado lamb chop with pickled Guindilla aioli. The grand finale includes chocolate croquettes with banana marshmallow and rosemary caramel. At least you can pretend the weather is warm while you’re eating. The restaurant week menu is $44 per person for dinner. — Erika Kubick
Mercat A La Planxa is located at 638 S. Michigan Ave
Blackbird
Blackbird’s lunch Prix Fixe was one of the first lunches I ate when I moved to Chicago and remains my favorite. They don’t tone down any of their distinctive innovation and creativity for their lunch menus. For restaurant week, one of the courses is their delicious steak tartare, which has been on the lunch menu all winter. I can’t get enough of this silky meat with briny wheat berries and bright punches of lemon with crunchy seasonal vegetables. Dana Cree’s beautiful modernist desserts are always something I look forward to as well. Her winter coupes are fun sundae-like creations filled with her famous ice cream topped with surprising bursts of complex flavors. As this recent story on Plate beautifully recounted, Blackbird was one of the pioneers of Chicago’s dining scene and you owe it to yourself to eat here at least once in your life. The restaurant week menu is $22 per person for lunch. — Melissa McEwen
Blackbird is located at 619 W. Randolph St.
Two
Two is a restaurant sleeper hit, quietly building a loyal following without much fanfare. It’s no surprise to me - the cooking here just keeps getting better and better. Their tender duck pasta with crispy browned cracklings is a favorite of mine, and it’s featured on the Restaurant Week menu. But it will be tough to choose between that and their juicy pork shoulder. Two’s restaurant week menu is $33 for dinner. — Melissa McEwen
Two is located at 1132 W. Grand Ave.
(Homestead on the Roof/Melissa McEwen)
Homestead on the Roof
The impressive roof deck draws crowds in nicer weather, but Homestead now stays open year-round, and their flavorful menu is worth a trudge through the snow. Their Restaurant Week menu features the Loup de Mer I had recently, with perfectly crisped skin and flaky, slightly-sweet flesh flavored perfectly with savory Serrano ham. The dessert menu is a highlight with Chris Teixeira’s ingenious flavor pairings. A tangy buttermilk sherbet is flavored with sweet beets and served alongside deeply rich chocolate flecked with fragrant thyme. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that it’s all on top of a luscious bed of marshmallow. Homestead on the Roof's restaurant week menu is $33 for 3 courses and $44 for 4 courses for dinner. — Melissa McEwen
Homestead on the Roof is located at 1924 W. Chicago Ave.
Aquitaine
Personal bias: French bistros should be hushed affairs, ideally wedged discreetly between ramshackle taquerias with tenuous plumbing. The interior should be sultry, with cerise banquettes and ashen wallpaper, and if you don’t leave with shinier hair than you came in and the clear trace of an accent, then something’s gone terribly wrong. This is a tough quota to fill, but Aquitaine in Lincoln Park looks promising, with more Restaurant Week menu options than tables and lambent boudoir lighting. I already have my eye on the saffron cream mussels, pan-seared duck breast, and amber cake served with a madeleine I’m counting on for a true-blue Proust moment. Like I said, my expectations may be high, but dinner for $33 I’ll count a fair exchange if I just like the duck. — Melissa Wiley
Aquitaine is located at 2221 N. Lincoln Ave.
Sepia
There are a lot of great restaurants in the West Loop, but Sepia stands out with its inviting vintage-inspired dining room and a contemporary menu that’s always complete with a couple of unusual dishes. Chef Andrew Zimmerman’s restaurant week menu is no different. One item that I’m eager to try is the pig’s foot croquette with black truffle. I’ve never had a trotter, but this definitely seems like the time to do it. Whether conventional or not, each course demonstrates a keen balance of flavors and textures. There are global influences, such as the soy and sesame cured mackerel with kale, ginger and gojujang, and there are also homey, comforting options like a braised pork collar with apple cider, rutabaga and Brussels sprouts. To finish, how can you go wrong with an Ancho chocolate mousse tart with whiskey caramel and candied bacon? You can’t, that’s booze and pork and chocolate together in one beautiful marriage. Sepia’s restaurant week menu is $33 for 3 courses and $44 for 4 courses for dinner. — Erika Kubick
Sepia is located at 123 N Jefferson St.