Lunch Time: The Tasting Menu At Blackbird
By Melissa McEwen in Food on Jul 31, 2014 7:00PM
Blackbird (619 W. Randolph St.) offers an extensive menu at lunch, but the star is the prix fixe, a three-course miniature tasting menu that remains one of the best deals in the city.
The menu includes two savory courses and one sweet course with the options changing seasonally. While so many other restaurants offer lunches that pale in comparison to their dinner offerings, these dishes go far beyond a boring sandwich. This week the appetizer option included gems like confit fjord trout with zucchini, smoked serranos, purslane and glimmering bursts of trout roe. For your entree you could choose duck confit with peaches, turnip, sunflower seeds, and charred turnip green pesto or roasted monkfish with haricot verts, luscious smoked eggplant, egg yolk vinaigrette and mint.
Dana Cree’s dessert offerings are always hard to choose from and this time we had the tough choice between an audaciously sprawling bittersweet chocolate pudding with mascarpone cream, espresso crunch, hickory nuts and sambuca or a refreshing coupe (a sundae of sorts) with blueberry basil sorbet, shattered raspberry, basil cream and sable. Luckily if you are dining with a companion you can easily try both.
The best part is the three-course menu is $25 each time. And the quality of cooking is right up with what you’d get at dinner there. Whether you are looking for a more exciting option for your lunch break or want to wow colleagues, Blackbird’s lunch is one of the best in town.
Lunch Time aims to highlight some of Chicago’s best lunch options.