So we’ve done brunch at Orange, dessert at Sweet Mandy B’s and Molly’s, so all’s that left is dinner. Disregard the sweets before dinner thing; I tend to do that a lot.
A part of me wanted Gino’s East deep dish pizza, but the other part of me felt like that heavy meal would probably make me feel like crap, even if that stuffed spinach pizza is a Chicago staple. With all the dessert I had been having, I thought I’d go light and chose Emilio’s Tapas, which has locations in Lincoln Park and downtown Chicago.
What’s in it for you: Grilled eggplant stuffed with goat cheese, marinated artichokes in balsamic vinaigrette, sautéed mushrooms with garlic and amontillado sherry sauce, Spanish style spicy potatoes (patatas bravas)
What’s in it for them: Lamb meatballs served with spicy tomato sauce and roasted almonds, cannelloni filled with tuna, asparagus, basil and tomato, ravioli filled with duck, shiitake mushrooms, cabrales cheese and spinach, sautéed escargot
Between the two of us, we got four tapas and started with two classics, the queso de cabra al horno, which is baked goat cheese with tomato sauce and olives, served with garlic bread, and the patatas bravas (Spanish style spicy potatoes).
Queso de cabra
Patatas bravas
As for the last two tapas, I actually decided to go with the pincho de pollo. Yep, chicken. In fact, the first chicken I’ve had since watching Food Inc. I highly doubt it was organic, free range chicken, but it tasted so so so good that I gave myself a pass on this one.
(By the way, I recently had some chicken tikka masala, thinking that was the one dish that would always make chicken acceptable for me, and I actually really didn’t like it. The meat tasted awful and just reconfirmed the fact that it’s going to be quality meats 99% of the time from now on.)
Pincho de pollo served with that amazing mayonnaise
Lastly, we finished with the champinones rellenos, mushroom caps filled with fresh mozzarella, spinach and onions served with tomato sauce. It was heaven.
Champinones rellenos
If these pictures are making your stomach clamor for food, Emilio’s web site offers recipes for a few of their tapas. All three are unfortunately meat or seafood, but if you join their free email list, you’ll get more!
Emilio’s Tapas (see site for other locations)
444 W. Fullerton (at Clark St.)
773.327.5100