This evening, my parents took me to Spring - a nice restaurant a few blocks away from my place on North Ave. This was my first time at Spring and I didn’t know much about it. The only thing I did know is that it’s considered one of Chicago’s better restaurants and that it had a cool interior from the peeks I’ve had looking in from the street. Well I can now say with experience that the food is great and it does have a very cool interior.
First off, it has the largest zen garden I’ve ever seen - granted, the only zen gardens I have seen before are the boxes you can put on top of a table or desk. But in Spring, the zen garden is on the floor of the entrance and wraps around part of the opening room/bar.
The fact that Spring has a zen garden is a good clue to what kind of food they are serving. Our server explained that the food is Pan-Pacific with Mediterranean influences. Most of the items on the menu are seafood with some sort of asian and italian/mediterranean spin to it. It was a difficult decision because everything looked good but I think we did pretty well.
I had the Oysters on half shell with ginger and saki to start and the Maryland Fluke with risotto ravioli, shaved artichokes, sweet garlic sauce and truffle essence. Dad started with the Butternut Squash Soup with melted blue cheese and then had the Roasted Monkfish with parsley-garlic escargots, Japanese eggplant and smoked tomato bouillon. Mom started with the Butternut Squash Soup as well and then had the Hawaiian Monchong with braised hearts of palm, roasted shittakes and tandoori sauce. Finally, my brother had the Charred Beef Ribeye with braised short rib, pearl couscous and carmelized winter vegetables.
Only my brother and I were up for desert. He got the Chocolate Dome with caramel mousse and ginger foam and I had the Banana and Almond cake with caramelized pineapple, coconut ice cream and a blue wax birthday candle. Although the desert was great and the candle was a nice touch, I think Collin had it better…
The service was outstanding (our server was a well-studied actress who worked at the Goodman Theater recently) and the atmosphere/interior was very nice. All in all a great dining experience and I would recommend Spring to anybody (unless you don’t care much for seafood). Adding to the already nice evening, my parents showered me with some great gifts and had the chef sign and personalize a menu for me.
This was a nice and slightly early birthday dinner. Because my dad is traveling this week and then my parents and brother are going to Seattle for a week, it had to be this evening. However, if you’re going to eat seafood - and not on a Friday or Saturday - then Tuesdays are the best day to do it. Tuesdays are when the restaurants get all of their orders in straight off the boat!
I was just listening to The Flaming Lips - Fight Test