A Splendid Taste of Chicago

NoMi

April 1, 2016

Chicago, IL

Abstract

It was rainy in Chicago during our first expedition out together on Friday April 1st. That... was unfortunate. But we had a good sight seeing adventure from the John Hancock Tower and afterwards we descended 94 floors to find ourselves some food. The first restaurant we looked at (per recommendation of one of the attendants at the checkout) was filled up until way too late for us... so Nick took to Yelp and we found this place called NoMi and upon looking it up in OpenTable... we found it to be a 1k point restaurant so we were in! 6:45PM reservation it was as we figured that would give us enough time to move on over the few blocks to get there.

The above was my first view of NoMi. I liked the window.... little did I know what we were getting ourselves into!

We Are Explorers: Destination: NoMi!

NoMi is part of a hotel... a Hyatt. That typically doesn't even filter into our decision and neither did it here. We just saw good reviews, a "reasonable" (but on the high end) cost estimate and said, "What the hell! Let's go!" And thus, here we landed.  I didn't photograph the entry because, really, it's not very unique. It's standard. Classy enough. The staff was quite pleasant and helpful even if we weren't exactly "smart casual" all the way. They didn't seem put out at all! So in we went.

First sighting... the CHEESE FRIDGE!

As you're all WELL aware... we're suckers for cheese and this seemed a nice collection. We didn't get to stop and preview the varieties in the chest but both of us made note that a place that has a variety like this can't have a terrible cheese plate!

Sure enough, there were cheese plate offerings on the menu.... but.... we didn't end up there.... We'll get to that shortly.

We passed on by the sushi bar.... and at that point... I was really happy, already with our choice! The chefs cheerfully greeted us and then went back to discussing whatever it was they were working on.

Not a single scent of anything resembling fish in the air.... at all.... I hadn't really realized that at the time but upon review, I'm thinking that was definitely a great sign also. Not to mention the plates of sushi I eyeballed on other tables around us when we sat.... in that window I took a picture of on our way in!  I thought that was pretty awesome as well :)

The kitchen was semi-open but with no immediate tables or seating options. On a prep table just outside the table was a nice leg of Iberico Ham and an old school slicer which was just a really nice touch.  As the rest of the restaurant was designed in a neo-modern, sculpture-based decor I liked the flavor this station added to the potential for what was to be coming out of the kitchen!

Our view wasn't too shabby from our window-facing seat... It was light when we arrived. We got to watch the storm clear, the sky turn blue and then watched the colors of the sunset bounce off the buildings and a portion of one of the buildings before us fade into the skyline as it turned the same blue before it went colored red and orange and then... dark. Leaving us with this.

Our Meal

It needs to be noted before we get too far into this story that... we first ordered some drinks and then... upon not seeing a tasting menu on the provided menu, had a discussion with the waiter regarding the availability of a tasting menu and were told there was none. We both probably looked really bummed because he then asked what we were looking for.... and my answer was, "An adventure." To which he replied, "Well, I can certainly put something together FOR you if you'd like."

Good answer :)

Beverages

We always examine the cocktail menu first and we chose our first beverages while we were still reviewing the food menu itself... 

Tara (right): There's always something different to consider and although there were quite a few interesting drinks, there were only a couple that particularly grabbed my attention as I'm not a fan of gin or any of the browns.... bourbon or whiskey.  SO I chose to first order a drink called Child's Play which was a vodka-based beverage worth a shot for sure! Unfortunately we did not get a snap of the menu itself so I cannot tell you what exactly what was in it completely but I do know that it had egg white which explains the "head" on my beverage. It was tasty indeed!

Nick(left): Swizzle drinks seem to be a thing in Chicago and they remind me of Bermuda so I jumped in on this drink.  It was tasty and well balanced, but probably a bit strong for Sushi - had I thought ahead of time.

Next course the drinks were selected FOR us and he did wonderfully. Mine was the other vodka-based drink called "Part and Parcel" which is made with grapefruit and St Germain and for Nick there was the Thyme Slip which is kind of a Tequila spin on a Lemon and Thyme drink popular for whisky but with some spicy heat to it.  Both of these were excellent.

Our final drink course was wine with our entree dishes.

Mine was a very perfect Viognier from Jean Luc Columbo Viognier "La Violette" Languedoc.

Nick's was a very bold and fruity Zin: Frank Family Zinfandel from Napa Valley.

Both paired wonderfully with our entrees... wait until you see them!

The "I'm in the mood for an adventure" Menu

A nice little "bread basket" appeared with some spiced butter. Everything in there was quite tasty but... it was a very rare occasion and we barely ate much of it because of the amazing food that followed!

First course came out as sushi which was thrilling. Part of the issue with the menu was attempting to decide between the really delicious looking and sounding sushi menu and the equally as intriguing entree menu... 

In our zeal... we both snapped up a piece of the maki roll before the picture.... oops! Foodie faux pas!

So.. here we have two pieces each of salmon (wrapped around cucumber), tuna and yellowtail and a Tiger Roll which consisted of shrimp tempura, spicy big eye tuna, snow crab, avocado.

For the second course this arrived first!

Burrata - Shaved artichoke, marinated baby vegetables, and cherry tomatoes.

And along with that came this little number...

Jumbo Scallops, Iberico ham, fig compote, onion purée, sunchoke chips.

Both appetizers were just beyond words. The scallops were perfectly cooked and, although the burrata was BEYOND yummy, I think the scallops were our favorite of this course.

For the entree course... it is required that I tell you that we did NOT give this waiter any information about us at all. So when these two dishes came out we sort of laughed because we thought they couldn't have been chosen for us any better if these people knew us personally!

I was presented with this lovely dish:

Maine Lobster - Butter-poached, fava bean, green pea, fried scallion, saffron nage

And Nick received:

Braised Pork Cheek, baby potatoes and baby onions

So, perhaps the only "miss" on the whole meal was our side presented during the entree and neither Nick nor I were really certain that was the fault of the dish itself or, rather, that we much preferred our entrees and just never got around to the side:

Spring Pea & Bean Salad, shallot marmalade, pickled garlic, extra virgin olive oil

And just WHAT would a dinner adventure be without a dessert to die for?

So all three pieces appeared at the table at the same time but... we were riveted to the casserole that contained enough dessert to feed AT LEAST four people! And the SMELL!? Oh my... we immediately made to find some room in our stomachs for the following:

This... is the "seasonal cobbler" which for us was Pear & Apple Cobbler

We each also received our own triple vanilla goat's milk ice cream. It's a good thing too because I'm certain it would have been a fight to the death if we had to attempt to share that...

And the literal icing on this cobbler combination?! Black pepper cajeta which was a nice spicy sort of goat's milk caramel sauce that just complemented the rest of the dish SO WELL!

Overall our "happenstance" appearance at NoMi was a hit! The service was great, the food was great! Everything about the place was pretty great (Honestly, I joked that even the bathrooms were pretty great.) I believe it's safe to say that we would highly recommend anyone in Chicago looking for a good meal be ready to make reservations here.

Oh... the pricing? Well... it's a little "higher than normal" but expect the $30-50 per plate range and if you do an adventure like ours you're looking at about $320 but it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

Choose your own adventure, right? That's what being a foodie is all about :)

Final bit... I love when menus have character and both the drink menu (on the left) and the dinner menu (on the right) had these quotes that I just thought were so appropriate and helped set the scene on the experience we thought we would have...  I love little touches like this! And so... I share.