Small Plates Sing at Bistronomic

For a fairly new restaurant space, Bistronomic was surely hopping when we arrived at 8:30 p.m. on a brisk fall Thursday evening. Luckily, I had the forethought to make reservations, so a couple minutes before our 8:45 reservation time, we were shown to a table in packed dining room. The restaurant was completely full of Chicago diners waiting to taste Chef Martial Noguier's French bistro fare.

The menu is divded into small, medium and large plates. We decided to start off with soup. I had the Sweet potato puree with toasted almonds and cognac cream, while Tom began his meal with the Bistronomic fish soup with mussels, tarrgon and saffron.

The soup presentation was quite beautiful as it was poured into the crocks tableside. Both soups were delicious in different ways. The sweet potato was velvety with a hint of sweetness, while the fish soup was thick and hearty.

We followed our soup course with a dish of warm goat cheese with oven dried tomatoes and lemon confit and frisee salad.

The cheese was flavorful but the lemon was a bit overpowering. (And, as is always the case, there wasn't enough crostini. A quick word to our waitress remedied this.)

For our meal, we chose two daily specials: butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter and balsamic and glazed pork cheek with fennel puree, arugula and candied orange segments

(Accidentally ate half before I took the picture)

I love butternut squash ravioli, and have enjoyed eating it in almost every instance that I've ordered it. This was no exception. The texture of the pasta was top-notch. I was a little mad at myself for ordering two things with similar flavor profiles (sweet potato, butternut squash) but c'est la vie.

The pork cheeks might have been my favorite dish of the night. The combination of the orange and fennel with the pork was absolutely delicious.

If you know me, you know there was dessert involved. We tried the chocolate hazelnut bars with orange sauce and the baked alaska with toasted meringue and caramelized almonds.

This dish was the one major miss of the night. The orange sauce did not compliment the bittersweet chocolate and it had a strange medicinal taste. It was the one thing we didn't finish.

The baked alaska, on the other hand, was successful in its simplicity - good quality vanilla bean ice cream topped with a wedge of toasted meringue and toasted sliced almonds. It had a great combination of textures with the creamy ice cream, chewy meringue and crunchy nuts.

BIstronomic would be a great place for a girls/guys night out or maybe a birthday celebration with a small group of friends. The small space and close proximity of the tables to each other prevents it from being an ideal location for a romantic date night. Prices are a little on the high side, but that's to be expected. If I lived in Chicago, I'd definitely put Bistronomic on my go-to list.

Bistronomic
840 North Wabash
Chicago, IL 60611
(312)944-8400

Average Small Plate Price: $8-$10
Average Medium Plate Price: $9-$13
Average Large Plate Price: $18-$28
Average Dessert Price: $8

Operating Hours
Lunch: Tuesday-Friday 11:30am-2:00pm
Dinner: Sunday-Thursday 5:00pm-10:00pm
            Friday & Saturday 5:00pm-11:00pm

 

Comments

[Princessaioli.wordpress.com]

This post made me sooooo hungry! I love that they poured the soup tableside, never saw that done before...so cool.

[Tiffany]

It was really interesting. I love making meals out of multiple small plates. The presentation was the best part.