Feb. 04--Mon Ami Gabi, the venerable Lettuce Entertain You bistro, has two locations -- one in Oak Brook (260 Oakbrook Center, 630-472-1900), as well as the Lincoln Park original (2300 Lincoln Park West, 773-348-8886) -- participating in Chicago Restaurant Week (the Las Vegas and Maryland outposts are excused for obvious reasons). The city location is dinner only; out in the western burbs, Mon Ami offers an RW lunch menu as well.
The restaurant's look is so picture-perfect as to be almost theatrical; if I were filming a scene set in a bistro, I'd ask to shoot it at Mon Ami. Cloth-and-paper-topped tables, tile floors, shaded-lamp lighting, oversize chalkboards listing the plats du jour and the day's oyster harvest. And, of course, the rolling cart bearing Champagnes and other wines by the glass is another classic touch.
The dinner menu (three courses, $33) offers four appetizers, four mains and a combination dessert; there are a few more options on the lunch menu, thanks to the addition of lighter items such as quiche Lorraine and Cobb salad.
Both menus emphasize bistro classics. There's a fine French onion soup with Gruyere cheese, as well as escargots de Bourgogne, served in the classic divided iron plate (mad-hot, of course) and topped with a garlic-herb butter that turns the whole dish vivid green. As customers are provided with crusty bread at the beginning of dinner, the snails themselves sometimes take a back seat to that indulgent, herby butter sauce.
There's also a pretty-as-a-picture salad, a slight variation of the classic salade lyonnaise, composed of frisee, kale bacon and croutons, topped with a lightly poached egg; the lyonnaise is my favorite salad, and the addition of kale gives the dish a heartier mouthfeel.
Among mains, I'm a fan of the wild-boar ragout over cencioni pasta (kind of a cross between orecchiette and tagliatelle), a hearty dish with a thick tomato and red-wine sauce. On the lighter side, there is salmon, lightly crusted with herbed breadcrumbs and draped over a pile of what the menu calls "pommes puree," but what really are simply mashed potatoes (true pommes puree would be considerably softer in texture).
Steak frites is available in several treatments, including the classic pepper version as well as bordelaise, Roquefort or bearnaise sauces. The fries are cut thin and wide, a signature touch; they seem to lose temperature faster this way, but most customers gobble them up so quickly it rarely matters.
There are three listed desserts, and you get all three, in mini-portions, on the Restaurant Week menu. There's a fine lemon sorbet, a bit of piped chocolate mousse (a signature going back to this restaurant's roots as Un Grand Cafe) and a perfect little vanilla creme brulee. (I love mini-desserts; I wish more restaurants would feature them.)
You have an entire week to visit Mon Ami Gabi before Chicago Restaurant Week concludes, but I'd set my sights on Monday in Oak Brook, when wine bottles are half-price. This is a terrific deal, but it's available only in the suburban location.
Chicago Restaurant Week features more than 300 restaurants offering three-course lunches ($22) and three- and four-course dinners ($33, $44) and runs through Feb. 12; for participating restaurants, menus and online reservations, go to choosechicago.com
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @PhilVettel
