Over the years, I've been lucky enough to eat at a lot of good restaurants. In every city, there tends to be a favorite restaurant that I try to eat at every time in town. Whether it's Totto Ramen in New York, Ramen Dojo in San Mateo, El Tiempo in Houston, or Ad Hoc in Napa, I make it one of my usual stops when I'm in town.
On my latest trip to Chicago, I found a new favorite restaurant that I plan on visiting every time I'm in town. The Girl and the Goat is the creation of Stephanie Izard, Master Chef Season 4 winner. After winning Season 4, she opened Girl and the Goat in 2010 in Chicago's West Loop
Reservations: Getting a reservation here is probably one of the most difficult reservations I've ever had to get. Open table was booked a month out. Calling them didn't help. Visa Signature Concierge is pretty much useless. I do give credit to Amex Platinum Concierge because they did keep me updated on their status of trying to get me a seat weekly starting from a month out.
How did I end up getting a table? Sheer Luck. I was reading Yelp reviews and the website had a section for you to reserve a table. This was only a date for my girlfriend and but since there was no table for 2, I opted for a table of four. Somehow, by sheer luck, I found a table for 4 at 10:30pm on a Saturday night. I called the reservation a week before I was arriving and had them change it from four to two.
She and I were staying at the W Lakeshore near Navy Pier so we hopped in a $12 cab ride to get to the restaurant. (I've had great experiences with Uber and I'll write a later post on how to get free $20-$50 credit). When we got to the restaurant, we found out we were going to be seated at the Chef's table.
Every single chef at Girl and the Goat was so nice and friendly. We chatted with them for over two hours and enjoyed hearing about all of their experiences. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to get a picture of Stephanie.
Here's a look at a small section of the menu and the food we ate. Everything was pretty much a 5/5 on the food scale. Second best salad I've ever eaten after Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc.
One of the biggest benefits of setting at the Chef's table is that they love to give you small samples/tasting of their creations. At the end of the meal, after we turned down dessert, they explained why it didn't happen until they gave us dessert. They were laughing when they told us that usually two people will order between 3-5 dishes for two people. With so much food already at our chef's table, they didn't know what else to serve since we had already hit all the highlights on the menu! Dessert was amazing by the way and I always love free things.
Total Damage: $130 + tip. Quite an acceptable (if not cheap) price when you factor in that we had alcohol, ordered too much for two people, and had the best seat in the house.
Pro Tip: Due to the difficulty in getting a reservation, I recommend going and sitting at the bar to eat when the restaurant opens at 4:00pm. You won't get the table service but you're coming here for the food.
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