Blackbird

Sometimes when travelling (or preparing to travel) you stumble across the mention of a restaurant and checking out their site immediately confirms it as a place to visit. Blackbird was one such restaurant. No idea where I first saw it mentioned but the food sounded well worth checking out. The restaurant is co-owned by chef Paul Kahan, a Chicago native. The emphasis is on using local ingredients to produce thoughtful, modern dishes.

Blackbird is in the West Loop part of the city. For me, it was a quick ride of the L-train to Clinton Green and it was just a few minutes walk to the restaurant. Blackbird occupies the ground floor of a semi-detached building on west Randolph Street and the large windows at the front give the interior a very airy feeling. On the right as you step in is the bar. The left hand side of the dining room as you step in has a series of tables for two people where the person facing the room will be on a long bench seat running the length of the room. Tables for larger groups occupy the rest of the room. One good thing was that there was no background music, relying on the diners for the buzz in the place.

At lunch time there is the choice of the à la carte menu or the three-course prix fixé that includes a number of the à la carte dishes. This made the choice of food easy and it was time to sample the prix fixé lunch. Immediately after the order, bread was delivered to the table. The warm, light seed-crusted bread was served with whipped butter topped with honey. The combination of the bread with the sweetened butter was excellent particularly the crust.

Starter was smoked Arctic char with n’duja, cauliflower, pear and rosemary. The warmed smoked fish was a great focal point for the dish. The n’duja sausage added a spicy burn to each mouthful. The cauliflower was present for crunch while the pear gave a refreshing counterbalance to the stronger flavour of the fish. Overall this was a lovely starter and probably the best dish I’ve had with Arctic char.

Next up for main was wood-grilled sturgeon with shiitakes, onion noodles, plums and buttermilk. Red apple and black sesame seeds were added as garnish. The fish was excellent and it was soared with the buttermilk that turned out to be the key part of the whole plate. A small amount of thyme in the dish added a subtle herb flavour. The onion noodles were very gently cooked long strands of onion. The mushrooms added a nutty, earthy subtext to the dish. This had a wonderful autumnal feel to it.

Dessert was strawberry affogato with vanilla ice cream, sable cookies with candied lemon and shattered raspberries. The cookie was in the base of the glass as well as the crumble on top. This was quite a simple dessert but the blend of flavours was superb. This was a great way to round out a very satisfying lunch.

Overall verdict.
The food was excellent and the prix fixé lunch deal was exceptional value. Wait staff did not seem to be particularly focused but this was a small criticism on what was a good lunch

Would I revisit Blackbird?
In a heartbeat. The lunch was excellent so it would be good to sample the tasting menu to get a fuller sense of the capabilities of the kitchen. 


Overall Rating - 4/5