Arlington Park/Bistro Campagne

For my birthday we went to Arlington Park (my request) and dropped $100. Not too bad. But the food is absymal, which is why I packed a nice lunch for Jude and myself. And I'm quite sincere in saying - do not eat here. Even the ice cream is bad.

So we got home, took a nap, had a shower and got slightly gussied (heels and lipstick for me - no jeans for Jude) for my B-day dinner at Bistro Campange. Although we had reservations, we had to wait 45 minutes for a table outside. Which was well worth it. Had I known we had the option to wait outside, while waiting for a table, I would've done that instead. The garden is bug-free and really beautiful at night. Just a lovely place to enjoy some good french food. He started with the mussels, excellent and plump. The bread is artfully presented in a little paper "basket" (for lack of a better word). Good butter. The mussels were presented with two long croutons which were not enough for the serious dipping we needed to do. I had escargot, while overcooked, still nice but man-oh-man were they hot. It took a good twenty minutes of sitting time before I could even approach them. I then had onion soup. Very nice but a big mistake as the escargot were so rich - I ended up cancelling my steak tartar and pomme frites and just sipped wine while as I watched Jude enjoy his steak pomme frites. I will say the pomme frites are fries but why haggle? They were good. Finished with a glass of champange and creme brulee.

I really like this place. I've heard some complaints about the servers pushing the organic wine but we didn't experience that at all. They had true french aperitifs at the bar, Lillet, etc. It really bothers me when a restaurant calls itself "French" and fails to have at least Lillet. Pet peeve.

The service was unobtrusive, yet informative when asked questions. And the food was very good. Will be comparing to Tournesal soon.

Bistro Campagne
4518 N. Lincoln
773-271-6100