Jefe wrote:Dove's, count me a fan.

Crunchy exterior moist interior chicken fried chicken, liberal use of house made hot sauce and deep flavored chili oil with bourbon butter pecan ice cream for dessert.

Friendly knowledgeable service, comfortable counter seating with the added bonus of running into desher and a friend.

Dove's Luncheonette, count me a fan!

Chicken Fried Chicken





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We hit Dove's Luncheonette today as mild fans of Publican and fairly disillusioned with Kahan's other restaurants. I was very intrigued by the entire idea and the description of the dishes. However, everything we ate was hugely disappointing.

Our order consisted of the pepper and potato hash, the brisket taco and the tamale. The tamale was inedibly dry and carried only a tiny sliver of collard green. The side of shrimp and peppers and scrambled eggs was competent but not enough to save this dish.

I received my taco and was curious why it was served with a steak knife, that is until I realized that they are offering up tough brisket and appear to know it. It's also incredibly bland and the accouterments do nothing to salvage it. The pickled onions were weak and the tiny bit of aoli was the only thing contributing flavor. It was all wrapped up in a giant homemade tortilla of dubious quality. I have had storebought tortillas that added more to a taco.

The best thing we ate was the potato hash, which is mostly because they can competently crisp some potatoes. The peppers were very sparse despite being relatively common cubanelles and the dish doesn't really have any flavors going for it other than salt and pepper.

The only thing that at all mitigated this disaster was the delicious chili sauce in their condiment tray which we liberally slathered on everything to make it edible. I see no reason to pay these prices or wait in line 30 minutes at late lunch time.

Dove's was fantastic again last night. Our group of 4 had a bunch of dishes, each one of them really a stand-out in its own right. What used to be the Romanesco Salad is now a Broccoli Salad and every bit just as delicious -- maybe even more so, since the broccoli florets hold onto more of the dressing. Another salad, the Apple-Celery Salad -- honeycrisp apples, celery, red onions and arugula with a creamy dill dressing -- was also a winner. Potato & Pepper Hash was perfecto, even better than last time. The potatoes were super crispy and the shishitos were earthy, and just spicy enough.

Main courses were the Chicken Fried Chicken, the Smoked Pork Shank Picadillo, the Ham & Cheese Ahogada and Tamal de Elote con Camarones. There wasn't one in the bunch I wouldn't eagerly order again. The ingredients were stellar, the compositions were distinctive and imaginative, and the execution was spot on.

For dessert we had all 3 offerings of the Hoosier Mama pies. Of the 3, my favorite was the Atlantic Beach, which was described upthread. The Horchata does not float my boat and the Mexican Chocolate had an acidic note (citrus?) that I found distracting. OTOH, as full as we were, house-made Butter Bourbon Pecan and Guava Dreamsicle ice creams were both hard to stop eating.

Servers were super friendly, knowledgeable about the dishes and enthusiastic. We arrived at about 7:30 and were seated immediately. The place was bustling the entire time we were there but not crazy busy. It really took some balls to open a place like this and they're pretty much crushing it.

=R=

We went here for brunch this past weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed our meal (brisket taco, avocado toast and potatoes). Will definitely be back.

Fantastic first meal at Dove's last weekend. Wait for a table of 2 was an hour+, but being that I was a single diner, I was seated right away

DOVE'S BLOODY MARY CH Vodka, Dove's house mix, smoked black pepper, celery and root bitters

Good kick, not too watery.

As a side, I ordered the
BLOOD SAUSAGE served with lime crema and topped with a banana pepper sofrito


And as my main, I ordered Dove's

POZOLE ROJO Braised pork shoulder in a guajillo chile broth with hominy

This is how the pozole is presented, but as you can see in the upper left corner, there is a plate of avocado, lime, cabbage, cilantro, radish and crispy tortillas.

Spicy, hearty, and absolutely delicious.

And another cocktail to close out the meal
THE SIXTH STAIRSTEP Arette Reposado, red grapes, cubanelle pepper, agave, lime, St. George Absinthe

Substituted mezcal for the tequila.

Great first meal and I can't wait to get back.

The Hype Machine here was at an all time high the week the James Beard awards were in town. Every visiting chef seemed to mention they were checking Dove's out while here. Despite two way below average visits I decided to see if I just had bad luck or if this place is exactly what Big Star is, which is not good. Sorry but this place has been bad on my visits. I paid $15 for a taco (albeit a large one) that was dryer than Jimmy Hoffa's dead body. I knew it was bad as soon as they delivered it in it's sad tortilla state to the table. Not only was the tortilla extremely dry, obviously being a day+ old but so was the brisket which needed a knife to fight its resistance. Maybe you need to be a JBA nominated chef to get the good stuff or maybe this place just doesn't know what it wants to be bc Tex-Mex it is not..despite the dishes I've ate clearly being Tex-Mex recipes. I'll stick to the good stuff when in Texas. Adios Dove's!

"Brisket Taco"

To pile on, I agree that this is a really bad dish. Not a redeeming thing about it, actually, and although I am not sure I got a stale tortilla, I just found the sum of the parts to be muddy and lacking in flavor (and tough meat, for sure). Other things on the menu are better - and how can they not be? - e.g., Chicken Fried Chicken and pepper/potato hash, but I think this place produces B- food at best. Too bad, as it's kind of a fun (and under-represented) concept for Chicago. Easy to make fun of Tex-Mex but as I've learned recently spending some time down in Houston at its best it can be good .

Good (or maybe bad?) to see that the brisket taco is still as awful as when I had it over a year ago. Big Star and Parachute have to be some of the biggest disappointments for me in the last couple years and I am always chagrined at their notoriety.

Da Beef wrote:The Hype Machine here was at an all time high the week the James Beard awards were in town. Every visiting chef seemed to mention they were checking Dove's out while here. Despite two way below average visits I decided to see if I just had bad luck or if this place is exactly what Big Star is, which is not good. Sorry but this place has been bad on my visits. I paid $15 for a taco (albeit a large one) that was dryer than Jimmy Hoffa's dead body. I knew it was bad as soon as they delivered it in it's sad tortilla state to the table. Not only was the tortilla extremely dry, obviously being a day+ old but so was the brisket which needed a knife to fight its resistance. Maybe you need to be a JBA nominated chef to get the good stuff or maybe this place just doesn't know what it wants to be bc Tex-Mex it is not..despite the dishes I've ate clearly being Tex-Mex recipes. I'll stick to the good stuff when in Texas. Adios Dove's!

"Brisket Taco"

$15 for that sad, forlorn taco?? Glad I'm not one of the cool kids who throws money at it.

Stopped in today before heading over to Wrigley.
Began with the Bloody which was excellent with a generous pour of vodka.
I ordered the chicken fried chicken which was also very,very good.
Finished with the HM chocolate crème pie.
Service was just fine.
No complaints at all, except,
well, I would have picked a different album to play.....

I would have picked a different album to play.....

just thinking about dove's chicken fried chicken makes my mouth water. next time, ask if you can choose the album- i've done it!

hoppy2468 wrote:Stopped in today before heading over to Wrigley.
Began with the Bloody which was excellent with a generous pour of vodka.
I ordered the chicken fried chicken which was also very,very good.
Finished with the HM chocolate crème pie.
Service was just fine.
No complaints at all, except,
well, I would have picked a different album to play.....

How you gonna type that and not tell us what it was??

First time at Dove's in quite some time yesterday. For me the highlight were the kabocha squash enchiladas in poblano mole. The worst thing I could say about the mole was that it was the slightest touch too sweet. But it delivered the complexity I demand in a mole and some really nice heat too. A fantastic dish.





The pepper and potato hash was also excellent, this time featuring shishitos as the peppers. The potatoes were really nice and crispy.





I was a little less impressed with the biscuits and gravy (sunny side up egg added) though. For biscuits and gravy, I like my biscuit a little on the drier side and this I thought was a little too moist in the middle. But the gravy was the real letdown. It was the chorizo verde gravy that they serve with the chicken fried chicken and I just thought it was lacking zip this day - not peppery enough, no tang . . . just . . . thick. It wasn't bad, but biscuits and gravy should never leave you ho-hum.