Think Cafe

I'm a long-time fan of Think, and it just keeps getting better, to my taste. Mrs. JiLS and I had a lovely experience on Wednesday night, for example. Appetizers included a special salad of luscious tomato slices topped with four of the largest, freshest Gulf shrimp we've had the pleasure of devouring in a great while. The salad included avocado and was lightly dressed with oil, vinegar and garlic. A perfect summer treat. I had the regular scallop appetizer, which included 6 hearty specimens, half in a butter and garlic and caper sauce, the other half in a red-pepper gravy. I'd have been in heaven if it weren't for those amazing shrimp on Mrs. JiLS's plate.

Main courses included the old standby ravioli in red pepper cream sauce, characteristically scrumptious. I had the signature Think skirt steak, which is to the carne asada served abundantly up and down the adjoining blocks of Western as Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto is to Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" (i.e., it's a lot better). Served with spinach, roasted potatoes AND frites, this is an entree everyone ought to check out.

Desserts included an awe-inspiring off-menu warm goo-filled chocolate cake for the Mrs. (they apparently like us at Think) and the "berry martini" for me, a martini glass loaded with a cross between custard and mousse, packed with about $127.00 worth of insanely plump ripe berries. I highly recommend you get in there while the getting's good to get yourself one or six of these good guys that you ought to be getting.

At the end of the meal, we learned Think is shaking up its menu in the very near future, for the first time in a very long time. Standards like the ravioli and skirt steak will remain; we were not made privy to the new additions Chef Omar is planning.

my one visit a few weeks ago made me glad the place is a short bus ride away.

i was very amused, though, that my friend's entree, sauteed chicken breast in a lemon-caper-butter sauce, is straight out of cook's illustrated.

which, of course, means it was fantastic. but still...

-ed

Bumping this aged thread back up a bit, I was at Think last night. The food was excellent, of course, but what really impressed me was Ryvka, who runs the front of the house and is marred to Omar, the chef. Susan and I hadn't been there in, easily, 5 - 6 months, but Ryvka recognized us immediately, remembered what we'd ordered, and remembered the discussions we'd had in the past. I don't think Susan and I are overly memorable people - the woman must have an encyclopedic knowledge of her customers. And she's warm, charming, and pulls no punches. She admitted to the Check Please effect, and admitted the place went downhill after being featured on that show (based on last night, and the previous visit months ago, it's back on stride, with a vengeance). And if asked, she’ll give you a frank assessment of anything on the menu – it’s clear Omar calls the shots on the food, and the two of them don’t always agree, but she’ll tell you what gets the A+ grade in her book, and what gets the B.

We almost always start with the white asparagus appetizer with blue cheese, purple onions, and tomato, but last night there was a similar green-and-white asparagus appetizer special – it was almost as good, but next time we’ll go back to the one on the menu.

We had a special trout entrée – I didn’t take notes and don’t remember what accompanied it, but it was also very flavorful.

The only slightly disappointing dish was the cheese plate … it was beautifully presented, with unusual additions like quince paste, as well as the usual cheese plate suspects, but the four cheeses were all semi-soft varieties – I’d have preferred to see a blue cheese or a rind-ripened cheese a la brie or camembert included.

But overall, an excellent meal; Think right now is as good as I’ve ever seen it. And did I mention that Ryvka is amazing?

Sadly, while Think was virtually full (at least in the front room) at 8:30 last night, Honey One next door looked deserted.

Think Café
2235 N. Western Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Phone (773) 394-0537
BYOB

After reading many positive reviews of Think, we tried it last year for my birthday. With a party of four for the celebration, we made reservations and brought a nice wine selection to enjoy. I only wished the experience lived up the hype.

Overall, we found the food to be just okay. I had ordered the lobster pasta special where the waiter gushed about the 1 pound of lobster in the dish. The only way there was one pound of lobster in that meal was if they counted the weight of the shell. I recall this dish being pretty expensive -- the exact amount eludes me, but I believe it was around $30.

My biggest beef was the service. We had 8:00 reservations, but some of of the earlier reservations arrived late so that pushed everyone back. Given the size of the room (the small bar area was taken), we opted to wait outside and let the hostess know that we were doing that. To our dismay, we watched later arriving parties get seated before us. When I went to investigate, I realized the hostess was just asking people who was first -- she wasn't keeping a list. Those of us who chose not to hover over other diners and keep cool (it was quite warm in the restaurant) were at a disadvantage.

I will say that the service was good once we were seated. One appetizer was comped to make up for our 45 minute wait. But, given the overall mediocrity of the food and what I thought was a very high bill for a BYO, it was one restaurant I took off my list. There are many better restaurants in the city that are more deserving of my money IMHO.

-the GP

nr706 wrote:Sadly, while Think was virtually full (at least in the front room) at 8:30 last night, Honey One next door looked deserted.

I drove by Honey 1 on Tuesday night about the same time...also deserted. This is usually a good time of year for restaurants, but I wonder if it's a good time of year for BBQ places (I'm thinking maybe not).

Hammond

The GP wrote:After reading many positive reviews of Think, we tried it last year for my birthday. With a party of four for the celebration, we made reservations and brought a nice wine selection to enjoy. I only wished the experience lived up the hype.

That would have been about the time the Check Please effect was in full effect, and as Ryvka admitted, the effect caused it to go downhill for a while; I noticed that, too. Based on my visit Thursday, it's back to hitting on all cylinders. One other note - go on a weeknight; don't even consider Friday or Saturday without reservations.

nr706 wrote:

That would have been about the time the Check Please effect was in full effect, and as Ryvka admitted, the effect caused it to go downhill for a while; I noticed that, too. Based on my visit Thursday, it's back to hitting on all cylinders. One other note - go on a weeknight; don't even consider Friday or Saturday without reservations.

We tried Think last May because I had read only positive things about the restaurant. I really wanted to like it. Reading this thread again makes me wish I had liked it enough to warrant a return trip. Even if I ignore the seating experience, I thought the food was expensive and not worth the cost for the mediocrity we experienced. On top of that, the seating was bungled, even for those of us with reservations. They did not managing the process well.

That said, I'm glad Think is here. It is the kind of restaurant that is well-loved by some and adds to the wonderful dining fabric in our town.

-The GP

We took two out-of-town guests to Think back in August. Although I encountered some of my weird waiter issues(the obsequious server deferred to my partner and our guests barely making eye contact with me through the meal), the dinner itself...we had the streetside area to ourselves...was altogether enjoyable. I wasn't a scallop fan, but the scallop app. began my conversion...beautiful shellfish plated with two sauces. In addition I also tried the rabbit gumbo special which, tho' filling, was a tad wan in the spicing dept. Dining companions each ordered a variation on Think's ubiquitous red pepper cream sauce: one had it with gnocchi, the others ravioli. They cleaned their plates...if I were appreciative of roasted bell pepper flavors I might have done the gnocchi myself. Instead, I went for a bottomless plate of, iirc, red wine truffle risotto. An admirable effort but not in the same league as the risottos served at Sweets and Savories(still my highwater mark)...again somewhat lacking...this time, salt.

I would dine again at Think if only for the scallop app. which, for me, could make a complete dinner with the addition of another bowl of soup.

All in all a relatively pleasant, relaxed repast.

We found it kind of "eh" - and the owner/manager fairly rude. When asked "how was everything" I told the server that the sauce on my pork chop was really quite amazingly sweet, and I hadn't expected it to be quite that sweet, and he told the o/m who said quite loudly that I was pretty dumb for not realizing it would be sweet - and it's not like I didn't eat it, or I asked to be comped or complained - I just answered the question when I was asked.

I wrote this post more than 6 months ago and saved it as a document to "think about it" before posting. I hate to be overly negative, but all of this is true to our experience, and I wanted to share. Maybe things have changed since our visit, and clearly others have had much more positive experiences, but based on our one-and-only visit to Think Cafe, we will never go back. Here is what I originally wanted to share. (I think I wrote this at the end of March...)

Yikes! I was astonished and incredibly disappointed with our meal at Think Cafe. Having read all the superlatives about this place, I feel like I was dining in another restaurant completely, when comparing ours with others' posted experiences. I really, really wanted to like this place, but I will NEVER come back. The food and the service, combined with belligerent management attitude, made it a very negative experience.

We arrived 20 minutes late for our reservation and were told our table had been given away - totally acceptable. We were then seated 30 minutes later; it was packed at 8:30 PM on a Wednesday night! Once seated, the server opened and poured the beautiful bottle of red wine we had brought (a $30 Tuscan red that the Whole Foods guy had recommended). He told us all the specials they were "out of due to the Check Please re-run the previous weekend." So that explained the wait and the fact that the entire staff seemed frazzled and irritated.

I ordered the asparagus appetizer and the soup (corn-crab chowder) to start. My husband ordered the salmon starter, and our guest asked for the crab cakes. About 20 minutes later, my asparagus arrived. We sat, waiting for the other appetizers to arrive, with no sign of our waiter. Finally, we flagged him down (15 minutes lapsed) and asked where the rest of the starters were. He said, "Oh, I though you were all going to share the asparagus so I haven't put those orders in yet." Pretty big assumption to make, and it was wrong. We politely asked if he could speed things up since it was now after 9 PM and we had been at the restaurant over an hour; also, we asked if we could have some bread - like we saw on the other tables - and he said "Oh, didn't they give you any?" and plopped some onto our table. The white asparagus was yummy, and my dining companions were happy to take a few bites, but by the time their starters arrived 15 minutes after that, they were starving. My husband said the salmon was good, our friend said the crab cakes were AWFUL - mushy and cold on the inside, very crispy (almost burnt) on the top and bottom, but not seasoned and therefore a disappointment. The soup also appeared to be a season-it-yourself version, as it had no detectable salt or pepper and was one of the blandest soups I have tasted. Once I added a bit of salt and pepper, it was decent, but not nearly as good as the cream soups from the heat-and-eat section of Trader Joe's.

The busboy cleared our plates and about 15 minutes later we again asked the server if he could check on our entrees – would they be coming soon? He replied, “I just checked, they are coming soon.” (Tip for this server: if you’re checking on something, why not keep the patrons abreast of the situation. No one minds waiting if they know what’s going on!) About 5 minutes later, my chicken marsala arrived, looking very nice with roasted potatoes, plenty of mushrooms and a plump chicken breast, with a large sprig of rosemary on top. We waited again. Another 5 minutes passed before my companions’ entrees – the house-special rack of lamb – arrived. It looked quite promising to these lamb-lovers, who also love garlic mashed potatoes. My first bite of the chicken confirmed my expectations – it was delicious but luke-warm. The lamb was another story completely. Our friend said it was greasy and that the potatoes tasted “off.” My husband showed me a huge, 1-inch square piece of fat on one of his three pieces of lamb and said, “they’re all like this...I don’t get it.” He asked me to taste the potatoes, since I make a pretty good roasted garlic mash at home, and I agreed with the guys; the potatoes were bitter and had a strange texture, a mix of lumps and bits of un-roasted garlic. Yuck. When the server came back about 10 minutes into our entrees and asked how it was, our friend put it straight to him and said he’d like to send it back. Would our friend care to explain why? (He did – quite diplomatically.) And what would he like it its place? (Nothing, except the $26 removed from the bill.) The server then avoided our table for another 10 minutes and eventually asked my husband how his lamb was. He said that it wasn’t to his liking, but that he had eaten one of the three pieces of lamb so he was no longer hungry. He could just take the plate away. The server again asked if he could bring something in its place and we explained that it was now almost 10PM, and we did not want to wait to have another dish cooked. I offered both of my companions the remainder of my chicken, and they each had a few bites. We decided we would just chalk it up to a bad night in the restaurant and try it again another time.

But out came a woman (The manager? The chef’s wife? We don’t know, she didn’t introduce herself, but appeared to be someone in charge of the front of the house...) who immediately went on the defensive and put the nail in our evening’s coffin. She explained that lamb needs fat in order to be flavorful, and that theirs has never, ever been sent back before now; in fact, she had just tasted ours (did she eat some of my husband’s plate he sent back???) and it was “perfection – your wine must be interfering with the flavor” because it was the best she’s ever tasted. Our friend, who was visiting us from the U.K., explained that he has had lamb all over the world, in many different cultures, and he had never had lamb that fatty or distasteful. She then explained that they pay $20/pound for their lamb, and suggested that we should call their supplier to talk about quality with them! She also said that the potatoes are “just the way our customers like them” and that our wine was probably to blame for our “tasting things that just aren’t there.” When my husband explained that it tasted like the garlic was raw rather than roasted, she said that we were WRONG, but softened this by again blaming our wine. We offered her a taste of the wine so she could see for herself and she declined. She started in again about the lamb, and our friend asked if she could please stop. He politely asked if we could refrain from arguing; it was a matter of taste, and we would prefer just to end the meal. She looked dumbfounded, but then mentioned that she wanted to be sure we would accept the check.

"Whatever you are, be a good one." -Abraham Lincoln

Susan, I'm certainly not disregarding the rest of your post, which makes me cross Think Cafe off my list of places I might someday go, but did Abraham Lincoln really say that? Or are you being facetious? The quote sounds so...unLincolnesque. But I like it. If it's really by him, what speech or letter is it extracted from? And if it's not, and you're joking and I just don't get it, put a dunce cap on my head.

riddlemay wrote:

"Whatever you are, be a good one." -Abraham Lincoln

Susan, I'm certainly not disregarding the rest of your post, which makes me cross Think Cafe off my list of places I might someday go, but did Abraham Lincoln really say that? Or are you being facetious? The quote sounds so...unLincolnesque. But I like it. If it's really by him, what speech or letter is it extracted from? And if it's not, and you're joking and I just don't get it, put a dunce cap on my head.

I can't say where it's from, but I can say that it's commonly attributed to Lincoln. I used to have a refrigerator magnet with lincoln's face and that quote.

FWIW, I just now googled "whatever you are, be a good one," and several sites come up which attribute the words to Lincoln--but not one of them provides a source (such as a speech or letter or other sort of document containing the words). Which leads me to think he never uttered them or wrote them. Perhaps the attribution is a 19th century log cabin version of an urban legend.

A more exhaustive search might prove me wrong.

While not so extreme, we also had a less than satisfactory experience at Think - which wouldn't have been so awful had we not been harangued (from across the room - spoken loudly so we should hear, but not directly at our table) by the same woman who confronted Susan and friends.

I'm very surprised by the posts by Leek and Susan, as this isn't the Think Cafe I've been going to for 5 years. Rivka and Omar have always been very polite. The food has also been uniformly well cooked and proper tasting. I haven't been there since April due to other commitments, but I can't believe the wheels have fallen off that badly in the span of 5 months.

Nah, reports like this have been coming in for the past few years. I went to Think a few times pre-check-please, but the crowds and then the dozen or more (no hyperbole) reports like this that I've seen since have kept me away.

That's interesting. I took a group of 16 there about a year and a half ago and we had the usual good time with great food and service. A couple who couldn't make it that night went about a month later with another couple and they hated it, both food and service. I chalked it up to an off-night. Maybe it's different for folks who have been going there for years and they recognize. That obviously wouldn't be good, because you don't make new repeat customers that way.

As I've posted upthread, I've never had a bad experience at Think, both pre- and post- Check Please, and I appreciate the fact that it's one of only a few semi-fine dining BYOB destinations in the area. While I haven't been recently, knowing Ryvka, rude service would seem extremely out of character for her. However, with some of their other servers, maybe ...

I thought I would post again on this thread, as I went to Think last night. This was the first time in probably 6 or 8 months, for not other reason than it just hadn't happened. Anyway, the evening was the usual excellent event, with food and service being great.

My wife started with the salmon appetizer, something I always get but didn't this time. It's a great combination of smoked salmon on potatoes that can best be described as super crispy thin string hash browns, with creme fraiche and capers. It's a huge dish and for $14 would probably be a main course for most folks. It's definitely something you can share.

For my starter I ordered the sauteed diver scallops in a lemon butter sauce. Again, this was a huge dish of four big scallops, each served over a small round of puff pastry the same size as the scallop, with the sauce underneath. The scallops were perfectly cooked, just slightly underdone, and the sauce tasted great. This dish was $15 and could have been a main course or shared by two people for an appetizer.

My wife's main course has a name that I've forgotted, but is essentially a sauteed chicken breast over mashed potatoes and asparagus with a lemon butter caper sauce. I can't remember the last time she didn't order that dish when we go to Think, and once again it delivered. Another large dish that cost something like $16 or $18. Half of it is in the refridgerator right now.

My main course was the rack of lamb, served with mash potatoes and a few spears of asparagus. Here there was a little hiccup, as the lamb was a little less than rare instead of the medium rare I ordered. I showed it to Ryvka, the owner and chef's wife, and she ushered it right back to be fixed, which it was quickly and correctly. Pricing on this dish is more in line with normal, being $28 for three ribs.

Being a wine nut, I'm always glad to get good food that I can eat with my own wine, so the BYOB thing here is perfect. Last night was the first time I've seen other tables with some noticably high end bottles. One couple had a bottle of Van Duzer Pinot Noir from Oregon while another table had a bottle of Silver Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon.

Lastly, Think is feeling the economic crunch like all other restaurants, so they're starting a new 3-course prix fixe menu from Sunday through Thursday, at a cost of $30. I would highly encourage everyone to give them a try, even if you had issues before, as I think you'll like it. I'm not shilling for the owners, I just think it's a great place that should survive.