Thai Urban Kitchen

Thai Urban Kitchen opened this week at the SE corner of the ground level of Ogilvie Transportation Center (Northwestern Rail Station) at 500 W. Madison St. I work in that building but haven't yet eaten in the restaurant.

The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch - including brunch service on weekends.

Several menu items which caught my attention:

Breakfast: Thai Style Coconut Waffles - with coconut rum banana sauce and lemongrass syrup, served with your choice of bacon, ham or sausage. And, Banana Muffin Eggs Benedict - with Thai basil, tarragon hollandaise sauce and lardon, served with home fries and your choice of bacon, ham or sausage. Most selections are priced at $6.

Lunch: TUK Style open-face ravioli with shrimp and squid in sweet soy vinaigrette. Lunch (priced at $12 or $13) includes an appetizer, from a list that includes Mushroom Gyoza with ginger soy.

The restaurant also has a sushi bar (priced at $9 to $13).

Dine-in, carry-out and delivery available.

Thai Urban Kitchen
500 W. Madison St.
Chicago, IL 60661
(888) 955-5885

I couldn't find another thread for this restaurant but if there is one please merge this with it.

This is the new Thai breakfast/lunch spot in the Citibank building at the Canal/Madison intersection in the Loop. They plan to open for dinner once they get their liquor license. A friend and I ate there for breakfast today.

The decor is very sleek, everything is black and white, and expensive looking. Mellow dance music plays in the background. The bathrooms are big, with an interesting square layout. They were peacefully decorated.

Right now TUC is offering a breakfast special, where every item is 1/2 off. I think you need a coupon, but they set them down in front of you at the table. There is also a pile of them by the front door, and i snagged a few extra while i was there. The breakfast menu is small, consisting of 5 or 6 different meals, and a list of sides and drinks. Each of the meals is regularly $6(I'm sure this will go up eventually), and there are things like brioche french toast, banana nut eggs benedict, Thai coconut banana waffles, eggs any way, and buttermilk pancakes. They come with home fries and/or a choice of bacon, ham, or sausage. Nothing on the breakfast menu looks very Thai. There is also a lunch special: buy any entree and get a free appetizer.

Two of us split the Thai waffles, french toast, and eggs benedict. The waffles came out looking homemade, though not exactly fresh, with a lump of gray matter sitting on top of them. This was the coconut banana mixture, and while it didn't look good, it tasted great with the waffles. I love almost any sweet banana concoction though. The benedict was a split, toasted banana nut muffin with a poached egg, hollandaise, and tiny crisp lardons(thats what the menu called them, but they could have been regular bacon) sprinkled on top. The flavor combo was good, hollandaise was fresh, but the muffins were a little stale. The eggs were poached well. The french toast came with a mixed berry compote on top. A good brioche french toast. The compote was very good, especially with the waffles. The meats and potatoes(flavored with rosemary) served on the side were all fresh and tasty.

Our meal, including two drinks, came to $12. We couldnt finish all the food, and took some to go.

So, not the best food in the world, but very tasty. And these items could be comparable to some of the dishes at places like Bongo Room. For three dollars a plate (I think this lasts through October), I definately recommend the breakfast here.

Thai Urban Kitchen
500 W. Madison St
Chicago, IL
312-575-0266

Thanks for the review, for that price I'll have to give it a try. (this makes me regret moving out of Presidential Towers at the corner of Clinton and Madison, literally a block away)

It's probably a good thing Erik isn't posting here anymore

I, too, work in the building. Without going into detail--I wasn't present at the debacle--suffice to say several colleagues went down for a breakfast that proved unsatisfactory. The service was atrocious and the food less than acceptable. They ordered the special waffles (with coconut, rum, bananas, etc.) and when they finally arrived, they resembled waffles in appearance only. So I am told.

My colleagues were remarkably forgiving and we all agreed that the best thing to do is to allow the place to get its sea-legs (hmmm...somehow that seems like the wrong metaphor) and then return. Plus we might want to allow them to make Thai food rather than waffles.

Looking forward to a rapid and thorough turnaround.

We ate there at the very end of breakfast(they close from 10-11 to get ready for lunch) and we were the only customers in there. They did say they get slammed during peak hours, and maybe they can't handle a lot of business at once yet.

My coworkers went there for lunch and said it was good but pricey. It appears to me by looking at their menu that you are not exactly getting a "free" appetizer. It appears that you are forced to buy the appetizer. Most of the dishes are $12 and you pick out which appetizer and which main entree you want. I don't think you could buy an appetizer or entree by itself.

bnowell724 wrote:This is the new Thai breakfast/lunch spot

Thai Urban Kitchen no longer serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch only. While the lunch menu focuses on Thai/sushi dinner is a slightly diffused version of upscale(ish) American with Thai/Asian accents with a separate menu for sushi.

Meals start with gratis crisp rice cake w/satay sauce, rice cakes had a light almost buttery note, sauce was more Skippy after school snack than Thai.

Crisp Rice Cake


Appetizers were mixed, terrific Tuna Poke with avocado and a citrusy tomato water gave way to boring calamari with ginger avocado sauce and an out of balance Grilled Kobe Beef salad, long on pungent red onion, short, mercifully, on tough dry beef.

Tuna Poke


Kobe Beef Salad


Seared Diver Scallop w/cauliflower puree was delicious, soft succulent scallop center, light outside char for counterpoint, rich light as air puree of cauliflower. I'd go back just for this dish, if it weren't for the $12 price tag for a single scallop!

Seared Diver Scallop w/cauliflower puree and Thai basil brown butter


Entrees had potential, Salmon with orange glaze marred by overcooking, despite specifically requesting rare, Duck breast suffering the same fate, though in all fairness we did not request the duck rare.

Orange Glazed Salmon With avocado and Thai salsa


Peking-Style Roasted Duck w/sauteed bok choy, trio of mushrooms and lychee curry


Amish Chicken, plated with mildly spicy chili sauce, cashews and pear was the winner of the three entrees, though, when chicken breast is more succulent than duck, the chef might wish to rethink his cooking procedures.

Amish Chicken w/pearl onion, cashew nut, Swiss chard, celery, pear and roasted chili paste


Reasonably priced New Zealand sauvignon blanc went well with our meal and we finished with on the house Mochi ice cream as way of apology for over cooked salmon. Service was friendly and efficient with our interactive waiter having excellent command of the menu.

Space wise, the cavernous room is broken up by a bar/lounge area and a high concept, we spent a lot of money with an interior decorator, waterfall, though the overall effect is pleasing. TUK was not busy at 8pm, though I'm guessing it's a madhouse at lunch.

Enjoy,
Gary

Thai Urban Kitchen
500 W. Madison St
Chicago, IL
312-575-0266
(Ogilvie Transportation Center)

Gary, those pictures make it look like this is the kind of creative upscale Thai food that a certain other overpriced Thai restaurant in town claims to be, but isn't (IMHO).

Can you give us some idea of the prices? I assume a dinner there is more expensive than the neighborhood Thai places, but I'm wondering by how much. The pricing of that scallop doesn't make me optimistic about the answer...

That diver scallop has an approximate wholesale value of $1. Add the sauce and accompanying puree and the overall menu cost of the dish is well under $2. You paid $12. That's a 16.6 % food cost, which would be considered very low.

The Scotch egg you purchased @ Paramount Room for $9 has a wholesale value of possibly 20 cents, add the accouterments and you may have 75 cents total into the dish. That's an 8% food cost.

25% would be considered fairly low in the industry. 27-28% is pretty average these days.

There was a recent thread about people getting away with stuff. Here are two excellent examples of that practice.

I hope you at least got kissed first.

nsxtasy wrote:Gary, those pictures make it look like this is the kind of creative upscale Thai food that a certain other overpriced Thai restaurant in town claims to be, but isn't (IMHO).

If we're talking about the same overpriced creative upscale Thai place, this seems to be a lot further away from the traditional end of the spectrum... not that there's anything wrong with that. Just an observation.

Dmnkly wrote:If we're talking about the same overpriced creative upscale Thai place, this seems to be a lot further away from the traditional end of the spectrum... not that there's anything wrong with that. Just an observation.

Yes, that's what I meant by my quoted comment. IOW, this is the "real deal" i.e. not your traditional Thai food (while that other place doesn't strike me as such).

Dmnkly wrote:If we're talking about the same overpriced creative upscale Thai place, this seems to be a lot further away from the traditional end of the spectrum...

Nsx's question is a bit oblique for me, but if I understand correctly.....Thai Urban Kitchen, as opposed to Arun's, is not in the least traditional Thai. It is, as I mentioned upthread, "a slightly diffused version of upscale(ish) American with Thai/Asian accents"

Price wise, dinner for three with three drinks and a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc was approximately $165 including tax, but not tip, less than Arun's, but certainly not an inexpensive meal.

Enjoy,
Gary

Kudos to Thai Urban Kitchen.

The next day I noticed a mistake on my bill, nothing major or deliberate, simply a mistake, which we all make on occasion. One phone call, an email and the difference was winging it's way back to my credit card account.

Nicely handled.

Enjoy,
Gary

. . . .and per Yelp (and my own observations on the way to my train), Thai Urban Kitchen at Ogilvie Transportation Center is no more.

Can't believe a place that usually took 1.5 hours to serve a lunch during the work day closed... I only wonder how it lasted as long as it did. Food was decent, though.