The GP wrote:A search for "Victory Gardens" yielded three threads...
Thanks, GP.
As it turns out, relying on public transportation, we hopped the Red LIne heading back downtown and ended up at
Le Lan (Disclosure: I got the idea from an LTH post the other day about birthday dinners). I ordered halibut over napa cabbage, and my wife enjoyed elk loin, served rare with a huckleberry sauce. Although neither sounded very Asian, to be sure, they were bursting with the flavors of coconut, five-spice powder, curry and lemongrass. Our desserts were a complex mango-coconut tapioca pudding and a spectacular "Vietnamese" coffee semifreddo.
Service was perfectly paced and our server was a gem-- friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. Hearing it was my wife's birthday, she brought us two chocolate cake puffs set atop chocolate mousse on a rectangular plate with "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate sauce. I'm sure it's their standard birthday extra, but we appreciated it, nonetheless.
Having mostly relocated to New York, we're understandably quite taken with many of its amazing restaurants. Still, in my opinion, Le Lan is the equal of anything we've found there so far.
Le Lan Restaurant
749 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 280-9100