Evanston Lunch Group--Fri., June 25 12:30 at Yolo

The Evanston Lunch Group is crossing the border--to Skokie. We are going to try Yolo, a relatively new Mexican restaurant that has received some discussion here. Both card-carrying ELGers and other LTHers are invited.

Friday, June 25th, 12:30 p.m.

Yolo Mexican Eatery
5111 Brown Street
Skokie, Illinois 60077
(847) 674-0987
http://www.yolomexicaneatery.com/index.html

If I remember, I'll bring more cards.

I'll be there. The luncheon menu does not mention mole, so we might ask if they can provide mole for lunch.

I plan to be there--looking forward to it!

I'd like to join you--assuming the Loop group won't pick the same day for their lunch

It's my wife's birthday. Gotta figure out out to have lunch with you guys and do something nice for her birthday. I'll get back to you on this.

Dave148 wrote:It's my wife's birthday. Gotta figure out out to have lunch with you guys and do something nice for her birthday. I'll get back to you on this.

Please bring your wife, and we promise to be extra polite and sing "happy birthday" to her.

GAF wrote:I'll be there. The luncheon menu does not mention mole, so we might ask if they can provide mole for lunch.

Good idea. I'll ask when I make the final reservation.

EvA wrote:

Dave148 wrote:It's my wife's birthday. Gotta figure out out to have lunch with you guys and do something nice for her birthday. I'll get back to you on this.

Please bring your wife, and we promise to be extra polite and sing "happy birthday" to her.

I thought of that. Unfortunately, she's not a huge fan of Mexican food. In addition, we need to be elsewhere later in the afternoon. I'll figure out something.

A reminder that we have plenty of room for people to join us at Yolo this Friday. If you have never attended an LTH event, the Evanston Lunch Group is a great way to start.

We are planning on joining you,
Robert and Catherine (alias Chapulin)

rgl201 wrote:We are planning on joining you,
Robert and Catherine (alias Chapulin)

Looking forward to seeing you both!

Dave148 wrote:

EvA wrote:

Dave148 wrote:It's my wife's birthday. Gotta figure out out to have lunch with you guys and do something nice for her birthday. I'll get back to you on this.

Please bring your wife, and we promise to be extra polite and sing "happy birthday" to her.

I thought of that. Unfortunately, she's not a huge fan of Mexican food. In addition, we need to be elsewhere later in the afternoon. I'll figure out something.

Gotta officially scratch. Too many things to do in too little time. I can't even blame my wife.

Unfortunately, I'm out as well. I really hope to make one of these lunches one of these months!!! Enjoy

I'm going to try and make it tomorrow. I'll put aside whatever simmering resentment I have towards traveling across geo-political boundaries simply for lunch.

ChgoMike wrote:I'm going to try and make it tomorrow. I'll put aside whatever simmering resentment I have towards traveling across geo-political boundaries simply for lunch.

Please don't simmer--it's too hot already!

It will be great to see you again. Hope you can make it! If NR706 remembers, we might even be able to issue you your own official ELG membership card--it's useful as an ID when crossing that border back into Evanston.

According to the restaurant, we will be able to try Yolo's mole(s) tomorrow at lunch. Looking forward to seeing the ELG bunch.

Evy

I've got to bow out today. Sorry...

I am afraid we are under the evil spell of something we ate last night! We won't be able to attend the lunch. We are waiting to know your collective verdict on the food though.
Robert and Catherine

The Evanston Lunch Group was small but mighty at Yolo. We had a very pleasant meal with great company, as usual.

I want to say first how accommodating and gracious our server and the chef were. We wanted to try a number of dishes from the dinner menu, which differs from the lunch one, and the staff were glad to provide what they had. We ended up ordering completely from the dinner menu. The room is small, as is the kitchen, but comfortable and welcoming.

We started with the Ensalada de Mango, Tlacoyitos Veracruz, and the Ceviche de Camaron. The ceviche was a delicious summer dish with lots of fruit with small pieces of shrimp, nicely served topped with a fan of avocado. (I'm assuming our official photographer, nr706, will post some photos.) The salad was a generous portion of greens topped with mango, jicama, and almonds with a perky tamarind dressing. The tlacoyitos (corn cakes stuffed with fava beans and topped with various meats) were my least favorite of the openers. The filled corn cakes didn't appeal to me, but that might just be me.

We tried three mains, Pollo Borracho, boneless chicken breast in a beer and pasilla pepper sauce; Mole Negro Oaxaca (over a bone-in chicken breast), and Mole de Tamarindo, served over boneless pork (country) ribs. The Pollo in the Pollo Borracho was a bit over-cooked and too chewy, but the sauce was tasty if a bit salty. The black Oaxacan mole was complex and very enjoyable, and I think the bone-in breast saved it from being as dry as the Borracho. The tamarind mole was excellent as well and worked well with the fattier pork. The accompanying rice, potatoes, beans, and tortillas were fine but unremarkable.

I think Yolo is a nice little surprise tucked away off the main drag of downtown Skokie. It has aspirations to be a nicer Mexican restaurant, which the prices suggest (entrees in the teens). When compared with similarly priced restaurants in the area such as Lupita's in Evanston and Wholly Frijoles in Lincolnwood, I think Yolo comes out very well.

I largely agree with EvA, and felt that Yolo was one of the restaurants that I would like to return to. It is a serious and good Mexican restaurant. I can't think of any north suburban Mexican restaurant that I prefer. And the restaurant was very gracious in permitting us to dine off the dinner menu, which seems much more ambitious than the lunch menu. I enjoyed the use of fruit in several of the dishes, but in contrast to EvA I also really enjoyed the tlacoyitos (corn cakes stuffed with fava beans and topped with various meats) and wished that we had ordered several portions. The moles were delightfully complex.

Quick note: I agree with all these comments, and I'll post pix as soon as the main computer here decides to go back to work, rather than taking the day off.

Truly enjoyed our lunch at Yolo last Friday. Here’s what we had:


Ceviche De Camaron, described as "Citrus marinated shrimp tossed in a fruity sauce with mango, pineapple, cucumber and carrots, garnished with avocado and lemon." It was delicious, with small chunks of shrimp, and more fruit than I usually see in a ceviche, A watermelon agua is in the background.


Ensalada De Mango, described as "Cucumber, orange, mango and jicama served over a bed of lettuce with tamarind vinaigrette, garnished with crushed almonds." The jicama added a nice crunch, and the mango, obviously, sweetness. It was very good ... not great.


Tlacoyitos Veracruz, described as "Three corn cakes filled with fava beans, one topped with Mexican sausage, one with sauteed mushrooms and the other one with steak, topped with lettuce, sour cream, fresh cheese and red sauce." I would have preferred a slightly thinner corn cake, but overall I enjoyed these, and I agree with Gary that it would have been nice to order enough so that each of us got our own ... or at least enough to share amongst two people, rather than four. Buried as they were under lettuce and cheese, it was tough to discern where one left off and the next started. Note the full-flavored agua de hibiscus in the background.

Quite frankly, the moles all looked pretty much the same, but the flavors were distinct.


Pollo Borracho (Drunken Chicken), described as "Grilled chicken breast in a beer and pasilla pepper sauce, served with oregano potatoes and rice." Yes, this mole was a bit on the salty side, but not enough so to prevent me from sopping up some of the leftover sauce.


Mole Negro Oaxaca, described as "Chicken breast (bone-in) in our own delicious 32 ingredient Black Mole sauce, served with rice and beans." A very complex mole; I’m not sure I can still get my mind around all the flavors.


Mole De Tamarindo, described as "Roasted Pork ribs (boneless) topped with Tamarind Mole sauce, served with rice and beans." The ribs were somewhat fatty (in a good way), and worked well with the sweet-sour tamarind.

We asked if the chef was a Bayless graduate. No … but he’s a friend of the owner, he’s originally from Veracruz, and has spent years running the kitchens at hotels in Mexico City.

If I think of other North Shore Mexican restaurants that strive to go beyond the typical tacos and burritos places, I’d say Yolo might be in a slightly higher tier than Casa de Isaac or Lupita’s. It wasn’t cheap ($27 per person, which included a nice tip), and it’s not in Topolobampo’s league, but it’s a worthy destination for upscale Mexican in the close-in Northern ‘burbs.