EATT from the folks at Rosebud

I would say this is a pretty decent joint for a restaurant that has one of the worst names I've run across in Chicagoland.

I had lunch here with a loyal dining companion today and was pleasantly surprised at our meal. The menu is sort of all over the place comfort food --and everything we saw go by us looked quite delicious and tempting.

The place is light and airy -- a lot of four top booths lie on the east wall and I had booth envy -- we ate later so we were sat at a four top in the middle of the room -- it was wobbly. Probably the least pleasant aspect of our lunch but I can live with a wobbly table every now and then. The menu was filled with high caloric but tempting options. We both had soup to start -- I had a nice bowl of French onion that was savory and a bit herby but nicely browned with the requisite melty cheese (i think it's mozzarella and I do prefer a gruyere but it worked) and a nicely soaked piece of bread that still had crusty edges. A few too many onions for me -- I'm more of a broth girl, and this is a common complaint I have about French Onion, but this soup will be a nice lunch option, especially in the winter. My LDC had a cup of chicken soup with substantial vegetables and nice hunks of chicken -- it was a good chicken soup. Perfect cup size. Worked well.

Lunches were indulgent. I had their Prime Dip sandwich -- gorgeous prime rib, perfectly rare (it was delighful pinky red and luscious), dripping here and there with melty fat (and I mean this in a good way) accompanied by decent fries (thin frites, sprinkled with herby salt -- not sure if they were handcut but they were tasty) and a really nice little horseradish sauce as well as a yummy jus -- i wanted to bathe in it. All stacked between soft but firm enough garlicky bread -- a really nice version of the French Dip. This was accompanied by a decent dill pickle spear and rather innocuous cole slaw. Actually -- the cole slaw was fairly tasteless. But...it was a great sandwich and a substantial size. I have half for dinner.
My companion had a gargantuan plate of meatloaf with mashed potatoes, gravy, mushrooms and these really lovely onion strings. I am not much of a meatloaf lover but this was really really good. He ate a third and was stuffed -- but happy that he'd get a nice meatloaf sandwich for dinner.

No fountain drinks -- but the espresso was quite good. Dessert was not. I wasn't tempted by the offerings but we tried a riff on the strawberry shortcake that had sponge cake and buttermilk custard with the berries -- but it was so sour that it didn't feel like a dessert. I did not finish it.

We will definitely be back -- probably multiple times because it's sort of a good location for lunch between the two of us. But there were so many things I wanted to taste, I'll be back soon. They also have tots. I love tots.

Service was okay at first and then became kind of indifferent towards the end of the meal (missing waiter, no water refill, hard to get the check). Not sure what that was about but I enjoyed my food so much I didn't care that much. I will hope for better next time.

EATT
6 W Hubbard St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 494-3288

These days every reviewer feels a need to be the first on the scene of a new restaurant, often reviewing places well before they've had the chance to work out the kinks. So I wasn't going to let TOC's poor review scare me, especially since it came out about 4 weeks after Eatt opened. I had a late dinner with friends at Eatt last night and it was better than what I was expecting, although they have some work ahead of them. But being a member of the Rosebud group, I suspect (but won't guarantee) that they'll be able to get things up to a level where they can compete in the neighborhood.

At least at dinner service, they start you off with a cheese crusted brioche (maybe a bit like a popover too) which was very good . . . so good I asked for a second one.

The only item I ordered was the blackened grouper sandwich. It was served on thick, toasted and buttered white bread (a little like the thick Texas toast seen at chains), topped with shredded lettuce, tomato and a creole remoulade (which I ordered on the side). My only complaint with the sandwich was the ridiculous amount of ultra-shredded lettuce atop the fish. But the fish had a really nice blackening seasoning, and was cooked perfectly. Overall, I really enjoyed it, although I don't think it needed the remoulade and it wasn't a very good version anyway. The accompanying frites were of the ultra-thin variety and tasty . . . nicely seasoned.

I tried a friend's French dip sandwich and I thought that was pretty good too. Nice quality, very thinly sliced medium rare beef, and some good fatty bits. I didn't try it with the horseradish sauce, but what I tasted was pretty good. Another friend of mine had a salad - I don't remember which one - and it looked like just a huge bowl of ingredients which had passed through a food processor. He wasn't a fan, but I didn't fully explore why. I could only guess.

The menu is a bit all over the place, as if they couldn't figure out exactly what they want to be. To the extent they are aiming for more of a comfort food-type place, I'm surprised that there are no pot pies on the menu. But again, it's early . . . who knows what the menu will look like a few months from now.

earthlydesire wrote:Service was okay at first and then became kind of indifferent towards the end of the meal (missing waiter, no water refill, hard to get the check).

We had the same service issues. Again, I'll chalk this up to them not having worked out the kinks. At least I hope that's the case. In any event, I'd return.

BR said...

The menu is a bit all over the place, as if they couldn't figure out exactly what they want to be. To the extent they are aiming for more of a comfort food-type place, I'm surprised that there are no pot pies on the menu. But again, it's early . . . who knows what the menu will look like a few months from now.

I was actually thinking something along the same lines -- I was wondering why there was no open-face turkey sandwich. Granted...i love a great open-faced turkey sandwich, so I'm always looking for a good one. My go-to in this category has not been as good as it used to be -- so I"d love to find another. The Ann Sather version is pretty good but also not downtown.

I know what you're saying about the menu but there were a number of things I wanted to try another time. If their roast chicken is good and juicy -- that will also be a boon in the coming cold weather.