good call, thanks.

Kennyz wrote:

dukesdad wrote:What should we make sure we don't miss?

The LTH Search feature. Spelling it Topolobambo will get you better results, though your way gets some hits too..

Happy Anniversary!

Actually, spelling it "Topolobampo" will probably get the best results of all!

Gypsy Boy wrote:

Kennyz wrote:

dukesdad wrote:What should we make sure we don't miss?

The LTH Search feature. Spelling it Topolobambo will get you better results, though your way gets some hits too..

Happy Anniversary!

Actually, spelling it "Topolobampo" will probably get the best results of all!

you would think so, though - interestingly enough - my bizarre spelling of what sounds more like a dance routine also produces plenty of hits

Ceviche Yucateco was ridiculously good. I recommend to all! And yes, the desserts were great, although a bit on the sweet side. But I think someone should tell Rick there's a recession going on and it might be a good time to lower the prices to at least below $35/dish.

hungryinchicago wrote:Ceviche Yucateco was ridiculously good. I recommend to all! And yes, the desserts were great, although a bit on the sweet side. But I think someone should tell Rick there's a recession going on and it might be a good time to lower the prices to at least below $35/dish.

Doesn't that price point make it more authentic...you know...like NYC?

"Doesn't that price point make it more authentic...you know...like NYC?"

On the contrary. You can get 1st class food in NYC for much much less. It actually bums me out that higher class restaruants with known chefs here are sooo expensive. I guess there is more competition in NYC to keep the prices down.

Now that's a say-anything argument: Manhattan is better than Chicago because it's cheaper. I love NY the way Tony Bourdain loves Chicago, so I have no ax to grind. However, I just took a client to Gordon Ramsay at the London and found the tasting menu and wine to be just as outrageous as they are at such places here: $650 for 2 including tip. And it didn't compare favorably in terms of food or, especially, service.

Unfortunately, Manhattan (The NYC borough you seem to talk about) has a dwindling supply of the kinds of places that are LTH bread-and-butter (GNR's). Places where I would like to eat on a regular basis. I'm not Glamour Girl or a character from Sex in the City. If I'm at the Palace for a week on business, I have no interest in eating at Buddakan-type places every day and night. My luck might change as the economy continues to dive and the innumerable and mostly-indistinguishable $150-check French places and see-n-be-seens disappear along with the bridge and tunnel financial guys' jobs.

I assume you like spots like Babbo, Blue Hill, Jane (all of which I like) and whatnot based on the fact Blackbird meets your criteria, and it does seem that Manhattan has such places relatively well-distributed through neighborhoods.

NY also has fewer, per capita, really high-end tasting menu type places, which seem to be a Chicago phenomenon (and were one almost exclusively so in the US).

Anyway, it's convenient but depressing to be able to walk in and sit, any place in Midtown at 7:30, without a reservation. I did it all fall and winter. Now is a good time to eat in NY. It beckons.

Meanwhile, I hope you find more to redeem this little berg that worldly visitors from Paris, London, and even NY seem to find so appealing.

remind me to become one of JeffB's clients..

gleam wrote:remind me to become one of JeffB's clients..

Indeed, whatever he's selling, I need some!

=R=

gleam wrote:remind me to become one of JeffB's clients..

Have some one file a many-million dollar lawsuit against you.

Now that's a say-anything argument: Manhattan is better than Chicago because it's cheaper.

also it's easier to find a parking place

Top Chef – Topolobampo

Some months ago in that mix of cuisine and media that is now so common, Rick Bayless was anointed Bravo’s Top Chef for the season. Let me confess that the only cooking show that I have watched with any regularity since the one-time bizarre antics of the galloping gourmet (Graham Kerr) was the original Japanese Iron Chef that satisfied my weirdness quotation for the week. But weird or not Chef Bayless of Chicago’s (and the world’s) Topolobampo (and the more accessible Frontera Grill – and the now über-streetfood Xoco) won the honor. Congrats to you Rick. I was informed by our server that the four savory courses were recapitulated Bayless’s life in food. (I never learned the meaning of the fourth course – or the dessert).

To honor this occasion, Bayless recapped his star-turn five-course meal as a special tasting menu ($90/person) from August to mid-October. While I cannot rate the meal flawless, I was pleased to taste cable entertainment at a suitable distance.

As might be expected, given that the meal reveals his life, the first course was the most juvenile. Bayless’s father owned a barbeque restaurant in Oklahoma (is there any other kind?) and in honor of dad, the chef served “Hickory-smoked quail with Hickory House barbeque sauce and Iroquois cornbread croutons.” The dish might have been appealing to an eight-year old, but the sauce could have come from a bottle. It was sweet and tangy, but that comes with the territory. I didn’t find the complexity of Arthur Bryant’s sage-inflected sauce on this plate. Nothing really wrong, but not challenging enough. The spicy watermelon salad and roasted garlic slaw were impressive, but the course was short of memorable for those who did not share the chef’s life.



The second dish, reflecting Rick’s discovery of Mexican cuisine was better, but still within a normal range: seared Hawaiian ahi tuna in Oaxacan black mole with plantain-filled tamal, grilled nopal salad, roasted knob onions, and three-nut crunch. (Despite the list of ingredients these “sides” were not as visible as they might have been – often true on this menu). Bayless does make a sturdy, dense, rich, flavorful mole, although it is not sturdier, denser, richer, or more flavorful than the moles at other serious – and more traditional - Mexican restaurants such as Mixteco Grill. While I enjoyed the dish, I wished that the plate gave more attention to the creative accompaniments.



Third – black rice “a la tumbada” with Maine lobster, squid, mussels, grilled octopus, and homemade chorizo in tomato-jalapeño broth with pickled vegetables and prosciutto pearls(!) – was the high-point of the evening. It is was an astonishing composition: taste, smell, texture, and in its form. Again, the chef might have been more generous with the accompaniments, notably the prosciutto tapioca-balls. Still with such rich lobster, there was little need to complain. Here in this food memory the chef becomes a chef, discovering the possibilities of culinary preparation.



Overnight-braised suckling pig pibil with crispy pig’s foot croquette was served with sour orange jellies, habanero-pickled onions and sunchoke pudding. Ditto about the sides. But I found the crispy pig’s foot croquette was mushy: crispy on the outside, but squishy within. I admired the citrus jelly-dice, but judged the dish the least successful of the evening.



Dessert turned out to be less of a sweet than a teasing savory. Bayless created a warm caramelized tart of camote morado (Mexican sweet potato) with a swoosh of garnet yam (sweet potato and yam both?), spiced walnut ice cream, toasted homemade marshmallow fluff, and tangy caramel sauce. As the description suggest here was a last savory. Yet, its distance from a traditional sugary dessert allowed it to provoke thought. Each piece was well-made and thoughtfully combined. It was a dessert that inspired respect, more than honeyed love.



Despite imperfections this menu is the creation of a creative, speculative – if overly telegenic – cook. Topolobampo, not the most expensive of Chicago-four-star restaurants may be the most expansive, and we are lucky to be the home of Bayless and Oprah both – Olympians both.

Topolobampo
445 North Clark Street
Chicago (River North)
312-661-1434 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              312-661-1434      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
http://www.fronterakitchens.com

Vealcheeks

I searched, I really did.... but the only thing I could find in 2009 was for a recreation of Top Chef Masters dinner here:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2961&p=284944&hilit=topolobampo#p284944

Has anyone been here recently? looking through some of the older posts leaves me with a bit of dread, with many posters announcing that they'd never return, and a mental image of a chicken farm with abusive handlers but decent food....

So I have reservations for an early dinner tomorrow at 6, but now I'm a little concerned, does anyone know if they still have issues with their space/service? is the experience worth it despite the service? I'm just trying to get a feel for this place.

Thanks

It's in my business lunch rotation and is as good as ever, IMO. Service was terrific on my last visit, last month, though it was a late lunch and no one was looking for the table back. I'd say it's still one of the safest bets in town and you have little to worry about.

Do report back.

JeffB wrote:It's in my business lunch rotation and is as good as ever, IMO. Service was terrific on my last visit, last month, though it was a late lunch and no one was looking for the table back. I'd say it's still one of the safest bets in town and you have little to worry about.

Do report back.

Well, I'm glad to say that last night's meal was great, we were seated promptly, and the service was terrific. Drink recommendations were dead on too. I'm glad to report that if they had any issues with service before, all that is in the past.

We ended up trying the Top Chef tasting and the Jalisco tasting, and although I'm a big fan of Top Chef, I must say that the Jalisco tasting was better in all five dishes.

For starters we had the bbq quail and the kona kampachi salad, both were good, the quail was cooked perfectly, and the bbq sauce that was supposed to be Bayless' family recipe was pretty tasty, but we both liked the kona salad better. It was the right note of sour from the dressing and spicy from the crispy fried fish, much more suitable for an appetizer then bbq meat in our minds.

Next up was ahi tuna in mole and pork belly soup, the tuna was good, cooked properly and seasoned properly, there was nothing wrong with the mole either.... but the pork belly soup was just so much better the whole dish was rich and flavorful, and even with the fried pork belly, there was not a hint of grease to be found anywhere. It was easily the best dish all night.

Next was the seafood w/ black rice and roasted black cod. The black cod was nicely done, nothing special, but pleasing non the less. The seafood w/ rice didn't go so well, the black rice seemed to have been cooked using a seafood broth, and seasoned heavily, combining that with three other seafood and a super salty chorizo paste was just too overpowering. We both agreed that this was something that neither of us would order again.

The second main course was braised-then-fried suckling pig and overnight cooked-then-fried goat. I personally liked the the pig from the Jalisco tasting a little better, it was cooked until tender, then shaped into a cylinder and then fried to look like a tater tot. But of the two taters that were on the plate, it was a big surprise to us that the second tater was almost 50% fat. At this point I was almost full and didn't care to point this out, maybe we were just unlucky.

Desert was a white potato tart with walnut cranberry ice cream and a devil's food cake with pumpkin seed ice cream. both were great, but we both agreed that the nuts and pumpkin seeds in the second desert made it a winner.

Overall, it was a meal that we both enjoyed, a bit pricey, but for the food and service we received, we would definitely go back.

.... I initially took pictures of each dish, but we were seated in a dimly lit area and I didn't want to use flash, so I had to give up half way thru the meal.

My wife, brother and sister in law, and I had a memorable New Years Eve dinner at Topolombapo. We arrived a bit early for our 9pm reservation and started with a drink in the bar area. (They were out of ingredients for their seasonal margarita?! But the Mezcal Margarita filled in spectacularly.)

We each had a choice from three tasting menus: a mole menu, a menu featuring dishes from Jalisco, and a "staff's favorites" menu. The first two are part of the current tasting menu line-up; the last is not. My wife and I opted for the mole menu, while the others picked the Jalisco and Staff's Favorites menus. Nearly every dish from the mole menu was fantastic. We sampled dishes from the others' menu and they was equally great.

From the website, here is the mole menu:

Tamal estilo Misantla, Mole Verde Oaxaqueno: Creamy polenta-style corn masa tamal with herby Oaxacan green mole, River Valley Ranch oyster mushrooms, roasted Spence Farm turnips, peas, cucumber, jicama and pumpkinseed "jam." (Wine pairing: 2006 Nikolaihof "Vom Stein" Riesling Federspiel, Wachau, Austria)

Conejo Almendrado: Roasted rack of Gunthorp rabbit and almond milk-braised leg in Oaxacan estofado almendrado. Almond-crusted fried green tomatillo, Nichols Farm Yukon gold potatoes, classic escabeche vegetables, smoked marcona almonds. (Wine pairing: 2007 Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Blanc, Willamette Valley, Oregon)

Pescado en Mole Amarillo: Brown butter-poached Lake Superior walleye in Oaxacan yellow mole infused with hoja santa. Cilantro-flecked chochoyotes, braised fennel, dried black olive. (Wine pairing: 2007 Emilio Bulfon Forgiarin, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy)

Puerco en Clemole: Roasted "Pata Negra" pork in old-fashioned clemole castellano (dark dried chiles, pecans, pinenuts, hazelnuts, avocado leaf). Calabaza en tacha (raw-sugar pumpkin) bread pudding, caramelized brussels sprouts, shaved sunchoke, peruano bean-pine nut braise, pickled pasilla chiles. (Wine pairing: 1997 Terreno Chianti Classico Riserva, Tuscany, Italy)

Pastel de Chocolate con Salsa de Chocolate "Mole Negro": Dark chocolate cake bites with "black mole" chocolate sauce, cocoa nib ice cream, pomegranate jellies, ancho chile chocolat cookie. (Wine: 2008 Malvira' "Birbet" Brachetto, Piedmont, Italy)

We didn't do the wine pairings and instead opted for two bottles of red wine and then a bottle of champagne to finish the meal and ring in the New Year. One of the wines we had, Hedges Family Estate's Three Vineyards, is my new favorite wine. It is cab/merlot blend.

Service was very good. The pacing of our meal was great, but I noticed that the table of two next to us was moving much faster; eventually they asked the server to slow down. In the other thread some complained about noise from Frontera Grill. We were seated next to the opening between the restaurants and the noise from Frontera was not an issue at all. Noise from the mariachis is another story.

My bride and I went there in November for a long and leisurely lunch. Service was great and the food better.

Not sure if this is the right thread for this as there are a bunch of different threads for Topolobampo.

My wife and I had a delightful meal last night at Topolobampo. We each did a 5 course tasting menu for $85 per person. I did the Adventurer's menu and my wife did the Mexico City menu. We had to do a couple of substitutions because my wife can't eat dairy, so the tuna first course and the sorbet fifth course were subbed in for what is currently on the menu.

Service was impeccable. Our server had a deep knowledge of the menu and was quick to provide suggestions for the subs needed with my wife's dietary restriction. The pacing of the meal was perfect.

I could see how people might be uncomfortable squeezing into a few of the tables that are in there. Luckily we were there early enough that it wasn't a problem.

Drinks
Goose Island Marisol - Brewed with Rick Bayless specifically for Frontera/Topolobampo. Belgian-style blonde ale with that’s infused with tangerine zest, green coriander, and ugli fruit.

Blueberry Lime Mojito - Klug Farm blueberries, fresh mint, D'Aristi Yucatecan rum, fresh lime


Starter
Guacamole with roasted corn and crispy epazote leaves. Served with cucumber and jicama

1st courses
Patita de Puerco, Chorizo, Erizo: Crispy nugget of homemade chorizo and pig's feet, unctuous slow-poached egg, creamy tequila-infused sea urchin sauce. Dollop of smoked paddlefish roe. The dish of the night for me. The cripsy pig's feet/chorizo and poached egg were so rich and decadent. Very very good.

Tostadas de Atun: Tostadas layered with sashimi-grade ahi tuna, homemade green chile mayo, ripe avocado, crispy knob onions, Bayless garden microgreens. A nice bite of super fresh fish with a good kick of heat from the chile mayo.


2nd courses
Ancas de Rana en Salsa de Frijol Negro: Lake Okeechobee frog legs with chipotle-black bean sauce and creamy polenta-style tamal infused with red guajillo chile. Nichols Farm snap peas, crispy potato ring, Bayless Garden microgreens. The spiciest microgreens I've ever had. It was like I had dipped my fork in spicy chinese mustard.

Chile Ancho Relleno de Chorizo: Pickled ancho chile filled with homemade chorizo and lamb chicharron prensado. Pan-roasted lamb loin, porky red bean sauce, fried plaintains, Bayless Garden microgreens. I only had a small bite, but everything went really well together.


3rd courses
Cachetes de Halibut en Verde: Garlicky, pan-roasted Alaskan halibut cheeks in herby Tabasco-style "verde" sauce (peas, garlic chives, cilantro, parsley). Yellow fava bean mash, pickled pasilla chiles, River Valley Ranch shiitake mushrooms. Fish cheeks are one of my favorite cuts after being introduced to it at the Publican. Halibut was tender and meaty

Pescado Adobado con Arroz Negro: Pan-roasted Arctic char with squid-ink black rice and red chile adobo sauce (infused with orange and prickly pear). Roasted wild chanterelle mushrooms, orange-pickled guero chiles, City Farm verdolagas salad. The crispy outer layer of the arctic char really provided a nice contrasting texture.

Fresh made tortillas. I need to start making tortillas at home because these were so good. They have a sturdy toothsome quality that you just don't find in a lot of the store bought products out there.


4th courses
Pozole Rojo de Chivo: Tender, 24-hour braise of Kilgus Boer goat, guajillo chile and pozole corn. Crispy tostaditas, crunchy Napa cabbage, tangy lime, aromatic Mexican oregano. Super tender goat was good, but not as "goaty" as I've had in other places.

Puerco en Pipian de Maiz Azul: Braised Gunthorp pork shoulder and belly with pipian de maiz azul (ancho and pasilla chile, blue corn). Puree of Iroquois white corn, black beans and avocado leaf; garlicky braised quelites; charred Spence Farm baby Iroquois white corn; sweet corn "air." The pork shoulder had such a real pork flavor that it will be hard to go back to commercial pork. The baby white corn was delicious. I could eat a whole bowl of those by themselves.


5th courses
Chocolate, Cerezas y Cerveza: Dark chocolate cake with dark cherries, Oaxacan chocolate ice cream with Negra Modelo, malty crunch, "drunken" tart cherries. I'm not a huge dessert person, but the chocolate ice cream was awesome. You could really taste the beer in it. The cherries had great tartness to offset all of the sweetness in the dish.

Moist pumpkinseed cake studded with Klug Farm TK plums, Raspberry sorbet, plum, blackberry and raspberry salsa, crunchy crumble of pumpkinseed, sesame and amaranth.


Everything was excellent, but I would say the best of the best were the 1st courses, 4th courses and the chocolate dessert.

my god....

that looked like an incredible meal. I think i need to get to Topolobampo and do one of these 5 course meals asap.

great pictures, and commentary as well.

the wimperoo wrote:
1st courses
Patita de Puerco, Chorizo, Erizo: Crispy nugget of homemade chorizo and pig's feet, unctuous slow-poached egg, creamy tequila-infused sea urchin sauce. Dollop of smoked paddlefish roe. The dish of the night for me. The cripsy pig's feet/chorizo and poached egg were so rich and decadent. Very very good.

This was a nice post, but this really caught my eye, looks like a great dish.

Beautiful pictures wimperoo - and boy am I jealous. The food really looks amazing and I have not been to Topo in a long while. I called last week for reservations the weekend of Sept. 10-11 and was told that they are fully booked, almost 1 1/2 months early. So I'm on the waiting list and praying because I've got some demanding out-of-town relatives coming to town.

Thanks, it was really was a great meal through and through. I had to book reservations back in May to get July 31st. It's nuts.

I'm going to be the lone voice of dissent here but I'll say it.
Overrated.
Maybe we just hit an off night but we were disappointed with basically every aspect of our meal at Topopbampo last night.
We made a reservation about a month ago for a Wednesday night(there were no weekends available besides Fridays at 5ish for any dates on Open Table) and maybe in the interim too much expectation was building.
We arrived a little early and were promptly shoe-horned into a table positioned very close to our neighbors on either side. My companion was told not to leave a (fairly light, not a parka) jacket on the back of the chair so servers could get through so I wedged it closely next to me on the bench side. Servers had to do an operatic dance to get to ours and the tables nearby. The dining room is nicely decorated but was a little loud (and we were fairly close to a speaker).
We each had a different tasting menu (Oaxacan and Celebration) and swapped plates midway through so we went through a broad swathe of the menu. The complementary guacamole was fine, I liked the addition of crumbled chicarrons, but a little awkward to eat with the flimsy pieces of cucumber and radish provided and a bit undersalted. In fact, we used the salt shaker on the table for several courses. At an nicer restaurant I sort of like that the shaker is there but I don't think I should have to use it. The highlights were: the huevos and chorizo--homemade chorizo with an egg custard (chorizo, accompanying microgreens and queso fresco were delicious but the egg custard was odd, sort of crusty little globules on the plate and really didn't add anything, and the lobster and scallop dish with corn and tamales which was delicious. I would have been pretty happy if all the dishes were at the level of these two. The pork belly and shoulder carnitas was very good too, though I've had much better incarnations of these. A few dishes fell completely flat--escabeche with tuna and mussels--had trouble locating/tasting the tuna as it was lost in the chile broth, a pasilla consomme was a little bitter and the only dish that was over-salted.
Service was way below the level of what I would expect for a restaurant of this quality; my neighborhood taqueria, sure, but not a place with $38 entrees. I suspect part of this was because the tables around us were so close together and the servers had trouble reaching us. It took a long time to put in a drink order and place our dinner order. Pacing was really off--some dishes arrived almost immediately after our previous plates were cleared and then there were long gaps between dishes. In discussing the wine list, our server told us that the Bonny Doon wine is from France (it's not). As the plates were cleared for the last savory dish, we asked to see a menu so we could have a drink WITH our dessert. 10 minutes later our desserts were delivered (both featured ice cream so we couldn't wait for a drink to come). 15 minutes after that came the menus for drinks.
But how were the portions? Honestly, we had plenty to eat. But the tasting menu is not really a good deal. Our server stated that each dish is a half order of a menu item. So at $90, I think you're really better off ordering a la carte and sharing. Granted, the lobster and chorizo were the only dishes I wanted more of.
In comparing Topolo to other Chicago restaurants of a similar price point, for example Naha, I think Topolo suffers heavily. In fact, our best dish at Uncommon Ground last week was better than the best dish at Topolo. We ate at a couple restaurants in Mexico City earlier this year with similar fare (Jaso, Pujol). Both meals blew this one out of the water (my companion noted that the mole from the market in Xochimilco was better than the mole featured on one of the plates last night).
I know it's only one night (and two people's--one fairly opinionated-- experience) but that was my last meal at Topolobampo/Frontera. Too many other places to try. I love Rick Bayless's cookbooks and I'll continue to use them and I love what he's done for the Chicago food scene but I'm in no rush to get back to his restaurants. Luckily, there's lots of people who are.

Edited to add that the plates were really beautiful in presentation; I'll give them that.

Becca, you're not alone. I wrote this review nearly four years ago and made identical points. I was saddened to write it, sad to miss those dishes of Bayless's that are terrific food (which hardly means all of them), but most of all, saddened by our visit which was a bust pretty much from beginning to end. It's depressing to hear that nothing has changed. It's still far, far too crowded and too expensive; add mediocre service and there's no reason to return.

I had written a similar review earlier about Frontera and we've never been back to either. Given Bayless's enormous talent, his contributions to the community and to cuisine in general, I can find no better word than "saddened" to describe our experiences.

Gypsy Boy wrote:Becca, you're not alone. I wrote this review nearly four years ago and made identical points

Wish I read this before spending a car payment there last night...Sounds like a lot of similar issues, down to the shoe-horning. I do think Antonius's point that he is trying to serve a broader representation of the public is spot on. Personally, I wish I'd just contented myself with looking at the pretty pictures on this thread.

At risk of piling on --
I used to be a huge fan of the place.
Unfortunately, our last visit we had the same problems mentioned.
There almost seems to be an arrogance about the place -- "You will do thing OUR WAY" or forget about it.
Ultimately, it was a very unpleasant dining experience.

Topolobampo is a top-notch restaurant, certainly deserving of its Michelin star. That said, there were as many missteps as gems on our 25th wedding anniversary dinner a week ago.

Complementary guacamole was excellent, as were the trio of ceviches, but the beet salad was pedestrian. Everyone has a roasted beet salad now, perhaps it shouldn't be on the menu at Topolo.

Main course of Gunthorp Farms Rock Hen was excellent, well sauced, and plentiful, but grilled duck with a chestnut-ancho mole lacked pizazz and plate presence.

Dessert was the highlight of the meal, compliments to chef Jennifer Jones for her excellent ice creams and chocoflan!

The waitress made the mistake of calling the bride "honey" a few times, I didn't dock her tip, but we both found that annoying, and unacceptable at this price point. Wine service was very good, and glasses at an acceptable price point were available.

One thing really irritated us. We'd called in advance to warn that a wheelchair was in the party, yet it was obvious that they hadn't thought or planned for the issues that a wheelchair presents. After scrambling to revise their seating, they seated us at a four cover, but like many tables, this one needed to have the flap opened to create clearance. And of course, the flap was not level with the tabletop, making it difficult for the "chairperson" to balance her wine, her silverware, or the dishes. The table was essentially broken, yet they did nothing. Many other restaurants in Chicago handle these issues better than Topolo did this evening.

Bottom line: although an excellent, four star restaurant, there was room for improvement. Beet salad and duck dishes needed more intensity of flavor, missteps for a kitchen of excellence.

I had a meal very nearly as good at Mexique a week later, and I paid half as much. Can I justify a return visit to Topolobampo soon?

Hell no.

I don't blame you for being disappointed....not prepared for the wheelchair is inexcusable IMO.

Topolobambo was easily the most disappointing of all our fine (or finer) dining experiences in Chicago. The food was, well, fine, the ingredients fresh, but nothing we ordered was exceptional and I left thinking of all the great Mexican this city has to offer. The fact that it more or less shares a space with the bustling, loud Frontera Grill made the whole experience seem less special, too. As I eyed the throngs of tourists congregating next door, I realized that I wasn't getting much better service or food on my side. Which, come to think of it, says as much about Frontera as it does Topolobambo.

Basically, I love Bayless the food and Mexico proselytizer, don't love Bayless the relentless self-promoter, yet remain oddly indifferent to Bayless the cook. Maybe it was an off night?

Girlfriend and I made reservations for tomorrow at Topolo ages ago. Now we reap the rewards.

But I've never been there. What do we order? What's unmissable?

Also, the gf is a vegetarian (I'm not). The main menu only has one veggie entree. Should we ask what they can do to accomodate her? What about the veggie tasting menu?

But in general, what are the thoughts?