Leopold - Belgium in West Town [still closed]

All -

Had the opportunity to go to Leopold last night with one other and try out a couple of their dishes. Although they are BYOB right now The Noble Grape has a menu and will deliver. I am excited about the Belgium beer aspect that I am already planning a revisit just around that.

The space looks great. They did a nice job helping you to forget the old and ushering a nicely colored new room. It was a bit loud in there. This could have partially been to them rocking some sweet tunes (aka two LCD Soundsystem songs in the first 30 minutes of being there - made the night).

We ordered the Poutine, Rabbit, and Scallops.

Poutine has lamb sausage, cheese curds, and gravy. Overall pretty good. Would have liked to see the lamb taste come through a bit more on the sausage.

Rabbit was great. Copied from their site - "Mustard spaetzle, caramelized fennel + onions, duchesse prune glaze" Nice presentation and flavoring. Very much enjoyed the spaetzle and caramelized fennel. Not overcooked. Well portioned.

The scallops were good but not my favorite dish. From the site "caramelized endive, candied walnuts, bacon, port poached pear, crispy pumpernickel" Pumpernickel was a nice textural contrast and the bacon was delicious (shocker).

I thought the prices were pretty reasonable for the dishes. Total bill was around $45.

We did not get the mussels as the female is not a mussel eater but both tables around us said they were delicious. Next time.

Will definitely go back. If not just to sit at the bar and enjoy some fine brews and deliciously hearty foods whilst listening to some nice tunes.

Thanks for making your new home in West Town Leopold!

Leopold
1450 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60642
312-348-1028

HI,

A name is a name, though for most us the proof is in the pudding. I'm going to invite a friend who has warm recollections of visiting Belgium on business many times. I hope the food reminds her of those visits. I hope my next comments will be on the restaurant's food offerings.

I checked the menu on their website: http://leopoldchicago.com/menu I didn't see any cheese croquettes, which my Belgiumphile friend just adores.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

A name is a name, though for most us the proof is in the pudding. I'm going to invite a friend who has warm recollections of visiting Belgium on business many times. I hope the food reminds her of those visits. I hope my next comments will be on the restaurant's food offerings.

I checked the menu on their website: http://leopoldchicago.com/menu I didn't see any cheese croquettes, which my Belgiumphile friend just adores.

Regards,

Check out their moules + frites. That should tell you somethin'.

Steve,

I already read her some of the selection. This gal has to be motivated to leave Highland Park for dinner. My brief read through peaked her interest. If they had those cheese croquettes, it would be a bonus.

Regards,

I already read her some of the selection. This gal has to be motivated to leave Highland Park for dinner. My brief read through peaked her interest. If they had those cheese croquettes, it would be a bonus.


from their menu -

MIXED GREENS  CHIMAY CHEESE CROQUETTES, PEAR, MALT VINAIGRETTE

jenn37 wrote:I already read her some of the selection. This gal has to be motivated to leave Highland Park for dinner. My brief read through peaked her interest. If they had those cheese croquettes, it would be a bonus.


from their menu -

MIXED GREENS  CHIMAY CHEESE CROQUETTES, PEAR, MALT VINAIGRETTE

I just called my friend who was absolutely thrilled. We're going to be there soon.

Thanks!

Regards,

As a Dutch American with a lot of Belgians in my ancestry, I can't wait to try this place. I appreciate the heads up.

But no shrimp croquettes. Any true Belgian restaurant must add that to the menu whether it is a traditional Antwerpen Belgian restaurant or a Brussels Belgian restaurant. Is the menu on the website complete or only a summary if anyone knows?

Marinauser wrote:But no shrimp croquettes. Any true Belgian restaurant must add that to the menu whether it is a traditional Antwerpen Belgian restaurant or a Brussels Belgian restaurant. Is the menu on the website complete or only a summary if anyone knows?

I don't know, which way does a true Belgian restaurant go - full menu on the website or just a summary?

Marinauser wrote:But no shrimp croquettes. Any true Belgian restaurant must add that to the menu whether it is a traditional Antwerpen Belgian restaurant or a Brussels Belgian restaurant. Is the menu on the website complete or only a summary if anyone knows?

What? Seriously, shrimp croquettes are a classic Belgian dish. I agree with you... like not having moules & frites.

DutchMuse wrote:

Marinauser wrote:But no shrimp croquettes. Any true Belgian restaurant must add that to the menu whether it is a traditional Antwerpen Belgian restaurant or a Brussels Belgian restaurant. Is the menu on the website complete or only a summary if anyone knows?

What? Seriously, shrimp croquettes are a classic Belgian dish. I agree with you... like not having moules & frites.

I might agree if this were a Belgian stall at Epcot Center. But in the real world if an ethnically-inspired restaurant wants to put some iconic classics on its menu and not others, who cares? Does Rick Bayless have to have enchiladas on the Topolo menu every night?

Dolinsky checked it out already (of course). Sounds promising. BYO for now.

aschie30 wrote:Dolinsky checked it out already (of course). Sounds promising. BYO for now.

God, I like Steve Dolinsky and all, but that man does a great disservice to the restaurant and his readers by publishing photos like that.

gleam wrote:

aschie30 wrote:Dolinsky checked it out already (of course). Sounds promising. BYO for now.

God, I like Steve Dolinsky and all, but that man does a great disservice to the restaurant and his readers by publishing photos like that.

Absolutely. In fact, I have to say that not a single one of those photos is appealing in the least. The text is fine but jeez, are those the best pictures he can provide?

Gypsy Boy wrote:

gleam wrote:

aschie30 wrote:Dolinsky checked it out already (of course). Sounds promising. BYO for now.

God, I like Steve Dolinsky and all, but that man does a great disservice to the restaurant and his readers by publishing photos like that.

Absolutely. In fact, I have to say that not a single one of those photos is appealing in the least. The text is fine but jeez, are those the best pictures he can provide?

Leopold is in the old Relax space. It's very dark in there, and if he's working with a regular point-and-shoot, well, yeah, that's why the photos are bad.

Kenny's right, it doesn't "have" to have the croquettes but most places would have. Can't wait to try it--in NYC there was a supposed Belgian restaurant that opened that Bruni loved--I went there and there was nothing truly Belgian about it. But I have hopes for this place and am quite eager to try it.

DutchMuse wrote:

Marinauser wrote:But no shrimp croquettes. Any true Belgian restaurant must add that to the menu whether it is a traditional Antwerpen Belgian restaurant or a Brussels Belgian restaurant. Is the menu on the website complete or only a summary if anyone knows?

What? Seriously, shrimp croquettes are a classic Belgian dish. I agree with you... like not having moules & frites.

Hopleaf doesn't have shrimp croquettes either.

http://hopleaf.com/menus/dinner/

I went to Leopold on Wednesday night with my wife and another friend. We had a great meal, the place was buzzing from 8-10pm during our visit, and I really like the ambience (lighting, music, layout of the room, cheery staff, etc).

We split the mixed greens (with cheese croquette), mussels and poutine de merguez to start, and the short ribs, sweetbreads and smoked rabbit for entrees. I only had my blackberry and due to the low lighting the pics were about as appetizing as Dolinsky's so not posting them here.

We all agreed that the six dishes were quite delicious, nicely portioned and well-presented. Favorites were the poutine and smoked rabbit, followed closely by the mussels in the beer-bacon broth (a bit lighter than the Madras curry option our server told us).

They are expecting their liquor license shortly so get there now for BYOB (nice to have Noble Grape and Lush down the block). I am one of the wine vendors providing wines for their French-focused list, and it looks like a very nice, concise 50ish bottle list. A great selection of Belgian-focused beers will be offered as well, naturally.

I love Anguille au Vert (Eel in Green Sauce) so am hoping that they add it to the menu some day. Not holding my breath. I'm looking forward to trying the smoked rabbit.

AdmVinyl wrote:

DutchMuse wrote:

Marinauser wrote:But no shrimp croquettes. Any true Belgian restaurant must add that to the menu whether it is a traditional Antwerpen Belgian restaurant or a Brussels Belgian restaurant. Is the menu on the website complete or only a summary if anyone knows?

What? Seriously, shrimp croquettes are a classic Belgian dish. I agree with you... like not having moules & frites.

Hopleaf doesn't have shrimp croquettes either.

http://hopleaf.com/menus/dinner/

I've never considered Hopleaf a Belgian restaurant (do they advertise as such?)

Here's an example of what I consider a classic Belgian restaurant--in NY where I used to eat all the time: http://www.marktrestaurant.com/pdf/dinner.pdf

Anyway, no big deal, but Hopleaf wouldn't be considered a Belgian restaurant IMHO.

Actually, this close-up picture of the Poutine de Merguez did come out okay. It was my shots of the whole table that were crappy.

A number of posts in this thread have been moved to Perception: Restaurant Names in Other Culinary Chat. Please, as much as possible, lets keep to matters culinary.

Regards,
Gary for the moderators.

Had a pretty nice meal at Leopold last night. Our waitress said that they expect their liquor license to come through on Wednesday.

The steak tartare was excellent - I can easily see myself coming back for that. Everything else was okay. The mussels were fine, but not the equal of the Hopleaf's (I had the version that features leeks; the more traditional one, not the curry one). Good frites. The braised endive is served in a little crock covered with a kind of mornay sauce (which may be traditional; I have no frame of reference), but I thought it was a strange preparation - very little endive flavor shone through.

Skip the oysters here. They're doing the thing where they serve them over salt crystals rather than ice, and as a consequence, are not really cold. I decided that they were cold *enough* and dispatched them right away rather than complain. Glad I didn't order more than three, however.

Service was, as others have mentioned, extremely friendly.

A friend and I did a Leopold-Haymarket one-two punch on Saturday night.

jpeac2 wrote:The space looks great. They did a nice job helping you to forget the old and ushering a nicely colored new room. It was a bit loud in there. This could have partially been to them rocking some sweet tunes (aka two LCD Soundsystem songs in the first 30 minutes of being there - made the night).

I, too, liked the neutral, creamy palette of the room. And I'll admit to being an LCD Soundsystem fan as well. After we had ordered, I noticed Pandora on an iPad behind the bar. I joked with my dining companion that we should wager to guess the Pandora station. It was, indeed, LCD Soundsystem. (Our server said it had been The Shins earlier that evening, FWIW.)

We started with the curry mussels, which tasted like nothing. I couldn't detect curry from the seafood or the broth. I think my first post ever on LTH was to find good curry mussels in town; these are not it. I thought the fries were pretty good, handcut with some chew to them. Unfortunately, the onion aioli was also astoundingly bland.

Next came the scallops, which I enjoyed a lot. For me, all of the elements interacted beautifully: the seared scallops, caramelized endive, candied walnuts, crispy bacon and port-poached pears. To follow, the brussels sprouts were satisfying but felt somewhat redundant, also with the bacon and walnuts (though the walnuts in this later dish were on the raw side, should have been candied or toasted more).

Canadian-me is a big of fan of very messy, slathered poutine with distinct cheese curds. Leopold's is a very tame version--little gravy and cheese, the latter completely melted. Also, the lamb on our fries was more finely ground than pictured upthread. I would have preferred meatballs because I couldn't taste lamb. Leopold's fries though--rustic and hefty--are perfect for poutine.

We were comped the chocolate mousse because of some minor pacing issues during our meal. Both my dining companion and I loved it. It was lighter chocolate and mousse that really blossomed with the ground hazelnuts and powdered sugar on top.

Leopold is very promising. Count me a fan in these early days and grateful also to have it in the neighborhood.

I just got word that their liquor license has cleared and they should be selling wine tomorrow evening, so if you want BYOB then tonight is the night!

happy_stomach wrote:A friend and I did a Leopold-Haymarket one-two punch on Saturday night.

jpeac2 wrote:The space looks great. They did a nice job helping you to forget the old and ushering a nicely colored new room. It was a bit loud in there. This could have partially been to them rocking some sweet tunes (aka two LCD Soundsystem songs in the first 30 minutes of being there - made the night).

I, too, liked the neutral, creamy palette of the room. And I'll admit to being an LCD Soundsystem fan as well. After we had ordered, I noticed Pandora on an iPad behind the bar. I joked with my dining companion that we should wager to guess the Pandora station. It was, indeed, LCD Soundsystem. (Our server said it had been The Shins earlier that evening, FWIW.)

We started with the curry mussels, which tasted like nothing. I couldn't detect curry from the seafood or the broth. I think my first post ever on LTH was to find good curry mussels in town; these are not it. I thought the fries were pretty good, handcut with some chew to them. Unfortunately, the onion aioli was also astoundingly bland.

Next came the scallops, which I enjoyed a lot. For me, all of the elements interacted beautifully: the seared scallops, caramelized endive, candied walnuts, crispy bacon and port-poached pears. To follow, the brussels sprouts were satisfying but felt somewhat redundant, also with the bacon and walnuts (though the walnuts in this later dish were on the raw side, should have been candied or toasted more).

Canadian-me is a big of fan of very messy, slathered poutine with distinct cheese curds. Leopold's is a very tame version--little gravy and cheese, the latter completely melted. Also, the lamb on our fries was more finely ground than pictured upthread. I would have preferred meatballs because I couldn't taste lamb. Leopold's fries though--rustic and hefty--are perfect for poutine.

We were comped the chocolate mousse because of some minor pacing issues during our meal. Both my dining companion and I loved it. It was lighter chocolate and mousse that really blossomed with the ground hazelnuts and powdered sugar on top.

Leopold is very promising. Count me a fan in these early days and grateful also to have it in the neighborhood.

I'm headed to Leopold tonight. Sounds as though recs are scallops, fries and mousse. Anything else?

At Leopold, I enjoyed several items of note (including waterzooi, which is right up there with snert at Vincent as one of my favorite soup-like low country preps enjoyed in the past week) and found myself enraptured by the tartare, one of the simplest of dishes.



Jeff Hedin, the chef/owner, uses a New York strip (a better cut, I’m guessing, than most invading huns* had), and it was remarkably lush, luxuriously fatty, and satisfying in a very elemental, almost primitive way. For health reasons, I’ve avoided raw ground beef – not to mention raw eggs – for decades, but I took the plunge at Leopold and was glad I did. Dressed simply with sea salt, shallots and capers, this is an elegant app and one of the finer renditions of this classic that I can remember (though, as mentioned, it’s been a while). It was rough cut, which kind of surprised me, but given the tenderness of the beef, it was not unpleasantly chewy.

This was one of those dishes that actually made me feel greedy. I watched as others smeared the meat on toasted white and dark bread, and thought to myself, “Hey now, take it easy, save some for me!” I’m not saying this was an admirable or even acceptable sentiment, but looking at this rich red puck of raw flesh made me very possessive. I wanted to make it mine. All mine.**

Hedin is featured in MikeG’s recent Skyfullofbacon featurette:



*I use this term not in the derogatory sense, but as a simple historical descriptor, as in Attila the. I feel it’s important to point that out in in a thread prone to nominative sensitivity.

**This plate was sampled at a media dinner, attended by ravenous fourth estate scribblers.

I had mixed reactions to Leopold.

We tried both of the mussel preparations and both were great. If I had a complaint, it's that servings were small and no bread was served to sop up the lovely broth!

Short ribs were fantastic, as were all of the desserts. (We had one of each.) I'm not much of a pudding eater, but the chocolate pudding blew our entire table away...as much as we liked all of the desserts, everyone wanted more of the pudding.

Their frites were very disappointing because they were soggy. The moules + frites is served with the frites in a cone that's then set in a pint glass. I suspect that they're put in while hot and proceed to steam within the glass. Putting them in a cone holder that didn't trap the moisture would probably help. My dining companions & I questioned whether they were double fried. They're also a tiny bit thicker than most of the frites I've previously eaten, which could account for the sogginess. The frites used in the poutine were similarly soggy. (Yes, you could argue that fries topped with gravy will be soggy, but I had a bite of the poutine within 15 seconds of it being set on the table and they still weren't crisp.)

The beer list is solid, but limited. I'd estimate there were 15 beers on tap and another 15 by the bottle. I would have liked to have seen fewer mainstream Belgian beers (Chimay, etc.) and more lesser-known selections. I was with a group of 6 and we really appreciated that there were several 750 ml bottles of beer available. It allowed us all to try several different beers.

I think it helps to go to Leopold without any preconceived ideas of what it "should" be. If you focus on whether the place meets this or that standard of Belgian atmosphere, and if you care whether the dishes adhere to some arbitrary notion of French or Beligian or Canadian authenticity, you may be disappointed. If, instead, you seek to appreciate Leopold's food and atmosphere for what they are, an excellent meal awaits.

Take the cassoulet, for example - perhaps my favorite of an array of very good dishes we had last night. In an "authentic" cassoulet, the beans cook forever with very fatty meats, eventually forming a thick, incredibly rich, stomach-coating and artery-clogging mass that all melds together. At Leopold, the integrity of each ingredient in the cassoulet is preserved. Braised rabbit is tender, pulls easily from the bone, and has subtle but distinct flavor. Sausage is juicy, salty and has a nice little kick. Pork belly pieces are crisp on the outside and luscious in the middle, with a pleasant bit of chew to them. And the beans manage to pick up all of the flavors from the dish plus some nice acid from a touch of tomato, and rather than break down into spackle, they remain their tender, creamy individual selves.

I doubt that the seared foie gras with cranberry compote and brussels sprout leaves was taken from the menu of any of the Belgian restaurants the chef visited in his travels, but it was fantastic nonetheless. Perfectly cooked, sweet goose liver with a smooth-as-silk cranberry puree that was neither overly sour nor overly sweet, balanced well by the crunch and slight bitterness of the brussels sprout leaves.

Smoked rabbit was terrific too, with a deeper-than-expected penetration of smoke flavor and tender meat that hadn't dried out at all. With chewy, well-salted spaetzle that had been studded with what I think were some boozy sour cherries, this dish was hearty and wintry, but also well-rounded and relatively light. If I were a solo diner, this would probably be my top choice for dinner at Leopold.

While I liked every dish we had, some weren't quite as wonderful as the three above. A rabbit terrine felt a little dry, and wasn't helped by a thicker-than-it-needed-to-be layer of caul fat that tasted like wet paper, and whole black peppercorns that overwhelmed the subtle flavor. Veal sweetbreads were well-prepared, but served with a sunchoke puree that I didn't enjoy. When they're young and fresh, sunchokes have a light, delicate flavor that meshes well with other things, but as they mature in storage they take on a woodsy, bitter and - to me - unpleasant taste. I think these sunchokes were too old. Two of the three desserts on the menu were tasty, but I thought the "Belgian waffle" dessert tasted burnt and the texture was too uniformly crispy, without any interior tenderness. There was ice cream served with it, so maybe they're going for the texture of a waffle cone instead of a waffle.

Going back to things that might disappoint people if they come in with specific expectations, the Belgian beer selection at Leopold was more limited than I thought it would be, with a substantial proportion of American brews rounding out the list, which as a whole was much smaller than what you'll find at Hopleaf and other places that specialize in beer. Leopold doesn't, as far as I know, claim such a specialization, which might explain why the wine list was pretty extensive, with a nice emphasis on German, Alsatian and Austrian whites that paired well with the food.

I liked the meal a lot. I should note that I dined with a friend of the house, and although we paid for our meal, the chef did send out a couple of on-the-house dishes that we hadn't ordered. I arrived about 30 minutes early to hang out at the bar, and it's worth noting that the whole staff treated me warmly and graciously without any idea who my dining companions were going to be. The bar stools happen to be plush and comfortable, and I foresee a solo, dine-at-the-bar stop at Leopold in my near future.

I have a slightly different take than my friend KennyZ on the issue of preconceived notions. From what I understand, Leopold presents itself as a Belgian restaurant. Therefore, the standard Belgian dishes served should be of proper standard. When I read about frites that are soggy, that's a deal breaker for me. No self-respecting Belgian would serve (or eat) soggy fries.

Have you ever been to a restaurant in another country that advertised itself as American, and eaten there, only to think "not really American, that's for sure." Having spent a few weeks in Paris, for instance, I was longing for American type food. As I was walking one night, I passed a restaurant that advertised itself as "American" and went in. The hamburger or the ribs certainly wouldn't have passed muster in the USA, but the French ate away. I think we might go to this type of restaurant and say "certainly not 'real' American" but one could argue "no, but take it on its own without preconceived notions." My reply would be that it might be good, but its not "authentic" American, using this example. I guess I'm just saying there are some absolutes when it comes to national dishes--whether they be from the USA, France, Holland, Belgium, wherever, and to say "don't have preconceived notions, just take it on its own terms" falls a bit short for these absolutes--at least for me.

I understand your essential point, and sympathize with it, but I guess being of dutch (and Belgian) descent, I just can't agree with certain standard dishes that aren't prepared properly as defined by that traditional culture.

By the way--cassoulet? Belgian?!