leek wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:

Hurdler4eva wrote:Are the locations for these available when you sign up? Or are the locations TBA 24 hours beforehand?

All non-pop-up Xmarx dinners are held at the same location.

But they still won't email what that location is until 24 hours ahead

And out of respect for their process, I didn't either

Hurdler4eva wrote:Are the locations for these available when you sign up? Or are the locations TBA 24 hours beforehand?

According to their August newsletter:

X-marX wrote:We are switching it up for the month of August by marking new spots around the city. We will be invading pre-existing restaurants and opening for one day for dinner, lunch or brunch service. Expect the same Madstyles with a new format. Pop in to share some appetizers with friends, or enjoy an entree. Maybe even just come for dessert. Restaurant-style service; full on X-marx flavor. Reservations and walk-ins welcome.

[Emphasis added.]

I'm confused. Does a restaurant cease to be underground if it always serves its "underground" dinners in the same place? But, does it become underground if it "pops up" in pre-existing spaces? Or does "underground" restaurant = "pop-up" restaurant?

(Mild rant: What is with all this terminology? Can't they just advertise "Hi we're serving brunch at X place at X time for X price? Please attend.)

Others use the term "underground"--not sure that Abraham and co. actually refer to themselves that way. They aren't a restaurant. They don't have regular hours or a regular menu. They definitely enjoy a bit of schtick in describing their meals and hyping their events. Personally, since I've been to a number of their dinners, I've come to enjoy their exuberance. Others might find it a bit over the top but they are genuinely enthusiastic, creative, engaging chefs who happen to put out delicious food.

Don't knock it til you try it...

kpassen wrote:I just experienced an excellent x-marx dinner. Check out my new post on my blog for all the details:
http://chowbella4.wordpress.com/

nice pictures on your blog,

I get the x-marx emails, and just havent found the meal that suited me, or time to go yet. I hope to do it soon as I have heard good things.

I attended the "Greeknamese" dinner last night, the second in their series of "mashup" dinners. Greek and Vietnamese, who'da thunk it? (Although once they explained how they'd arrived at that combo it made sense: grilled meats, lots of fresh herbs...)

In short: Amazing. My dining companions and I were blown away both by the food--every dish was a smash hit for us--and the atmosphere. The space is really lovely and comfortable, the service was stellar, and what a value. $55 plus tip for seven inventive, delicious courses. Each dish contained strong elements of both cultures' cuisine and still maintained a harmonious flavor profile overall; nothing was gimmicky.

I will try to post pictures later, but suffice it to say that the second I got home I immediately signed up for another event. My friends think I'm a genius for "discovering" Xmarx--I gave lth.com credit of course!

We've signed up for two more too - Xtober fest and Halloween

went to our first xmarx dinner last night (New China Revelations) and it was a revelation indeed. Excellent food (the chefs just arrived back from a 3 week trip to China including 2 weeks in the Sichuan University cooking school and a week in Hong Kong), entertaining dining experience, great service, and enjoyable company (even though they were all strangers ). Highlights of the meal included a umami-full salmon head, eaten in the dark to help us focus on the textures and sensations of the dish, a spicy potato "fries"/crispy noodle dish accompanied by a glass of peanut milk, and a duck beak that was spiced and fried (I believe) and eaten "like corn on the cob." Most of the meat came from the tongue, but even after the meat was done i continued to suck on the bones/cartilage until I had to move on to the next dish.

I am not doing them justice in this short description of the evening. I will leave by saying that this is an experience any LTH follower will love and I hope to see you all at an Xmarx event in the future.

They are setting up shop for noodles and dumplings for dinner at Dodo May 2-11 (except Mother's Day) from 5Pm until 1AM. Dan Dan noodles, noodle soup, a few kinds of dumplings and some sides. Nothing is over $8.

I too attended an X-Marx dinner after they returned from China and overall it was really good. As this pop up is close to home and I can't get enough hand made noodles or dumplings, I plan on dining there a few times next week.

954 W. Fulton Market
312-226-5300
No BYOB

deesher wrote:They are setting up shop for noodles and dumplings for dinner at Dodo May 2-11 (except Mother's Day) from 5Pm until 1AM. Dan Dan noodles, noodle soup, a few kinds of dumplings and some sides. Nothing is over $8.

You beat me to posting about this. A few LTHers are planning on X-marx on Friday night following the debut of Jefe's food truck at the Block Museum in Evanston. (I heard a rumor about Zaragoza goat at the latter.) I'm predicting an awesome one-two punch.

I am really looking forward to the noodles at Dodo.

We went to the same New China Revelations dinner as amyandphil on Saturday night. They said you guys told them some of the dishes weren't spicy enough, so they amped it up for us

I took some pictures - this is the "potato noodles" it was supposed to be their take on a Thai Chicken Pringle. They dehydrated chicken and powdered it, and made a Thai curry powder, then fried these potatoes cut like noodles, and tossed them with the dried spices and some scallions and YUM! The peanut milk had a lime ice cube in it, and the whole dish was just amazing


Here's a pic of the salmon head eyeball - you suck on it and it's like the best fish soup/custard - but you have to get over the fact that you are sucking on a fish eyeball. The dish also had ramps and asparagus, so very spring. It was hard working around the bones, and a few folks at our table were squicked when they turned it over and it looked at them! Why they turned the lights down, I imagine. We were able to identify fish cheeks, and maybe brains, but fish don't have much in the way of brains, and this was already only 1/2 of the head.


Here's the duck chin. I wasn't as much of a fan of this dish as others - more work and more bones than I prefer, but it was tasty.


The desserts were also good. My milk tart didn't set (not sure how set it was supposed to be) but it was yummy, if very messy. The hit of the desserts for one fellow at our table was this Pork floss, seaweed, sesame rice krispie. They will probably be selling them at the Dodo Noodle pop-up as well. They were good, but like a regular rice krispie, one was enough - very sweet!


As usual, a fun evening, with excellent service and superb food.

deesher wrote:They are setting up shop for noodles and dumplings for dinner at Dodo May 2-11 (except Mother's Day) from 5Pm until 1AM. Dan Dan noodles, noodle soup, a few kinds of dumplings and some sides. Nothing is over $8.

I too attended an X-Marx dinner after they returned from China and overall it was really good. As this pop up is close to home and I can't get enough hand made noodles or dumplings, I plan on dining there a few times next week.

954 W. Fulton Market
312-226-5300
No BYOB

Has anyone made it to Dodo yet? Any feedback? We're planning to go tomorrow night.

May see you there, we're going tonight too!

chgoeditor wrote:

deesher wrote:They are setting up shop for noodles and dumplings for dinner at Dodo May 2-11 (except Mother's Day) from 5Pm until 1AM. Dan Dan noodles, noodle soup, a few kinds of dumplings and some sides. Nothing is over $8.

I too attended an X-Marx dinner after they returned from China and overall it was really good. As this pop up is close to home and I can't get enough hand made noodles or dumplings, I plan on dining there a few times next week.

954 W. Fulton Market
312-226-5300
No BYOB

Has anyone made it to Dodo yet? Any feedback? We're planning to go tomorrow night.

I was there last night, and tasted pretty much everything on the menu. As with other X-Marx pop ups, I was pleased with the food. The broth for the "brothy noodles," was rich and complex, and packed with tender, braised pork shoulder and thin noodles, garnished with pickled long beans. Though the pork dumplings were tender and flavorful, my only nit was that the wrapper was ever-so-slightly a tad thick. The ramp, egg and chive dumplings were delicate, and also delicious. For a full meal including a drink (Bicyclette), you can get out for $25 pp, which I think is reasonable. The cold eggplant side was also complex, a little sweet, spicy and even funky. The vegetarian option includes shitaake mushroom broth, which the woman next to me ordered, and I could smell the mushrooms in the broth from my table. They were pretty full, so be prepared to wait, though tables were turning over at a fast clip.

aschie30 wrote:I was there last night, and tasted pretty much everything on the menu. As with other X-Marx pop ups, I was pleased with the food. The broth for the "brothy noodles," was rich and complex, and packed with tender, braised pork shoulder and thin noodles, garnished with pickled long beans. Though the pork dumplings were tender and flavorful, my only nit was that the wrapper was ever-so-slightly a tad thick. The ramp, egg and chive dumplings were delicate, and also delicious. For a full meal including a drink (Bicyclette), you can get out for $25 pp, which I think is reasonable. The cold eggplant side was also complex, a little sweet, spicy and even funky. The vegetarian option includes shitaake mushroom broth, which the woman next to me ordered, and I could smell the mushrooms in the broth from my table. They were pretty full, so be prepared to wait, though tables were turning over at a fast clip.

Did you make it, Leek? We were there from about 6-7 pm. There were plenty of tables open when we got there, but they were close to full when we left.

Two of us also had the brothy noodles, ramp dumplings & eggplant, as well as the saucy noodles and pickled vegetables. Aschie30's spot-on with his description of the broth/ramps/eggplant. I only had a bite of the saucy noodles, but they seemed to be served with the same noodles, some ground pork & I leafy green I couldn't identify in a Szechuan sauce. Personally, I preferred the complexity of the brothy noodle's broth to the saucy noodle's sauce. There were 5 or 6 veggies in the pickled veggies...I didn't ask the waitress to ID them, but they seem to fall into the root vegetable category (varieties of radish & turnip, I think) and stalk vegetables (not celery or cardoons, but something similar).

The drink list had about 8 beers, 6 cocktails & 15 wines. I tried the Italian greyhound (cava, grapefruit juice, Campari & star of anise syrup). All told, our bill, with tip, for two came to about $50.

This was my first X-Marx experience, though since it's a pop-up I'm not sure how many similarities it bears to their one-night only events. The space is located on the hottest block in town--acrsoss the street from Next, Aviary, Moto & ING. (Maybe someone who knows better than I can explain it...does this space also house both Dodo and Dino's Morgan Restaurant?) Expect diner-style ambiance. Service was OK, though a little confused. At least twice we were brought dishes we hadn't ordered. (Tables didn't seem to have dedicated servers, which may have been part of the problem.) That said, dinner was delicious. I'll make it a higher priority to attend some of their other dinners.

chgoeditor wrote:This was my first X-Marx experience, though since it's a pop-up I'm not sure how many similarities it bears to their one-night only events.

It's quite different. As a long-time supporter and fan of the group (all the way back to their South Loop days), I would say the pop-ups are a good introduction to their culinary point of view, but the dinners, especially the multi-hour junkets, are quite a unique experience.

Hope to see you at an upcoming dinner.

Yep, we arrived around 7:45. 5 people, got everything on the menu except dessert It was all good, but the brothy noodles and the eggplant were my faves. Definitely want to go back. We could have eaten more, but went over to Aviary afterwards for drinks and bites.

Have to say, I'd go back to the XmarX pop-up in a heartbeat. Aviary, well, now I've done that.

chgoeditor wrote:I only had a bite of the saucy noodles, but they seemed to be served with the same noodles, some ground pork & I leafy green I couldn't identify in a Szechuan sauce.

Overnight it dawned on me that the leafy green was probably a ramp. The ramp dumplings should have been my first clue!

We went to X-marx at Dodo last night. The place wasn't even half full around 8pm, which is unbelievable given the quality of food and value. Like previous posters, we ordered one of everything savory. I plan to go back and eat everything again before the pop-up closes next week. My photos are poor, but they give some idea:

Menu:


Brothy Noodles:


Saucy Noodles:


Dumplings being drizzled with chili oil (imagine x2):


Five-Flavor Eggplant:


Garlic-Smacked Cucumber:


Smoked Tofu & Royal Trumpet Salad:


Jump Water Pickled Vegetables:

The brothy noodles, smoked tofu and pork dumplings were the highlight for me--and an unexpectedly well made Negroni.

This was an interesting food week:the hype and spectacle (and EXPENSE) of Next/Aviary v. the best 1x2x3x4 punch night I may have ever experienced: jefe's food truck (spectacular ramp and shitake taco, unctuous and craveworthy goat torta ahogado), Bar De Ville Sazerac, Flour & Bones (see above) and small cup of 1/2 Mexican Chocolate, 1/2 goat cheese cashew caramel gelato from Black Dog--I'm not exxagerating to say that Next/Aviary had not a SINGLE bite or sip that rivaled the numerous highlights last night. The cost of Next Aviary ($210/pp) v. last night ($40/pp): enough said.

The highlights last night for me were the ramp and chive dumplings by far, slightly sweet note combined with the richness of the ramps and a touch of chili oil, I could have eaten a huge bowl of these things. Also excellent were both types of noodles, the saucy a touch spicier than the brothy but the brothy a bit more complex. Less successful but still decent was the smoked tofu and trumpet salad, which though refreshing, had a smell redolent of Beggin' Strips (yes, the dog treats). The cocktails were pretty boring, but they were being made by folks from Dodo, not X-marx. I think I'll probably stick with beer/water next time.

I hope they do more popups at Dodo, as it's nice to have this quality of food in the area.