kindofabigdeal wrote:I'll be a solo walk-in at 430 on friday. Good chance of getting in? Good place for a solo diner?

I don't think you'll have a problem getting in, but Girl & the Goat is, in my opinion, a place more suitable for dining with a group due to the shared plates nature of the food. Of course, you could order several dishes to sample yourself and curate your own personal tasting menu. There are just so many interesting dishes that you might be tempted to order far more than you could possibly finish on your own.

Any thoughts on bringing a 1 year old here for an early dinner (say 5pm or so) - anyone done it or seen them? High chairs?

Are there bar seats? would it be legit to come in at 430 for just a couple small plates?

kindofabigdeal wrote:Are there bar seats? would it be legit to come in at 430 for just a couple small plates?

yes, and yes. justjoan

bmdaniel wrote:Any thoughts on bringing a 1 year old here for an early dinner (say 5pm or so) - anyone done it or seen them? High chairs?

I bring the kids to restaurants a lot, and I personally wouldn't feel at all comfortable bringing them here. Though it's worth noting that I tend to be pretty conservative about such things.

bmdaniel wrote:Any thoughts on bringing a 1 year old here for an early dinner (say 5pm or so) - anyone done it or seen them? High chairs?

It is pretty tight seating. Being childless, I'm not sure how you make a reservation with child, but I'd definitely forewarn the restaurant so you're given a table that can accommodate a high chair.

Good news about a baby at G&TG is that the staff tries to turn those tables mighty quickly. Not a dining style I typically enjoy, but with kid in tow that's exactly what I'm looking for.

We took our baby twice (5 pm) and had no issues. He ate beef tongue and loved it. Just let them know so they can be ready with the highchair.

bmdaniel wrote:Any thoughts on bringing a 1 year old here for an early dinner (say 5pm or so) - anyone done it or seen them? High chairs?

Last time I was there, there was a young couple with a (pretty close to) newborn sitting in the lounge next to me. The staff didn't seem to be at all annoyed with the fact that they'd brought an infant (anybody with kids will understand the significance of what I just wrote).

Plus, it's loud enough in there to easily drown out 1-year-old cries

I will say that if your 1-year-old is very mobile you might want to give it some consideration...it's not a place I'd have wanted to take our son at 1, because he constantly wanted to walk around at that age and it's really not a good place for that at all (unless you want to make a bunch of trips outside).

Yumbly wrote:Last time I was there, there was a young couple with a (pretty close to) newborn sitting in the lounge next to me. The staff didn't seem to be at all annoyed with the fact that they'd brought an infant (anybody with kids will understand the significance of what I just wrote).

Plus, it's loud enough in there to easily drown out 1-year-old cries

I will say that if your 1-year-old is very mobile you might want to give it some consideration...it's not a place I'd have wanted to take our son at 1, because he constantly wanted to walk around at that age and it's really not a good place for that at all (unless you want to make a bunch of trips outside).

Thanks for that opportune tip. I just tried making a res for 30+ days out at 7pm, and opentable is giving me the big middle finger. Looks like 4:30pm call time (who eats dinner so early? WTF?) for us and the 5MO.

TonyC wrote:Thanks for that opportune tip. I just tried making a res for 30+ days out at 7pm, and opentable is giving me the big middle finger. Looks at 4:30pm call time (who eats dinner so early? WTF?) for us and the 5MO.

Yeah, I call shenanigans on their reservation availability. I called 2 months in advance to make a Wednesday evening reservation for a party of 6, and they told me all they could give me was 10:15pm.

However, we walked in at 4:40pm this past Tuesday and found the entire lounge/couch area totally empty and probably 75% of the tables & bar seats available. We took four bar seats & told the bartender we hoped to enjoy cocktails until a more reasonable dinner time, and she told us we were more than welcome to do that.

TonyC wrote: Thanks for that opportune tip. I just tried making a res for 30+ days out at 7pm, and opentable is giving me the big middle finger. Looks at 4:30pm call time (who eats dinner so early? WTF?) for us and the 5MO.

You might try calling the restaurant. I've found that prime times at some restaurants (some even less popular than Girl & the Goat) are not available on Opentable.

And to answer your other question, my mother eats at 4:30. Is that what I get to look forward to??

On July 15th I went to Open Table to make a reservation at GATG for Oct 15th, wedding anniversary dinner, but the date hadn't been released yet so I tried about six hours later and could get 4:45 or 10:15. WTF? Tried calling but got the same time options. Hell, I thought I had an "in" as I know someone who works closley with the Cubs and Len and Bob and when Izard sang the stretch I was hopeful but even that fell through! What good is clout if it can't get you a freakin' dinner reservation?

hoppy2468 wrote:On July 15th I went to Open Table to make a reservation at GATG for Oct 15th, wedding anniversary dinner, but the date hadn't been released yet so I tried about six hours later and could get 4:45 or 10:15. WTF? Tried calling but got the same time options. Hell, I thought I had an "in" as I know someone who works closley with the Cubs and Len and Bob and when Izard sang the stretch I was hopeful but even that fell through! What good is clout if it can't get you a freakin' dinner reservation?

That's it for 90 days out?! I'll double up on the above call of shenanigans. I mean it's good but really?

In my experience, those kind of reservation times on OT are usually either an OT error or a misconfiguration between OT and the restaurant in question.

Sometimes, if you find yourself in a situation like that, if you went directly to OT to make the res, try going to the restaurant's website and try it from there instead. Or vice-versa.

Yumbly wrote:In my experience, those kind of reservation times on OT are usually either an OT error or a misconfiguration between OT and the restaurant in question.

Sometimes, if you find yourself in a situation like that, if you went directly to OT to make the res, try going to the restaurant's website and try it from there instead. Or vice-versa.

Unfortunately, in my case I didn't even bother with OpenTable - my stupidly-useless, 60-days-in-advance, 4:45pm and 10:15pm reservation options were offered to me over the phone by the restaurant directly.

I wonder, are the useful, normal-dinner-time reservations actually being snapped up the second they're released (à la French Laundry), or are they being held back for walk-ins, day-of reservations, friends of the house, people willing to grease palms, hotel concierges, etc.?

Oh, yeah, in that case, it's just dumb.

I've got reservations for this place and am having serious second thoughts. It is over-commercialized stuff for people from Des Moines, or is this serious food? I just looked at the web site and it looks like the first in a chain.

DML wrote:I've got reservations for this place and am having serious second thoughts. It is over-commercialized stuff for people from Des Moines, or is this serious food? I just looked at the web site and it looks like the first in a chain.

I consider it serious food, not over-commercialized, and not the stuff of a chain. Chef's style, reflected in many of the dishes, is to put a lot of ingredients in a pot and cook them together. It's quite unique. IMHO, with some dishes it works great, with others it doesn't. (I liked much of what I had, but not everything.) And it also is a place that some people love, while others don't.

When I have doubts about a place, I look at the sample menu on their website. If it appeals to me, I try it and see for myself. That's what I suggest doing, especially since you've already got reservations (assuming that the menu was reasonably appealing enough for you to make them in the first place).

DML wrote:I've got reservations for this place and am having serious second thoughts. It is over-commercialized stuff for people from Des Moines, or is this serious food? I just looked at the web site and it looks like the first in a chain.

I think you've got to go and decide for yourself. It seem to speak differently to different diners, which is interesting in and of itself, IMO.

There is definitely a strong branding element going on but it's unquestionably real food being served, too.

=R=

I thought my meal there this past summer was very good and very creative. I absolutely adored the pan fried shisito peppers with parmesan, sesame, and miso--lots of umami flavor in a combination I would not have thought of. The wood fired oysters with horseradish, bacon, and preserved lemon were also excellent, as were the goat, pork and veal sugo with fresh pasta, rosemary, cape gooseberries (also known as groundcherries). A very creative use of gooseberries IMO. The aesthetic is definitely of "a bunch of stuff you wouldn't think would go together"--for me, it works. I actually loved our desserts there, particularly the pork fat doughnuts, with yuzu blackberries, salted oat streusel, and malted vanilla gelato.

Re: reservations

For future reference:

If you are calling them to make a reservation, they actually take them SIX months in advance.

On OpenTable, they restrict it to 3 months in advance. But you can do 6 months in advance if you call.

If you are planning for something sooner than that, and you don't see a time you want on OpenTable, calling WILL NOT help.

The OpenTable site reflects their actual reservations book, "100% accurately" the reservationist told me a few weeks ago when I called. (I assume they are holding a good number of seats just for walk-ins.)

The reservation was actually for tonight. I'm typing this as my wife puts our twins to sleep after our meal.

Bottom line: Yes, it is serious food. I agree with the person who said that the style was tossing a lot of stuff together. It was an interesting experience in that it really wasn't my style of food, but I still appreciated it. The example was the scallops. They had bacon and other things that added a ton of flavor. I prefer a more stripped down style where the emphasis is really on the scallops. Reasonable minds can differ on that one.

The place was very loud. It was tough to hear my wife across the table. It seemed like a "girls night out" destination with a bunch of tables just being women somewhere between 28 and 42 (nothing wrong with that at all of course). There also was a strong after work crowd in the bar, apparently including some waiting for tables. I waited about three months. They waited about two hours. Whatever works.

Would I go back? It is not really my scene. I'm not big on the small plates style generally, I'm not big on that loud, and I found a lot of the food too complex. Rather than layers of flavor that sort of unravel as you go through, this was more a ton of bricks approach. Still, some of the flavors really worked. The place would not be my choice, but if a client (or friends) wanted to go, I wouldn't put up much of an objection.

Regarding the over-commercialization: yes, and it ran deep. At the end of the meal, we were given a flyer regarding the chef's book tour. Hey. we all have a business to run. If it works, it works. But just as I'm not thrilled with Rick Bayless's self-promotion (including signed cook books available) at Frontera/Topo. this sort of promotion added a bad final note. It really added a "this place is for tourists from Des Moines" feel to a meal that, although not my style. was still pretty good. I would prefer the fantasy that it is all about cooking as an art and the end was sort of a reminder that it is a business. Yes, I know it is a business, but I would prefer to avoid that emphasis.

Well, to be fair, what boosted this place to the stratosphere was not the food, per se, but the TV-branded celebrity of the chef, no? The food followed. And as for that book, it did literally just come out, or is about to come out, and I can only assume, given the interest in the chef and her food, that interest in her cookbook would follow suit. And frankly, locally, the likes of Achatz and Elliot have been no less omnipresent, and I'm sure their clientele no less composed of tourists, food or otherwise.

I've never eaten here, btw, because of the exceedingly booked out reservations, but a friend is taking me here in ... November? I'm looking forward to it.

Just to add a note about the noise level at G&TG... I sat in the middle of the dining part of the room on a full night, and I thought it was somewhat loud, but I could still hear my dining companions clearly without any shouting. So I would consider it loud, but not obnoxiously so. There are Chicago restaurants where I have had trouble hearing others at my own small table (including the Publican and this past Tuesday at Cooper's Hawk in Wheeling) but Girl and the Goat is not one of them.

Interestingly I made my 4th trip to the G & G this past Saturday. Interesting to me because G & G on the surface wouldnt be my thing.. trendy, popular, celebrity chef, etc...

Yet I have gone and return. the menu always seems to have a few items that really impress me. The cooking is rustic with bold flavors & basic presentation. That said I was disappointed the bartender did not know how to make an old fashioned(its a classic cocktail for gods sake)

Saturday we enjoyed some scallops served with pomegranite, fried brussel sprouts and a light pumpkin sauce. They sent out some of the most perfectly cooked scallops I have had. The galbi beef rib dish was the first dishes equal, a galbi beef short rib dish with grilled sweet potatoes and grilled okra, another pumpkin in this dish as well. The okra was my favorite thing of the night, grilled, perhaps a little balsamic and those okra slices popped.

Ive never had a reservation, nor needed one when I have gone, just walked in and enjoyed.

This past Friday (after Thanksgiving) we walked in around 10:15pm and were seated right away at a communal table. It was a little odd to be facing another couple who were strangers, but otherwise, the meal was great, service was excellent, and it was nice being able to watch the workings of the open kitchen.

We started with an order of pretzel bread with butter and thousand island dressing. I was happy that the butter was served at room temperature, as it should be! The bread was good, not great, but greatly improved with both condiments slathered on it. Meanwhile, our smoked goat rillette empanadas with mustard seeds, goat feta, tomato sauce, and fresh mint were amazing! Smokey and flavorful and fresh tasting, I was swooning the whole time. The goat was so tender and delicious. It was like some sort of Greek and Mexican and South American mash up that really, really worked well. I was impressed with the pan fried shishito peppers with Parmesan and miso last time, and on the second visit, they did not disappoint. Great umami bombs with the occasional spicy one.

We finished off our meal with the wonderful wood oven roasted pig face with a fried egg on top, served on top of crispy potato shoestrings, drizzled in a tamarind sauce. A delightful combination of textures and flavors. This dish is a home run any day of the week. I'm salivating right now, thinking of the meaty pig's face, smothered in runny egg yolk, over crunchy, tiny fries! So good! (Girl and the Goat, I forgive your ridiculous "book several months in advance" policy, but only by a little.)

kathryn wrote:We finished off our meal with the wonderful wood oven roasted pig face with a fried egg on top, served on top of crispy potato shoestrings, drizzled in a tamarind sauce. A delightful combination of textures and flavors.

Now THAT is, indeed, a dessert!

What can I say that hasn't already been said??

PIG FACE!!

After calling a few times over the past few months and not being able to get anything other than 10 p.m. or later reservations, we decided it was just stupid to try and make reservations for July or August (especially because we can barely tell you what we'll be doing next week, let alone the end of Summer). So, Miss Chitown and I rolled the dice last Saturday and just showed up at open to see what happened. Lucky for us, they had space at a communal table by the kitchen and we were seated immediately.

It's a fun spot and the food is most definitely for real. The wild boar sugo was really, really wonderful.

As we walked down Randolph, we had a discussion on whether or not we'd go back. I said yes, because the food was really rustic and tasty, but only as a walk-in, because I don't think it's worth calling in a reservation three months ahead of time. She agreed.

Traveling around as much as we do in the Summer, I guess we're just not the type of people who can plan out a Saturday night three months from now. *shrug*

I was there over the weekend. I had some time to kill between appointments and was looking for a couple of cocktails. I was going to stop into Au Cheval, but they weren't open yet (open at 5:00 - it's a diner, no?). I arrived shortly after open and there were many seats available at the bar. I had a couple cocktails (Double Barrel -Templeton Rye . Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac . Blenheim Ginger . Lemon . Angostura Bitters) and enjoyed them. We ordered 3 dishes, 2 of which I've had many times before. We had the green beans with the fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews. I can't get enough of that vinaigrette. We also had the octopus dish which is one of my favorites there. The new dish was just added to the menu. It was a tempura soft shell crab in a tarragon broth with thai chili aioli. I'd order this again...the crab was beautifully fried.

I want to hate this place since it is so revered by people who don't try other good restaurants. How many of the people that eat there would consider dinner at Balsan instead? It's like a band that becomes too popular. The food is very well conceived and executed, so I'll have to continue to bite my tongue.

-Matt