Dorado Restaurant

Mr. c d's and I just had our second experience at this wonderful new restaurant. Every aspect is outstanding, from the friendliness to the food itself. On the first visit, we ate light and rather traditionally: crab cake appetizer (that actually contained crab!), a spinach and cheese chimichanga with an innovative tomatillo sauce, and carne asada, which was excellent. We ended with the best flan we ever had. Even the traditional dishes seemed a step above.

For today's dinner, we focused on seafood. Once again, the crabcakes. We shared two entrees: jumbo tequila shrimp and the chef-recommended red snapper. The shrimp were fresh, large and perfectly cooked--and very garlicky (yum). The snapper fillet was to die for, with a heavenly guava buerre blanc sauce. Rice and veggies accompanied each dinner.

On both visits, the chef came over to greet us and thanked us for coming. He said his culinary goal was to take Mexican cooking to "another level". In our opinion, he has achieved his goal!

Prices: appetizers $5-7, entrees $13-17, desserts $5

Dorado Restaurant
2301 W. Foster
Chicago
773-561-3780
Ample street parking, plus a lot in back. BYOB at the moment.

Peggy

The duck nachos are a must try, too. And you can't go wrong w/byob.

Some entrees:




Chile Rellenos Mariscos

Some LTHers:


chef d'spirit, et. al.


jclifton, et, al.


pastel tres leches


JimInLoganSquare enjoying a cocktail

Thanks to everyone. Enjoyed the company and the meal.

Here are a few more pictures from the Dorado dinner; unfortunately, most of my pictures were out of focus. Hopefully Trixie-Pea had better luck ... and I know Food Nut was busily photographing throughout; maybe between the two of them we can provide a complete photographic document from this fantastic meal.

These fried oysters were amazing, although the sauce was rather pedestrian (just a standard cocktail sauce, not much horseradish in it):




Here are the famous Dorado Duck Nachos (slightly fuzzy; sorry). The duck is complemented by a mild tasting mole and a top-notch guac (we also had some of the guac on plain chips).



Skipping to dessert, here's the flan. I think it's fantastic, although as several folks pointed out, it's not really flan. More like a very thick, rich custard. One serving is enough for 4 people, it's that dense. I took the two or three visibly missing bites in this photo; that's all I needed.



Thanks to everyone who came out and special thanks to Mrs. and Mr. chef d'sprit for finding Dorado and cluing us in. As always, it was the people who made this evening so special.

JiLS

I'd like to say right from the start what a great group of people attended this event. This is my third LTH event and a running theme is the quality people I always seem to meet. As far as the restaurant was concerned, I thought the highlight was the service and the overall hospitality shown by the entire wait staff. It's not often you get to sing "happy birthday" to the chef! I felt the strong point, food wise, were the appetizers (as mentioned above). I especially liked the Quesadillas with shrimp. For a main course, I had the Chile Rellenos with a seafood filling. I thought that the seafood was unevenly cooked (some parts underdone, some overdone). Not bad but fairly marginal for my taste. The only dessert I tried was the flan. I felt that it was more like a cheesecake than a flan. Much denser than normal. Perhaps a variation on a theme but not to my liking. Everybody around me seemed to really enjoy their meals, though. I would definitely give this place an eager retry. Overall, a great time. Thanks!

Thanks again to Jim(iLS) and chef d'sprit for organizing the dinner!

I think everyone had a good time.


I had the red snapper with guava buerre blanc.

The fish was like buttah, and it was served with grilled chayote squash which is a favorite of mine. I loved it.

The duck nachos get the nod of approval, more for having tender smokey duck as a component, than for being great nachos. I found myself surfing for duck bits, and avoiding the rest. My picture did not come out great either.


Pigmon liked the shrimp quesadilla's a lot. They were tasty--but weren't more than what they sound like.


The fried oysters were expertly prepared--but I agree with JiLS, the dish could of been blown out of the park with a more interesting sauce. Thanks to o'rdirv for throwing caution to the wind--and ordering up all of the extra appetizers.

Everyone brought wine and a couple people brought tequila. o'rdirv brought one that we had made into killer margaritas. Angie and Josh brought the other bottle all the way from Mexico.


What impressed me the most about Dorado was their ability to accomodate such a large party in such a tiny space. The food service had great flow and timing. Our waitress Ronnie was a dynamo, and the chef gave hugs and kisses on the way out. It's a great neighborhood spot with accessible, well prepared, nicely presented food at a fair price.

Random note: Afterwards, some of us went across the street to Irish pub for post-dinner cocktails where they were just annoucing the winners of their irish? chili-cookoff.

trixie-pea

Thank you Jim, Chef d'sprit and everyone who organized Saturday night's event. We had a great time meeting you all and hope it will be the first of many LTH dinners.

Josh & Angie

Just had to come back to this wonderful dinner and say how much I enjoyed the company! Also want to mention the Bread Pudding was heavenly, and, if it's as good as the bottle Josh & Angie brought, I'm a convert to tequila after dinner. Til next time, best to all!

Mrs. JiLS and I went to Dorado tonight, and it was excellent and more or less completely consistent with the reports above. My high opinion of Dorado has not changed. However, and this is very interesting to note, a couple of things on the menu have changed -- and (at least partly) directly as a result of the LTH posts above. Specifically, the fried oysters are now served with a remoulade rather than the so-so cocktail sauce, and the flan recipe has been changed to make it lighter. Chef Luis came by our table and (what a memory) recognized me, and indicated that after reading the posts on LTH about our dinner, he changed the flan recipe. It was just as good but, indeed, notably lighter than the dish served in March. I assume the change in oyster sauce was also inspired by these posts, although maybe he was playing Leibniz to our Newton on that one. Just a somewhat flattering but also precautionary note for posters here; people are paying attention to what your write.

JimInLoganSquare wrote: Just a somewhat flattering but also precautionary note for posters here; people are paying attention to what your write.

As well they should. Thanks for reopening this thread. I had meant to get to Dorado, but it slipped to the back of my mind. I'm going to try to get there tonight. My goal: a good shot of the duck nachos.

As promised, tonight GWiv, MrsWiv and I went to Dorado for dinner in search of some good food and pictures of the duck nachos.

Duck Nachos


As much as I enjoyed the duck nachos, the fried oysters with the new sauce, which had a distinct sweetness to it were excellent as well.

Fried Oysters


I ordered the Chile Rellenos con Mariscos, and it was very good as well. It was served in a very rich cream based sauce that nicely complimented the seafood.

Chile Rellenos


The Wiv's also had some really tasty dishes. MrsWiv had the tequila shrimp and GWiv ordered the almond crusted trout, which was the standout dish of the evening IMO. I'll leave it to Gary to post his pictures of those dishes. We finished up with some tres leches cake, which was good, but not out of the ordinary and an order of transcendent flan. The flan was rich and carmelly and was among the best versions of that dish I have had in recent memory. If the flan has been made lighter than it originally was, I can't even begin to imagine how rich the original version was. This was custard heaven. All in all, Dorado is a great addition to the neighborhood. I'll be going back often. My thanks go out to those who first posted about this place!

Steve,

You beat me to the Duck Nacho picture punch. Which were, as advertised, quite good.



As were fried oysters with remoulade.


My Crunchy almond-crusted Trout w/caramelized plantains and spice coconut sauce was, as Steve said, terrific. Just a hint of chipotle, perfectly cooked fish, sauce to moisten and accent, but not overpower.


Ellen's Colossal Tequila Shrimp were firm, fresh and flavorful.


Steve's Chile Rellenos were very tasty and the Tres Leches cake


was very good, but somewhat overshadowed by the rich, delicious flan. Ellen, who loves flan, creme brulee etc. said it was the best version of flan she's had.


But it may have been the wine talking.


We chatted a bit with Chef Luis who, after seeing our cameras, asked how we heard of Dorado. When we mentioned LTHForum Chef Louis said that Jim (InLoganSq) and bride had been in the night before, and what nice people they were, he also said another LTH couple were regulars, but I did not catch their name. I'm guessing Chef d' Sprit, who, by the way, deserves a vote of thanks for introducing LTHForum to Dorado.

All in all a delightful meal, company and conversation most enjoyable, food delicious, service excellent, good attention to detail and a comfortable, attractive physical space. We'll be back soon.

Enjoy,
Gary

stevez wrote:We finished up with some tres leches cake, which was good, but not out of the ordinary and an order of transcendent flan. The flan was rich and carmelly and was among the best versions of that dish I have had in recent menory. If the flan has been made lighter than it originally was, I can't even begin to imagine how rich the original version was. This was custard heaven.

The flan in its original recipe was almost like German cheesecake; dense, thick and moist. Obviously no cream cheese, but that was the impression it gave. And I liked it, but it was a bit much. The new, lighter recipe hits the mark and is something two people might conceivably finish.

LTH,

MsWiv and I had a very nice late dinner at Dorado this evening. Nice bottle of BYOB wine, Creamy corn soup with crab meat and scallion, Colossal Tequila shrimp for MsWiv and Walleye pike for me.

The Walleye, which was a daily special, was terrific. Moist, perfectly cooked fish with mango glaze and crispy leeks. They were out of green rice and substituted saffron infused rice, which I found the perfect compliment.

We finished with good coffee, vanilla ice cream ringed with Amaretto soaked plantains and topped with caramel sauce. Service was seamless, price, $52, including tax, very reasonable and the personable Chef Luis stopped at our table for a short chat.

This was only our second visit to Dorado and I have feeling a third will not be far behind.

Enjoy,
Gary

Dorado Restaurant
2301 W. Foster
Chicago, IL 60625
773-561-3780
Street parking, plus parking lot in back.
BYOB

I, too, was at Dorado on Saturday night with a group of seven. I echo all the favorable comments made in this thread. A few highlights:

The staff is extremely friendly.
My mother-in-law wasn't sure if the rice would be too spicey, so they quickly brought a sample for her to taste. This as a very nice touch.
The chef has a fine touch with fish. When reading the descriptions (mangos, coconut, peppers), you might think you're going to get a robust, very boldly flavored dish, but I actually found the flavors quite gentle, just right for balancing the flavors of the fish.
My red snapper dish was the whole fish, which many places are afraid to serve.
As long as its BYOB (I hope for their sake this changes), it really is a steal. Our meal of four appetizers, seven main dishes and five desserts came to $240 including tax and a generous (and well deserved) tip.

Jonah

I love Dorado: the atmosphere, the food, the BYOB, and the low prices for beautifully prepared fish. Really, I much prefer to prepare fish myself because ordering fish can often be risky at most of the moderately priced restaurants I usually visit.

The almond crusted trout with the coconut milk-based sauce so tenderly joins the perfectly cooked fish. The addition of the fried platanos just takes it over the top for me: I'm addicted to the plaintain.

A chef friend was in town for the National Restaurant Association show and wanted to go to Fogo. Fogo is pretty out of the price range now as the wedding reception bills come rolling in. So, lucky us, he was unable to procure a reservation and left the choosing to us.

For all the reasons mentioned above I chose Dorado. No problem getting a Saturday evening reservation and the parking there is sublime.

We started with duck nachos and a queso con rajas.

Unfortunately, our inconsistent server heard "salmon" instead of "snapper." The chef of the group ordered the snapper and my heart sank. The other two orders, my fish, and a pork loin and lamb entree were dropped by a runner. The runner stated: fifteen minutes for the snapper. Yikes. Now, we all know why the chef ordered the snapper, (whole fish prep) and we were surprised to see some kitchen antics over this mishap. The grill is right in our view. The fish was not put on the grill immediately or soon after the mistake was obvious. We were surprised at how long it took the fish to get on the grill....

When the snapper had not arrived after the rest of us nearly completed our meal, I felt the need to intervene. Since no representative of the establishment offered an apology or anything, I asked to speak to a manager. The chef came out and apologized and I accepted it. I understood the mistake and said so, but also mentioned that I was embarrassed that I was finished eating and my guest, a chef, had yet to be served after 15 minutes and was abandoned and in agony as we all ate a really delicious meal. He said he was sorry and I asked him to comp the meal. He said he guessed he "had to."

I was thankful and mentioned LTH, which he was happy to hear and knows we are "really nice" people.

He did come out later and apologized to our guest. He also took the most expensive entree off of the bill, which I think was the lamb, and was appreciated as well.

I felt really bad, and the chef(nombre?) said, he is not happy if his guests are not happy.

We stopped at Lutz on the way home to pick up dessert, which was $12 for three slices of cake....it was so worth it...the next day, since we couldn't touch any food after the richness and quality of everything we had at Dorado.

The snapper, apparently, was out of this world yummy. Thank goodness for that.

Went there last night, second time in eight days, a really good place for the price, he has a really good hand with the seafood, that squid salad is outstanding and so is the trout.

But enough of such pleasantries, I have to relate the I-swear-it's-true conversation at the next table. A party of two couples, including a good-sized guy with dark hair, I had to look him over to make sure it wasn't somebody I knew from LTHForum (his beefiness, by the way, made for a nice contrast with the rail-thin vegetesbians picking at salad on the other side). My ears perked up when I heard a mention of Spoon Thai, and here, as best as I could hear and can remember, is what he said:

"Spoon Thai's one of our favorite places... we always order [some things I couldn't hear]... you know it's one of those places with a secret menu... really, they have a whole other menu that you have to ask for with all this really weird shit on it...

"It's incredible, on the Internet there are these sites where all people do is talk about stuff like these secret menus-- it's like, where to go if you're an antisocial librarian nerd and you want to talk about food--

"I'm serious! It's totally insane! If you want a laugh sometime you have to go to this site, Chowhound.com, it's like the ultimate site for total freakazoid foodies-- they just talk about the craziest tiny shit to death like where to get all the most obscure foodie stuff and where they have a secret menu, what to order-- it's hilarious! You have to check it out!"

At this point Susan is nudging me to give the guy an LTHForum card and tell him off but I'm thinking, for someone who thinks this is total freakazoid shit, he's awfully well versed on the secret menus at Spoon and such things. Rather than give him an LTHForum card, I'm thinking it might be more productive to ask the vegetesbians to give him some pointers on how to come out to your family and friends. Or (everything has to have a movie reference, right?) I feel like bursting into an imitation of the big scene in Tod Browning's legendary horror classic Freaks, in which, the acrobat having married the midget for his money, she finds herself at a party where the freaks chant "She is one of us! She is one of us!"

Buddy, you are a total foodie freakazoid and deep down you know it. He is one of us! He is one of us!

Mike G wrote:Buddy, you are a total foodie freakazoid and deep down you know it.

Mike,

Sounds like that fellow needs to fess up to his true nature and come out of the pantry.

Enjoy,
Gary

One must wonder, though, where this closet 'foodie' got his info on Dorado as his reference to that other site wouldn't have turned up much. The current incarnation goes back to 2/24/04 and I can't find any mention of Dorado in any subject line there. I do find it humorous that he would decry the food-obsessive conversations of such sites and yet admit to reading them - rather paradoxical. Mike - are you sure someone hadn't put a post-it on your back that said "I'm an admin for an internet food forum" and he was trying to bait you?

No mention of Dorado in the subject lines, but it does show up in the body of two posts:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 60249.html

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 60829.html

The second was quite recent, so maybe that's where they saw it.

gleam wrote:No mention of Dorado in the subject lines, but it does show up in the body of two posts:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 60249.html

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 60829.html

The second was quite recent, so maybe that's where they saw it.

I wonder wehere they got the information posted in the message in the second link????

Mike G wrote:....the rail-thin vegetesbians picking at salad..." [/b]

Hmmm, looks like all the bad taste wasn't left on that "other" food board?

I made my maiden voyage to Dorado this evening and was duly impressed. I had the trout, crab-cakes as an app, flan for dessert and my dining companion had salmon stuffed with carb. All were quite good as noted in previous posts. However, there was only one brief mention of the standout of the meal, the corn soup. I often judge a restaurant for better or worse by their soup (my opinion is if you put forth an effort on something as mundane as soup, you are going to put forth a worthwhile effort on everything). It was a simple soup, with a corn/cream pureee with chunks of corn, a dollop of crabmeat, and the perfect amount of spice. It was absolutely sublime. My only beef with the restaurant was that the room was very loud and yet they continued to play music with a driving bass beat, which just intensified the decibels. I realize it is close quarters, but I thought they should have just turned the music off.

I just ate at Dorado for my second time and thought it was excellent again. Corn soup with the crab very nice -- perhaps a tad too much cream and not enough corn, but still very good. Guacamole delicious -- perfectly ripe chunks of avocado. Almond-crusted trout was a showstopper. I never knew trout could taste so good (unfortunately, a friend ordered it and I did not feel like taking away her entire meal -- well, I sort of did). But my tequila shrimp were excellent. It was served with very nicely grilled and lightly seasoned vegetables -- green pepper, zucchini, squash -- and a spicy green rice which nicely increased the comlexity of the dish. Another friend had pork which was served with excellent sweet potatoes. For dessert, the tres leches cake was fantastic. It was a very large piece and for the first time for me, not overly-doused with tres leches -- leaving a little texture for the cake. It was served with some fresh strawberries (not enough though but for $5, maybe I shouldn't complain) and a drizzle of strawberry sauce -- excellent. All in all, another very good meal at Dorado, and friendly service adds to the experience.

FYI, Dorado gift certificates are on restaurant.com now (which I'm sure some of you have already noticed).

Limitations:

• Valid $ 45 , Pres. before ordering, not Valid on Fri or Sat, Dinner only, 18% gratuity

gleam wrote:FYI, Dorado gift certificates are on restaurant.com now (which I'm sure some of you have already noticed).

Limitations:

• Valid $ 45 , Pres. before ordering, not Valid on Fri or Sat, Dinner only, 18% gratuity

LOL, did you notice that the cuisine type for Dorado is "French"?

This is a great Mexican restaurant. Our entres included Chille Relleno con Mariscos and the Colossal Tequila Shrimp. We had a quesadilla appetizer with goat cheese and mushrooms. The dessert was chocolate chimichanga and was fabulous. There is a small parking lot in back and the entire place was non-smoking ! (That's great!)

Does anyone know whether Dorado is still kickin in high gear. I tried to call the entire day yesterday as well this morning but received nothing but a disconnection tone. The number i tried was (773) 561-3780. Has their phone number changed in recent weeks?

I just called their number and after that annoying tone, a recording says that the number "is being checked for trouble", whatever that means.

I hope they're still open, I was planning on going there this weekend!

I ate there about two weeks ago and there was nothing indicating they were going to be closing. It was per usual a good meal.