Masa Azul

Just back from the friends and family dinner debut of Jonathan Zaragoza's first menu as an executive chef and I thought it was terrific. Full disclosure--all food was half price. So tried to judge the food both on taste and whether it was worth the higher price tag (drinks in the $9-12 range, apps $5-10, entrees $20-22) and I came away thinking that it certainly was.

There were only 2 of us and I was still pretty full from yesterday's picnic gorge fest so we didn't try a ton of things but enough to get a feel for the place and everything was consistently delicious. Started simply with Guacamole (white onion, cilantro, serrano chile, housemade totopos, $8 and Salsa de molcajete (roasted tomatillos, arbol chile, roasted garlic, housemade totopos, $5)--particularly loved the guac--fresh, bright, right amount of chunk and crunch. The salsa was pretty tame but tasty--wouldn't have minded a bit more heat. Next up was the Czar salad (baby gem lettuce, avocado caesar dressing, pickled jicama, cotija fritters, $10)--really nicely done--perfectly dressed, fritters a great sub for croutons--took something that is usually boring and made it fun. Finally, for entrees, we had the grilled flat iron steak with ancho potatoes, rajas con crema and lime and the grilled squab with mole Oaxaqueño, wild rice, and the best Scotch Egg I've ever had--perfectly runny, wrapped in chorizo and panko bread crumbs and half of it destined to be my breakfast tomorrow. Execution was perfect--everything was timed right and flowed smoothly. Service was friendly, laid back yet efficient. I only tried one cocktail, the Autumn--Hacienda de Chihuahua Anejo, tart cherry, allspice, citrus, Chicago Old Town Spiced Sugar, $10--it was a bit sweet for my taste but definitely tasted like fall.

It's an interesting location--nothing really right around there, although I did run into Abraham and Adrienne, formerly of Xmarx, who are opening a place on the same block--but there's plenty of parking and a pretty outdoor side patio. I look forward to seeing how Jonathan progresses with the menu--seems like he's off to a great start. And no goat to be found

Masa Azul
2901 W. Diversey Ave
Chicago, IL
(773) 687-0300 ‎
http://www.masaazul.com

My one caveat up front: my wife and I shared only three appetizers and a dessert; we did not have a main dish.

That said, this place knocked it out of the park for me. Nice room, good service, blah blah. Here's the food:

Corn (Elote) Soup: The bowl comes with a dollop of cilantro pesto and bits of bacon on the bottom. Then they pour the creamed, roasted corn soup over that. First you taste the soup itself, and it's excellent, but then you stir in the pesto and bacon, and the layers of flavor unfold. One of the best creamed vegetable soups I've had in a while, and I can't think of any restaurant in town (El Ideas, Topolobampo, etc.) where this wouldn't be a stand out.
Mushroom taco (two for the appetizer serving): Start with the hand made tortillas, which are slightly thicker and doughier than I've ever had, and amazingly good. Then add well seasoned mushrooms, lightly battered and fried onion slices, and a zingy salsa on the side, so you can use as much as you want.
Pork taco: shredded pork, with pickled onion and a fruity, hot, habenero salsa on the side. Just a few ingredients, but each was outstanding. You got a balance of rich stewed meat, sweet pickles, chewy corn and a fiery salsa. As good a taco as I can remember. Was on a much higher level than what we had an Antique Taco, and I really liked Antique Taco.
Dessert: They only have one at this point, and it's churros with a dark chocolate, chili, dipping sauce. The churro was perfect, but the dipping sauce, well, I spooned up every drop we didn't use for dipping. I usually don't like chili in chocolate; why ruin a good thing? But here, the hint of chili just heightened the flavor of the already top quality dark chocolate.

I hope this place finds a following. The menu is a bit small, but based on what we sampled, the quality couldn't be higher.

Jonah
P.S. If it's not clear from the review, I really liked my meal.

Jonah wrote:I usually don't like chili in chocolate; why ruin a good thing?

Hmmm . . . which is ruining which? Just kidding really, although I'm sure there are people on both sides of this fence.

like all that we had to eat.& the drinks was very good
i will be back

Four of us had dinner at Masa Azul on Tuesday evening and plan on returning in the very near future. The room was welcoming, the service friendly and efficient and the food was outstanding. The bar is very tequila focused and we did not try any of the cocktails (all of which feature tequila) but the cocktail list looked very inviting. We did have a glass or two of anejo after dinner and it was a nice way to end our meal. The wine list is very small with four each of the sparkling, white and red wine choices, all of which are available by the glass.

When we arrived at 7:00, the dining room was sparsely populated but seemed to fill up around 8:00. We were told that it was taco Tuesday and started with a plate of excellent daily special shrimp tacos prepared Baja style on an outstanding house made tortilla. In addition, we had a bowl of sopa Azteca. It seemed as though the tortillas were pureed with the stock in the soup giving it a slightly thicker than normal texture and a "corny" flavor. We moved on tho the czar salad, which is a take on a Ceasar and was very good. For entrees we had one of each of the five items available from the menu:

Bistec grilled flat iron steak, ancho potatoes, rajas con crema, lime
Scallops sweet potato puree, arugula, chorizo
Pichón grilled squab, mole Oaxaqueño, wild rice, Mexican Scotch egg
Camarones chipotle shrimp, cotija grits, cilantro pesto
Chile Relleno Chihuahua-stuffed poblano, rice, chipotle slaw

The kitchen substituted quail for the squab in the second course. All of the entrees were excellent. The grits and potatoes served with the shrimp and the steak were very decadent. The entrees top out around $20 and the overall the menu is very fairly priced. We licked all of the plates clean by the time that they were returned to the kitchen.

We ended the meal with churros in a hot chocolate sauce.

If I had a complaint, it might be that one or two of the entree portions might have been on the smallish side.

Based on my one experience. I would include Masa Azul in the top tier of "upscale" Mexican restaurants in the city. I can't wait to return.

I just learned that a goat dish is going on the menu tonight at Masa Azul. It'll be a Birria taco on a handmade tortilla with red mole, arbol chile picante, cilantro and onion.

Apparently, Jonathan is busy prepping . . .


Jonathan Zaragoza & "friend"

=R=

I just had dinner Saturday night and was very impressed with the flavors and composition of everything we had....sadly the elote soup was 86'd, so we tried the Sopa Azteca and it was delicious! with a full-bodied soup base a nice pesto and strips of avocado and tortilla...lovely.

The Pork tacos with pickled onions were also quite good, though they could have been a little larger...we shared the Shrimp main course on grits...I've never had such a flavorful, yet tender shrimp, the grits being a good foil, though like the tacos, wished for slightly more. We loved the chipotle flavored cole slaw that came with the chile rellenos which was a perfectly fine example.

All in all a wonderful meal...I will go back!

Had dinner with a friend there on Friday as well--we kept it simple, trying all 4 tacos--2 specials (goat and pork belly) and 2 regular menu offerings (mushroom and cochinita). All were delicious but my favorites were the goat (duh!) and the mushroom. We also had the molcajeta salsa and guac. New menu debuts today with both special tacos on it, as well as the scotch egg as an app and a new baja style shrimp taco and a couple of new soups (roasted butternut squash with duck confit looks pretty tempting). Jonathan has a particularly deft hand with sauces, salsas and soups and the good sense to keep the menu manageable so that the kitchen executes consistently. I've really enjoyed my two visits and look forward to more.

I had dinner here last night with a couple of friends, so we managed to sample a great deal of the menu, and everything was incredibly spot-on. The drinks, the service, the food, everything, perfect, I am amazed that it isn't constantly packed. A highlight of our meal was the scotch egg - Jonathan clearly learned some tricks from Art at PHB, as the center was beautifully runny. Looking forward to returning sooner rather than later, this place is a real gem.

Meant to post on this a while back but I attended a collaboration dinner reuniting Jonathan Z. and our own Jefe, Eric M., a few weeks ago at Masa Azul.

Menu was:
Queso Fun­dido– rajas, chichar­ron, totopos
Taco Salad– tor­tilla bowl, guacamole
Skip’s Tacos– crispy tor­tilla, chorizo, frijoles
Sloppy José– goat pica­dillo, jalapeño goat queso
Bur­rito de Carne Deshe­brada Suizo– hand­made tor­tilla, bar­ba­coa, salsa negra
Fries & Choco­late Milk­shake– churro “frites”, Abuelita licuado

All was delicious but highlights for me were the Sloppy Joes with goat picadillo and the Burrito with an absolutely wonderful salsa negra. Jon Z. and co. seem to be having so much fun with the food and it continues to satisfy. If you haven't been, time to go!!

Went in Friday night with a group of unadventurous diners, and was surprised to see the menu reduced by about a third. Our waitress let us know they are doing a bit of retooling and to expect more items soon. With a group of four, we wound up ordering everything but two items, and it worked out quite well for us. Standouts were the birria and cochinita tacos, and the tostada de pulpo, absolutely some of the most tender grilled octopus I've ever had, I'd go back for that alone in a heartbeat. Drinks continue to be a strong point here, with the Gypsy being an perpetual favorite of mine. I really love how balanced it is, with a nice kick from the jalapeno. Everything here is so well executed, I really need to make a point of making it here more often.

It makes sense now after reading the above post why the menu seemed so barren when my girlfriend and I were in there a couple weeks ago. We came in on a Friday right around 7, expecting the place to be packed. Surprisingly, there were only 3 or 4 tables inside, and a couple tables open on the patio. We opted to grab a spot outside.

The server was friendly and attentive. Decided to start with a couple cocktails, I had the special of the evening which I can't recall the name of, but included tequila with an orange-habanero infusion. It was quite good, but I would have liked to see the citrus flavor stand out a bit more. We each decided to order our own plates since we were both set on what we wanted. I had the frijoles charros and grilled octopus tostada. The frijoles charros is basically a black bean soup with a lime, cream, and avocado added in. I thought this dish was good, but a bit pricey for what it is. As for the tostada, I see others have mentioned as well, the octopus is incredibly fresh and tender. The OJ and chile marinade is a great idea which I might have to steal for future ceviche endeavors. This was the highlight of the meal for me. My girlfriend tried the chile relleno, which looked great but wasn't exactly memorable.

Overall we will probably come back if the menu gets updated a bit, as I think we tried everything that interested us that night. Would like to see the portion sizes increase a little bit, or at least a couple offerings that are more substantial, even if that means charging a bit more.

We had a very nice dinner here on Sunday evening. The menu is still quite small, maybe 5 each of appetizers, small plates and main dishes. And when they are out of 3 dishes, which included 2 of the mains, it limits your choices! But everything we did have was very tasty. I think their shrimp cocktail might be the tastiest thing I have eaten in quite some time. I've been thinking about how to reverse-engineer the flavors in there all morning. DH had a really tasty cocktail, I opted for white wine. The patio space was nice, shady and relatively cool. Service was attentive and friendly, and we definitely plan to go back.

If you haven't eaten at Masa Azul lately, you really owe it to yourself to get over there and get re-acquainted with it. I had a couple of stellar meals there right before the holidays and in all the seasonal hullabaloo, I neglected to post about them. But I thought everything we had was delicious and made with care.

Highlights from the Botanas section of the menu included Sopitos (cochinita pibil, habanero aioli, avocado, pickled red onion, fried plantains), Esquites (roasted corn, cotija cheese, roasted garlic aioli, arbol chile), Ceviche (shrimp, lime, orange, onion, avocado, cilantro, totopos) and Guacamole (avocado, lime, serrano, onion, cilantro, totopos).

Over our 2 visits we also enjoyed a variety of tacos, all on handmade tortillas: Champignon (ancho-roasted mushrooms, cilantro, queso fresco), Puerco (braised pork shoulder, guajillo salsa, caramelized onion, cotija cheese, cilantro), Rajas (poblano chiles, onion, black beans, Mexican rice, queso fresco, pickled carrot, cilantro), Tinga (smoky chicken thigh, tomato/chorizo/chipotle sauce, queso fresco, cilantro), Asada (grilled flank steak, cilantro, white onion) and Baja Shrimp (masa-battered shrimp, pickled carrot, chipotle mayo, red cabbage, handmade tortillas). There wasn't one thing I wouldn't eagerly order again.

As for the bar, there is no better restaurant or bar in Chicago for enjoying Agave-based spirits. At Maza Azul, the cocktails are creative and tasty but it's their deep selection of destilados de agave that really distinguishes the place. And on top of being a super nice guy, Jason Lerner, the owner, is as passionate and knowledgeable about these spirits as anyone could be. He's also very generous with his knowledge.

I always liked Masa Azul but with the surge of new places in Logan over the past few years, it kind of fell off my radar. No more. I'm making it a priority to stop in and enjoy their offerings more often.

=R=

We returned to Masa Azul last night after an initial visit a few years ago. It should be noted that Jonathan Zaragoza left sometime last year. At least from the news reports it appears to have been an amicable parting as he stayed on for a while to train his replacement (I saw no announcement of who that was). The menu, however, seems clearly to be the one developed by Zaragoza and the food seemed to be much the same as last time (which is a good thing!). I can echo Ronnie S's comments in that we had many of the same dishes and enjoyed them quite a lot.

My only small gripe is that by the time we left the restaurant was full and it was a bit too noisy for me, although I am admittedly pretty intolerant of noise. Dinner at a Trappist Monastery might be my ideal.