Bistro Dre

Bistro Dre is quite a bargain; the menu is a fusion of Parisian and contemporary American cuisine and best enjoyed tapas style (i.e. ordering a few dishes and sharing). Dinner is served Wednesday through Sunday and brunch is available on the weekends as well. Tonight I dined with as a party of eight with my BYOB dinner club and everybody greatly enjoyed the meal. We ordered approximately ten savories (about half the menu) and all three desserts. While there was not a single dud, the lamb dish was my favorite of the night; nicely seared and a perfect medium rare. The flatbread with fennel sausage and Telaggio cheese was quite delicious as well and ranked as my second favorite dish.

Bistro Dre is small and cozy, but a nice space. There is a lot going on with the decor (French paintings and artwork, tin ceilings, chandeliers, a bookshelf - even a book about Noma - the world's top restaurant, a couple red walls, some wood paneling, and most impressively the single stall men's room contains 19 framed pieces of art, two mirrors, three lights and a fuse ball table)! Despite the decor being busy, it works and there is a pleasant ambiance - perhaps the only knock being that the tables are a tad close together and the noise can become a tad on the loud side.

As we had a largish party it is hard to evaluate service, but I certainly have no complaints. The owner (Chef Andre Christopher) is quite visible (always a good thing) and spent a few minutes chatting with our party at the conclusion of our meal. The food at Bistro Dre is the star; most of the dishes are quite hearty (i.e. meat wrapped in bacon, fish 'n chips, cheddar fondue mac n' cheese, fried chicken with waffles, thick cut fries coated with truffle infused globs of cheese and topped with brisket etc.) - not the place if you are looking to shed a few pounds, but a prime choice if you want richness and flavor. For the price the food is exquisite; complex yet tasty, well cooked and high quality ingredients. About the only knock on the food is that the menu is a tad on the small side and they were out of two of the four meat dishes and one of the two seafood dishes. Not sure if it had to do with this being the holiday season or if they were busier than normal, but as a fairly new venue I will give them a pass here - but this is something they must improve on going forward.

Adding to the already incredible value is the venue is BYOB. Both red and white wine stemware are provided as well as buckets to keep the whites cool. Another plus is desserts are accompanied by Black Dog Gelato, my favorite gelato in Chicagoland.

Our final tab came to a ridiculously low $21 per person (including tax and over 20% gratuity) and all of us left comfortably full. There are few venues in Chicago churning out food of this quality in this price range. Bistro Dre is a well above average venue in a very competitive Chicago food scene; their food appeals to a wide range of palates and I predict big things to come. They recently commenced accepting reservations on Open Table; they were quite busy tonight and if they can establish a Facebook presence and develop a website (it is hard to find much information online other than Yelp) they will really soar.

Bistro Dre
2965 N. Lincoln
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 697-9067

Thanks for the review. Do you know if there's any menu available online anywhere or if they have a website? (the quick google research didn't turn up much)

Gonzo70 wrote:Adding to the already incredible value is the venue is BYOB. Both red and white wine stemware are provided as well as buckets to keep the whites cool.

Do they charge a corkage fee?

No corkage fee is charged. I was not able to find a menu online and they do not seem to have a website yet. Hopefully they develop one soon.

I found a website for Bistro Dre - not sure if it is brand new or if it just did not come up previously when I did a search: http://www.bistrodre.com/

They have their menu listed on the website.

Had a really good dinner last night from their new fall menu. Shared two apps, a stuffed beet dish and fried green tomatoes, both were excellent. I had delicious duck confit over carrots, green beans, and roasted baby potatoes. My buddy had steak frites and really enjoyed it. Nice with a 2011 Michel Gahier Trousseau Arbois Le Clousot and a 2007 Matello Pinot Noir Whistling Ridge Vineyard.

I've been wanting to try Bistro Dre for a while and finally got there with my wife on Saturday night. Wow, do we like this place! While it's loud, which is something I typically don't like about a restaurant, I really liked the bistro décor and couldn't help but see past the noise.

The food itself was excellent, and the service first rate and very friendly. The menu (see below) notes that the dishes are served family style intended to be shared, and that's definitely the case. The portions are large and more than enough for two people. This made it somewhat difficult with us being just two people, because my desire to try a few things on the menu was somewhat thwarted because of not wanting to send a bunch of food back uneaten. I would recommend that you go as at least a foursome and perhaps even larger parties so you can try a number of the dishes.

As for the food, you'll find a copy of the Fall menu below. The menu is much more extensive than you see on the website, so don't let the limited menu on the site scare you away.

We started with the lobster bisque and the Quinoa salad. The bisque was extremely tasty, although perhaps a bit salty. There was too much chopped sage on top, which was easily removed. The quinoa salad was excellent and light with only the slightest taste of the ginger, which was fine by me because I'm not a ginger fan.





For our main course we ordered the steak frites the share with an accompaniment of the fried green tomatoes. The tomatoes were a miss for us. The coating was crunchy, but way too heavy and filling. The sauce was a combination of a blue cheese sauce and a spicy chirracha, which didn't work at all together. The tang of the blue cheese was amplified by the spice of the chirracha.

The steak frites were excellent. The steak, a 16-oz strip, was cooked perfectly medium rare and came out sliced so the pieces could be served. I think the frites would be judged to be very good, as they were a bit crunchy. I'm not a good judge of thick cut fries like this because I think they tend to be somewhat soggy and have too much potato to surface crunch. These were definitely good however.

Bistro Dre is now closed according to this Eater report. I had really liked it in the beginning, but then the food started slipping. My wife and I hadn't been there in about a year due to the inconsistent food.