Balena

Let me say this: you know Balena is the full realization of Chris Pandel's talent because the savories definitively outshine the sweets, no small thing with Amanda Rockman as pastry chef. While I've never not liked my visits to The Bristol, I can't say I remember any dish of his I've had there other than his pasta experiments over the past year or so; Rockman's desserts were the stars.

Here, however, Pandel, cooking very much in the strain of San Francisco Cal-Ital--something Chicago has severely lacked all these years--is in his element: big, but pure, flavors, coursed from quality ingredients and treated with an almost academic instinct for ingredient interplay. Even with the tastes of the 'rents, who shot down the mackeral and tripe dishes, I was still impressed: a finger-lickin' quail dish that perfectly paired the gamy meat to sharp accents of hazelnuts, escarole, and balsamico; a composed pasta plate of silky tajarin noodles paired with shards of basil and a pork ragu cut with sherry vinegar; a grilled whole loup de mer with a peanut gremolata was simplexity in the real. I mean this as a compliment to both that Rockman's mannered tiramisu, and a cute--but nowhere near Nellcote in terms of ice cream quality--pistachio sundae couldn't keep up.

I didn't drink, but organizing the cocktail list by the degree of bitterness was rather clever; the list looks quite quaffable.

A very promising debut; I look forward to what Pandel does when the full bounty of local produce is ready.

Balena
1633 N. Halsted
312 867-3888
balenachicago.com

Happy to read the positive report. I had a pretty bad meal at Balena, with dish after dish disappointing. Pastas were especially unbalanced. Doesn't sound like our ordering overlapped with yours at all, so perhaps we were just unlucky and chose a lousy lot.

The smoked mackerel was my favorite dish of the evening. I (who hates mackerel) actually went back the next evening for another taste.


Balena - Smoked Mackerel by agashi, on Flickr

The seafood salad, with mussels and calamari under a bed of arugula, was also good, but seemed a little pedestrian.


Balena - Seafood Salad by agashi, on Flickr

The table ate the mozzarella, basil and tomato pizza in silence. I guess we were all waiting for someone else to say what we were really thinking. Good sauce, good mozzarella, bland crust. The layer of raw flour on the bottom of the pizza did not help...


Balena - Pizza Margherita by agashi, on Flickr

Canestri with duck liver raju, hazelnut and balsamic featured very well made pasta perfectly cooked. But the duck liver was cut really big (my piece was bigger than the pasta), and there was not much "sauce" which is what I associate with a ragu... but I could be wrong, since I am not an expert in Italian food.


Balena - Canestri by agashi, on Flickr

To say I was looking forward to the Tagliolini with crab and sea urchin would be an understatement. I love uni... I would do anything for uni... I was so disappointed and upset about this dish being so lemony that I could not taste the crab and uni at all! If I was blindfolded, I would not even have thought there was uni and crab in it. Maybe it was an off night?


Balena - Tagliolini Nero by agashi, on Flickr

We were not full at this point so we added the Glazed Duck Legs with Dried Fig, Amaro, Basil. Duck was well cooked, with a nice sear/crust. Figs were chewy and not as sweet as I would have expected. It was an ok dish.


Balena - Glazed Duck Leg by agashi, on Flickr

For dessert I chose the Caramel Pinenut Tart, which was excellent. Great tart shell, soft gooey caramel studded with pinenuts. This was the dessert we were fighting over, even though my dining companions chose the budino, which was boring...


Balena - Caramel Pinenut Tart by agashi, on Flickr


Balena - Chocolate Budino by agashi, on Flickr

The very next day, since I take the Halsted bus these days, I returned for a quick dinner at the bar. Smoked mackerel was on my menu again, but I ordered the tajarin as well, since I did not have a chance to order it the night before. Like chezbrad said, silky smooth strands of egg-yolk pasta, which a pork ragu spiked with vinegar. I wonder if sauces with vinegar is the norm here? I enjoyed this pasta more than the uni taggliolini from the night before.


Balena - Tajarin by agashi, on Flickr

For dessert I had the pistachio sundae. I actually loved this dessert. Smooth creamy gelato (I have not had Nellcote's yet), slightly bitter caramel, lovely silvers of dried oranges. But the pistachio nougat stole the show for me... I started pushing it aside, so I could save them all for last.


Balena - Pistachio Sundae by agashi, on Flickr

I was disappointed with Balena on my first visit, but enjoyed it more the second. The menu is hit or miss, depending on what you order, which may make it expensive for me to navigate through to determine what I like. My server at Au Cheval last night told me on her visit last weekend, the tripe stufato and the tiramisu dessert were exceptional. Though it did make me think, did she not enjoy the rest of her meal?

I dined at Balena last night with a group of friends. A lot of little flaws but overall the meal showed some pretty good promise. Unfortunately, I was down on an end of the table where food seemed to find its way only after it had been hacked, which sometimes impacted my ability to see how everything was plated and taste everything as it was intended.

What we ordered:

The Balena - All of the meats, cheeses and breads offered. The breads I tasted were good but I can't say that any one of them really stood out in terms of flavor, but I recall the texture of the challah being perfect (fyi - menu is listed on their website). This was my first chance to taste the cured meats of Smoking Goose and I was quite impressed. Cheeses were good - the Oregonzola was my favorite.

Smoked mackerel with aioli, pangrattato, soft cooked egg - The egg was just magnificent (sous vide?). Overall, I enjoyed the dish but I think the mackerel could have stood some more smoke - very subtle, not sure if this is what others experienced.

Tuscan kale salad with tonnato, sardines, croutons - This drew very different reactions at the table. A few (including me) thought it was just great - a brilliant take on a Caesar salad. Not sure what upset others - kale? sardines? Not my problem.

Pizza with mortadella, pistachio, red onion and mozzarella - Pretty good with a lot of promise. The crust was a little uneven, but the best spots offered beautifully charred and flavorful bubbles, but I suspect they'll get this down. This particular pizza was decent but I found the piece I had to be a little light on flavor (perhaps not as much mortadella as on other pieces or not enough on the pizza as a whole; can't tell).

Strozzapreti with rabbit sugo, rosemary and olives - pasta was a beautiful al dente, but I believe there was citrus in this dish (and a lot of it) and it was a little overpowering. I would love to taste it again when it's more balanced because the excess citrus was the only thing preventing this dish from being great.

Canestri with duck liver ragu, hazelnut and balsamic - also really close to being a major hit. The pasta was again a perfect al dente. Duck liver was very good although cooked a bit too long (just the slightest bit dry). The pieces were appropriately sized in our portion. I do think it was a bit too sweet - I love to balance liver with a little sweet (do it myself with chopped liver), but this was a bit too sweet.

Ricotta Ravioli with swiss Chard and brown butter - I only had one, but I wasn't very impressed. It was a little overcooked, too buttery, and again I thought there was citrus that displayed itself too prominently.

Whole roasted fish with peanut gremolata - Slightly difficult to judge because by the time I got some, there was almost no peanut gremolata remaining (annoying), but I will say that the fish (loup de mer) was beautifully cooked, moist and tasty on its own ... it's served whole and at least I was the one who got to dig into the head and the like.

There might have been an item that never made its way to me, but I'm not sure. For dessert, the only item I tasted was the caramel pine nut tart pictured above. It was fantastic, although personally I would appreciate a little more of the rosemary for earthiness. The accompanying vanilla gelato was just decent - a little light on vanilla flavor and not as creamy as I hoped for.

All in all, a pretty good meal, and considering they've been open for just a week, growing pains should be expected. I look forward to trying Balena again.

Had diner at Balena last night with Mom and the DH. We enjoyed our meal very much. Staff were great: thoughtful, helpful, and present but not over-present. The wine list was quite nice, and there seemed to be a nice selection of dishes from which to choose. It was busy but not packed. I think if it were packed it might be a bit noisy in there.

We started with short ribs, tuscan kale salad and grilled quail - all were hits. I particularly liked the citrus on the short ribs.

For entrees I had salt and pepper chicken thighs, Mom had a mushroom pizza and DH had the duck leg pictured upthread. We very much enjoyed them all.

The only problem was that when we left, our leftovers didn't come with us. They never even got to the table. And we didn't remember until we were a mile away. Not sure what happened there, but it was sad - Mom had 3/4 of her pizza left (they are pretty big pizzas).

Had dinner @ Balena with the wife last night. Not mind-blowing, but tasty, well-executed food from start to finish. Based on my tastes of the wife's food, I think she chose a little better than me.

Wife started with the shishito peppers and tuna conserva, which had a nice flavor. Good balance between the pepper, lemon, and tuna. Would definitely order this again. I started w/ the burrata and roasted beets. I liked this dish, but thought it was a little too big for a starter. Would have been a perfect portion if it was being shared around the table.

The wife had orecchiette and kale as a main. This was an excellent pasta dish. Just the right amount of sauce to pull everything together, but not so much as to muddy the individual elements. I had the mixed pork grill. The dish included a chorizo, head cheese wrapped in prosciutto, a piece of pork belly, and a grilled piece of loin. The chorizo was maybe a touch dry, but everything else was cooked perfectly. Each had its own distinct flavor, but it never felt like the elements didn't belong on the same plate.

Then came dessert, which elevated the entire meal.

We shared a ricotta tart w/ sour cherries and a blueberry "pie" gelato. The ricotta tart was about as near a perfect tart as you could hope for. The blueberry pie gelato was basically a deconstructed piece of blueberry pie. One scoop of blueberry gelato, one scoop of lemon gelato, some blueberries, and some crumbled pie crust. If you couldn't see what you were eating, you would swear it was a piece of blueberry pie. Clever and very, very good.

Looking forward to a return visit to explore some more of the menu.

Anyone have any recent experiences?

We went Sunday pre-theater and had a wonderful meal. Everything we ate came together well. I wasn't as big a fan of the smoked mackerel as others (I would have liked it on some toast or some sort of crunchy something, the breadcrumbs didn't do it for me) but otherwise I really liked the brussels sprouts pizza and the kale lemon chili pasta dish. I also tasted the char with hazelnut butter and satsuma, yummy, and spicy sausage with white beans. It didn't taste very spicy, but it was very tasty.

Service was friendly but professional, and the bathrooms were very clean. Surprisingly, we were not served sugar (or alternate sweetener) with our after dinner espresso, latte and tea. We didn't need them, but noticed their absence.

leek wrote:and the bathrooms were very clean.

I hope your experience does not tell you that this is an unusual and noteworthy attribute for a restaurant.

I've been in the bathrooms of at least a couple of high end restaurants in town that were fairly disgusting and major embarrassments to the restaurant. Good for Balena for maintaining high standards in all parts of the restaurant.

Last night was the first time I returned to Balena since my first visit discussed above. This place has really found its groove and last night's meal was outstanding in every respect. Our group went carb heavy for appetizers, splitting a couple bruschettas, focaccia, and four pizzas to start. Balena makes their own bread and all of it is really outstanding. But the toppings on both bruschettas were excellent too - one with peas (and more that I cannot recall and isn't on the menu) and the other with mushrooms and marsala onions. The house-made focaccia with ricotta, cracked black pepper and olive oil was great, but mostly because the focaccia itself was excellent - moist bread, crisp bottom, very flavorful even without the herb topping.

And the pizzas were probably my current favorite in Chicago. The one with mortadella and pistachio pesto was probably my favorite, but there was also one with a terrific (not too acidic) tomato sauce that was a close second. Pizza with brussels sprouts with pancetta and another with mushrooms were also excellent. As good as the toppings were, both in terms of flavor and distribution, it's Balena's pizza crust that really separates their pizzas from others in Chicago. Full of flavor, crisp and chewy, and beautifully charred, this is as good a pizza crust as I've found in Chicago since the recent departure of Great Lake (I'll throw Lazza in that mix too, but sadly it appears gone too).

Sadly, I didn't get to try any of their pastas last night. And the only other starter I tried was the wild arugula salad with Dante and pine nuts, but it was terrific - great spice and flavor from the arugula and just the right dose of acidity from a squeeze or few of lemon to bring it all together.

My entree was the porchetta, and though I'm normally skeptical of pork loin in this dish (would prefer belly and shoulder), Balena found a way to keep the loin incredibly moist. I wouldn't rank this porchetta as highly as the one from Panozzo's, but it was delicious nonetheless, and with beautiful crisp edges. It was served with a very creamy and flavorful polenta and a slightly acidic parsley and red onion salad that helped cut some of the richness of this dish.

We also shared some desserts. A house-made nutella (with olives) was terrific and amazingly creamy, though I would ask for a slightly greater hazelnut flavor. But my two favorite desserts were composed sundaes, both featuring house-made gelato. There was the Cannoli, which featured a fantastic ricotta gelato, cherries and cannoli crust pieces dusted with powdered sugar. It was outstanding. Even better was the pistachio sundae - the pistachio gelato was fantastic, as were the accompaniments of burnt orange, pistachio nougat and orange confit.

Not only was the food great, but service was also outstanding throughout the evening. Last night's meal convinced me that I need to make it back here more often, and hopefully soon.

And how clean were the bathrooms?

Thanks for the report, BR! I'll be dining there Tuesday and will definitely try a composed sundae

The topic of the "Eat" section of today's NY Times Magazine is Balena's Creamed Mushroom Bruschetta with Carmelized Onions. The write up includes a recipe.

bw77 wrote:The topic of the "Eat" section of today's NY Times Magazine is Balena's Creamed Mushroom Bruschetta with Carmelized Onions. The write up includes a recipe.

link

We also dined at Balena on Friday night for an anniversary dinner. We had a great time and enjoyed everything we had. We started with two pastas: the Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe and the Tagliolini Nero with Crab, Sea Urchin and Chili. The pastas were fantastic, with a simple yet toothsome cacio e pepe and a briny, oceany tagliolini nero. My only complaint on the seafood pasta was that there were only two pieces of uni, but they made it up with a large moundful of crab. The mint was a nice touch with the seafood. We also ordered the Brussels Sprout pizza detailed above by BR. I don't have much to add other than we thought the crust was the slightest bit chewy for our tastes. But I'd take this over most other pizzas in the city - the charred bits of brussels sprouts put it over the top. We finished with the pistachio ngelato and cannoli gelato.

Service was also terrific. We were celebrating our anniversary, and the entire staff at Balena made and signed a happy anniversary card for us. It was unexpected and a great personal touch. We'll be back soon.

I had my first meal at Balena last week. I thought our starters (pea bruscetta and kale salad) were underseasoned, but the Brussels sprouts pizza was terrific. And the rigatoni with pork ragu blew them all away. I could eat that every day of the week.

nsxtasy wrote:

bw77 wrote:The topic of the "Eat" section of today's NY Times Magazine is Balena's Creamed Mushroom Bruschetta with Carmelized Onions. The write up includes a recipe.

link

As I turn inward, to my kitchen for food, I saw this yesterday and already think I'm serving it on Saturday with some bread that I will bake instead of the rye. I'm just not a fan of rye, yet.

Four of us went to Balena yesterday and I must say, we enjoyed it a lot. Very enjoyable meal--not too serious but food with integrity. I love the wine, beer and cocktail list. The mushroom bruschetta (a la the NYTimes) was superb. The rigatoni with pork ragu was really tasty. This is a place where I will return. I wasn't too fond of the tagliolini nero with crab and uni---kind of dry. But, overall, quite a successful meal!

Shared about a dozen items tonite but very few spoke to me. A few tastes here and there stood out. My cocktail was excellent but it was downhill from that point on. Surprised, I expected it to be excellent and it was not. Good? Yes. Worth $450? Nope. I'd be pissed if I'd had to pay but I was a guest. Much prefer Bristol. Could think of numerous other places I'd have rather been eating @.

Jazzfood wrote:Shared about a dozen items tonite but very few spoke to me. A few tastes here and there stood out. My cocktail was excellent but it was downhill from that point on. Surprised, I expected it to be excellent and it was not. Good? Yes. Worth $450? Nope. I'd be pissed if I'd had to pay but I was a guest. Much prefer Bristol. Could think of numerous other places I'd have rather been eating @.

4-top or 6-top? The $450 would mean a bit more if we know how many in your party...thanks.

4 top w/2 bottles of wine.

Jazzfood wrote:Much prefer Bristol.

My sentiments exactly. After 2 visits, wished I had gone to Bristol instead each time.

Sorry to see some people having sub-par experiences at Balena. I have had two very nice meals at Balena and my experience closely resembles what BR eloquently described in his post. The pizza was outstanding, also loved the homemade breads and the cheese/charcuterie we ordered. We had the squid ink pasta; did not love it quite as much as the pizza (which stood out as being among the best I have had), but still was a solid dish. For dessert I loved the composed sundae. Service was friendly and efficient. Nice cocktail program to boot. The venue can be a bit noisy, but otherwise is a nice space. While Balena is not one of my "go to" venues, overall I have had far more positive than negative experiences there and definitely will be back. I have found pricing to be extremely reasonable for the quality and portions.

My experience is similar to Gonzo's. I like Balena. Its not perfect but to me, its "comfortable." It wears well. Very casual yet nice quality.

I'm not even a big fan of Bristol, but prefer it over this meal. Kept thinking of similar dishes elsewhere that I'd rather be eating them. Hanger steak, chix thighs and pea bruschetta @ Avec or Nightwood for instance, The linquini and uni/crab brought memories of Davanti Enoteca whose version my taste prefers. Soft shells were quite small (3-4") and quite strong fishy tasting which is a feat in itself considering how they usually fly out the door. To have as much as we ate and have so little resonate was sad. Especially @ that price point. Desserts were a yawn as well. $8 for two small dry cinnamon donuts and a scoop of gelato? You know I was dreaming of Mario's.

Besides the cocktail w/amaro and grapefruit bitters, we enjoyed the burrata (but that's something you buy) and the kale Caesar which was something the menu bully (me) didn't order but was asked by a table mate to include. The service was attentive but most of the food was decent to forgetable.

In fairness, it sounds like you missed the items that others who did like the place enjoyed most-- the pizzas and bruschettas. I felt similarly about Balena on my one visit--enjoyed the cocktails, didn't mind the food. I'd put Balena in the "if I need to find a place in the neighborhood, this will do fine" category. But will probably stop in again to try the pizza/bruschetta since others have enjoyed them. And the Amaro collection is certainly interesting (though, at least on our visit, we happened to notice that there are a LOT of repeats on that wall )

I mentioned the bruschetta but not the pizza which was good (Brussels sprout/pancetta). Coalfire/Nella's good? Nope. That's my point. Kept thinking of other places that do simiilar things better for my taste.

I have really enjoyed Balena each time I've visited (three times in the past month). Their pizzas are consistently good, a nice slightly chewy crust (dip it in their chili oil!) and really interesting toppings. Their fava leaf pesto gnocchi are probably my favorite of the pastas. Like many others, I've really enjoyed their cocktail program as well.

For anyone who is on the fence about their food - if you do decide to give them another try, please order the zampone - pig trotter's stuffed with spicy sausage, then fried and topped with citrus marmellata and served with beluga lentils and mustard greens. I don't even like pig that much and I was sure it would be way too heavy and fatty for me, but it is one of the best dishes I've eaten all year.

The crust on one pizza threatened to chip my tooth, but on another visit the pizza was fine, if nothing memorable. It's issues with consistency and mediocrity more than terrible food as far as I'm concerned. Many great meals at The Bristol raises my expectations and I can't help but think that Balena is capable of more. If I had to describe Balena in one word, I'd just call it inoffensive.