Better late than never...

I know I've only lived in Chicago for (almost) three years, but there are still so many staples that I have yet to discover. Finally able to cross one off this weekend.

Mon Ami Gabi is located in the historic Belden Stratford hotel and has established a very solid reputation around the city. I literally asked two of my favorite foodie gals and they both separately said Mon Ami Gabi was their favorite place in the city. So naturally when it came around for me to plan a date night, I knew I had to do it.

Things at Mon Ami Gabi did not start off so good. First of all, the room was very, very small and they were artfully squeezing as many people in as possible. Next, we arrived at 7:58 for our 8pm reservation and the hostess asked us if we would wait for a bit because our table won't be ready until "closer to 8." So like I suspected, the second we stepped out of the restaurant, they came looking for us. Last but not least, the place was so tightly packed that they had to move out the table for me to scoot in. Once I was sitting the waiter than signaled for Rob to scoot in next to me. When there is a perfectly good chair on the other side. Okay, okay, sorry to offend anyone, but am I the only one who still wants to be able to look her date in the eye during a meal? I constantly make fun of people who eat next to each other and hardly even eat, they just feed bites to each other, make out the entire time and make everyone around them lose their appetite. Sorry, but save the romance for after dinner. Thank you. So now here I am, elbow to elbow with my date. Ugh.

Now on to better news: the food was amazing. House wine was inexpensive and surprisingly good. Escargot was great. Rob's peppercorn steak was amazing, and topped only by the giant heaving pile of yummy steak frites. NOTE: I ate the frites all by myself - he did NOT feed them to me. Even though it probably would have been easier since he kept elbowing me throughout the meal. Anyways... I had ahi tuna that was served with heavenly potatoes and spinach. For dessert we picked a trio of ice cream stuffed profiteroles. Looked and tasted great, but so difficult to cut and eat that when we were finished you would have thought we tied our hands behind our back and went to town.

It's tough for me to call this an absolute win because most of these kinks I'd expect out of a newer restaurant. But despite a couple initial strikes against it, Mon Ami saved itself in the end with delicious food.

The Belden-Stratford Hotel houses Mon Ami Gabi as well as fellow Lettuce Entertain You restaurant L20. Going to have to wait for quite the special occasion before trying that one out!