Bread
Superb! A light yet still buttery warm bun with a great house-made butter.
Black Truffle Roasted Chicken (morel mushroom, spring onion, madeira)
Not a great dish. The chicken was perfectly cooked, but there was no noticeable truffle flavor, and all the accoutrements were relatively poor. The Madeira overwhelmed this dish, and it, along with some balsamic vinegar, made this dish overly sweet. The chicken liver purée on the side was also awful. 15/20
Roasted Dry Aged Duck (mandarin, sunchoke, duck heart sausage)
Unlike the chicken, the duck wasn’t cooked super well. While the meat was great, the fat wasn’t properly rendered, and the skin was awful, and got stuck in my teeth. The mandarin/citrus condiment was truly awful, but the duck heart sausage on the side wasn’t bad. Our waiter assured us this was the best duck in Chicago, and if he’s telling the truth, Chicago perhaps has to step up its game. 15/20
Winter Citrus (yuzu, mandarin, shiso)
Amazing! A symphony of different citrus flavors that perfectly melded together. This reminded me of a similar dish at Schloss Schauenstein, but even better! The lemon crumble on top was a perfect complement to the different citrus-flavored creams, and the citrus sorbet was lovely, with the rest of the dish being slightly warm. 19/20
Dark Chocolate (honey, miso, buckwheat)
Another amazing dessert! A rich, dark chocolate dessert with a fantastic contrast of textures. The chocolate tuile brought an amazing crunch to the soft chocolate cake-souffle base, and the buckwheat-honey ice cream on top was also wonderful. 19/20
Overall, very sub-par mains, but incredible desserts.
by Bonzo1640
6 Comments
Looks underwhelming.
Thanks for sharing, I’ve considered going to boka. No more.
I went there a few months ago. The duck was good, but not near the top of my list for the best duck. Same issue, fat not fully rendered, skin was nice and crispy thanks to the herb crust. The meat was a bit underdone, rare (-), which was okay for a bite or two, but too hard to chew as a large main course.
Duck plating could use… some work…
The best duck in Chicago is the Beijing duck dinner at Sun Wah.
Can you please put the writing in “chunks”