Review: San Soo Gab San (Chicago)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp.



If you just want to get down to business with some fried foods and barbecued meat, San Soo Gab San is your place. Come hungry and wear your play clothes. You're going to walk out of here full and smelling of meat.


Judy was pretty excited to be here

San Soo Gab San is an unassuming, no nonsense joint that focuses on the food. Period. The non-atmosphere is the atmosphere. You sit in twenty or thirty year old wooden booths and tables. The main design element is the construction-zone orange industrial strength exhaust hoods that suck out the fog of meat smoke. You are served by efficient, unsmiling, matter of fact waitresses. This place means business. And that's fine.



When full and all the hoods are firing, the place truly hums. It's smoky, noisy and energetic with the smell of meat in the air and 22 oz. bottles of OB all around. It makes me happy.





Once you order you will experience a food avalanche.



Get an appetizer or two - say the mandu, or the agedash tofu.


Agedash tofu

Get a plate of meat.



And definitely go the cook it yourself route. They are old school here. You're working with a charcoal or wood grill. Let the fancy places have their built in gas grill tables. We've got bus boys running around with bowls of fire and hot grill faces.



Don't forget that you will also get 15 - 20 miscellaneous side dishes (called Panchan). Every square inch of table space is covered in food.



However, while my wife and I liked this place just fine, in the interest of full disclosure I do have to say it didn't quite pass muster with my Korean in laws. They found it average at best. But then, they are used to the 'more meat buzzer' that is installed at every booth of their favorite place in the suburbs. Push it and signal to the waitress with your hands how many more pounds of meat you want. Hard to argue with the brilliance of that kind of efficiency. If San Soo Gab San adds the meat buzzer I'll take the in-laws back and see if we can't up this to a 5-star review.

Review: sixteen (Chicago)

Main dining room

Note: this also appears with my reviews on Yelp.

If you're going to sixteen you have to be comfortable with two things:

1. It is expensive. e.g. Brunch is $95/plate before drinks, tax and tip

2. At least 50% of that price is a "wow" premium for being in the Trump space. The food is good, but you're paying for the Experience. For my money, the food is better at the Four Seasons brunch. But sixteen's atmosphere and views are tough to beat.


Main dining room

Service
Accommodating and pleasant. I called twice with changes to our reservation within 24 hours of our seating and both times they were unflinching in taking care of us. Despite changing the time we wanted to come in and the number of people in our party, they still put us in a table on the window in the main dining room. Once seated, our server was a pro. Almost overly helpful, but you could tell he was sincere and we were definitely catered to.


Couldn't wait to dive in before taking the picture - those bite marks are mine, it didn't come pre-nibbled

Space / Atmosphere
Striking. Open flow with floor to ceiling windows that capitalize on the panoramic downtown views. The key design elements like the wall of wine or the massive chandelier are bold without being over the top dominant or distracting. The space is big enough to accommodate them. This is an instance where a 25 foot crystal chandelier fits.


Wall of wine corridor between brunch buffet stations and dining room

Food


They had a nice range of the usual suspects for this kind of occasion. The omelet station, the carving station, the sushi station, great desserts, etc. What was there was certainly good. However, by comparison, the variety isn't quite as extensive as what you see at the Four Seasons. Not sure what it says about me and my tastes, but two of the items I enjoyed most were from the kids station -- mac and cheese and sliders (you can take the boy out of the small town ... ).


Damn tasty

Net: sixteen is a good option if you're willing to splash out and your party really appreciates the environment. We were there for Father's Day brunch and all things considered it was worth it.

Review: La Cocina de Frida (Chicago)

Just seated - which was as good as it was going to get tonight

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp.

Unrealized potential. That's how I'd sum up La Cocina de Frida. We wanted to like it, but across the board it fell a bit short of expectations. This place should be good but isn't.

Space


Nice room, but could use some fans

It's nice inside, but on a night when it was mid 70s outside and the dining room was full, it seemed hot and stuffy. The air was thick. They need ceiling fans. So we waited for a table on the covered patio, which is the highlight of the place. There's nice spacing among the tables, soft lighting and an interesting water element involving a copper tube with multiple punctures that, depending upon your tastes and disposition, is either clever or tacky (I am inclined to call it clever).


The patio - Frida's redeeming feature

Service
They were over matched. I'd suggest they consider closing off a section or two and serving 20 tables well rather than serving 40 tables poorly. Their small, 3 or 4 man kitchen and handful of servers were so obviously in the weeds it was sad. Everything was very slow. Our server was repeatedly apologetic in an awkwardly desperate kind of way as we both knew there was really nothing she could do. The ship was going down.


Help - we're drowning

Food


Chuletas de Puerco Manchamanteles - almost good

A mixed bag and ultimately not very inspiring. I find myself trying very hard to come up with positives. The menu is limited, but their 'as you like it' enchilada options might be great for someone who is confident mixing and matching fillings. I wasn't feeling that confident, so I went with las chuletas de puerco manchamanteles, which would've been a great dish if the chops weren't over cooked. The sauce and the grilled pineapple -- and the fact that I was starving -- made them edible, though. My wife's pollo en chile cacahuate was very spicy, so just know what you're getting into there. Oh, and tell them to just hold the complementary chips and salsa they start you with. They are terrible. Hard, flavorless chips and watery salsa. They really shouldn't serve them.