Xoco

I can't believe I almost forgot to review Xoco.  Xoco is Rick Bayless's newest restaurant and is a casual sandwich/torta shop.

The downside is they don't take reservations.  I met a friend there at 1:30 in the afternoon and we waited nearly 40 minutes just to order our food. 

Not many places are worth the wait but this one was.  I had the Jamon torta with La Quercia Prosciutto Picante, Otter Creek Organic cheddar, black beans, avocado, chipotle mustard, and a fried egg for $12.50.  It was heaven.  And big enough that I got 2 meals out of it.  I had an aqua fresca that was to die for.  I believe it was hibiscus flavored.

They also serve caldos (soups), bean-to-cup hot chocolate, churros, and breakfast as well.

This place isn't too far from my office.  I'd be back once a week if the line wasn't so long.  Highly recommend if you get hungry during off meal times though.

L2O

We scored a reservation at L2O for Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  Saturdays are all booked up months in advance and this isn't a week night type of place in my world.

For men, jackets are preferred.  Don't be the douchebags we saw that show up in jeans and an untucked polo.  People were giving them The Look. Oh wait, that was me.  This isn't the Olive Garden.

We were seated in the lounge where we started with drinks.  Nick had the strawberry-basil Caipirinha with fresh strawberries, Thai basil, and Leblon cachaca.  They brought a silver tray with all the ingredients over to our table and made the drink in front of us. 

I opted for the House Aperitif with sparkling wine and raspberry-rooibos tea cordial.

Then we were taken to our table.  The restaurant is fairly small and very plain, with a Japanese feel.  The focus is definitely on the food and the wonderful service.

There are three dining options.  The fixed price menu is $110 and consists of a raw selection, a warm selection, a main selection, and a dessert.  There is also a 12 course seasonal tasting menu for $165 and a 10 course luxury ingredient tasting menu for $245.  The luxury menu includes things like foie gras, lobster, morels, caviar, and wagyu beef.

The one thing I was disappointed in was they were out of soft shell crab by the time we got there.  This is at least the 3rd restaurant I have been to in the last 2 months that's been out of soft shell crab.  I'm going to start having to make my dinner reservations at 5 pm to get it.

We decided to be adventurous and try the 12 course seasonal tasting menu.  I love shellfish but I'm actually not a huge fan of fish but I figured if anyone did fish right, it was this restaurant.

We were very impressed with the sommelier who selected a wonderful wine for us that was only $44 for the bottle.  When I asked for a suggestion I was worried I'd get one out of our league.  The wine was so good that I've hunted it down at a local wine store and am going to go pick up a case.

We had multiple amuse bouches at this restaurant.  Our 12 course meal actually turned into 17 courses.  Our first was salmon tartare with cactus and a dried banana chip.  The tartare was excellent.

The second amuse bouche was octopus.

Then came the bread.  A mini baguette and a mini croissant for Nick.

And an onion and anchovy roll (don't get this if you're on a date) and a butter roll for me.

And although we've been shoving food into our mouths for a long time already, our tasting menu actually starts.  The first of the raw courses was the medai with a plum sauce.  The medai was excellent and the plum sauce was very tart and lingered in your mouth for a long time.

Raw course #2 was an tuna tartare taco with dried corn and a cilantro sauce.  This was one of our favorites of the night.  The dried corn gave it a great crunch.

The third course was tofu.  This was the only one we didn't like.  Enough that Nick asked "why would anyone want to be a vegetarian?" after tasting it.

Our last raw course was fluke (flounder).  Also one of our favorites, there were teeny dried shrimp and chiles in the bowl.

On to the warm courses, our fifth course was the salted cod with fingerling potatoes, smoked ribbon, and caviar.  These were the best potatoes I have ever had.  So smooth and creamy.

The next was Tai snapper with ingredients to taste like a Thai curry.  I'm not a huge fan of curry but the fish was so soft and buttery.  It came with a green thing that had been in liquid nitrogen so that smoke came out of your mouth when you ate it.

The last warm course was my favorite of the whole evening.  This was peekytoe crab in a foie gras emulsion. 

And a close-up.

The 8th course and the first of the main courses was shabu-shabu hiramasa.  You get to cook the fish and accompanying greens, and mushrooms in the pot, then dip it in the sauce.

Course number nine was where I hit a wall.  So full but so much good food left to come.  This was halibut with peas, arugula dumpling, bacon butter, radish, and onions.  The bacon butter didn't taste bacon-y enough for me.  I think they were going for a more subtle flavor.

The last main course was beef short ribs with Pinot Blanc, consomme, and spring onions.  Had a slightly Asian taste to it. By this point I couldn't fit any more meat into my mouth I was so full.

Next, it was time for the desserts.  We got not only the 2 desserts from the tasting menu, but 3 additional desserts.  I'm not a huge sweets person so 5 was too many.  They were very good though.

The first was this little bite of chocolate.  Very rich and intense chocolate flavor.

The next dessert was perfect although I forget exactly what it was.  They talk too fast and there's too many courses to remember!  It was a pineapple flavored nugget in a pineapple flavored light cream.  The cream was so light and such a good finish after so much food.

This was the first of the two dessert courses on the menu and was raspberry, golden yuzu, and mascarpone.  There were little gold flecks in there with teeny individual nubs of raspberry.  I feel kind of bad for whoever's job it was to separte each raspberry into the little nubs.  This was quite a work of art.

And finally the last course of our tasting menu was a peanut butter souffle.  It could be that I'm not a huge peanut butter fan but I wasn't that impressed.  Sure it was good.  But it wasn't a work of art like the previous dish and the taste wasn't outstanding.

Finally, the mignardise.  A chocolate shell with almond flavored filling and a coffee macaron with chocolate filling.  This macaron rivaled the ones I had in France.  I'm sure it would have been the best macron of my life except I don't like coffee anything.  The coffee flavors were subtle though and it was delicious.

I think with 5 dessert courses one of them should have been a cheese course.  That could just be me, the cheesehead, talking.  The meal was spectacular.  The service was phenomenal, you barely knew they were there.

L2O is part of Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants.  Around Christmas every year they run a promotion where if you buy $100 in gift cards for gifts, you get a $25 gift card free to use.  The $25 gift card is usually valid between January and March and not valid for Saturday after 6 pm.  We stocked up on these at Christmas specifically for this dinner and got another whole free meal out of it at another restaurant with our free gift cards.

West Loop Nail & Spa

I don't usually review other vendors in Chicago but this one is so good I had to.  Plus it's located right in my neighborhood and I always like to get the word out about local businesses.  Not only are they convenient for me, they help my property values!

West Loop Nail & Spa is fantastic.  A mani/pedi is $35, $32 if you go Monday - Wednesday.  The place is brand new so everything is in good condition, neat, and clean.  The pedicure chairs are top notch and give a great back massage.  I've been several times and they've always done a great job.  My manicures from there have lasted nearly 12 days.

Sushi Samba Rio

Sushi Samba Rio has a great brunch deal on Sunday mornings.  For $16 per person, you receive the choose of one item off the specialty, sandwich, or salad menus along with 3 mimosas, bloody marys, caipiroskas, or mocktails for those who want a non-alcoholic drink.  The mocktails are orange juice, tomato juice, or a berry smash.  Considering on the menu, each mimosa or bloody mary is $8, it's like I actually saved money by eating there.

A group of four of us went and tried four different dishes.  We were all thrilled with our choices.  Unfortunately, the service sucked.  I know brunch isn't the big tip maker of the day, but our server had a major attitude problem.  She also forgot our drinks and was slow with the others.  I've never been to dinner (only to the bar for cocktails) but I hope it's better.

For brunch we had the asian pear pancakes with maple syrup and fresh fruit compote, the cast iron baked eggs with roasted tomato, soft white polenta, manchego cheese, the eggs benedict with aji panca hollandaise, toasted brioche, and daikon sprouts, and the tuna and avocado salad with key lime, virgin olive oil, and micro chives.

This was fancy brunch food at a not fancy price.  I'll definitely be back to sit out on the patio on another Sunday morning.

Ko Phi Phi - Sunset Bar

The Holiday Inn has a bar on the other side of the peninsula from the beach on a hill overlooking the sunset.  Perfect for a before dinner drink.

Ko Phi Phi - Hotel

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Phi Phi Island.  The grounds were beautiful and very green.  They had a lovely pool, several open air bars, an open air restaurant right on the sand, and an additional restaurant.  All the bungalows had nice decks for reading and sunning.  It would have been a great place to spend several days if we had the time.

Tractor to get to the hotel from the dock

Bar/check-in area.  They have people waiting for you upon check-in as everyone arrives at one of two times a day when the ferry comes.

Pool area

Pool deck

The rooms were a little outdated.  Nothing terrible, they just felt like little cabins from the 1970s.  There aren't many choices to choose from on Ko Phi Phi.  That's good on one hand as it's pretty uninhabited.  It's also bad as there aren't very many choices.  The Holiday Inn is supposedly one of the nicest hotels on the island.

Hotel room

Nick is a camera genius so this bathroom was not nearly as nice as it looks in the picture

Another view of the hotel room

Beautiful deck

We ate at the hotel both nights as there was more rain and more rain.  One night we were basically stranded in the bar it was raining so hard and we couldn't get back to our room.  Worse things have happened except there was a singing group for entertainment that was so completely out of tune.  The first night we ate at the outdoor restaurant.  The second night we ate at the indoor restaurant.  Both were good although not outstanding.  However, Ko Phi Phi is not known for it's fine dining choices.

Ko Phi Phi - Boat Tour

The one full day that we were in Ko Phi Phi we hired a longtail boat for several hours to take us around the island and to the smaller islands surrounding.  We hired our boat through the hotel but you can also hire through the sea gypsy village down the beach.  We started early to beat the crowds that daytrip from Phuket and Krabi.

We went to Maya Bay (where the movie The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed), Monkey Bay, Mosquito Island, Bamboo Island, and more.  We snorkeled, walked along the beach, and enjoyed sunning ourselves in the boat while flying through the water.  The snorkeling was awesome and the water was so clear.  If you are able to make it to Ko Phi Phi, renting a private boat is an absolute must-do.  It was one of my favorite things the whole trip.