What I Ate: Gilt Bar
Recently, my friends and I went out to dinner at Gilt Bar, located in River North. The restaurant is owned by Hogsalt, the same group responsible for Armitage Alehouse, Au Cheval, and Ciccio Mio to name a few.
This restaurant has such a vibe to it. The more appropriate, mature word would probably be the ambiance. The place is dark and moody, with red leather booths and vintage feel.
Our meal started with two apps. We split the truffle mozzarella sticks and burrata. The mozzarella sticks are huge, with subtle hints of truffle. (This was great, because sometimes I get overwhelmed by intense truffle flavors). The burrata was also amazing. It was paired with their tomato confit, essentially slow roasted tomatos, with amazing large slices of sourdough. Yum!
Next up was the traditional house salad. Theirs included lettuce (a few kinds), parmesan, salami, and olives with a light red wine vinaigrette. We got salami and olives on the side so everybody could eat it and adjust it to their liking.
I loved this salad as a middle course. It was light, flavorful, crunchy, and some green to counteract the richness of the rest of the meal. Plus, who doesn’t love a traditional Italian-esque salad!? I know I do.
For the mains, my friend and I split two pasta dishes. We shared the truffle bucatini and spicy shrimp pasta. Both were delicious and dishes I would definitely re-order.
Again, the truffle flavor was subtle and not overpowering. The dish is what you would expect, which I would consider a good thing, although there’s not a whole lot to it. Still, I would eat this again for sure. The spicy shrimp pasta was also fabulous. The menu calls the shrimp “prawns”, which I guess technically they are, but it really was just small shrimp. But overall the dish was not mouth-burning-intolerable spicy and was a great counterpart to the creamy truffle bucatini.
No dinner would be complete without dessert, of course! The table split two dishes: the gooey skillet cookie and chocolate layer cake. Both were 10/10. I think the consensus from the table was that the cookie skillet was better, but that doesn’t diminish the moist chocolate cake either.
I would return to Gilt Bar in a heartbeat. The interior has such a mood and feeling to it, I felt fancy just eating there. It is definitely not a cheap meal, but I sensed consistency from the kitchen. My one downside is that I felt rushed by the staff clearing our plates, which really drives me insane. It wasn’t a huge deal though and didn’t ruin my amazing meal. I 100% would dine again :).
