Elizabeth Restaurant
| Address: | 4835 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60625, USA |
| Phone: | +1 773-681-0651 |
| Site: | elizabeth-restaurant.com |
| Rating: | 4.9 |
| Working: | Closed 5:30–9:30PM 5:30–9:30PM 5:30–9:30PM 5:30–9:30PM 5:30–9:30PM Closed |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
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Wanessa Vovola
I just jumped on the Elizabeth Restaurant website and grabbed tickets to Downton Abbey for a second visit. We had so much fun with the Downton Abbey menu that I absolutely have to experience it again. One of my guests had never seen the show and she enjoyed dinner just as much as we did. Being a fan of the PBS hit “Downton Abbey” is not essential to enjoying this important menu. Can a dinner be important? Yes, I think this one can. The Downton Abbey menu is decisively my favorite Elizabeth Restaurant menu ever. The brilliance of Iliana Regan, is that she is an impressionist chef who never replicates dishes, but rather deconstructs and rebirths them as something entirely different. The heirloom dishes become a theme, more so than a model for her. Her creations generally far exceed the appeal of what she’s riffing on, and herein lies her culinary and artistic magic. Impressionist painting includes visible brush strokes, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of perception, and unusual visual angles. This is what I mean when I say that Iliana Regan is an impressionist chef. The menu is a blend of traditional and unique elements, but everything is translated through her unique and beautiful way of creating. For instance, the foie gras with vegetable crudités is served in her signature style reminiscent of Bunny the Bakery’s famous Foie Gras Owls on a bed of what can only be described as a superbly beautiful garden of vegetables so fresh and delicious that one notices how truly beautiful their textures and forms are. I also booked something new that I haven’t tried before. Elizabeth Restaurant now has “Casual Sundays” where they serve family-style. These meals feature entrees like friend chicken, fish fry, or a whole roasted pig. I read that the friend chicken pop-ups that Chef Regan hosted last year were amazing and I was very sad that I had missed them. I just bought tickets for three Casual Sundays to increase my odds of catching a fried chicken night. I also came for brunch recently and need to come back soon. The crust on the homemade sourdough was amazing and I’m watching for another bread-making class to arise, so that I can learn the secret behind Elizabeth Restaurant’s bread.
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Garon Fyffe
Every menu here is fabulous. Get tickets to anything. Elizabeth Restaurant is where Modernist meets wild foraged. The dishes are a parade of eye-candy that display intelligence, whimsy, and a deep understanding of ingredients and their terrior. The dishes are not merely beautiful, they are deeply satisfying. I’ve had the most sumptuous slices of waygu at Elizabeth. One course was comprised of a pear-sized whole deep fried Hen of the Woods mushroom that I cut apart with a steak knife and of which I savored every bite. It was the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. Chef Iliana Regan plays with contrasting temperatures in the most wonderful way. She also includes seemingly bizarre elements from nature, like Spruce tips and edible moss, the pickled roots of cattails, or tender legs of frogs she captured herself (fresh!). These wild items are not gimmicks. Rather, they pack powerful flavor and excitement. I requested seconds on a Spruce tip soda. Seriously, where has Spruce been all my life? The flavor is amazing! One especially nice new opportunity at Elizabeth Restaurant is the truly excellent brunches and Casual Sunday dinners that one can find tickets for on the restaurant’s web site. These wonderful meal options make Chef Regan’s wonderful vibe and brilliant cooking accessible to a broader (largely blue jean-wearing) clientele. Those seeking fancy food should stick to Elizabeth Restaurant’s dinner series. Brunch won’t feature uni and foam, but it does sometimes feature wonderful, seasonal wild mushrooms, the chef’s award-worthy bread, house made preserves, magically delicious eggs, house made bacon and other treats, my favorite of which are the Bunny the Bakery whisky-glazed donuts. Best donuts ever! I particularly love the service at Elizabeth. The entire staff seems to emit a peaceful, bright, engaging resonance and operate from a sophisticated awareness of how to set the tone for each interaction. This incredible restaurant and its brilliant chef earn my highest recommendation.
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Stephen Clemmer
In the dining room at Downton Abbey, opulent jewels decorate the décolletages of Lord and Lady Grantham’s three lovely daughters. At Elizabeth Restaurant’s "Downton Abbey" Dinner Series, the courses themselves are the jewels! The wine was really flowing when we visited Elizabeth Restaurant for the amazing "Downton Abbey" Dinner Series, Servants vs. Aristocrats. The pours were particularly generous with this wonderful menu, which seemed appropriate when celebrating the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era. While I was a huge fan of the show, you don’t need to have ever watched “Downton Abbey” to enjoy this menu enormously. With courses like Salmon Caviar, Pickled Squash and King Crab on Iliana Regan’s famous house made bread, the menu does not need to tie directly to the show, as the stunningly beautiful courses are fascinating and sumptuous beyond compare. I have loved many of Elizabeth Restaurant’s menus, but this one is my favorite yet! With such incredibly fine ingredients, I found this menu to be an excellent value for the price. The "Thermidor" of Charred Langoustine with Pickled Rose” was my favorite course. I also loved the unique mushrooms, including matsutake and enoki. They play a prominent role in this menu and are, of course, cooked to perfection. The “Foie Gras and Dry Aged Beef with Fermented Berry, and Buckwheat” are seducing me back for another dinner while this menu lasts. Chef Iliana Regan is a James Beard Best Chef nominee and winner of Food and Wine Best New Chef. Elizabeth Restaurant’s well-deserved Michelin star shines brightly through this exquisite menu. As long as tickets are available, you will not want to miss this menu.
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Vito Brancato
Hurry! Book tickets for the Downton Abbey menu. Its the best I’ve ever had. This dinner packed more excitement than Lady Mary and her lovers. The courses were too generous and numerous to write about them all, so Ill review only a few. The amuse blew my mind and I knew it was only up from there. “Crisp Bread, Salmon Caviar and Pickled Squash with King Crab and Candied Lemon” burst with flavor in my mouth. The next course was a perfect oyster with dashi that made me never want to eat an oyster without dashi again. This is the melding of flavors that will have me craving dashi on every oyster forever. The “Dry Aged Beef with Fermented Berry and Buckwheat” was amazing on its sourdough bread. I would make this my last meal. The “Stuffed Swiss Chard with House made Bacon, Minnesota Wild Rice, Pumpkin, and Sunflower” was such a lovely contrast to the dry aged beef. Chef Iliana Regan is most certainly a genius. This is the fifth menu I’ve enjoyed at Elizabeth and truly, the restaurant keeps besting itself. The Downton Abbey menu is magnificent from start to finish. The “Yorkshire Pudding With Rose Petal Ice Cream, Cured Egg Yolk and Rose Oil” would have pleased even Aunt Violet and softened her tough exterior. As a beekeeper, the “Profiterole with Bee Pollen Ice Cream and Pickled Pear” is my favorite dessert of all times. This menu was a trip through the richness of Downton Abbey, but it’s clear that Mrs. Patmore could not have ever engineered such finery. This exquisite menu, the best I’ve ever had, could happen only at Elizabeth Restaurant.
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Tina Kotrych
I have visited Elizabeth twice in 8 days, first for a Sunday brunch then for a Sunday night family dinner. To borrow heavily from my dining companions words: I could go on and on about all the reasons why I love this place. The food is always delicious. The energy is unpretentious but still at a level of class that is so dignified. Its clear that Iliana Regan is not only a stellar chef but a humble leader who empowers those around her. She is a genuinely good person who has never lost her passion for food, sees the raw power in bringing people together over a meal and who has a team around her that embodies all the values she demonstrates. During brunch a week back Iliana took time out from the open air kitchen to greet guests. Her team never left our coffee mugs cold, and graciously fielded question after question about the delights we were eating, being so patient with our child like wonder. Last nights menu was created by one of the chefs on Regans team; highlighting Southeast Asian street food and inspired by his year spent living in a rural town outside of Laos. The flavors were bold, pungent and spicy. His food was the star of the night. liana washed dishes! One of the FOH staff shared stories about her kids. Tonya ran outside, into the frigid cold, to make sure we didnt forget a mini to-go bag...it was perfect. Thank you for reminding us that there is a community of people who stand for something with no compromises in execution of their art.
