President's Day Date

Jason and I both had the day off work today, but Molly's daycare was still open for business. We felt a little guilty dropping her off this morning, but how often do we get a chance to do our own thing...during the day...together?! Plus, it's restaurant week in Chicago, so we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity and check out Top Chef contestant Beverly Kim's restaurant, Aria.

I know going to expensive restaurants was the #2 "no-no" on my list of belt tightening measures; however, because it's restaurant week, all of the trendy restaurants are offering special price fixe menus at a discount -- $22 for lunch and $33 for dinner. Not bad!

Here's what we enjoyed this afternoon at Aria:

starters

hay roasted baby beets 

truffle tremor goat cheese / hazelnut / prosciutto / apple 

mongolian lamb rib 

cumin / orange hoisin / fennel / edamame-mint purée 

entrees

beef short rib bibimbop 

sunnyside egg / kimchi / sea beans / gochujang 

kung pao chicken 

black bean chili / heirloom tomato / peanut   

sweets

truffle assortment 

dark chocolate sesame / milk chocolate with curry and peanut 

white chocolate coconut banana / dark chocolate with earl grey tea

About to dive into some truly amazing bibimbap!

So what did we think of Beverly's cuisine? Worth every penny! The mongolian lamb starter, in particular, was a total stand out. I would have licked that edamame-mint purée straight off the plate if there wasn't someone sitting next to us :)

Although the food was amazing, the restaurant was only so-so in terms of ambiance. It's located in the Fairmont Hotel and definitely had that hotel feel. Not to mention, they were playing "easy listening" music throughout lunch.

But that aside, the food was amazing and I totally get why Bev made it as far as she did this season on Top Chef!