It all started with their great service from the front of house. Even though I don't mind eating late, 10pm to start dinner is still pretty late for me. So I called them around 7:30pm to ask if there was any availability earlier in the night and they kindly told us that if we wanted to show up early they could accommodate us. So we showed up at prime dinner time at 8pm and even though it was still very crowded, there were a few open tables and they were able to seat us within 10 minutes. That's what I call great service because they could have easily said, "Too bad, your reservation is 10pm, so come in at 10pm" but they were able to be flexible and I appreciated it.
The restaurant is situated in an industrial yet upscale part of Chicago. It reminded me of DUMBO with all the warehouses and lofts but there are actually tons of great high end restaurants on this strip too. Inside, the restaurant is pretty huge (with a gigantic open kitchen) but it still had a nice and homey feel to it. The decor is dark and trendy (lots of black furniture and dim lighting) but it still had a modern and accessible look to it.
The menu is broken up into 3 sections: vegetable, seafood, and meat. Everything is meant to be shared but the portions turned out to be fairly sizable. Our waitress suggested 2-3 dishes each. We decided to start with the Challah Back ($4) and Deanna ordered the roasted cauliflower ($11) and the mushroom ragout ($12) and I got the hamachi ($12) and the wood oven roasted pig face ($16). The challah back is a warm loaf of challah bread served with bleu cheese butter and fennel tomato compote. It was seriously out of this world. The bread was so hot that it almost burned my hand. It probably literally just came out of the oven. The tomato compote was delicious and sweet and was an amazing combination with the bleu cheese butter. The butter definitely had a bleu cheese flavor to it but it didn't have the overpowering taste that the cheese has on its own. You wouldn't think that bread could blow your mind, but we literally devoured the entire loaf in about 10 minutes. Next came the roasted cauliflower which was served with pickled peppers, pine nuts and mint. It was roasted to perfection...crunchy but not raw and the peppers gave a nice heat to the dish. The pine nuts and mint added a great aromatic flare to it as well. I loved it and the serving size was perfect for sharing with multiple people. Next came my hamachi crudo which was served with crispy pork belly bits, chili aoli and caperberries. The hamachi is one of my favorite raw fishes and this one did not disappoint either. It was super fresh and the salty pork belly was a nice touch to it. I inhaled all 5 pieces in about 10 minutes. Fabulous dish. Next came the mushroom ragout which was served with sweet potato agnolotti, mushroom creme fraiche and capers. It tasted like a warm stew or hearty pasta with the sweet potato offering a hint of sweetness. It was comforting and felt cozy in my belly. But the dish that the Girl and the Goat is most famous for is the pig face dish. Not to worry for those who are sensitive to seeing an actual animal face on the plate. The dish is basically chopped up pork served on a bed of potato stix, tamarmind sauce, cilantro, red-wine maple and topped with a sunny side egg. The combination of the runny egg, salty pork and crunchy potato stix was like nothing I've had before. It was an explosion of flavor and textures in my mouth. So it thoroughly broke my heart when I couldn't finish the entire dish myself and had to leave a few bites on my plate.
Despite only having 2 dishes each, Deanna and I were so full that we had to skip dessert. Too bad. Besides having great service from the host, our waitress was also awesome. She was really honest with us when we were ordering. When we rattled off what we were ordering, she told us that would be enough food for us. Meanwhile other places train their waitstaff to encourage over ordering or up selling on beverages or dishes. I loved that she put a stop to our ordering and if we had ordered one more dish, we probably would have been so full that we wouldn't have appreciated the food we did eat. Our total bill ended up being less per person than our dinner the other night at Antico, which shocked me because the food was so much better here. While I love love love most restaurants in NYC, Girl and the Goat is the one restaurant (besides a good deep dish pizza place) in Chicago that makes me super jealous that I don't live there. It's one of the few affordable non-casual 5 forks places I've been to. It's definitely worth all the pain and struggle of trying to get a table. Good luck! Total bill: $106 for 2 with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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