I FINALLY made it to Hot Chocolate. This is a big deal for me because for years I had been trying to go here for brunch since it's walking distance from Deanna's but there is always a huge line and a wait of over 2 hours. But this time I was in Chicago, I made it my mission to eat here for brunch. I had a 1pm flight to catch, so we decided to go as soon as they opened at 10am. We walked up to the entrance at 9:45AM and there were already over 25 people in line!! WTF?! I was shocked that people actually wake up early to wait in line for brunch. I was a bit nervous that we wouldn't actually get seated before I needed to leave but luckily we were able to get seated in the 1st wave. It's quite overwhelming in the beginning because the entire restaurant literally gets seated at the same time and are all clamoring for their waiter's attention.
I had told our waiter as we were being seated that I had to leave by 11:15 to catch my flight, so I would be forever grateful if he could help expedite our order - at first I thought he was going to spit in my food but he turned out to be really nice about the whole thing. Even though the name of the restaurant is hot chocolate (to which they are famous for their hot chocolate drinks), they have a full blown savory brunch menu (and a sweet menu too). Everything sounded delicious but I opted for the wild mushroom scramble ($13) and a side of sausage ($5) while Deanna got the soup and sandwich ($13) - since my scramble was veggie friendly we ended up splitting both dishes. People around us were getting the giant baked pancakes and french toast dishes and they all looked amazing but it would have been just too much food to eat in such a short amount of time.
The scramble came out and it looked picture perfect. I took one bite and immediately I tasted a bunch of delicious buttery eggs that it almost made me want to weep. It was seriously addictive and triggered a crack-like reaction of wanting more immediately. I could not get enough of this dish. The eggs were more on the moist, creamy side and tasted like it also had a hint of cream scrambled in it. It was serve with roasted whole baby potatoes and challah bread - both also fantastic but I could barely finish them since I was also trying to finish the plate of homemade sausage as well. Next I moved on to the grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. The sandwich was made with aged cheddar and taleggio on rye bread - again delicious even though I'm not really huge rye bread fan. There's just nothing like the combination of grilled cheese and tomato soup to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
Luckily we finished our meal with more than enough time for me to get to the airport. I wish I wasn't in such a hurry as I might have gotten one of their famous hot chocolate drinks for dessert. But I'm so happy that I was able to squeeze this yummy meal in before I left Chicago, especially after the lackluster meal at Red Door the previous night. While I am still not a fan of potentially having to wait 2 hours again, it's definitely more than worth the wait. Total bill: $24/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit; Yelp
1 comment:
Mission accomplished!
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