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| - My wife and I ended up at One Red Door again on a Saturday night after we needed a quick reservation and dinner before a holiday party. As I noted in my past review, we've dined there a number of times in the past but have never really found that one dish/one thing that was fantastic. Our recent dinner seems to have broken the streak.
For the first time, ORD finally had a chief driven, unique, and well composed vegetarian option on the menu which made my wife ecstatic. She had high hopes and ordered the Chickpea Stew with greens, fall veggies, cauliflower, quinoa, pine nuts, harissa, and greek yogurt. The dish completely lived up to her expectations. In fact, it was the first time she had a dish that she was blown away with at ORD.
One of our primary disappointments in the past with ORD is the fact that the menu seems to be very heavy protein driven, with little options for a vegetarian or someone who wants a "lighter" option. The Chickpea Stew totally hit the mark.
I ordered the crispy skin chicken, brussel sprouts, fall squash, fingerling potatoes, bacon and sweet onion chicken jus. It was equally fantastic. It was my first time at ORD that I walked away saying: wow, this is a well composed dish, the flavor elements and texture across all the components came together beautifully.
I noticed that Shawn was in the kitchen the evening I dined there. I wonder if that helped set the higher standard for the food that went out that night.
The waiter mentioned that the menu is changing next week. Let's hope that they continue with a strong, creative, out of the box vegetarian option(s) as well as elevating their dishes to be beautifully composed.
With this dinner, ORD has jumped up to be a much more viable dinner option than what I would have recommended in the past. I hope it continues this way.
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