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| - In town for Memorial Day weekend. Wanted to go someplace slightly fancy for dinner Saturday night. My wife picked DESTIHL, and she definitely chose ... wisely. :-)
We made reservations for 7PM. (They use Yelp for online reservations, and that was painless.) Got there at about 20 'til. (We'd taken a Lyft from the hotel, because we didn't want to worry about how much we had to drink, and it got there, and got us to the restaurant, much quicker than expected.) The hostess actually apologized for not having a table ready for us, and gave us a buzzer. So we headed into the bar to wait. Bar service was quick and cheerful. My wife had a shot of a very nice rye (Whistle Pig); I went with one of their many interesting beers, the I Believe You Have My Stapler red ale, which was a little hoppier than optimal for me, but clearly well-made. Before we could finish our drinks, the buzzer went off, and we were off to the dining room.
Service was prompt but not rushed, attentive, and both friendly and professional. We both went with items from the "Signature Dishes" section of the menu. My wife got the stuffed poblano pepper, with chorizo, I went with the pork posole soup. My wife was very pleased with her entree. I was completely blown away by mine. It wasn't a large quantity of food, but it was an IMMENSE quantity of TASTE, Every spoonful was packed with goodness. With our dinners we had a bottle of Robertson Pinotage. We were both amazed to see this fairly obscure varietal on their menu, and pleasantly surprised with how well it paired with both of our meals. After dinner we went ahead and split one of their wild sour berry tarts for dessert. It was another impressive piece of work ... a whole lot of moving parts that blended together magnificently.
We were so impressed with the experience that, after having dinner at another restaurant in downtown Champaign tonight, (Sunday) we decided to stop in to DESTIHL again for another drink at the bar. Ended up staying for two rounds. My wife had another rye (Templeton), and then a lovely Japanese whiskey, Hibiki. I stuck with their beers - first a great raspberry wheat ale, then an even better saison, their Neil St. Again, wonderful service. Just fun to hang out.
If we're ever back in Champaign-Urbana, we'll definitely come back to DESTIHL.
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