We have visited Eddie V’s several times and I have written a review once, in April 2017. How about an update?
The Eddie V’s chain (now 20 restaurants strong) is a sister chain to The Capital Grille (which has 50+ locations). At Eddie V’s, the emphasis is on seafood, but with a strong steak offering. The Capital Grille is a steakhouse, but has some good seafood offerings. Both are high-end, fine dining, white tablecloth kinds of places with extensive wine lists and excellent cocktail programs. If this is the type of dining you are looking for, perhaps for a special occasion or business meal, I can recommend either chain.
The warm bread that was brought to the table looked pretty much the same as what was served last time.
The bread is multigrain, crusty, and very good with the butter.
August is a hot month in Chicago, so I chose a refreshing cocktail to start: a Good Fortune.
Who doesn’t want a little extra Good Fortune? One of the most basic, refreshing summer cocktails is a Gin Sour (let’s say, 2 oz gin, 0.75 oz lemon juice, and 0.75 oz sugar shaken with ice. Adjust proportions to suit your taste.). Add some soda water and you have a Gin Fizz. The Good Fortune goes uptown with the cocktail, using Green Chartreuse to add the sweetness, fresh basil to add a delightful aroma, and a little sake just to give all the flavors a place to blend. This definitely quenched my thirst for a summer cocktail.
Green Chartreuse is the only liqueur that has a completely natural green color. It is made with over 130 herbs and flowers based on a formula that was found in what was probably an alchemist’s notebook in 1605. The monks who owned the manuscript started experimenting with what they could interpret at once, although it took until 1764 to fully decipher the formula and figure out how to make the “Elixir of Life”—the original Chartreuse. Chartreuse was a potent drink (69% alcohol, or 138 proof) that was supposed to used medicinally, but people (including the monks who made it) liked the flavor (and the effects), is it was also enjoyed, shall we say, recreationally.
In 1840, Green Chartreuse was made as a milder (55% alcohol, 110 proof) alternative that was easier to drink. This greatly increased the liqueur’s popularity. A sweeter version, Yellow Chartreuse (40% alcohol, 80 proof), was also developed that year. All 3 versions are still made by monks, and only 2 of them know the formulas at any one time. Chartreuse in its various forms is popular today as a digestif, an ingredient in many cocktails, and sometimes as an aperitif.
Back to Eddie V’s. Ordering a couple appetizers to share, we started with Ahi Tuna Tartare.
This was an interesting variation on tuna tartare, which usually has an Asian or Latin American flair. The curry and citrus were nice additions and the crisp sesame crackers were perfect scoops to eat the tartare with. The citrus, in particular, made the dish seem lighter and more refreshing for the summer.
We also ordered a classic shrimp cocktail.
This may not be a trendy dish, but I like it. Eddie V’s offers both a classic cocktail sauce, that you can make as spicy as you like by adding your own horseradish, and the spicy mayo and mustard sauce that is traditional in many seafood places. (The mayo-mustard sauce may have originated at Joe’s Crab Shack in Miami Beach. You can read about that in my review of Truluck’s in La Jolla, CA.) I wrote about Eddie V’s version of the dish and the sauces in some detail in my previous review.
Next, a salad, which they kindly split onto two plates for us to share.
If you can’t get ripe, tasty tomatoes in August you never will. These were ripe, juicy, firm, and delicious. The burrata (essentially a Mozzarella ball filled with cream), along with the basil, olive oil, and Balsamic vinegar essentially made this a slightly kicked up Caprese Salad, which normally uses plain Mozzarella instead of Burrata. This is one of those quintessential Italian masterpieces that do not require massive culinary skills or exotic ingredients, just a few simple, high-quality ingredients. Delicious.
We decided on two entrées to share. First, lamb chops.
These were meaty, cooked to a perfect medium (our preferred temperature), and served with a really good cherry-port sauce that was just sweet enough and balanced by enough tartness to serve the chops well.
Our second entrée was little surf and turf.
King Crab Legs might be my favorite type of crab at the moment and these were perfectly steamed. They came with just a little lemon and drawn butter, and that was all they needed.
The filet was an excellent filet, which is to say it was very tender, but did not have the deep, beefy flavor of my favorite cut, the NY Strip. Still it was cooked perfectly (again, medium for us), seasoned well, and had a nice char from the grill. You can’t do better with a filet.
I had finished my Good Fortune cocktail with the starters, so it was time for something a bit sturdier to go with the meat. The Smoked Old Fashioned caught my eye.
As I have written many times, an Old Fashioned is, as it’s name implies, one of the oldest cocktails still around. In it’s most primordial form it is a couple ounces of rye or bourbon whiskey, a few dashes of bitters and a sugar cube or spoonful of simple syrup. I find that some bartenders/mixologists get a little carried away trying to improve the classic, but they found a good balance here. Basil Hayden’s is a great bourbon, so that’s a good start. It’s not unusual to find hints of chocolate or smokiness in a good bourbon, so the chocolate bitters and whiff of smoke that was in the glass just accent what might already have been there. A gentle touch and well played.
Of course, we needed some veggies to go with our meat choices. We chose Brussels sprouts for one.
Many people hate Brussels sprouts and for good reason. Canned or boiled to death they give off sulphur compounds that smell and taste terrible. However, if you roast them at high temperature or sauté them, they turn sweet and delicious, especially with bacon providing the oil to cook the sprouts in and adding texture and flavor to the finished dish.
Our second veggie selection was Sautéed Monterey-style Sweet Corn.
I don’t know the origin of of the name “Monterey-Style” for a vegetable (usually corn) that has been mixed with scallions, red peppers, cilantro, jalapeño and cheese (more or less—recipes vary), other than the obvious guess that it was developed in Monterey, California. Regardless, it’s a colorful and flavorful mixture that is at its best in the summer made with fresh kernel of sweet corn right off the cob.
We had no room for dessert after all that, but, once again, we left Eddie V’s satisfied. Like a good steakhouse, the food here is made with first-quality ingredients, well prepared, and well seasoned. The menu is not wildly creative and the plates are not arranged with tweezers as you might expect in a Michelin-starred temple of gastronomy, but the service is good, the food is delicious, the cocktails well made, and the wine list offers selection for most every taste. Oh, and there was live music coming from the lounge area, which definitely added to the ambience.
Eddie V’s Prime Seafood
Address: 521 N. Rush Street Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 595-1114
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: https://www.opentable.com/eddie-vs-chicago
Dress Code: Business Casual
Price Range: ~$30 – 50
Hours: Sunday: 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Monday – Thursday: 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Friday – Saturday: 5:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Credit Cards: AMEX, Diner’s Club, MasterCard, Visa
Chicago, IL 60611
All images were taken with an Apple iPhone X using ambient light. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom® and Adobe Photoshop® with Nik/Google® and Luminar® plugins.
