Sometimes wishes do come true, and you don’t even have to go to Disneyland®. Three and a half years ago, in December, 2014, Valeria and I vacationed in southern California and went to Truluck’s Seafood in La Jolla. We had a delightful meal and I ended that review by saying “Too bad it’s over 2000 miles from my house!”
Well, now there is a Truluck’s just a couple miles from my condo and it may be even better than the one in La Jolla. (To be fair, I’m sure that location has updated its menu since I was there.) We headed there one Saturday night with Valeria’s mom, so we had a chance to try more dishes than the two of us normally would.
When we sat down in California, we were greeted with a bread basket. It was good bread, but the warm rolls that came out here in Chicago were much, much better.
These were yeast rolls, straight from the oven, pillowy soft, and fragrant with yeast and butter.
Another nice touch was in the water glass.
We were offered a choice of lemon, lime, and cucumber slices, which could be mixed and matched, to add to the water. Arguably, this may be an unnecessary complication to a simple glass of water, but, as it happens, we do like a slice of citrus in our water, so it is a nice thing for us. If they really wanted to impress, they would have offered me complimentary sparkling water instead of still. One of my pet peeves is high-end restaurants which, when you ask for sparkling water, have nothing to offer you but a large bottle of overpriced, imported water. It’s way more than one person (at least this person) will drink, so it is ultimately both a waste and a ripoff. A glass of club soda from the bar works fine.
I should mention that the ambience here is much like a high end steakhouse: dark paneling, white table cloths, well dressed staff. Everyone from the hostess to the waiters to the managers who walked around checking up on things were friendly and welcoming.
While we were trying (unsuccessfully) not to wolf down the bread, the waiter showed us a magnificent looking seafood platter appetizer special.
Stone Crab claws, King Crab legs, Australian lobster tail and Maine lobster tail make for quite a presentation and could easily be dinner for some, but we opted for some smaller starters.
Crab did sound good, so one of our starters was the Crab Cocktail.
The secret to a good crab cocktail is, first and foremost, good fresh, lump crab meat. Check! Next is the sauce/dressing. It is easy to overwhelm the flavor of the crab, so less is generally more. Truluck’s Dynamite Cocktail Sauce is not as overwhelming as the name suggests, but purists may blanche, even though it was added judiciously and did not drown the crab. For once, I don’t have to guess what was in it as the recipe has been published here by Channel 7 News in Miami.
Dynamite Sauce
1/4 cup Kewpie mayonnaise
1/4 cup crème fraîche
1/8 cup Siracha hot sauce
1/2 tbs. fish sauce
1/4 tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. parsley, chopped
1 tsp. chives, chopped
1/4 tbs. blackened seasoning
Add crème fraîche, mayonnaise, blackening spice, soy sauce, fish sauce, parsley, chives and sriracha sauce. Mix well and store in refrigerator.
Regular readers will know that Valeria almost always has to try Tuna Tartare when it is offered, so that was her choice to add to our starter tasting.
This was a unique presentation. Valeria also loves seaweed salad (I like it, but don’t go searching for it). Not surprisingly, the tuna, seaweed and avocado all played nicely together and were given a nice kick by the same dynamite sauce that was on the crab cocktail. The Forbidden Rice Tower was a nice add that gave additional flavor and texture without detracting from the tuna that starred in the dish. Legend has it that this black rice was once eaten only by the emperors of China and was “forbidden” to everyone else. Whether the legend is true or not, it is readily available to all of us today, emperors and peasants alike.
I decided to try at least one non-seafood dish since a good deal of the menu here is very much land based. I chose the Prime Meatballs.
What a great choice! These were super tender and juicy and had a great depth of flavor from the combination of meats. A couple orders of these and the terrific yeast rolls we started with would make a fantastic deconstructed meatball sandwich that could be a meal.
Valeria and I decided to try a soup and salad, with her mom just wanting to try a bite or two. For the soup: Lobster Bisque.
Real lobster bisque is expensive and time coming to make. You need a lot of lobster shells and plenty of time to make the rich stock that is the base of the soup. There is an awful lot of lobster bisque sold in restaurants that has never seen any part of a lobster, except maybe for a tiny bit of lobster meat added as garnish.
This was not one of those bisques. It had a rich, deep flavor and some decent size pieces off lobster. The kicker was the horseradish goat cheese, that offed some heat from the horseradish and sharp creaminess from the goat cheese. Really well done.
For the salad, a steakhouse staple: a Wedge Salad.
This classic can be very good or a waste of time. The wedge of iceberg lettuce is a given. Assuming it is fresh, cold and crispy, there’s 50 out of 100 points to start. If you want to get to a passing grade, it’s the trimmings that will get you there. Are the tomatoes juicy and sweet? Is the bacon flavorful, smoky and ample enough to flavor most, if not all, bites? Enough blue cheese crumbles? Flavorful and sufficient blue cheese dressing? This salad got full marks for the blue cheese crumbles and the blue cheese dressing; both were plentiful and flavorful. The tomatoes and bacon were of excellent quality, but the plate needed a little more of each. Especially the bacon. I am pretty sure there is a fundamental law of physics or chemistry that says there can never be too much bacon. I have to score this one somewhere in the low 80s, a good, but not outstanding, effort.
With no real complaints and several very good dishes behind us, it was time for the entrées. These were more of a consensus choice rather than each of us choosing one.
Entrée #1: Dover sole.
Dover sole is often presented and deboned and sometimes even cooked table side. Here, the fish was completely prepared and plated in the kitchen, which is totally fine by me.
This was a fish dish for fish lovers. The fish was simply seasoned and cooked perfectly. The cherry tomatoes added some nice sweetness and acidity that complimented the fish, and there was just enough garlic to flavor the dish without overwhelming it. A squirt of lemon juice from the lemon half that had been grilled (roasted?) for extra flavor and it was pretty much perfect. The fish was the star, and the accoutrements were supporting actors.
In contrast, the Sweet and Spicy Wild Striped Bass was an ensemble cast.
I didn’t realize until I started writing this article and looked back at the post from 2014 in La Jolla that we had ordered the Sweet and Spicy Cobia there. Looks like it’s a standard recipe and the fish is chosen from what’s available on any given day. Regardless, the tomatoes here are more plentiful and a bit “louder” than in the sole dish. Of course the jalapeños add some spice, avocado adds creamy richness, and the rice pilaf adds creaminess, texture, and flavor. A squirt from the grilled lemon brightens and lightens everything up. Still, all the flavors and textures combine and compliment each other nicely. I can see why this recipe is still around years later.
Our third and final entrée could have been flown up from New Orleans: Redfish Pontchartrain with crawfish tails, shrimp, blue crab, Creole sauce, and rice pilaf.
Redfish Pontchartrain was invented at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans. It was made with blackened redfish placed on some cornbread and topped with crawfish in a spicy creole sauce. It became enormously popular and variations are still common today. Truluck’s makes it with rice pilaf instead of cornbread. Everyone has their own take on blackening spices and recipes for a good Creole sauce. I have never had the dish at the Pontchartrain Hotel, but I have had variation at several New Orleans restaurants and this one would fit in just fine. It was delicious.
We were more than happy to see Truluck’s in Chicago and enjoyed the meal very much. This is a special occasion restaurant, very similar, as I said before, in ambiance, quality, and price to a high-end steakhouse. If this is the is the kind of place you’re looking for, Truluck’s should definitely be on your list.
Truluck’s Ocean’s Finest Seafood and Crab
Address: 41 E Chestnut St Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 982-0050
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: https://trulucks.com
Dress Code: Business Casual
Price Range: $31—$50
Hours: Dinner: Sunday—Thursday, 5:00pm—10:00pm
Friday—Saturday, 5:00pm—11:00pm
AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Chicago, IL 60611
All images were taken with a Sony Alpha a6500 camera and a Sony E 16mm f/2.8 lens using ambient light. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom® and Adobe Photoshop® with Nik/Google and Skylum® Luminar® plugins.
