avec.jpg, originally uploaded by minhi.

It took two tries for me to eat here.  The first time i was out-ranked on the restaurant choice.  The second time i was eating by myself.  I took the “El” in from Midway airport (my hotel location).  Easy to get to the loop, as it’s the only place that line really goes.  I took the Washington and Wells stop and it was a 15 minutes walk.  If you come from Randolph and Wabash (near Millenium Park) it’s maybe a 30 minute walk and a little over 1 mile walk.

I sat at the hostess station at the end of the bar (last seat available).  The space is modern with blonde wood accents in a long rectangle with the bar running down one side looking into the open kitchen.  The best seat is at the far end of the bar right in front of the stoves.  The other side of the room has a long bench with tables throughout.  The seating is communal so you’ll be sitting next to strangers (unless you bring a full table of 6).  They do not take reservations so be prepared to wait.  The room is also very loud, with hard surfaces and one long room it amplifies the noise.  The crowd is quite young and hip looking, if you have to wait you can have drinks on the sidewalk outside.  There is valet parking, and there is limited street parking.

The menu is on their website (Avec Restaurant Chicago), it is divided into small plates and large plates.   Let me warn you up front that the large plates are too big for one person.  I ordered the chicken and even without the first course i could not have finished it alone.  For the small plates i think 2 would feed one person fine, for 2 people 1 small and 1 large or 2 smalls and 1 large would be fine.  From the prices you can see it is not expensive to eat here, their portions are large.

As far as my take on the food, the chorizu stuff dates wrapped in bacon taste just like it sounds.  The dates you can make out a little bit but it’s salty spicy porkiness.  The red-pepper sauce is really addictive and the portugese roll is great to soak up the sauce.  As a warning it’s a touch spicy.

The chicken was cooked well, in that it was not over-cooked.   Oddly the chicken was warm but not hot (whereas the dates were temp hot), the garnish was a roasted butternut squash (a little soft), shaved apples (nice crunch) and roasted cippolini onions (a nice change of pace).

My server picked the wine on my only pre-condition (a white, it was hot.  a red would’ve suited the first course but i think white was better for the chicken), it was very drinkable, which is really my only want in a wine.  As a warning i thought the wine prices looked  a little high only after drinking some of it i realized that it’s 250ml, which is more then a single glass.  I had to leave some there as i could not finish it.  It comes in a small carafe so you can share it if you like.

My only complaint about service is that I had about half my food uneaten (and untouched), but the person that took my food away did not offer me a box.  I did not neccessarily want them but considering how much food was on the plate they should’ve asked me.

I would eat here again, it’s an asset to the neighborhood to have such a good value.  My only complaint is with the noise level, it is so loud that i would not come here if i was in the mood for someplace a little more quiet.  I guess in that situation i would think about the sister restaurant next door, Blackbird.