blake m.'s Profile

I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys French food.  I went there for dinner with my family (3 brothers and mother) and we all tried something different.  Everything was excellent.  

The best of our meal were:

App: wild mushroom quiche (even my brother who does not like mushrooms was impressed).

Main Course: it was a special chicken breast stuffed with spinach and some sort of cheese.  I know it is hard to order chicken at a fancy restaurant, but this was bomb.

Dessert: standard creme brule... it is a must.

Random:  Though the steaks are great, they are not that adventurous and though you will not be disappointed if you order one, try something else.

How nice it is to have something so simple be so good.  Lito's is a great because it is so simple.  They have about 8 different empanadas, i have tried 5 and they have all been great.  

What I really like is that for $2.09 each, you can get either a snack (1 empanada), lunch (2 empanadas) or dinner (3 empanadas).

Carlos, Lito's master mind, has told me he is perfecting a sauce to put on top of the empanada.  I am extremely excited about this.  Without some hot sauce or salsa the empanadas are a little dry.  I have been using Frank's Red Hot and it has been a nice compliment.

This is going to be a basic review.  Everything at this restaurant is decent.  It is good, but not great.  With all the great Italian places in Chicago I will not be going back anytime soon.  I went with 3 others and tried all 4 apps and 4 entrees.  Out of the 8 things that I tried none of them did anything special for me.  Apps: pasta fagoli, Caresse salad, scallops and the shrimp, eh.  Entrees: farfalle duck confit, lobster ravioli, sausage ravioli, risotto with venison, meh.  Do yourself a favor and skip this one, not because it is bad, but because you could do so much better.

Let me preface this by saying that I am friends with the owners Marta and Clint, and have know them for a while.  So my review may be biased but take it for what it is worth.  

The store is extremely well laid out and the flower arrangements on display are nothing short of spectacular.  The wine selection is small but well selected with top organic wines.  The plus is that though A. Vision knows wine they do not speak the wine speak that you find so often at other wine spots.  There is no arrogance in the air.   I will purchase my wine from here for a long time and when I need flowers, this is my spot.

Wine tasting on Fridays is a great way to start the weekend.

I am basing this review on the one lunch that I have eaten at Cafe 28.  I had the steak sandwich, though I think it had a cooler name on the menu.  It was on point!  The meat was cooked properly, the seasoning was excellent and the bread was the right blend of moist on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside.  The "chips" on the side were, I think, fried plantains.  They where a great change to the normal fries or potato chips.  My lunch mate ordered a sandwich as well (forget what one) but it looked better than mine.

I highly recommend this restaurant for lunch and am excited to try it for dinner.