Sable Kitchen & Bar - Chicago, IL

If you haven't been watching Season 9 of Top Chef, you will notice several Chicago chefs competing for the grand prize.  One of the chefs, Heather Terhune, is executive chef of Sable Kitchen & Bar, which is in the Palomar Hotel in the River North area of Chicago. 

We've wanted to try Sable previously, but it's been pretty difficult to get reservations last minute.  A few months ago, Aleen and I were able to score reservations at a decent time.

Once we took a look at the menu, you could hardly guess Aleen and my excitement when we saw deviled eggs on the menu.  If there is anyone else who likes eggs as much as I do, it's Aleen.  We both share a deep love and appreciation for these incredible edible eggs.  Sable's version are made with truffle oil and black trumpet mushrooms.  Why oh why have I never thought to put truffle oil in eggs.  Lesson learned!  These were scrumptious.  

We also love bacon wrapped dates, so we ordered these as well.  This had bleu cheese in the center.

To balance out the eggs and bacon, we ordered a salad.  This happened to be their rock shrimp with avocado and grapefruit salad.  Along with the fried wonton strips, not sure this really constitutes a salad.  lol.  The ratio of fried items vs. greens was probably 2 to 1.  hehe.

I had heard great things about their black cod dish so we ordered that as well.  It came with pumpernickel croutons, pickled onions, watercress and horseradish-dill cream.   It felt like something I could eat in Norway, even though I've never been to the country, let alone a Norwegian restaurant.  :)

We saw another egg dish and couldn't resist.  It was a soft boiled egg with toast, proscuitto and asparagus.  I felt like this dish belonged more on a brunch menu.  It was kind of difficult to share too.

This was one of their special dishes of the night, a brie and roasted pear flatbread pizza.  It was ok, maybe because Chicago has so many great pizza options, this fell short.  I feel like there were a lot of hits and misses that night.  I loved their deviled eggs and the smoked cod, but the salad, pizza and the soft boiled egg dish left a lot to be desired.

Given how hard it was to get reservations at Sable, I had really high hopes that the food would blow me away, but it didn't.  I was going to write it off as a miss, but considering Chef Terhune is on Top Chef this season, maybe I missed something.  Regardless, I hope Chef Terhune and all the Chicago chefs do really well on the show.  Chicago has some great restaurants, my senses have probably just been dulled.  :)

Sable Kitchen & Bar
505 N State St
Chicago, IL 60654