Deca (Chicago) 01/2011

The Deca restaurant and bar are attached to the palatial foyer of the Ritz Carlton in the heart of Chicago's CBD. It has recently been awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin. This means it is a restaurant which the inspectors liked, that, for under $40 should provide two courses and a glass of wine. Food must be good but not good enough for a star, (actually they award rosettes, not stars).It's a very comfortable area with booths and well spaced large tables. It is a plush venue befitting a great hotel. We arrived, tired, from Los Angeles and decided to dine here. Service was immaculate and when I found my French Onion soup far too salty
I was immediately offered another appetizer a housemaid linguini with seafood
in a white wine sauce which was much more palatable. Their bread,
made in house, was good enough to dine on! Sandra's mushroom risotto
was a tribute to the chef. Creamy with distinct grains of arborio rice full of the mushroom flavour. New York steak, with an eggplant jam, and Bearnaise by request, was, as is so often the case, seriously over salted. Still it was a super tasty piece of meat.
A side dish of pumpkin gnocchi and one mixed potato,
I had eaten most of them before I thought to take this pic. were excellent but pretty filling. Large serves are characteristic of many North American restaurants. My duck breast
was swimming in jus and also suffered a little from excess seasoning. Indefatigable tasters we went on to a chocolate cake
for dessert which was not as rich as it looked, but very rich all the same, and a poached pear
which was worth having. They were not far off the $40 mark until taxes and gratuities were added.
Only a few hours later we returned for breakfast. They have an odd arrangement where the only breakfast that comes with fruit juice and tea/coffee is titled Midwest. ($22)
.Otherwise you end up shelling out $6 for a cup of tea and more again for orange juice. Served with bacon, ham or sausages with toast, bread or a scone, here called biscuit. A half serve of huge pancakes soon proved to us that, no matter how tasty, there is a limit to how much we could eat.
A gorgeous that serves well prepared food.
Score: 13.75/20