Phil Vettel continues his grand tour of the suburbs this week and drops three stars on Lake Bluff’s Inovasi. The restaurant is influenced by Asian, Latin, and Mediterranean cuisine, and has the “most welcoming host stand on the North Shore.” But it’s the food from chef and owner John des Rosiers that finally convinces him: “Rosiers has created a forward-looking restaurant that hasn’t lost sight of where it has been.” [Trib]
Julia Kramer visits the River North’s newest Tex-Mex restaurant Dos Diablos. The enormous portions feature food that is “fatty, salty, sweet—the type of school-lunch fare the First Lady protests. It is food, Dos Diablos seems to demonstrate, best left to manboys.” [TOC]
Last week David Tamarkin visited Deca, The Ritz Hotel’s newest bistro concept. Though it’s supposed to kick start the staid hotel’s dining room, he ends up feeling sorry for the place. It may have lowered its prices, but it didn’t drastically change its food: “It’s not the Ritz’s prices that were keeping Chicagoans out; it was its outdated and overly formal conventions.” [TOC]
Pat Bruno’s own trip to Deca couldn’t have been more different than Tamarkin’s: “The prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is elegant but not to the point where it’s stuffy or intimidating.” He loves the “deeply luscious” French onion soup, and (surprise!) the pasta dish, which he would definitely order “again in a heartbeat.” [Sun-Times]
