Restaurant Week 2020: Mon Ami Gabi
Author: Isabella Sturgis
Photographer: Melanie Wang
Image from: https://www.monamigabi.com/chicago/parties/
What is brunch if not a time to indulge in complete gluttony and imagine what life might have been like as a French aristocrat throwing caution to the wind when it came to his big toe. Enter: Mon Ami Gabi, a French bistro in Lincoln Park offering plenty of classic dishes all with a prelude of a warm baguette. It may not be authentic and it may not be the best French fare in Chicago, but it’s enough to have you lying on your couch (which you can pretend is a chaise lounge) for at least the rest of the day.
And what better time to order way too much food than Restaurant Week, which continues until February 9th! The Restaurant Week menu, a prix fixe menu of an hors d’oeuvres, an entree, and a profiterole for dessert, is the most cost-efficient if you chose one of the drink options—the Bloody Mary or the sparkling cocktail. Otherwise, you end up filling up on an hors d’oeuvres and not being able to eat your entrée, or the piéce de résistance, the profiterole.
I love Bloody Marys so I ordered one from the Restaurant Week menu with the Omelette Lorraine as my entrée. I was a little disappointed in the Bloody Mary as it was a little too salty and watered-down. It pales in comparison to Cafe Ba Ba Reeba’s, which is customizable and almost double the size. I did appreciate the cube of gruyere cheese on the toothpick, though, as the drink made me rethink my decision to forgo the French onion soup as my starter. Gabi’s onion soup au gratin is absolutely killer, especially if you’re like me and can’t get enough cheese, but I knew from previous visits that if I had it as an appetizer I would barely touch my entree.
I also got to try the other cocktail offered with the menu, the Sparkling Cocktail, a champagne drink which my friend ordered with pineapple and ginger “elixir.” I’m not normally a huge ginger person but the gingery bite complimented the dry brut very well, and it was all softened by the sweet pineapple. It was definitely a refreshing alternative to the brunch drink of choice, the mimosa.
Warm baguettes with preserves and sweet cream butter were served while we waited for our entrées. I know, I just rationalized my decision to order a drink as my starter in order to make room for my entrée, but c’mon—if there’s a fresh baguette in front of you, what else are you supposed to do? It would have been downright masochistic to deprive myself of such a perfect carb, even if I had melted cheese and caramelized onions in my near future. So no, I do not regret eating an entire baguette, and neither should you.
When our entrées arrived, my friends and I were mentally but not totally physically prepared. My Omelette Lorraine was an unabashed, edible incarnation of bon goût. The saltiness of the cheese and bacon and the sweetness of the caramelized onions played up each other’s flavors, the filling barely contained within the mild egg. It wasn’t like a regular omelette with all the ingredients recklessly thrown in and mixed together, but instead, the three flavors were gently encased in a perfectly smooth and round blanket of egg. I paid less attention to the hash browns, not only because I had limited internal real estate, but also because they were a little greasy to my taste. However, I’d occasionally combine them in a bite of omelette to taper down the rich flavors.
Luckily, my friends ordered several other dishes that I got to try as well. The Eggs Benedict was good but relatively predictable, although the Canadian bacon had a nice smokey flavor and the Hollandaise felt unusually light and slightly lemony. The Salmon and Hash Brown Benedict was a little more adventurous; the capers had the potential to throw off the flavor profile, but went quite well with the creaminess of the Hollandaise. Overall it was a little salty, but you have to know what you’re getting into when you order a smoked salmon benedict. The one item from the á la carte menu was the quiche, which was definitely an improvement on a traditional dish. It had cubes of squash, which provided a bit of sweetness that complimented the cheese and egg. The texture was very light and fluffy, not at all chewy or thick, and the greens on top dressed with a light vinaigrette added an appreciated bitter freshness.
The only item from the Restaurant Week menu we didn’t try was the Creme Brûlée French Toast, but I can’t imagine how you could go wrong with that (other than going into a sugar coma after your profiterole).
Finally, despite our groans and bursting pant seams, our profiteroles were laid in front of us as a final challenge. I finished it, which either was a digestive miracle or maybe it was just that good. The simplicity of pastry, vanilla ice cream, and hot fudge is just the perfect ending to a tastefully extravagant and strenuous meal all wrapped up in a pretty little sphere. It is also the perfect amount to send you into a heavy mid-afternoon nap, which I proceeded to take when I got home.