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WINDY CITY TIMES
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DISH: SAVOR Roy's Restaurant
Special to the online edition of Windy City Times by Brian Solem
2015-08-11
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This article shared 3428 times since Tue Aug 11, 2015
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This is food that was made for a warm, humid, breezy night. Roy's Restaurant ( 720 N. State St.; RoysRestaurant.com ) may be far in distance from its Hawaiian roots, but the sweet-and-savory combinations found at its Chicago outpost are a solid, if uncreative, distillation of Hawaiian-American cuisine.
The flagship of this chain of 20 restaurants opened in Honolulu in 1988 by James Beard Award-winning Chef Roy Yamaguchi. In Chicago, Roy's has been a presence in the Gold Coast's awkward food scene for over a decade. Despite having lived here for the restaurant's entire lifespan, I'd never heard of it. It's no wonder, reallywhat place can a Hawaiian-European fine dining experience have among Chicago's cornucopia of culinary experiences?
My dining companion and I were limited to Roy's seasonal prix fixe ( available through September ); for $39.95, diners are offered a typical lineup of starter, main and dessert, with two options each.
I chose the heirloom tomato salad, which was simple and refreshing. I didn't receive a certificate of origin on the tomatoes, but the toughness and lack of flavor of the halved cherry tomatoes atop a macadamia nut pesto suggested that "heirloom" was an overstatement. My companion chose the shrimp shumai; these fluted, open dumplings had a prismatic, complex flavor that, frankly, surprised me. We washed down our starters with one drink Hawaiian ( a Hawaiian Martini, which is listed as a pineapple "drenched" ( oof ) in flavored vodka ) and one drink American ( a barrel-aged Boulevardier from High West ). This would end up being the highlight of the menu, but not without some strong contenders.
Our mains were beautiful: He had the pan-seared catch of the day, which was adequately prepared, with crispy skin and fork-tender meat. It arrived alongside a gathering of patty-pan squash ( think tiny, edible spaceships ) and various other summery veggies. My Kona coffee-crusted pork and Kauai prawns truly hit the spot: Moist, fantastically seasoned pork, sliced on the bias, paired well with two small, well-charred prawns.
We ended our meal with two underwhelming desserts: the Applebee's-worthy chocolate lava cake, drenched ( they like drenching things! ) with raspberry sauce. My passion fruit sorbet and white chocolate tart duo was an odd dish: the sorbet was spot-on, redolent of the tropical fruit, but the "tart" filling was reminiscent of white Play-Doh and plopped atop some uninspiring crumbs.
Roy's is a curious place. It seems to favor accessibility over ingenuity, which means the Hawaiian flavor is used as a garnish rather than a centerpiece. Although my dining companion would love to check out the other items on the menu, on the next hot, Hawaiian summer day in Chicago, I think I'll hula elsewhere. |
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This article shared 3428 times since Tue Aug 11, 2015
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