Chicago (American) - Mado

Mado
1647 North Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL; 773-342-2340
Date of Review: May, 2010
http://madorestaurantchicago.com/

If you like local produce, organic vegetables and grass fed meat, you will appreciate Mado and what it is trying and succeeding in doing very successfully. If you don’t value those aspects of a meal, you might still want to swing by to try a very good BYOB restaurant in the trendy Wicker Park neighborhood. Mado is a small restaurant near the busy North, Milwaukee and Damen intersection that is located just far enough from the chaos of this junction to allow for a quiet dining experience. The restaurant has a clean design that is minimalistic and works well. While they have traditional menus, the ever changing menus are also displayed tastefully on the chalkboards hanging on the walls.
The service is efficient and the servers are extremely knowledgeable of the ingredients and the menu which is important given the importance of the ingredients and where they come from at a restaurant like Mado that hangs it hat on meat and produce that comes from Midwestern farmers.
For appetizers, the roasted carrots with goat cheese, pistachios and cumin honey are out of this world with a nice sweet flavor that is a perfect contrast to the flavors and textures of the almonds and cheese they are served with. On another occasion we had the roasted beets which were served the same way and were also excellent. I find myself to favor vegetables at restaurants like Mado that use organic and local produce as they seem to be able to do wonderfully creative things with the freshest carrots, lettuces, brussel sprouts, beets, etc. It is nice to see restaurants treat vegetables as something special as opposed to something additional. We have also had the very good spicy green salad which is served with smoked trout, farm egg, sourdough croutons and mustard vinaigrette.

This is our second visit to Mado and the 2nd time we ordered the wood grilled hangar steak. Its grass fed beef and it is that good. The steak is served sliced surrounding a bed of polenta. The creamy gorgonzola polenta is gluttonously rich but almost a bit too much for me as I would prefer an accompaniment on the lighter side. On both of our visits to Mado, we were only able to finish half the portion of polenta. The steak was served medium rare and cooked perfectly with a tad bit of crispiness on the outside and was absolutely luscious within. We savored every bite. We also tried the ever changing pasta special on our last visit which is offered as either an appetizer or an entrée. The penne pasta wasn’t homemade but was cooked al dente and was served in a tasty pork bolognese that was solid and which we both enjoyed.

We were too full for dessert on this evening but on our last visit to Mado, we had a fabulous vanilla bean rice pudding with golden raisins and almonds that was rich, creamy and out of this world.

Mado’s prices are about what you would expect given the caliber of the food but if you are consuming alcohol, the BYOB policy turns it into a value for a gourmet meal. Our total bill came to $90 with tax and tip for 2 entrees and 2 appetizers. Mado prides itself on quality ingredients and succeeds on every level. They are also doing some cool and unique things such as hosting pig butchering demos where the Chef butchers a pig, explains how each part of the pig is used, and provides each attendee with a sampling of fresh pork to bring home.