Gilt Bar Chicago | A Lovely Candlelit Dinner Experience 🕯️🍽️

During this year’s Chicago Restaurant Week , I had the pleasure of celebrating my birthday at Gilt Bar with my girlfriend. 🎉💖 Let me start by saying, Gilt Bar is an excellent restaurant. The evening atmosphere is top-notch, the servers are super friendly, and the food is high-quality. Highly recommended! 🌟 Here’s a quick rundown of what we ordered and our experience: Wood Fired Bone Marrow 🦴🔥 Served with two slices of toasted bread and sweet onion jam. The bone marrow itself is quite salty, but when spread on the toast with the jam, the flavors come together perfectly. Steamed Mussels 🐚🍞 Came with two green onion breadsticks. The mussels were incredibly tender, and while the broth was just okay, it paired well with the breadsticks for dipping. Vodka Rigatoni 🍝✨ Doesn’t look like much, but it’s delicious—one of Gilt Bar’s signature dishes. The texture is great, and the flavors are perfectly balanced. Unlike other cheesy pasta dishes that can feel heavy, this one feels light and refreshing. It has a slight kick of spice too. Pork Belly Confit 🐖🍖 A truly magical dish. The pork belly is a perfect mix of crispy and tender, with the fat melting in your mouth. If your budget allows, I highly recommend it. It’s not on the regular dinner menu—we got it as part of the Restaurant Week Package deal. Brussels Sprouts and French Fries 🥬🍟 These are side dishes, but the portions are generous. The Brussels sprouts were well-cooked—not bitter or tough, with a soft, slightly sweet flavor. The only downside was that they were a bit charred. The fries were interesting—they smelled just like KFC fries, but otherwise, nothing too special. Dessert - Gelato and Chocolate Cake 🍨🍫 The gelato is rich and creamy, with multiple flavors to choose from. If you’re celebrating a special occasion (like a birthday or anniversary), Gilt Bar will give you a complimentary vanilla gelato with chocolate sauce. The vanilla was a bit too sweet for me, so I’d recommend the Brown Butter flavor—it’s rich but not overwhelming. The other dessert option is chocolate cake , which I tried a bit of. It’s dark chocolate, rich and slightly bitter. The ambiance of the restaurant is fantastic, with paintings and books decorating the space. The real candles and soft lighting create a cozy, romantic vibe. The downstairs dining area is called the “Library.” 📚🕯️ Overall, this was our first time at Gilt Bar, and we highly recommend it. Give it a try! The restaurant has been around since 2010 and is a local Chicago favorite. While Google says it’s American cuisine, I’d say it leans more Italian. 🇮🇹🍷 #RestaurantRecommendations #NewHere #ChicagoFood #ChicagoLife