S.K.Y. — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

12/5/22

The Riesling. Get it. 2020 vintage from Rainer Wess. Medium dry, citrus, fruit, very easy to drink, very smooth, not very complex, but pairs well with menu.

Amuse Bouche was edamame puree that had lime notes and a velvety texture that resulted in a reminiscing of guacamole - in a good way. This was dolloped on a little chip of puffed rice crisp with cilantro garnish. Good start.

Hamachi - get it. Fresh slices of buri with ponsu sauce, chili oil, boiled black sesame seeds, the same puffed rice crisps used in the amuse, and chives among some avocado and cucumber slivers. Hints of lime or other citrus here as well. Extremely well done with the right balance of seasoning, saltiness, acidity, and textures. Apparently this dish just never goes off the menu since so many people like it - and for good reason.

Lobster Dumplings - Hmmm, for me, I wish it was served piping hot. Lemon cream sauce could have been brighter with more acidity. Green oil did not add too much to the dish. I loved the shiso component on this dish though. And I wish I had eaten this first after the amuse as my tastes were already acclimated from the punchy hamachi. Definitely order and eat this first if going for both dishes.

Duck Confit - is this gochujang "BBQ" sauce on the duck I wonder? The duck was very tender and presentation was great. Deboning and lollipoping the bone was impeccablly done. The flavors were not really speaking to me, felt a bit jumbled and didn't live up to the standards that the previous dishes had set. Very interesting take on duck confit though.

Black Truffle Croquettes - gooey cheddar lovers dream. Very small size but high levels of umami and pairs well with the small bed of dressed frisee (but server said arugula something?) I wish there was more truffle in this though (like every truffle lover always says about every truffle dish ever...)

Warm Mushroom Salad - hen of the woods mushroom with goat cheese and avocados with a citrus almost ponsu tasting dressing. I really wish they had thoroughly boiled and soaked these mushrooms as first step of prep. It's a tad dry. The goat cheese with the dressing works well with the mushrooms, it took me a few bites to really be pulled into it though.

Crispy Seared Salmon - skinless portion of salmon that seems poached sous vide with a sheet of crispy phyllo on top. Wasn't feeling the phyllo vibes. Salmon itself was cooked nicely, personally a bit over cooked. The sambal beurre blanc was good, hard to mess up beurre blanc. I kind of wished for caviar beurre blanc with sunchokes instead. The potatoes though, omfg. So good. Crispy on the edges and fluffy on the inside.

Charred Broccoli - supposedly yuzu kosho flavored, but I honestly thought the yuzu kosho was severely lacking - yuzu kosho from a tube/jar? The Sichuan peppercorn was a fun addition. Broccoli was well roasted and thus a bit dry. I wished there was more moisture going on with the dish, some more sauce or dressing here.

Okinawa Black dessert - holy espangole-y, this is so dang good. This dessert may be the best dessert I've had this year by far. Chocolate devil's food cake, 66% (valrhona caraibe?) Choco mousse, caramel (??) Ice cream, kumquat liquor caramel, bits of supremed orange and then... Charred bread that is now as good as charcoal and sprinkled as crumbles on top. Lot of sweet sweet on the bottom, then crunchy bitters on top. The contrast of flavors, mouthfeel, caramel aroma. Everything works so well here.

I wish I could have expanded more but I'm limited in character count. Tried to summarize each point as much I could.

Props to the entire team here, sous chef Megan, pastry chef whose name I could not pronounce nor remember (sincere apologies) and the...

We came here to celebrate our anniversary. A trick about parking come out we use spot hero and was able to find a $4 spot in an empty school lot. This was after driving around for about 10 minutes trying to find street parking. Spot hero is the way to go!

The atmosphere in this restaurant is very pleasant. I like how there is an open kitchen and you can see all the workers. The service was great--it's a team effort, we got served by at least 6 people.

Unfortunately our waiter wasn't amazing. He had a little bit of an attitude to him and also had a very heavy accent which made hearing him and understanding him very difficult. My husband didn't order a drink and this seemed to annoy the waiter. I had some questions about the menu and he appeared less than thrilled to answer our questions. I will not take off a star for that because I did hear other waiters and waitresses going above and beyond. Perhaps our waiter was just not having a good night.

The food was absolutely amazing. Every single dish was delicious and amazingly put together. We liked how each small plate was brought out on its own, allowing you to really concentrate on that one dish. For our main dish , I ordered the short rib send my husband ordered the bibimbap. WOW! My dish was fantastic but his dish was even better! Absolutely LOVED the stone bowl it came in, keeping the mixture very hot. Our server said it was heated in the oven for over 2 hours! We did order 2 desserts and were pleasantly surprised with the presentation and flavors...

A very nice touch is the owner comes to each table numerous times during your meal and checks to see how you're doing. He even served us one of our desserts. At personal touch definitely made the dining experience memorable.

Aside from our disgruntled waiter, everything about S.K.Y is incredible. Everyone seemed genuinely happy to be willing there, making it a very positive eating environment. The owner, after hearing praise from 2 people sitting next to us, took them back into the kitchen to meet the chefs. Those small touches make such a difference!

Loved out evening and our meal--if only our kids were older, we would venture off to...

Space: Atmosphere was nice—not too loud or busy when we were there (Easter Sunday @ 6pm). Fancy feeling (with all the velvet) but not overly so.

Service: I liked that when the wait staff member came over to welcome us and give us water, he noticed the table was wobbly and stopped to fix it before pouring our water.

Our waiter was Gina and she was great—attentive but not over bearing. Since it was my birthday dinner, but we were way too full for cake, we asked if she thought any of the desserts were something we could take to go for later. She said unfortunately nothing was very to-go-friendly but if we liked, some sorbet or ice cream might be light enough if we were too full. We said it was okay but she ended up bringing some out anyway! With a candle and everything. It was light in flavor but so fragrant with just a little sweetness (pistachio); perfect imo. Made me forget how full I was.

Food: They started us out with their amuse bouche which was an edamame mousse that was sooo creamy and flavorful. It was on a puffed rice cracker and the mixture of texture was spot on. We ordered the himachi and the croquettes for small plates and seriously could not stop saying wow after each bite.

Next up was the roasted root veggies—this was very good but I think we were so wowed by the amuse bouche and the small plates that this seemed not as impressive. This salad was more substantial than we had anticipated so it made us a little too full before our main course came out. I’d say this is better for 3 or more people.

For our main course, we got the beef short rib and the fried chicken. Both were tasty but if I had to choose, I’d go for the fried chicken. It was very very good. The corn... honestly my favorite part of that dish actually.

Overall my favorite dish was definitely the himachi. There were 4 pieces and only two of us dining so we each ate 2–I could have eaten 10. So if there are more than 2 of you, I think it’d be worth ordering more than one of these. I think I wanna try the Sea bass next time.

Pro tip:...