Frontier is an Adventure; Leopold is Welcoming; Tricks Overshadow Food at iNG

Pat Bruno finds Frontier to be a dining adventure worth taking. He thinks you should go to Frontier even if you aren’t into the spit-roast whole animal to “savor the good food executive chef Brian Jupiter is ladling out.” He finds the array of oysters to be “dazzling,” the duck tacos “excellent” and the lollipop wings “meaty enough to command [my] attention and due diligence.” In Bruno's opinion the boar sandwich is “a lot of good eating for $12,” but he was truly won over by the “Miller’s Amish roasted chicken.” Don’t miss the “warm rustic apple pie” if it’s available. “Big enough for two to go fork to fork and maybe not finish at all.” [Sun Times]

Phil Vettel enjoys the food, drinks and welcoming dining room at Leopold. He thinks the portions are “not huge but hardly skimpy,” with everything (but a special or two) under $20. Vettel enjoys the signature starter, steak tartare, “a beauty, a thick disk of coarsely chopped dry-aged sirloin, crowned with a raw egg yolk? texturally superb and the meat quality is unassailable.” The kitchen puts on a “nifty poutine” with “nuggets of lamb merguez sausage adding a welcome touch of spice.” He “devoured” the small plate of rabbit and enjoyed the larger plate of smoked rabbit with mustard spaetzle as well. The desserts are “fine” and “benefit greatly from the inclusion of Black Dog Gelato.” [Tribune]

Julia Kramer thinks iNG has genuinely good food that sometimes gets lost behind “purposeless tricks.” She finds the heavily publicized pay by the hour to be a “misnomer’ and her “one hour “ four course “perfectly paced meal? lasted approximately 105 minutes.” She greatly enjoyed her “standout bowl of la mian” and thought the “orb” of coconut water and lemongrass-ginger syrup was iNG’s “strongest case against populist distrust of science’s meddling in gastronomy.”

Kramer thinks the “casual tenor of food” often falls to “conceptual high jinks” and “dated “mod” décor.” However, she thinks diners looking for the “promised innovations” may be disappointed. The mberrys are only for the “kitchen table” and the nanobrews are on hold until they receive a liquor license. In Kramer’s opinion, “the fewer distractions there are to iNG’s food, the better.” [TOC]