Three Dots and a Dash is Paradise; Ramen in Suburbia

Three Dots and a Dash [Photo: Marc Much]

Paul McGee's tiki bar Three Dots and a Dash "treats its drinks with reverence and precision" and is already off to a hot start. Kate Bernot sits down for a few drinks from a menu that's "refreshingly free of frozen slushies, pre-mixed red nonsense and other saccharine-loaded crimes against the tropics." The Three Dots and a Dash cocktail begins with a "honey sweetness before sailing [Bernot] into a rum-soaked sunset on a raft made of pineapple" while the Painkiller No. 3 tastes like "tropical eggnog." The food "isn't an afterthought" either and includes "fresh-from-the-fryer" crab rangoon with "creamy, not-too-fishy crustacean filling," and coconut shrimp with a housemade sweet chili sauce that's worthy of taking home "by the quart." [RedEye]

The best ramen still resides outside of the city, writes Mike Sula. New chain Ramen Misoya in Mount Prospect makes its case with offerings like the Hokkaido-style kome ramen, whose rice and soybean miso is the "deepest, most full-bodied broth on the menu" and is topped with the "most unorthodox garnish"—three planks of fried potato. The noodles are "thicker and chewier than most" but "stand up admirably in the full-bodied broths," and bowls can be customized with extra toppings that include "fall-apart tender" cha shu pork loin and miso-marinated hanjuku egg with a "luscious, warm, molten yolk." With such varied options, the "flavors and textures mingle to complete a bowl unlike any other in town." [Reader]

Kevin Pang thinks Mott St. is a disappointment with dishes that "don't yet step out beyond a narrow spectrum." Crab brain fried rice "doesn't commit far enough" to integrating crab mustard into the dish; pork jowl is essentially just a plate of bacon; and the Everything Wings need to be "saltier, sweeter, stickier, crispier." Other flawed dishes include imperial rolls that are "indistinguishable from ones found on Argyle Street," and a hangtown fry omelet that "tastes far more subtle than its ingredients promised." Still, there are things to enjoy like the Brussels sprouts with animal fat pairing that packs a "fatty, salty punch;" there just needs to be more of this on the menu. [Trib]