Logan Square’s New Mediterranean-Influenced Hotspot Garners Critical Praise

Phil Vettel thinks Good Fortune has all the marks of a great restaurant: “A stylish setting, good cocktails, excellent food and serious wine.” Former Honey’s chef Charles Welch crafts Mediterranean-influenced dishes, many of which star vegetables, including a melange of marinated beets with orange segments, olives, fennel and pine-nut crumbles, and a burnt-orange vinaigrette. The “star” of a “very nice” arctic char is the citrusy carrot ponzu sauce, while bucatini tossed in a seafood bolognese has a “surprisingly meaty, smoky flavor.” Among the main courses, a “terrific” skin-on fillet of meagre is accompanied by poached sweet potato, wild rice, and dashi broth. And for dessert, parsnip cake with hazelnuts and ganache is a knockout. [Tribune]

Perilla “bridges Korean home cooking and chef-driven Midwestern fare,” writes Maggie Hennessy. The River West eatery nudges folks “toward the cheffier side of Korean barbecue” with dishes such as Brussels sprouts — laced with anchovy paste, brown butter, Parmesan, and garlic chips — that pack “so many textures and levels of umami.” Kimchi pancakes are “at once crunchy and chewy” while steamed egg “erupt[s] from its earthenware cauldron like a souffle made of sunshine.” The “succulent” LA galbi is the star of the show, featuring a soy-based marinade and sizzling “like an applause” on the searing hot grill. [Time Out]

Grand Trunk Road “might be serving the best Indian/Pakistani fare in Chicago.” Michael Nagrant, who starts the review off by lamenting the struggles of being an independent food critic, praises owner/chef Behzad Kahn’s bold South Asian flavors. Chapli kebab — minced lamb patty adorned with sweet and spicy chutney — is “plated on a slate that Richard Serra might claim as one of his sculptural masterpieces” while nehari features “silky beef swimming in a ginger-spiced bath of fennel and chili-spiked gravy.” The naan is also impressive, boasting a “pillowy center and a shatter-crisp exterior,” and a “soulful” crab masala is “Simon Biles-balanced, redolent with pie spice and perfect salt.” The food is paired with “delightfully-named cocktails” like the “Naked and Famous in Mumbai,” a “slightly bitter, but fruity and bright” blend of mescal, yellow chartreuse, Aperol, and lime. [Michael Nagrant]

Umacamon Japanese Kitchen offers specialties from the southwestern island of Kyushu. Mike Sula travels out to Rolling Meadows for a “dizzying selection of sushi, yakitori, and shareable drinking dishes.” Though the island is home to tonkotsu ramen, the restaurant’s signature bowl is Nagasaki’s champon, a “relatively lighter chicken-pork based broth swimming with noodles, seafood, vegetables, and pork.” The okonomiyaki — savory Japanese street pancakes — “could sub for a manhole cover, and its elevation is boosted by scallops, fat shrimp, and chunks of pork.” Even the smaller bites come in generous portions, such as crispy-skinned mackerel with “lusciousness” that suggests the owners have “enduring connections in the fish distribution business.” [Reader]

Maple & Ash’s downstairs companion 8 Bar delivers “way-above-expectations food” according to Graham Meyer. The club sandwich has a “juicy, well-seasoned marinated chicken breast, excellent bacon and sourdough with a lot of personality.” The burger “makes a case for a place in the top handful” of Chicago’s best with “miraculous thin-but-pink-inside patties, cheddar cheese and bright pickles.” Steak frites are “stellar,” too, and have “deep flavor enhanced by garlic and rosemary.” [Crain’s]