Chilam Balam Restaurant

The oven and stove top broke on Friday afternoon. The horrid smell of gas was leaking out of the burners and had to be turned off. You can imagine my disappointment, well, first gratitude that nothing bad happened, but then disappointment. I love cooking on the weekends. This meant no bagels, no Sunday dinner. Broken stove = Debbie Downer. I had been catching up on Diners Drive-ins and Dives earlier in the morning and a Chicago restaurant was featured — Chilam Balam. I checked out the location online and it was only four miles away. Easy sell for Friday night dinner and I was excited to try something new. Side note, I love  when Guy Fieri’s says, “This is out-of-bounds!” Hilarious.

It is a tiny space, underground, and probably sits 25-30 people. It has a very cool, casual atmosphere, with waiters in t-shirts and jeans. We got there early, before heading to a movie, so the place was practically empty. No females on the wait staff Friday night, just a bunch of buddies tossing things into the garbage barrel, while their funk tunes played quietly on the iPod.

Our waiter was great; very attentive and knew what was going on with the menu. He was helpful in answering any questions we had about the dishes. Chilam Balam uses fresh seasonal ingredients, so the menu is always changing. They do have signature dishes that are a constant. The seasonal dishes are highlighted in red and the signature in black. With that being said he suggested we try what was in red because it would most likely not be around on our next visit — good thinking. I agreed with his approach but had seen the floutas and knew I had to have them; and that is where we started.

Slow cooked chicken thighs inside homemade flautas (stuffed corn tortillas), that are fried, and covered in a delicious chipotle sauce. It is topped with pickled cabbage and red wine marinated onions, that hosted the perfect amount of acidity, to play with the house made queso fresco. I hated that I had to share it.

The next dish we ordered was the pan seared duck. I wasn’t as impressed with this small plate. There seemed to be something missing from the mole poblano sauce. I wanted the chiles to be spicier. There was no bite to my bite.  It came with a side of huitlcoche grits that were fried into a little cake. This was amazing! Wanted more fried grits for sure! There were snaked chinese long beans that looked fantastic and the duck was cooked perfectly. It was just missing something.

The third plate we ordered was our favorite. A grilled pork loin with an amazing tomato Habanero sauce. It was sweet and spicy. Who doesn’t like tomato and onions? The cool creaminess of the avocado mixed with the Habanero sauce was a delightful combination. The pork was cooked to perfection and the swiss chard added an earthy flavor to the dish. Each bite was “out-of-bounds”. I will definitely be heading back for another signature dish on the menu, the Corn Mesa Memales. They are little corn cakes stuffed with black beans and topped with salsa and aged goat cheese. I had to skip out on them to order the seasonal dishes so definitely  looking forward to that!