my general understanding of restaurants on a monday night is limited to a rather sad image of one couple quietly eating in a corner while a maitre d’ stands hopefully at the front door, willing people to come in and fill the sea of empty tables behind him. or alternatively, an image of me looking through the window of a restaurant, in disbelief that it’s closed, even though the last seven were too, and saying to my friends “ok, it’s either stanmore mcdonald’s, or we make sandwiches at someone’s house.” 

yep, mondays are generally pretty depressing as far as sydney restaurants are concerned. which is why my mind was sufficiently blown upon visiting girl & the goat in chicago.

looking back, i should have realised this was a very popular place to be when i first made the booking. despite being more than a month in advance (i’m organised, okay?) the only available reservations in an entire week were on monday at 8.45pm and 10.30pm. despite being young, i am not a vampire/panamanian night monkey and so opted for the 8.45pm time slot. 

girl & the goat is the culinary brainchild of stephanie izard, renown restauranteur and winner of the fourth season of top chef. having watched that very season, and become quite a fan of izard’s, i was delighted to visit girl & the goat. and i wasn’t alone. yes, on a monday night, this large restaurant space was packed. take that, stanmore macca’s!

though only opened in 2010, girl and the goat has received a veritable buffet of accolades including four stars from the chicago tribune, a james beard best new restaurant nomination and a glowing review from saveur magazine which one-upped james beard, officially naming it “america’s best new restaurant.” without further ado, let’s find out why.

like many trendy u.s restaurants at the moment, girl & the goat serves a variety of small plates, categorised on the menu as either v (vegetables) f (fish) or m (you guessed it, meat). our meal begins with a “v”- sauteed green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews. it is every bit as “awesome” as our cool waiter says it will be.

next up, it’s hiramasa crudo, crisp pork belly, aji chilli, and caperberries. a perfect balance of salty, spicy, sour and sweet, the latter being the beautiful melt-in-your-mouth kingfish. though on the menu, it’s found under “f”, i feel it certainly deserves an “a” (ha.. oh dear) 

our meal takes a more substantial turn with grilled hanger steak, maitakes, sugar snap peas, miso-marcona almond, and green almond nuoc charn. the steak is cooked perfectly, and i spend some time wondering how i would describe izard’s cuisine. though featuring a strong asian influence, particularly japanese and vietnamese, the food is still american and mediterranean at the same time. i decide that izard’s food is best described as “top chef” in its style, summarised as “an eclectic mix of seemingly mismatched flavours, which sit atop a chosen protein.” (grain of salt fictionary, 2011) an example of which can be found with our next dish:

here we have pan-roasted halibut, brandade, grilled asparagus, green garlic & blackberry. yes, blackberry. a surprisingly excellent addition that would surely win any quickfire challenge.  

we finish the savoury portion of our meal with the goat chorizo flatbread. we could hardly leave without trying some goat, after all. though the flatbread is delicious i am exceedingly full after characteristically over-ordering. mr. joe king does an excellent job of eating 5/6 of it. what a man!

he rewards himself with a small but rich doughnut & ice-cream dessert. unfortunately, the flavours escape me as i was by this point, in a food coma. 

girl & the goat is one very cool restaurant. the food is truly exciting, and perhaps that is the joy of the “top chef” style of cuisine. though sometimes confusing, it offers unexpected flavour combinations that set it apart from its’ contemporaries. and, judging by the crowd enjoying the goat on this particular monday night, izard is certainly living up to her top chef moniker. 

with all the formalities now out of the way, i’d like to kick off grain of salt’s greatest hits (us edition) with a look back at a brilliant restaurant in chicago. as it turns out, chicago is positively covered in excellent eateries, but more on that later. this one in particular is gilt bar, located in the river north neighbourhood. much like a culinary centaur, gilt bar is half bar, half restaurant, all awesome. 

we kick off our evening in gilt’s trendy yet cosy dining area with some delicious warm bread. underneath lies some sweet balsamic garlic cloves and a pool of vinegar and olive oil. after completing, we promptly order more.

now this is the part where i make australians angry. no, new zealand didn’t beat us in … err… rugby? we’ve got bigger problems. take a look at the above dish (my main meal). a fresh, filling ricotta gnocchi with pancetta and (non-frozen) peas. quite possibly one of the nicest gnocchi’s i’ve experienced. now, how much would you expect to pay for this? us sydneysiders are used to seeing such a dish for anywhere between $19-$32, depending on the restaurant. i despair, therefore, in informing you that this gnocchi was $14. annoying, i know.

my lovely travel companion opted for the oven roasted pork meatballs with anson mills stone ground grits & thyme brown butter. an exceptionally tall man with a seemingly never-ending appetite, he struggled to finish this hearty meal, which again was shockingly priced at $16. 

the highlight of the meal, however, had to be this humble side dish. inside were smashed red potatoes with roasted garlic & chicken jus. quite simply, this is the greatest side dish ever. i ate the entire thing to myself. oh, and what’s that? you’re wondering about the price of this sumptuous side? it was $5. ok, so i know what you’re most likely thinking next. “so what? you still have to tip, so it works out the same.” i can tell you that no, it doesn’t. it is considerably cheaper. plus, when you consider that the minimum wage is $7 and the service is impeccable, a small tip is nothing.

case in point: dessert. during the meal our lovely waitress apologised profusely for an apparent delay in our mains (which we hadn’t noticed, as it must have only been 15 minutes). to make it up to us, she offered to pay for our dessert. correct me if i’m wrong, but i don’t believe this has ever happened in sydney. seeing as we were insanely full and my body was now a mere outer casing for mashed potatoes, we gratefully accepted her offer but insisted that we share a dessert. brownies with vanilla bean ice-cream it was, and even though i struggled to get air in between each bite, it was totally worth it.

now, i realise that my criticism of sydney restaurant service/value may seem unpatriotic, but this is not the case. i am exceptionally proud of our incredible industry, and told anyone who could bear to listen throughout my entire stay in the u.s. i simply urge local restauranteurs & staff to borrow a few tips from their american counterparts. if someone asks for a salad/burger/pasta without the olives/tomato/anchovies, don’t groan and say “i’ll have to check with the chef,”* simply smile and offer to substitute it for something else. if a customer is made to wait too long for a part of their meal, offer them something to make their experience more enjoyable. don’t ignore them repeatedly and act annoyed when they do finally get your attention.* when pricing side dishes, don’t feel it reasonable to charge $10 for a “mixed leaf salad” which takes little to no time to make.* you and i both know it is unacceptable to charge more than $6.

on that note, i will say farewell to gilt bar, devastated that i cannot return soon. in the meantime, stay tuned for the next edition of my u.s food adventures!

*all of these incidences i experienced at two of sydney’s “hottest” restaurants in the weeks before my trip. true.