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.
