Chicago Trip Recap, Part 6: Nico Osteria

During my Chicago trip last year, we had the pleasure of dining at Nico Osteria, voted by Esquire as one of Chicago’s best new restaurants of 2014. S’s sister V is a pastry cook there, so we got a big discount on our meal and a bunch of freebies.

What better way to start off a meal than with warm bread? All the bread is made daily in-house, and the focaccia was amazing. Really, I just wanted to eat another 10 pieces by myself. But I had to remind myself that there was going to be an actual meal coming up and show some self-restraint.

This meal was quite a while ago (yes, I’m a huge procrastinator on writing posts) so I don’t remember all of the details. We started out our meal with some oysters on the half-shell, which were nice and refreshing.

We also got a few crudo dishes – salmon, hamachi, and marlin. I wasn’t super impressed with the fish, since I thought they were sliced a bit too thin. I suppose I was expecting something more like sashimi, but this was different.

We also shared two pastas. Corzetti is a round, flat-shaped pasta, and apparently there are various ways to make it based on family tradition. I really enjoyed the dish, especially the fresh corn in the sauce. The squid ink pasta dish was also quite good, although I liked the squid ink pasta at Eataly more.

We chose two entrées, a pan-seared sea bass and the Nico dry-aged ribeye (it’s dry-aged in-house). We really loved both dishes, especially the seasonal vegetable accompaniments. The fish was tender and flaky, and the beef was juicy and flavorful. However, I still don’t quite “get” dry-aged beef… I’ve had it twice now and don’t taste much difference from regular beef. Perhaps there’s something subtle that I’m missing, or maybe I need to try it some more, but so far, not too impressed with dry-aged.

Our first dessert was an affogato, but with prosecco instead of coffee. V has raved to us about Nico’s house-made gelatos and sorbets, and the two in this affogato – apricot and burnt honey – were absolutely delicious. The apricot was so refreshing, and the burnt honey had a rich, sweet flavor. The prosecco added a slight bitterness that balanced the sweetness of the gelato.

Nico has a seasonal torte, and the summer flavor that we had was lemon. The torte was super moist and filled with a rich and tart lemon curd, and I loved it. The ginger and blueberries also complemented the lemon perfectly.

Overall, we had a really lovely dinner at Nico Osteria, and I could definitely see why this is became such a popular restaurant so quickly. I would definitely plan for another meal here if I visit Chicago again!

You can read my previous Chicago recaps here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Nico Osteria
1015 N. Rush St, Chicago, IL 60611
http://www.nicoosteria.com